Coming soon: John Jensen writes for Bloghorn about ideas, wit versus humour, and the international language of cartoon competitions. Watch this space.

John Jensen rugby illustration © Punch Ltd

The Daily Mail has announced that pocket cartoonist Ken Mahood is retiring. Mahood, who next year will celebrate his 80th birthday, has drawn news and sports cartoons for the Mail since 1982. His first cartoon was published in Punch in 1948, a magazine for whom he was later Assistant Art Editor, and in 1966 became the first political cartoonist on The Times.

The Chris Beetles Gallery in London is hosting The Definitive Thelwell from this Wednesday (May 13) until June 6, the first selling show of work by Norman Thelwell in 20 years.

Thelwell is best remembered for his fat ponies and their long-suffering young riders, but he was a wide-ranging artist, who tackled many subjects for many papers and magazines, including Punch, with which he developed a close relationship over 25 years.

He had a strong understanding of the British character, and may be considered the post-war heir to Pont of Punch. From estate agents to battery farmers, hunt protesters to harassed motorists, Thelwell chronicled the minutiae of our lives.

An accomplished landscape painter, Thelwell produced detailed, naturalistic settings for lively, comic figures that represent what he called, “the endearing lunacy of human behaviour”. The Definitive Thelwell provides a comprehensive cross-section of this work, with more than 150 drawings and watercolours. The show includes landscapes and seascapes as well as cartoons.

The Chris Beetles Gallery, at 8 and 10 Ryder Street, St James’s, London (nearest Tube Green Park or Piccadilly Circus) is open Monday to Saturday, 10am – 5.30pm.

For more details visit the website: chrisbeetles.com

We are sad to report the death of the cartoonist ‘‘Donegan.’’ John was born in London in 1926 and after many years in the advertising industry he became a freelance cartoonist in the early 1970s. By the time he retired in 1991 he had become one of Britain’s favourite cartoonists, featuring regularly in Punch magazine. Although he never actually owned a dog, some of his most recognised works were his books “Dog Help us” and “Dog Almighty”. He retired to France in 1991 and died in April after a battle with cancer, aged 83. He is survived by his wife, two children and three grandchildren.

UPDATED: 14th May 2009. Roy Greenslade notes the affectionate obituary published in The Independent

The clocks have fallen back, and subsequently the nights are drawing in, so as we race towards Christmas publishers are putting out books on cartooning. Here’s a selection of recent example that may be filling stockings come December.

First up is The History of the Beano: The Story so Far, a comprehensive round-up of the iconic DC Thompson comic from the last 70 years, here reviewed by the Daily Record and by Danny Baker in The Times. This book also ties in with the recent exhibitions in Dundee and the Cartoon Museum in London.

The History Of The Beano – The Story So Far is published by D.C. Thomson and Waverley Books, priced £25. The Beano and Dandy Birthday Bash continues at the The Cartoon Museum, 35 Little Russell Street, London WC1A 2HH until 2nd November 2008.

Next is Cartoons and Coronets: The Genius of Osbert Lancaster on the life and times of the late Daily Express pocket cartoonist Osbert Lancaster, which is reviewed in the New Statesman, the Spectator and by cartoonist Nicholas Garland in the Telegraph. This book also ties into an exhibition at the Wallace Collection (reviewed in the Telegraph, the Guardian, and the Independent) .

Cartoons and Coronets: The Genius of Osbert Lancaster, edited by James Knox, is published by Frances Lincoln Publishers Ltd, priced £25. The exhibition continues at The Wallace Collection, Hertford House, Manchester Square, London W1U 3BN until 11th January 2009.

And finally we come to The Best of Punch Cartoon, a collection of cartoons from the legendary satirical magazine spanning over 150 years of humour, the launch of which was attended by the PCO’s own Pete Dredge. Reviewed here by cartoonist Peter Brookes of the Times, by Michael Heath, cartoon editor of the Spectator, and in the Independent.

The Best of Punch Cartoons, by Helen Walasek, is published by Prion Books, priced £30.

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent

Les Barton, a fine cartoonist who worked in both the gag cartoons and the comics markets, has died. He was as well known for cartoons in magazines such as Punch as for his comic work, including the much-loved “I Spy” in Sparky.

Born in 1923, he began selling cartoons in the 1940s and was a long-standing member of the Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain, attending its inaugural meeting in 1960.

Cartoonist and blogger Lew Stringer has more on the comics work of Les Barton.
UPDATED: 26th November 2008. Full obituary written by Dr Mark Bryant from The Independent newspaper.

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent

PCO cartoonist Martin Honeysett writes:

I was a Punch man. I started in the 1970s when Bill Davis was editor and continued until its final demise. It took a year of weekly submissions before I got accepted and once that happened I felt I’d arrived. For a freelance gag cartoonist Punch was the business, and a great shop window for our craft. Its closure marked the beginning of a decline for this particular avenue of cartooning.

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent

A book launch for The Best of Punch Cartoons took place at Harrods in West London last night. PCOer Pete Dredge reports

There was a healthy turnout of cartoonists with many PCO members on show; Clive Collins, Martin Honeysett, Ken Pyne, Geoff Thompson, John Jensen, Nick Newman, Chris Burke, Steve Way, Stan McMurtry, Arthur Reid, Mike Turner, Adam Singleton, Martin Rowson, Royston Robertson and Colin Earle were all there.

It was “just like the old Punch do’s” according to the Daily Mail’s Mac (McMurtry), but it felt more like a long postponed wake in many ways – Punch went under in 2002. However, the pile of heavy book product in the corner soon made it clear that this was a sale.

There was no sign of Mr Fayed last night so it was left to one of the publishers to get the proceedings under way. The book’s editor, Helen Walesek from the Punch Library, gave a knowledgeable, academic but somewhat backward-looking speech on how uncannily relevant the old Punch cartoon stock was to today’s social maladies. Sadly, there was no hint of regret that this continuous stream of creativity had been allowed to run dry.

After the speeches (discount book plugging!) the cartoonists were invited up on to the stage for a photo opportunity. It reminded me of those occasions when an old football manager dies and the club invite a host of former players from a bygone era to hobble on to the pitch to take the applause.

No complimentary books for the contributors. I’ll have to get mine from Amazon.

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent

PCO cartoonist Pete Dredge writes:

What saddens me most about the demise of Punch, apart from the purely selfish loss of what was once a regular market for me, is that thousands of jokes which would have graced its pages on a weekly basis have never had the chance to be made by the amazingly talented bunch of cartoonists this nation possesses. They would have helped to cast a little light in these dark days. We all laughed at those “Prepare to meet thy doom” gags … erm, and we’d probably still laugh at them now.

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent

PCO member John Jensen offers a memory of things at Punch magazine. This article was originally published in the Foghorn magazine, which the PCO publishes.

Punch died in 1992. Towards the end of its life the atmosphere in the art department was bright, lively and smiling. I thought such camaraderie was inspiring amid all the rumours of imminent collapse. Until, that is, I realised the entire art-department was working with opened tins of Cow gum on the desks and tables.

Cow gum was an essential item for pasting down the pages in those pre-software days when these things were done by hand. Cow gum was necessary but Cow gum was glue. Tins of it were always open in the art room. Whether the art room knew it or not they were glue-sniffing all day long. Happy daze.

The atmosphere had been quieter, more sedate – less Cow gum – except for occasional brief outbursts of either rage or pleasure when Bill Hewison, was Art Editor. A bearded man of fiercely held beliefs constrained within a polite, conservative manner contrasted nicely with his sidekick, Geoffrey Dickinson, a quietly funny guy who heralded the Swinging Sixties with a cover for Time magazine, the payment for which allowed him to buy his home. Punch payments never matched that.

A third party, sitting hatted, hunched and shirt-sleeved in the office, personally saturnine and professionally ubiquitous: Michael Heath, looking, as always, younger than his experience. Physically, Bill and Geoffrey reminded me of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, but the imagined similarity ended there. Bill’s humour, when it surfaced, was so dry it crackled like tinder.

Punch had its institutions: its weekly lunches and its outings. At the lunches the editor would sit at the head of the famous Punch table overseeing guests and Punch regulars. As a general rule, although there were exceptions, cartoonists would sit below the salt leaving the writers to do most of the talking, at which they were very good and very practised. The pen-and-ink boys tended to mutter and snigger among themselves.

The late and truly missed Alan Coren, more jovial, bouncy even, bursting with words and ideas had to get the chat rolling, along with the coffee and cigars. Billy Connolly – the Big Yin – a welcome guest, was heard to assert that sexual fantasies were fine until you turned them into reality when they were, unfortunately, found to be disappointing. A silence followed this pronouncement. No one had the bottle to ask what those fantasies were. And how did he know? These days he would have been pounded with questions and answers would have been demanded.

The outings were different: sometimes a trip up-and-down the Thames with Wally Fawkes gigging it for the evening. Or maybe a visit to France, or maybe a plush hotel in the country, the name of which I can’t remember – I don’t keep a diary and I have no memory for names or details: useless, really! Pat, my wife, on seeing a coach filling up with elderly ladies and gents, stooping and making serious use of walking sticks said jokingly, “I expect that’ll be the Punch outing.” It was.

However, not everybody was old, just some. (If Punch hadn’t died I’d now be one of those old geezers.) Among the now deceased is the “Matisse of cartooning”, Michael ffolkes. Michael was fond of his booze but, what was not then realised , and which tragically was discovered too late, was that he was also allergic to alcohol. Not a good combination.

Unsurprisingly, Michael was given to unsettling mood changes. He could be, and often was, charming and amusing, yet both virtues were too often overwhelmed by a scathing acerbic wit and an aggressiveness which was not threatening but certainly irritating. Invariably forgiven for his lapses (by me, if by no one else) Mike was, in spite of himself, a nice bloke and, on a good day, a wonderful companion. At the lunches he was expansive, cigar-smoking, brandy drinking and serene and secure in his talent. Most of the cartoonists around the table were like that.

You should see them now!

I’ve exceeded my 600 words. The jog down memory lane ends here.

Bloghorn says click J for Jensen.

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent