As the pencil of 2010 contacts the eraser of 2011, Bloghorn thought it was time to record some of the year’s highs and lows – and to speculate about the new year.

But first, news of a PRIZE competition which will be coming on Bloghorn over the New Year Bank Holiday weekend … so watch this space.

© Ray Lowry cartoons The Clash

You can explore our full monthly archives of stories from the world of UK cartooning in 2010 at: January - February - March – April – May - June – July – August – September – October – November and December.

Team Bloghorn with the banner at the 2010 Battle of the Cartoonists

As you can see it’s been a packed show, featuring a fantastic Ray Lowry retrospective, above, at the Idea Generation Gallery, mixed with the odd rotten moment like losing Les Gibbard. We have had the fantastic highlights of our traditional events such as the Big Draw and Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival and, happily, the late great Alan Coren rose from the grave and provided  a shot of welcome wisdom.

After that we played Draw and Fold Over before reading a freshly minted copy of Foghorn magazine. What? You haven’t yet subscribed to six issues a year for only £20? Kindly do so here, now.

The promised appearance of The House of Illustration in London has long cheered many as this will be a sister organisation to our long-time favourite The Cartoon Museum, which lies close to the proposed new attraction at King’s Cross in London. The £6.5m fundraising target is stiff but site building has started and you can read more about the full plans here. Meanwhile, the crew at The Cartoon Museum excelled themselves with a fine range of shows and events, excelling with a fantastic Ronald Searle display as the man reached his 90th birthday.

What’s the difference between cartooning and illustration Bloghorn hears you ask?

Try these definitions from the Merriam-Webster dictionary, although we thinks Searle shows the interchangeability of the terms about as well as anyone.

Car-toon – noun
From the Italian cartone pasteboard, cartoon, augmentative of carta leaf of paper.

Ill-ust-rat-ion noun
Something that serves to illustrate: an example or instance that helps make something clear : a picture or diagram that helps make something clear or attractive.

Wikipedia has a definition here for print media which references Punch, the magazine which our former patron Alan Coren used to edit.

Happily, the past year has also seen terrific development in the way cartoons are being used in media and the possibilities, and markets will grow in the new year. We’ve got evidence below from The Times and its current TV advertising. You can find a link to the cartoon they are promoting lower down this article …

Of course, we work on non-mobile television too, check out the titles to the new BBC adaptation of Just William and bow to the pen of cartoonist Ed McLachlan.

You’ll find a fantastic selection of the UK’s finest cartoonists working in all forms of the art at our UK Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation portfolio site which we will also be updating during 2011.

On the site the new and less-and-less unusual Government can expect its usual share of drawn innovation and horror – try Strictly Coalition for a start. In similar fashion, we wrote disobliging things about some parts of the Arts Council England because they sometimes deserve it.

© Jonathan Pugh of The Daily Mail

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Forza Cartone!

Bloghorn is written, edited and maintained by Matthew Buck, Royston Robertson and Alex Hughes,  on behalf of the UK Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation. You can contact the team here.

From 30 Years of Viz, currently at the Cartoon Museum

“Pictorial satire is so ingrained in our culture that people often don’t realise what a huge part of their lives it is. Not just in comics and newspapers, but also animations, games, advertising, greetings cards”
– Anita O’Brien, Curator, Cartoon Museum

Taken from an article in the Daily Telegraph on 21 years of the Cartoon Art Trust, the charity behind the Cartoon Museum

LINK: Funny how cartoons still have bite

Alex, the satirical City strip in the Daily Telegraph has recently made it’s debut on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Priced at 59p, the Tapisodes app is available at the iTunes App Store and comprises 20 animated strips themed around the credit crunch crisis. The strips will be automatically delivered to your phone one a day over the course of the following month. This video explains it all:

Bloghorn had a few questions for Alex‘s creators, Charles Peattie and Russell Taylor:

How long did it take to make the 20 special episodes of Alex for the iphone?

2 months.

Why is getting Alex distributed this way important to you?

We’re always looking for new ways to present work and new people to work with. We did the stage play last couple of years using new digital projection technology. Now fascinated by small screen possibilities for narrative. I actually believe that this is the ideal form for reading comic strip material: the movement, reactions, reveals all enhanced by this medium. Newspapers are also interested in spreading into this field. Seems like a good moment.

Did you do the technological work yourselves? Or, did you use a design agency?

We designed the app and did all the animation. The app itself was developed by the awesome folks at Tag Games in Dundee.

Is the price of the App (59p) reflective of the work that went into making it?

Absolutely not. Christ, you have NO IDEA.

How many downloads have been made during the month trial?

We are not allowed to give out this information, I’m afraid, since we are releasing this first project via our friends at The Telegraph.

Do you have any plans to take the digital Alex to a subscription site?

Never say never.

So, Alex doesn’t prefer a Blackberry?

Of course he has both (plus a spare and several spare sim cards for when he’s up to no good)

Bloghorn spotted this great work during this week ending the 9th October 2009.

One: Matt in the Daily Telegraph on the Conservatives becoming more frank

Two: Dave Brown in the Independent on being in it together

Three: Robert Leighton in the New Yorker on driving and texting

Bonus Video: The Guardian‘s Steve Bell explains why he draws David Cameron as a jellyfish

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent
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Bloghorn spotted this great work during this week ending the 25th September 2009.

One: Peter Brookes in The Times on the special relationship

Two: Nicholas Garland in The Daily Telegraph on
a very public crash

Three: Len Hawkins in The Spectator on paranoid parenting

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent
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MPs are back in the news again with the release of their heavily blacked-out expense reports, so Bloghorn has a special round-up of the best of the redacted, censored and otherwise obscured cartoons for the week ending the 19th June 2009.

One: Matt in the Daily Telegraph gives us a historical perspective on the story.

Two: Mac in the Daily Mail shows us a sneak preview of the upcoming Iraq enquiry testimony from Gordon Brown.

Three: There’s a brand-spanking new ceremonial role in the Houses of Parliament in Peter Brookes cartoon for The Times…

Four: …whilst Dave Brown lets it all hang out in the open for the Independent

Five: Steve Bell in The Guardian goes with Tony Blair’s knowledge of torture in interrogations.

Six: It’s all done in the best possible taste for Andy Davey in the Sun

Seven and Eight: …and finally, Paul Thomas in the Daily Express and Tim Sanders in the Independent just can’t find the words…

Note: in the spirit of openness, and unlike the Goverment, Bloghorn believes that you should know all about this. Simply highlight the text above to reveal the redacted sections.

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent

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Bloghorn spotted this great work during this week ending the 22nd May 2009.

One: Christian Adams in The Daily Telegraph on defences over MPs expenses

Two: Mac (Stan McMurtry) in The Daily Mail: “Bad news, Joanna Lumley has called a snap election.”

Three: and Tim Sanders in The Independent on bureaucracy.

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent
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Libby Purves - friend of cartoonists © John Roberts for Bloghorn

Libby Purves talks cartoons and the Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival in The Telegraph. The annual event which opens this Thursday, 23rd April 2009.

Bloghorn spotted this great work during this week ending the 20th March 2009.

One: Christian Adams in The Daily Telegraph on banking on the polar ice-caps

Two: William Haefeli in The New Yorker on pop-cultural references

Three: Tim Bales in Prospect on Alcoholics Eponymous

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent
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Christian Adams at the Telegraph writes on the challenges of drawing the prime minister and the newspaper’s leader column offers another thought in response. Other papers picked up Christian’s story with Dave Brown of The Independent chipping in here and Martin Rowson popping up on BBC Breakfast.