The Surreal McCoy and Rob Murray, both members of the PCO, which runs the Bloghorn, have made the final in the strip cartoon section of the i newspaper’s “Cartoonist Idol” competition.

They feature alongside strips by Phil Merchant, Trumble & Warr, and Geoff Thompson on pages 26 and 27 of the i today.

The PCO also features heavily in the “pocket” cartoons section: you can see The Surreal McCoy, Bill Stott and Rob Murray on pages 7, 11, and 25 respectively, alongside James Whitworth on page 3 and Peter Allwright on page 21.

You can also see the cartoons online and a comment from the editor here. News of the “landscapes”, or editorial cartoons, is promised for tomorrow’s paper, along with more pocket cartoons. The Bloghorn sends congratulations to all those featuring in the finals.

The Bloghorn is made on behalf of the UK’s Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation

PCOer The Surreal McCoy writes with a short review of  The Illusionist, the new film by Sylvain Chomet.

The perfect antidote to Hollywood’s current obsession with computer-generated 3D imagery, The Illusionist is the latest animated feature from Sylvain (Belleville Rendez-vous) Chomet.

I defy anyone to watch dry-eyed as the poignant story of an ageing magician trying to make a living during the dying days of variety unfolds in glorious watercolour against the backdrop of 1950s Edinburgh.

Based on an unfilmed screenplay by Jacques Tati, Chomet uses hand-drawn images to conjure up an atmospheric and nostalgic film with breathtaking landscapes and city scenes, employing plenty of visual background humour but hardly any dialogue.

I’d argue magicians do exist (you have to see the film to get that reference) and surely Sylvain Chomet is one of the master illusionists.

Bloghorn particularly enjoyed the English garden party (there’s a snippet from it in the video) and the Scottish island. Click the video for a larger version. Our thanks to Surreal for the review.

Whilst some other Sunday newspapers are cutting back on their cartoons, the Sunday Times has expanded its cartoon content with the inclusion of 101 Uses for a Celebrity.

The regular  feature will appear in the Style section and is drawn by The Surreal McCoy, a former Bloghorn Artist of the Month and a member of the Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation (the group which makes this web site).

Surreal tells us;

I had originally drawn a cartoon with a couple of old ladies sitting in a car parked in front of Thora Hird who was balanced sideways on 2 traffic cones. One old lady was saying to the other ‘‘Oooh, isn’t that Thora Hird?’’ and the caption read ‘Celebrity Roadblocks’. I soon started wondering to what other uses could celebrities be put? Then to find out who was flavour of the month it was a matter of reading as many celeb magazines I could lay my hands on, whilst using that great excuse ‘‘its for research purposes, no really’’, and drawing them in all manner of undignified poses. This was a few years ago and of course they did the rounds of editors’ desks, dutifully returning each time with the usual ‘‘we really liked your idea but don’t have the money/space/imagination/etc’’ rejection note. Until the art editor at the Sunday Times’ Style magazine had a look at the PCO‘s website, chanced upon my portfolio, visited my site and offered me the gig. Joining the PCO has got to be one of my better decisions.

Bloghorn thinks a lot of publications, print and digital, could benefit from the skills, fun and entertainment that people like this can bring to developing and keeping readerships.

PCOer The Surreal McCoy reports on John Jensen’s illustrated talk on the workings of cartoonist Rowland Emett‘s imagination at the Cartoon Museum in London last night.

Admitting he was ‘genetically propelled to enjoy Emett’s work’ John showed what an accomplished technician Emett had been with drawings of trains and planes (he had worked as a draughtsman for the Air Ministry) as well as his elaborate filigree work for bizarre and outlandish machines which are also on show at the museum until November 1st.

A suitably surreal slideshow traced Emett’s career, including artists such as Saul Steinberg and Hokusai who influenced him. It also highlighted the many different mediums in which he drew, which ran from scraperboard to watercolour. During the Second World War Emett had provided cartoons for propaganda purposes including an acidly-drawn caricature of Hitler in uncharacteristically lurid colours and with a French tagline.

There will be another talk at the museum on Wednesday 23rd September when Emett’s daughter Claire will share anecdotes and memories of her father’s life. The talk is from 6.30pm – 7.30pm. Entrance is £5, Concessions £4 and Friends of the Museum £3.

The Cartoon Museum, at 35 Little Russell Street, Bloomsbury, is open Tuesday-Saturday 10.30am to 5.30pm and Sundays 12pm to 5.30pm.

After several years as the plucky underdog, the Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation’s team, this year rebranded as Team Bloghorn, has finally emerged victorious from the annual Battle of the Cartoonists.

Our team came joint first with Private Eye in the Big Draw event in which four teams completed a large banner on the theme of “Now We Are Ten”, celebrating a decade of The Campaign for Drawing. They faced stiff competition from teams from The Sun and The Independent.

A banner year: The Bloghorn team was made up of, left to right, Andy Bunday, Clive Goddard, captain Pete Dredge, holding the cup, who oversaw proceedings, and Nathan Ariss

Work in progress: Clive and Pete get drawing. Click here, to see the full, completed banner

In a post-match interview, Pete told the Bloghorn: “Justice and victory at last for the PCO’s Battle of the Cartoonists’ team, albeit jointly with the Eye (Shurely shome mistake – Ed). What seemed like a clear-cut decision was mysteriously drawn out into a “cheer-off” head-to-head. And even then our clearly louder decibel reading was insufficient for us to be declared outright winners. A big draw indeed!”

Joint winners: The Private Eye team, left to right, Simon Pearsall, Richard Jolley and Ken Pyne, also a PCO member, with MC Andrew Marr, who is a patron of the PCO

But the event is not just about the glory of winning. PCO members Tim Harries, and Cathy Simpson were on hand to run drawing workshops for children and adults at the event, which took place at the Idea Generation gallery in Shoreditch, London.

Drawn to it: Cathy Simpson hosted a workshop for children

The workshoppers were ably assisted by The Surreal McCoy. All photographs here are by Gerard Whyman, who was on hand as the official PCO photographer.

To commemorate Charles Darwin’s bicentenary, cartoons for the sixth Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival are on a science and nature theme.

Bloghorn cartoon - The First of the Mohicans © The Surreal McCoy

The Bloghorn’s PCO Artist of the Month, The Surreal McCoy, passes on tips for wannabe cartoonists:

Never take rejection to heart- somebody, somewhere will love your work. You’ll just have to find them. And practise, practise and continue to practise drawing. Your style will eventually reveal itself. Then practise some more. I fully intend to take my own advice one of these days.

As for the future of cartooning in the digital age, it’s so bright, you gotta wear shades. See you there!

Our thanks to Surreal, Bloghorn will have a new Cartoonist of the Month next Friday. In the meantime, scroll through our archives using the link at the top right of this page.

Bloghorn cartoon © The Surreal McCoy on authors and their dogs

Bloghorn asked the PCO Artist of the Month, The Surreal McCoy, how do you make your cartoons?

A bit of ink on paper, followed by a spot of colour from Photoshop using a digital tablet and usually accompanied by plenty of procrastination. (To paraphrase John Lennon, cartoons happen when you are busy making other plans/cups of tea.)

Which other cartoonist’s work do you admire?

An awful lot of Americans- Ben Katchor, Roz Chast, Edward Gorey, Dan Piraro, B. Kliban, Hilary Price. In fact any cartoon with a sense of the absurd or surreal.