Cartoon exhibition: Beano and Dandy Birthday Bash

Click the above image to enlarge it, and see how many characters you can name

The Beano and Dandy Birthday Bash exhibition opens today at the Cartoon Museum in London.

PCOer Royston Robertson writes: I attended the preview of the show last night and can report that, as you would expect, it's great fun.

For the cartoonist geeks among us it's a chance to peer up close at original artwork drawn by some of the much-loved masters of comic art, such as Ken Reid and Dudley Watkins.

But there's plenty for the younger comic readers too, including activities and quizzes. Can you name all nine Bash Street Kids?

The exhibition spans eight decades and takes in all the Beano and Dandy characters you'd expect to see, from the iconic figureheads of Dennis the Menace and Desperate Dan to much-loved characters from the past such as Brassneck, Winker Watson and Pansy Potter (The Strongman's Daughter, of course).

A highlight for me was the wartime strip showing Lord Snooty taking on Adolf Hitler. Der Führer is unhappy that the Beano is keeping the British nation cheerful and vows to get rid of it. But Snooty and his pals have other ideas. A classic.

I'll certainly be returning with my kids, and I suggest that anyone with a love of British comics puts it on their must-see list for the summer and autumn. The exhibition runs until November 2.

The museum is running Beano and Dandy events for children throughout August, including family fun days, cartooning masterclass sessions, and chances to meet Beano artists. For more, visit the Cartoon Museum website.

The PCO: British cartoon talent

Cartoons in the media - again

Following on from our post last friday, Bloghorn noticed Blue Peter, the Beeb's long running children's TV show, has launched something called Comic creator, which you can find here.
Handmade British cartoon talent

Cartooning in the media: It's not all bad news

PCOer Royston Robertson says we cartoonists need to lighten up about media coverage of our profession

There’s no doubt that cartoons are enjoying an unusually high profile in the British media at the moment.

We’ve seen acres of coverage for the launch of new kids’ comic The DFC (left), the 70th anniversary of The Beano and Phill Jupitus’s comic strip programme on Radio Four. There has even been a graphic novel serialised in The Times.

So, are cartoonists happy about this? Not a bit of it.

I agree with Neil Dishington, who wrote on this blog yesterday that the Phill Jupitus thing was nothing special, but is that because we’re cartoonists and therefore he’s preaching to the converted? I think it’s likely that many listeners would have found Jupitus’s sincere enthusiasm about comic strips quite infectious.

Isn’t it a good thing that shows like these exist? Is it not the case that the only thing worse than the media talking about cartoons is the media not talking about cartoons?

But they misrepresent cartooning, some cartoonists cry, it’s obvious they don’t know what they’re talking about. Well, maybe. I’m sure I heard James Naughtie talking about "animators" at The Beano on the Today show on Monday, but is there a single profession that doesn’t think it is often misrepresented by the media? I know journalists who think the media misrepresents them.

Another common complaint is that any media obsession with cartoons is just a passing fad. Again, that may be true, perhaps they’re using cartoons to cheer us up amid all the credit crunch stuff, but then that is the role of most cartoons. And let’s not forget that the media treats many subjects in a faddish way before moving on to the next thing.

And as for the grumbling over celebs such as Jupitus drawing cartoons, cartooning has always been something where everyone wants to have a go. That's because it's fun. We often encourage that attitude, at events such as The Big Draw and the Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival.

All you can do is keep on doing good cartoon work and hope that those who commission cartoons for publication will realise that it is best to go to a professional.

The PCO: Professional cartoon talent

PCO Artist of the Month - Clive Goddard

Clive Goddard has been the PCO Artist of the month for July 2008. If you'd like to see the four featured pieces of Clive's work we have published on Bloghorn during July, click the term, Clive Goddard, in the labels underneath this writing, or, click G for Goddard here.
It's British cartoon talent

Cartoon review: Phill Jupitus on Radio 4

Strip by comedian and wannabe cartoonist Phill Jupitus

PCOer Neil Dishington reviews Comic Love, Phill Jupitus’s BBC Radio Four show in praise of newspaper comic strips

Apparently Phill Jupitus is a thwarted cartoonist.

Aren’t we all?

I should admit that he is not my favourite comedian, and I am not a particular fan of comic strips, as opposed to stand-alone cartoon jokes.

Much of what Jupitus had to say in his Radio 4 show seemed like a repeat of what most cartoonists talk about when they get together: lack of markets and indifferent editors.

The interviewees in the show were able to speak from strength – Garry Trudeau (Doonesbury), Steve Bell (If), Peattie and Taylor (Alex). But I always think that artists like this have become part of the establishment they lampoon. Is it just as easy to get stuck into royalty, celebs and the City of London when you are selling strips in umpteen countries around the world and your stuff is syndicated all over the place?

I do think Steve Bell has kept his integrity, but I wonder how much attention people pay to "cartoonists with attitude"? We, as a nation, do seem happy to accept bland publishable stuff as the norm.

I did like some of the comments by the cartoonists interviewed by Jupitus, such as Steve Bell’s call for a "missionary zeal" in making cartoons which have something to say. In contrast, I was not so keen to hear that the future of cartoons will be online.

Overall, I found the programme bland, smug and much of it decidedly familiar. A real time-filler. It was lazy broadcasting and lazy journalism.

And lo and behold, in the Guardian newspaper of July 22, an article by Jupitus retelling the same stuff as the programme, accompanied by a cartoon strip drawn by ... celebrity cartoonist Phill Jupitus.

Thanks for the review Neil. Bloghorn says click D for Dishington.

The BBCs Listen again facility is here - and the program will be online until Saturday 26th July.

Full-time British cartoon talent

Cartoon exhibition: The Graphic Art of Comment

The Graphic Art of Comment, an exhibition of cartoons and illustrations from the Comment pages of the Guardian newspaper opens tomorrow (July 24) and runs until September 26.

It showcases the work of more than 20 artists whose work can be seen in the paper's Comment pages, including Martin Rowson, Steve Bell and David Parkins.

The exhibition is at the Newsroom Archive and Visitor Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London. (Tel:020-7886 9898). Opening times: Monday to Friday 10am-5pm; Saturday 12pm-4pm; Closed August Bank Holiday weekend. Admission is free and there is a free catalogue (while stocks last).

It's British cartoon talent

An interview with Nick Park

Multi-award winning animator and cartoonist Nick Park of Aardman Animations is interviewed here by Owen Gibson of The Guardian. Park talks with pleasure of getting to edit the 70th anniversary edition of the Beano which we blogged about earlier here.
British cartoon talent

PCO Artist of the month - Clive Goddard

Clive Goddard is the PCO Artist of the month for July 2008. Bloghorn says click G for Goddard.
British cartoon talent

Celebrity cartoonists

As cartoonist-turned-comedian Phill Jupitus prepares to talk of his love of cartoons on the radio, PCOer Royston Robertson looks at some other celebrities who once wielded drawing pens

MEL CALMAN called his autobiography What Else Do You Do?, after the question that is so often put to cartoonists. In fact, there appear to be many cartoonists who not only did something else, but found that that occupation eventually made their name, to the point where the career in cartooning became a largely forgotten footnote.

It was only after the death of the comedian Bob Monkhouse that I heard that he had once been a cartoonist. And quite an accomplished one. He had worked for Beano publisher DC Thomson.


A cartoon by Bob Monkhouse of PCOer Noel Ford, along with a photo of Bob working on that very drawing. Noel, who once worked with Bob at the BBC, assures us that he really did look like that weird in the 1970s

At about the same time, I read an article about the novelist John Updike and how he had been obsessed with cartoons as a child. Updike also tried his hand at being a cartoonist before coming to his senses and deciding that writing was the better path to take. It was certainly the more lucrative.

Another writer who has dabbled with cartooning is Will Self. Some of his work can be seen in a compilation of his newspaper and magazine articles called Junk Mail. The drawing is crude but some of the gags are pretty good.

BBC 6Music presenter Marc Riley, formerly “Lard” of Mark and Lard fame on Radio One, and an ex-bass player with The Fall, is another ex-cartoonist whose drawing was somewhat on the crude side. You may remember his Harry the Head from Oink! Comic. He also appeared in photo strips in Oink! He was the guy with the big nose.

Another former cartoonist is broadcaster Andrew Collins, also an ex-New Musical Express journalist, EastEnders scriptwriter, Radio Times film writer and general overachiever. He chronicled his love of cartoons and half-hearted attempts to make a living drawing owls and wizards for puzzle magazines in Where Did it All Go Right and Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now, his bestselling memoirs of growing up in the 1970s and 1980s.

Talking of the NME, anyone who used to read the music paper in the early 1990s may remember a cartoon drawn in the style of Gillray called Dr Crawshaft’s World of Pop. But did you know that it was drawn by Arthur Mathews who went on to co-script the sitcom Father Ted?

So I suppose there’s hope for us all if we get disillusioned with the world of cartooning. Right, it's time to get back to the drawing board/typewriter/record decks …

Comic Love is on BBC Radio Four at 10.30am on Saturday 19 July.

The PCO British cartoon talent

Cartoons on the radio

Excerpt from a comic strip by comedian Phill Jupitus

Comedian Phill Jupitus hosts a programme called Comic Love on BBC Radio Four this week, in which he talks about his love of comics and newspaper strips.

An occasional cartoonist himself, he has produced a strip to go with an article promoting the radio show in the BBC's online Magazine. You can see it here: Seeing the world in four panels. A different strip and article can also be seen in the July 19 edition of Radio Times.

Comic Love is on BBC Radio Four at 10.30am on Saturday 19 July.

The PCO: British cartoon talent

What US cartoonists think of the Barack Obama New Yorker drawing

The New Yorker magazine has managed to secure itself an avalanche of publicity by featuring a cartoon cover by Barry Blitt. The drawing features Barack and Michelle Obama in a pair of mildly satirical poses, which you can see in the video below. But the response of Blitt's professional colleagues to the drawing and the row it has generated is very interesting. Read the responses underneath the pictures, courtesy of Editor and Publisher.

Clip from Channel 4 News
What the cartoonists think.

And some British cartoon talent

We are all Banksy

No, no, we are all Banksy!

The Mail on Sunday has outed the identity of the mysterious and elusive grafitti artist. He is, allegedly, called Robin and he went to to a nice school. It’s a shame the paper couldn’t bring itself to talk about what Robin of Banksy draws because the message is meant to be more important than the medium - or the artist.

We’d like to encourage everyone reading here to claim to be Banksy too and then, perhaps, we can confuse the Mail on Sunday and help the artist retain his desired wealthy anonymity.

Named British cartoon talent

PCO Artist of the month - Clive Goddard

Clive Goddard is the PCO Artist of the month for July 2008. Bloghorn says click G for Goddard.
British cartoon talent

New Foghorn cartoon magazine

A shiny new issue of the Foghorn cartoon magazine is hitting the streets imminently - and a subscription to the bi-monthly feast of drawing and jokes (no, really, we got advised we should say this sort of thing) is available via the PCO big blue Foghorn button you can see immediately to the right hand-side of this writing.
British cartoon talent

Cartoonist questioned

Gerald Scarfe at work in his studio. Photograph by Linda Nylind

Cartoonist Gerald Scarfe is the subject of this week's Portrait of the Artist questionnaire in The Guardian.

The PCO: British cartoon talent

Award-winning PCO cartoonists

PCOer Martin Honeysett has won the Kyoto International Cartoon Competition for a piece of art on global warming. Fellow member Ross Thomson placed third. You can see a full report on ther work and the stiff competition they faced here. Bloghorn says Click H for Honeysett and T for Thomson.
It's British cartoon talent

Google goes cartoon

The New York Times reports Google will back exclusive cartoon content for entirely digital distribution this autumn. The search company have a deal with Seth MacFarlane, creator of the American animated series, Family Guy, to produce fifty cartoon shorts. MacFarlane describes the work as "animated versions of the one-frame cartoons you might see in The New Yorker, only edgier."
The cartoonist will also create the built-in and drawn advertising in the products.
British cartoon talent

PCO Artist of the Month - Clive Goddard

Clive Goddard is the PCO Artist of the Month for July 2008.

Clive's work regularly appears in Britain's satirical and current affairs magazines, Private Eye, The Spectator, Prospect and The Oldie. He has also drawn for The Times and the New Statesman.

He is, perhaps, best known for this work drawing and illustrating the Dead Famous series of books, for the children's publisher Scholastic.

Bloghorn says click G for Goddard.

The PCO: British cartoon talent

Cartoon exhibition: Beano and Dandy

While we're busy marking 60 years of the NHS this week, let's not forget that another much-cherished British institution has a significant birthday approaching.

On July 30, The Beano will be 70 years old. London's Cartoon Museum will be holding a major Beano and Dandy exhibition to celebrate. It will run until November 2 and will feature Dennis the Menace, the Bash Street Kids, Minnie the Minx, Lord Snooty, and all the gang. More on this nearer the time.

The Cartoon Museum

The PCO: British cartoon talent