Victory for Obama: The cartoonists' view

The time difference between the UK and the USA meant that newspapers here were unable to report the victory of Barack Obama the day after the election. So British cartoonists had another day to gather their thoughts, and we saw the results yesterday.

Two cartoonists noted a certain messianic quality in the President Elect. Peter Brookes in The Times came up with a saintly Obama and Matt in the Daily Telegraph wondered if he could work miracles.

Andy Davey in The Sun saw the election as a new dawn and Paul Thomas in the Daily Express also looked at the notion of new hope for America.

A celebratory tone was notable. Steve Bell in The Guardian depicted a slam-dunking Obama and Dave Brown in The Independent showed his ballooning popularity.

Mac in the Daily Mail had Obama beating racism, to make it to the White House while Matt Buck at Channel 4 News noted how that famous address is changed for ever. Nicholas Garland in The Telegraph took an interesting sideways slant, with a quote from Martin Luther King.

Alex Hughes in Tribune looked ahead to the huge challenges faced by the new President and Patrick Blower, on his Livedraw site, had an animated take on this weight of expectation.

It will be fascinating, of course, to see how cartoonists will react once Obama is doing the job of President, when the news stories are not all positive.

Have you seen any other great Obama cartoons in the UK media? Let us know via Comments below

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent

Evidence for the value of cartoons in the digital world

Here is an experiment in online imagery using the work of PCOer Alex Hughes who helps write this blog for the Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation. Link via Paul Bradshaw.

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent

Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival - But is it Art?

PCOer Alex Hughes submitted this caricature of Prime Minister Gordon Brown for the "But is it Art?" show at this year's Shrewsbury festival. Click the picture to enlarge it.

British cartoon talent

Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival - The Big Boarders

Kipper Williams of The Guardian is one of this year's PCO Big Boarders at the festival. Above is one of Kipper’s submissions to the "But is it Art?" exhibition, which is already open in the town.

The full list of cartoonist Big Boarders drawing at this year's festival, over the weekend of Friday 18th and Saturday 19th April, is:

Steve Bright, Clive Collins, Bill Stott, Ross Thomson, Martin Honeysett, Alex Hughes, Pete Dredge, John Roberts, Matt Buck (Hack), Royston Robertson, Mike Turner, Noel Ford, Steve Best (Bestie), Dave Brown, Ian Baker, Chris Burke, Andy Davey, Neil Dishington, Paul Hardman, and Andy McKay (NAF).

PCOer Pete Dredge will be blogging tomorrow about how it feels to do a big board at Shrewsbury.

British cartoon talent

PCO Procartoonists on waiting for the phone to ring

PCOer Alex Hughes writes and draws;
Overjoyed as I was at the receipt of my DACS payment from the UK Design and Copyright Society just before Christmas, I was slightly miffed to read an article in the Studio DACS newsletter which dropped on my doormat this morning entitled 'My short life as a political cartoonist' by Simon Stern. Now, I'll admit I'm not aware of Simon Stern's work as an illustrator, and I can only applaud his work as a member of the DACS' Board of Directors , but I was somewhat put out by the opening paragraph:

One day out of the blue I got a call from the Times Saturday Review, asking how I would feel about doing a weekly colour cartoon for the magazine? It wasn't an offer I was about to refuse, so after gaining admission to the Times Newspaper's armed encampment in Wapping, I found my way through a series of shabby looking buildings to the Saturday Review offices.

I understand Mr Stern‘s story to have actually taken place some years ago. I am writing as someone who has been trying to get my foot in the door drawing newspaper political cartoons, and this statement rankled. If an illustrator can be called up unsolicited to take up a position that many of us professional cartoonists would be clamouring to get, it suggests to me that certain editors don't know where to look for cartoonists. My own experience leads me to conclude the situation has got worse in the intervening years, and how much we need the activities of the PCO to help get news out there into the world and bang the drum for our skills.
You can see some of Alex's visual arguments if you click H from here.

British cartoon talent