Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation at the Big Draw in London

The PCO will be working at the Big Draw event held in the Eurostar terminal of St Pancras Station in central London today - Saturday 18th October 2008.
The PCO: Great British cartoon talent

New FOGHORN cartoon magazine published

You can subscribe to our six-editions a year organ by clicking the big blue button to your right hand side.
14th October 2008
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

A cartoonist’s memories of Punch magazine

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

Bloghorn's Cartoon Pick of the Week

Bloghorn spotted this great work this week...

One: Kipper Williams in the Spectator on unpleasant aircraft problems

Two: Daley in The Daily Telegraph on Barack Obama

Three: Morten Morland in The Times on
the end of the Olympics


It's British cartoon talent

Artist of the Month - Andy Davey

Here is the last interview answer from Andy Davey our PCO Artist of the Month for August 2008.

Bloghorn asked him what's the future for cartooning in the digital age?

I’m sure cartoons will thrive and flourish, after they emerge from this difficult period, but in what form they will do this, I have no idea. It may be that animation will provide the extra selling point they seem to need in the rush to digital. It seems many people under 30 now think of animated cartoon art when they hear the word “cartoon”, so the deed may be already be done.

It’s increasingly difficult to get any kind of still, newsprint cartoon published at a reasonable fee, so it may have become less attractive to new entrants and this may lead to a downward spiral in the quality of work. But there are, still, good new people coming in*.

Interestingly, the route to being a cartoonist is usually circuitous or tangential; there aren’t any really useful training schools. This means it still attracts lateral thinkers, oddballs and eccentrics – thank goodness. Long may it do so. Satire and drawn humour are as natural (and enduring) as camel farts. The art-form might mutate but it won’t die.

Can I go now?

Bloghorn says click D for Davey.

* See some of it at this link British cartoon talent

Cartoon Pick of the Week

Bloghorn spotted this great work this week...

One: Holland in the Oldie on Playing Health and Safety

Two:
Matt of the Telegraph on the GCSE results

Three:
Peter Schrank of The Independent on Russian bears

British cartoon talent

Artist of the Month - Andy Davey

Andy Davey is the PCO Artist of the Month for August 2008.
Bloghorn asked Andy some questions about what he does.

Which other cartoonists' work do you admire?
Gerald Scarfe’s loose, carefree line, devastating caricature and command of so many styles is still pretty breathtaking. Steve Bell’s ability to nail a politician and produce the definitive image of the hapless soul (Major, Blair, Bush) is unparalleled. Matt’s ability to translate world events into demotic scenes of suburbia. Then there are the others – Robert Crumb for his weird Freudian cathartics. Thelwell for pretty much the opposite. Ken Reid, Tony Husband, Ray Lowry, Ralph Steadman, Larry, Ed McLachlan, Posy Simmonds … oh, and that Bill Stott fellow. There are many others. Anyone who makes me laugh out loud gets a special gold star.

Do you have any tips for wannabe cartoonists?
Oh bejayzus. At present, it looks like it would be recommending someone to train as a cordwainer or a wheelwright. Of course, there are several dozen scribblers making a good living out of it – and even cartoon Forbes-listers (Messrs Bell, Pritchett, Scarfe) but the rest of us live on hope, rejection and frozen peas. BUT, if you love doing something, then you just can’t stop yourself pursuing it – and it would be foolish to do so (as I have demonstrated to myself). So if that’s what you enjoy – DO IT, fer gawd’s sake, or you’ll regret it. Worry about the penury later – when the skinny-dog and pennywhistle combo begins to look like an upward career move.

Bloghorn says click D for Davey.

British cartoon talent

Symbolism in cartoons

Ever wondered why some newspaper cartoons have so many symbols and badges in them? Let PCOer Martin Rowson explain a little about it in this Radio 4 interview about the symbolism of Russia as a giant bear. Clip from the Today programme.

British cartoon talent

Cartooning in the silly season

PCOer Morten Morland writes for Bloghorn:

I was going to write a post on cartooning during what journalists call the silly season. It would have been about trying to perform when most meaningful politicians are on holiday and the papers are full of exclusives such as “Brendan from Bradford can blow bubbles with his bum”.

I intended to begin with the useful opening: “Spare a thought for...” – and follow up with desperate descriptions of life inside a non-airconditoned studio while the rest of the world enjoys barbecue and beer in the paddling pool across the road.

I would go on to curse the party leaders for taking holidays despite knowing full well that cartoonists can’t work with the obscure backbenchers they leave behind.

I would wail about editors who demand that cartoonists continue to produce biting political satire, whilst allowing other commentators to meditate repeatedly on swimming trunks in the post-Blair era.

I was going to write all of that and more, but I won’t, or, rather, I can't.

Because as if by magic a couple of weeks ago, Foreign Secretary David Miliband suddenly cried “LOOK AT ME!” in the Guardian newspaper. He held a grinning press conference and went on an autograph-signing walkabout with the press in tow. The blessed Prime Minister, who mercifully had chosen to take a good ol’ British seaside holiday, with all its rich, stereotypical visual language, was near-fatally wounded.

Then that pier burned down, giving us another day and a half of metaphorical meat. SATs results were published – incredibly badly. The credit crunch rolled on, house prices fell, the stock market slowed and Alistair Darling hinted haplessly at future bribes for voters.

Beijing is currently hosting the Olympics under the slogan, Faster Imprisonment, Stronger Punishment and Higher Pollution – giving us all weeks of material about human rights abuse, protests and smog. And to top it all, Russian Prime Minister Putin and his little president have just found an excuse to start a war in Georgia.

And through it all, it's raining. Cold rain.

Silly season? Absolutely. Brilliantly silly if you’re a cartoonist.

But spare a thought for everyone else ...

Ed: You can see some of Morten's silly season work for The Times newspaper here.

It's British cartoon talent

Cartoon Pick of the Week

As we drift into the sometimes quieter backwaters of the summer news season, here's a few cartoons that caught Bloghorn's eye this week.

One:
Dave Brown on lip-reading, from the Independent

Two:
Pete Dredge on the continuing effect of the smoking ban, from the Spectator

Three:
Christian Adams on yawning dogs, from the Telegraph

As previously mentioned, if you've seen a cartoon in the last seven days or so that you think deserves a bit of attention, please pop a link to it into the comments below.

It's British cartoon talent

Artist of the Month - Andy Davey

Andy Davey is the PCO Artist of the Month for August 2008.
Andy's cartoons and caricatures have appeared in UK publications including The Guardian, The Times, The Sunday Telegraph, The Independent on Sunday, Private Eye, The Spectator, The New Statesman and Prospect. He has wielded his pen for TV too, drawing for the animated satirical cartoon series 2DTV and covering occasional political news events on Channel Five TV News and Sky TV News.

Bloghorn asked him a few questions, starting with a predictable one: What made you become a cartoonist?

First, I’m very embarrassed you asked me, because it’ll look like nepotism (Andy is the chairpersonman of the PCO, which runs Bloghorn - Ed). However, since you’re holding a water-pistol to my head …

The Voice from within made me do it, m’Lud. Hoarse from years of unacknowledged yelling, it shouted from atop a small grassy knoll somewhere in my gullet. It was only when someone asked me what all the shouting was that I took notice. Ah yes; the little noisy chap within.

He’d wanted to be a cartoonist from the age of about eight, seduced by an imagined life where ties were not essential but getting up late and being rather louche were absolutely expected. Although he didn’t know what louche meant. He wanted to draw characters from the pages of Wham! and Beano comics all day, essentially – with short breaks for football on the park – and saw a career in cartooning to represent just that.

My dour, rational self wilfully ignored such fancies and went about the long, long dreary task of establishing a deeply mediocre career in something hard, unrewarding and smelly (research chemistry). But the Voice kept shouting, letting up only while the usual unhealthy distractions of adolescence and early adulthood kept my mind off … well, anything really. Finally, I gave in – albeit far too late to build anything other than the career I have now.

Bloghorn says click D for Davey.

British cartoon talent

Animation: Monkey business at the BBC

It's great to see that the BBC has come up with a very striking animated film to promote the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, which get under way this week.

The characters, adapted from the Monkey stories, are designed by Jamie Hewlett, and the music is by Damon Albarn, his partner in the animated pop group Gorillaz. Monkey and his pals will be the face of the BBC's Olympics coverage.

The BBC Sport website has a gallery on the the making of the trailer and you can see more on the BBC Blast site.

The PCO: British cartoon talent

Cartoon Exhibition: The Beano in Dundee

Amid the coverage of the London launch of the Beano and Dandy Birthday Bash last week at the Cartoon Museum, we should mention that there's a parallel exhibition in the Beano and Dandy's home town of Dundee. The exhibition is being held at the Lamb Gallery at the University of Dundee until the 20th September, Monday to Friday 9.30-20.30, Sat 9.30-12.00, and best of all, it's free to enter!

More details at the University of Dundee's website. Not being able to attend ourselves, Bloghorn would be keen to hear any reports from the exhibition.

Getting back to the London event, ITN sent a reporter along to cover the event last week, and here's their report.

Thanks to Lew Stringer for his Blimey! It's another blog about comics for the above links.

UPDATED:
PCO member Steve Bright, who worked for the comics for more than twenty years, asks us to point out that ITN have made a clanger in their copy. The current editor of The Beano is Alan Digby, not Rigby. Independent Television News, what can you say ... thanks for pointing that out Steve.

It's British cartoon talent

PCO Artist of the Month

Bloghorn is giving Artist of the Month a week off this Friday but we will be back with a new featured cartoonist next Friday. In the meantime, have a look back at the talent we have already featured over the past year.

It's British cartoon talent

Cartoon Pick of the Week

Bloghorn is launching a new regular feature today: Cartoon Pick of the Week. This does exactly what it says on the metaphorical tin. We shall be highlighting what the folk at the PCO think are the top three drawings and jokes we've seen during each working week. If you have a submission you think we should have seen – but have missed – pop a URL link in the comments underneath this post. The list won't be exhaustive or even always comprised of just our members, but it will be funny. So, Bloghorn hopes you enjoy our list for the week ending 1st August 2008.

One:
Morten Morland on David Miliband. Full cartoon in The Times
Two:
Grizelda on cutting CO2 emissions. Published in Private Eye
Three:
Paul Thomas on beach holidays. Published in The Express

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

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

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

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