Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival

A sneak preview of more 'Art' from the upcoming Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival. This piece is by PCOer Wilbur Dawbarn.
British cartoon talent

PCO Artist of the month - Lee Healey

PCO member Lee Healey caricature of kate Moss and pete Doherty
Cartoonist & illustrator Lee Healey, is a freelancer with over 17 years experience. Lee's art has appeared in many magazines and comics, including Viz, Maxim, and The Dandy. Other clients have included the CBBC channel, Roy Chubby Brown,and video artist Mark Leckey. Lee prides himself on his versatility, and is able to turn his hand from simple cartoons to cartoon, comic or strip illustrations. Like many modern cartoonists, Lee completes, and delivers, his work digitally. Bloghorn says click H for Healey
British cartoon talent

PCO Procartoonists - Foghorn cartoon magazine

Foghorn, the full colour magazine of the Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation is in production right now and is due to land on the desks of some lucky art buyers soon. This all new exciting flood-proof issue will include articles from PCOers Martin Honeysett, Martin Rowson, Roger Penwill and Pete Dredge alongside the usual top jokes and regular features. This edition’s cover cartoon is by Mr Ross Thomson - click T for Thomson.
21st January 2008
British cartoon talent

PCO Procartoonists on the vacant Trafalgar Square plinth

Bloghorn defies anyone to argue convincingly that the entries for the 'art' slot in Trafalgar Square from both Tracey Emin and Yinka Shonibare aren't really cartoons on a grand scale. This link to the shortlisted lineup comes courtesy of The Guardian newspaper.
8th January 2007
British cartoon talent

PCO Procartoonists - What we do

The profession and craft of cartooning (from gag drawings and pocket-sized newspaper jokes to comics strips and magazines, from editorial drawings and commercial advertising to digital monitors and billboards) has suffered some economic blows over the past decade. These have often been connected to the decline in the fortunes of the print industry.
But, despite this, the PCO is sure that - though undervalued by some in the UK - intelligent drawing remains an art-form which people continue to love to see and read. The map below, bears this knowledge out, as it shows you the locations of some of our many digital visitors this week.

We want to put our art in front of those people in a more direct way than we have previously done and we are, as an organisation, set up to promote and advertise the best of the active UK cartoon art world.
We seek to reach the three major constituencies which support our art form - editors of media outlets, both traditional and digital, art buyers in commercial companies and the reading public. We are doing this through three channels - the internet, our own printed magazine, The Foghorn, and at large public events like the Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival and The Big Draw. We also help to make and run bespoke, or single-issue, cartoon exhibitions like this one, which are often on tour and shown in major cities in the UK and Europe.
As you'd expect, we have excellent connections in the world of art and business and work closely with the national Cartoon Museum, the Cartoon Hub at the University of Kent, the Political Cartoon Gallery and other interested galleries and arts bodies, including the cartoonists’ social clubs, the British Cartoonists’ Association and the Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain. We,in our own way, cover the UK. We also have excellent links abroad through our collaboration with European cartooning organisations inside Feco. If you are curious about our work and what it can do for you, you can contact us from our main portfolio site which lives here.

Andy Davey – Chairman of the Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation

British cartoon talent

PCO Procartoonists - on cartoon art auctions

Is there a cartoonist in the house?
Well, very often, yes, there is. Last week, PCOers Pete Dredge and Mike Turner added themselves to the throng of medical types, trustees and the odd HRH(apologies to the Duke of Kent) at the plush, modern atrium of The Royal Society of Medicine for a charity cartoon auction. It was in aid of RESTORE Burn and Wound Research. Knowledgeable and charismatic auctioneer, Nick Bonham fired up the well-heeled audience. His instruction that it was the done thing on these occasions to double the catalogue estimate price of the cartoons was readily taken up by the eager bidders and the 50 cartoon lots were soon dispatched to new, loving owners with the charity £10,000 to the good. The cartoon above is one of Ken Pyne's, taken from the auction catalogue. Thanks to Pete and Mike for the report - a blogging first for both Mr Dredge and Mr Turner.
British cartoon talent

PCO Procartoonists - Artist of the Month - Colin Whittock

Here is our last episode from our artist of the month for October, Colin Whittock. If you'd like to click through the other three examples of Colin's work we have showcased on Bloghorn this month, just click the underlined term - PCO Artist of the Month - which you'll find underneath this text, or in the PCO Interests cloud which is on the right hand side of the site. Bloghorn says click W for Whittock
26th October 2007
British cartoon talent

PCO Procartoonists - applaud a cat joke

A lovely piece of simple observation brought to you anonymously via You Tube. Whoever did it, really should have signed it.
The best British cartoon talent

PCO Procartoonists - The art business

PCO cartoonist Bill Stott writes;

ONE of TV’s most irritating programmes is “Click”. It usually crops up when you expect news and concerns itself with the geekier end of things computerish, or the needs of those whey-faced wannabes who claim not to be able to live without their Blackberrys. More than once in the hearing of your correspondent, Click’s cutting edge presenters have referred to events “way back in the 90s”. I wonder how old are Click’s younger viewers? Seven?

It might have been our patron, Libby Purves, or perhaps Bill Tidy, who suggested that cartoons demand a certain level of knowledge, historical or otherwise, for them to raise a smile.

If you didn’t know about the Titanic, Bill’s famous “No news of the iceberg ?” gag would fall flat. PCO member Mike Williams tells of a young person not understanding a fine joke about Vikings – “I’m a Viking. I’m SUPPOSED to leave rings on the table!” Said young person remarked, “Vikings wore lots of rings, did they?”

Cartoonists aren’t just history buffs. Cartoonists are interested in everything. They have to be. That’s what the job’s about. Everything. Very little is beyond humour’s scope. Maybe that’s why cartoonists come from all sorts of other lives – education, science, banking, road mending, string manufacture – and why many are tolerably able in fields other than drawing folk with big hooters.

So when the freelance cartoonist is commissioned to produce twelve sure-fire gags for a double glazing company – and companies are very keen on “product placement“ – then that freelancer had better be up to speed on all things transparent and still be able to make it funny.

PCO Procartoonists - The future of print cartoons

Is this really the future of print cartoons?
Bloghorn offers a hat-tip to the Daily Cartoonist for a thoughtful analysis on the business issues around the future of commercial drawing.

PCO Procartoonists - Just draw it

Cartoonists can spend a lot of time arguing about the merits of how they do what they do. Some artists stick to traditional methods, some experiment and some try not to worry about it too much. In the spirit of the final theme, Bloghorn found this, which is posted above. The skill remains the same, just draw it.

The art in the video is made by a US cartoonist called Meredith Gran, who draws a strip called Octopus Pie.

PCO Procartoonists - Art or wot?

PCO Chairman Andy Davey writes in response to this;

Ah, yes...defining art. This is a treacherous hole down which many a smart commentator has fallen. Any definition is fairly redundant under scrutiny but, personally, I’m with the very wonderful Scott McCloud who has written extensively on the “theory” of cartoon art (although he describes them as, “comics”).


McCloud defines pure art as “any human activity which doesn’t grow out of either of our species’ two basic instincts; survival and reproduction”. The muse is not important – high art has been hijacked variously to depict both the sacred and the profane. The compulsion to make stuff for its own sake and the joy of it is the defining criterion.

This allows you to walk rather smugly around the hole, although the hole is a pretty huge, all-encompassing one. It then simply reduces to a quantitative difference rather than a qualitative one; i.e. how much “art” does this work or activity or performance contain?

Of course, we cartoonists – like all “artists” - fail, by varying degrees, to meet the demanding criterion mentioned above, but it doesn’t mean that the whole genre should be filed under “not art”. Elements of the cartoonist’s art exist to varying levels across the spectrum of drawing and painting, from “Sun Fun” through Gerald Scarfe and probably even to Picasso or Magritte’s work. There are as many vacuous paintings as there are meaning-laden, thought-provoking cartoons.

Unfortunately, the real world is a bit different. Art is what the art establishment – people like Brian Sewell – says it is. As McCloud argues, the “comics” format (and by extension, cartoons) would be seen as art if you made it so...by physical form (put it in a gilt frame), context (put it in a gallery in a glass case) or authorship (anything by Warhol or Hirst is art...isn’t it?). But the critical view is that it isn’t art. And that’s that.

I guess, as Bill says here, we shoot ourselves in the foot because we try to be funny. It’s probably a bit wider than that; not all cartoons are funny – some make painfully serious points with the point of a stiletto. The foot-shooting is as old as the format itself due to occasional association with non-serious content and sensationalism (saucy postcards, horror-comics and childrens’comic books).

Cartoon art is the mongrel born of a bit of guilt-laden inter-species rumpy-pumpy between pictures and words. Rejected by both parents, it’s had to make its own way in the treacherous worlds of art and commerce. With such a poor upbringing, it’s no surprise it lacks self-confidence. Poor genes, no schooling...there was no other logical outcome. It is compelled to start shouting and making a nuisance of itself down at Job Centre Plus.

So, I agree with you, Bill. Mr Sewell is wrong to dismiss a whole art form. His only legitimate function is to tell us what he likes and what he doesn’t.

The Bloghorn says, for Scott McCloud and his excellent, learned writing on where-do-cartoons-come-from, go here

PCO Procartoonists - The power of images

The BBC magazine has produced an interesting piece on family board games from World War 2. When you read the piece and look at the games, they were clearly no more than thinly disguised political propaganda.

At the time these were made, sold and distributed, the government, who encouraged their production, was clearly, keenly aware of the power that drawn cartoon and comic imagery had as an attractive sales device.

Presumably, BLOGHORN thinks, the power of what professional artists do, has not changed in the intervening 60 years, but the context in which art with a message can be used has clearly changed a very great deal. What do you think?

PCO Procartoonists - An artist’s story

PCO member Noel Ford writes;

I've just had an interesting and, for me, unique experience, complete with ironic twist, that should be of interest to any cartoonists with a grievance concerning the unauthorised use of their cartoons.

Earlier this year, a client informed me that three of the of the cartoon illustrations which I had produced for him, had been spotted in a business magazine, decorating a feature. Consequently, I wrote to the editor of this magazine, informing her that she had published the cartoons without obtaining permission from either my client or myself. I was quite polite, and said that, in this case, the matter could be resolved by her paying me for repro rights, for which I enclosed an invoice.

I received no reply.

I phoned, explained the situation, and was told the editor would call me.

She didn't.

I phoned again, and spoke to the magazine's business manager, who promised everything would be sorted.

It wasn't - and he didn't call back.

I phoned again. Neither the editor or the business manager was available, so I asked for a call back, adding that I would not call again and that should they not contact me, I would commence legal proceedings.

They didn't call back.

I wrote a final formal letter, informing them they were in breach of my copyright, and confirmed that unless I heard from them forthwith, I would take the matter to the courts.

They didn't reply.

So, having made the threat, I was obliged to follow through, and I went to the website of Her Majesty's Courts Service here

Submitting my claim, on line, was both easy and quick. I had to pay £30, which would be added to my claim.

The court served my claim on the 8th of August. Whether the editor was happy to concede my claim or she just didn't fancy the trip from SE England to Aberystwyth to defend her magazine, I don't know, but I received a cheque from them this morning for the full amount of my invoice, plus my court costs.

So, the moral is, don't stand by and do nothing but moan if your work is used without consent. The law is there, and HMCS and the Internet make it easy to claim.

And the ironic twist? The magazine had used my cartoons to illustrate a feature on how to avoid being sued.

The PCO says: Hooray! And check out F for Ford at our portfolio website

PCO Procartoonists - Advice from a professional cartoonist

PCO member Nigel Sutherland says;

I could worry myself about rival cartoonists and agents etc., but that would just lead to unnecessary stress and time wasted. While it's right to be aware of what's going on in the "industry" I find it better and more productive to concentrate on what I'm doing and in promoting myself.

The PCO says, click S for Sutherland.

PCO Procartoonists: On music and making art

PCO member Bill Stott writes;

The conductors of the country's five main philharmonic orchestras
have issued a manifesto to the government, deploring levels of understanding and accessibility to classical music with regard to "the majority of young people" in the UK. One of many recommendations, amongst the usual cries for more and better teaching of music, is for orchestras to offer free admission for young people to certain concerts. A small group were interviewed on radio and individuals said that it had been a positive experience. AND that they'd go again.



I think that one of the reasons behind the shrinking cartoon market in magazines and newspapers is the relative youth of editors. If that's a problem now, it will be a much bigger one in ten years time when some young high flyers will have been toddlers when Punch breathed its last, and in the interim, many more mags will have dropped cartoons. Even the long and honourable tradition of political cartooning isn't immune to the insiduous creep of young people with Photoshop palsy.

So, if the musicians can get 'em young, why can't cartoonists?

Obviously, unlike the musicians we can't have a group of kids peering over our shoulders while we work. Quite a few cartoonists work, with the approval of LEAs (Local Education Authorities), doing cartoon workshops in schools and colleges. But I suspect those workshops deal with the HOW of cartooning, and not the WHY. I don't envisage a whizzbang powerpoint light show with FAQs. Work of different types available, yes, and a hardcopy handout, but mainly a Q&A session with sixth formers (or equivalent) - a discussion with a successful, freelance cartoonist (or two) who may well demonstrate their preferred techniques, but would NOT be running a how-to workshop. In my experience, schools are always on the lookout for able professionals from all sorts of jobs to come and talk about what they do. How does a joke happen? How do you say a hundred disparaging things about the American president in one picture?

Given the quality, experience, and communicative skills embodied in the PCO, the organisation might do well to take a leaf from the musicians' book.

UPDATE:
It has been pointed out that the PCO and Foghorn the Bloghorn do have some history with music...


Cartoon strip, courtesy of the PCO's Andy Davey.

PCO Procartoonists - A non-digital cartoonist reports

PCO member Bill Stott writes; The 74/26 German split in favour of digital art, written about by Andy Davey, is today's glimpse of the obvious.

I'll probably never use a computer to make cartoons - notwithstanding Wacom board and magic pens etc. I'm too old. The irritating language of computers makes me very tired. Boot up = Switch On. Groan. I won't join their gang. I don't have a Tesco clubcard either. I like there being nothing between me and the picture. I make the marks.

But that doesn't make computers any more or less than a way of making pictures.That I don't like digital perfection - and I really don't - is irrelevant. A digitally produced cartoon is as valid as one produced using a sharpened vole on buckskin.

Verification of originality lies in a signature, always assuming that those artists completely reliant on computerised whizz-bangery can still write their own names.

(The editor says click S for Stott to see Bill's resolutely non-digital, watercolour cartoons.)

PCO Procartoonists - The digital age meets the papyrus

A German cartoon mag called “Don Quichotte” has published a survey on whether “digital” caricatures and cartoons, should be eligible for international caricature competitions alongside “traditional” ones. This was supposedly answered by 700 cartoonists and cartoon “fans”. The result was 74%-26% in favour of admitting digital art. This is a welcome, if belated admission that a computer is just another tool in the artists’ toolbox and will be a kick in the pants for those cartoon competition organisers who demand “original” (i.e. marks made on paper with pens, pencils, quills etc.) artwork in order to build a collection of cartoon artwork for their museum/foundation at double quick time.

It does rather muddy the waters for gallery owners though. Collectors like to collect original art. Maybe it’s the frisson of actually seeing the scratchy, messy results of the frenetic panic of a cartoonist attempting to meet his/her deadline. You, as the proud owner of the original artwork, now know that those vast areas of white page, which mere passing readers may have admired as bold compositional flourishes, conceal, in fact, half a dozen previous attempts to paint in a battle scene, now embalmed in half a gallon of Tippex. Whatever the reason, original art attracts higher prices. But what of the “digital” artist? Is his/her output “worthless”? Many cartoonists now routinely use a Wacom board and “magic” infrared pen to create their artworks without ever picking up a sheet of paper. The programmes (Painter, Photoshop, Illustrator etc.) allow almost any stylistic conceit. They are, of course, only as good as the frazzled artisan directing the cursor, so the results of some experiments show as much grace and dexterity as the proverbial cow firing a musket.

Bring on the bright, feather-bedded future, awash with giclee prints.