The Cartoon Blog

It is sometimes amazing to see how cartoonists’ minds work [sic.] There were many images to pick for yesterday’s pre-Budget report at hand for us. But for two cartoonists to combine not one, but two images (Christmas and axes) at the same time is a nice symmetry. The cartoon planets were obviously aligned.

Here’s mine that I did for Telegraph.co.uk and here’s Peter Brookes’ from The Times.

To the British Cartoonists’ Association Christmas Dinner last night at a wonderful room in the City University Club in The City. A packed room of both veterans and newcomers enjoyed chat, gossip, plenty of wine and delicious food.

I was sitting with Martin Rowson, his lovely wife Anna, Will Self and Patrick Blower of guardian.co.uk. Lots of talk of the future and this internet thingy and what it meant for us all. We were talking about the Leave a Comment tag that most cartoons now have underneath them online (although I don’t.) Having agreed on the thick-headedness of most Commenters (but not all, it must be said), and Rowson’s other half revealing that he’s obsessed by his Comments, Self was asked if he read the equivalent – reviews of his books. He said no, because he’s too egotistical to read the good ones, and too depressive to read the… Read More

A very good cartoon in The Independent today by Dave Brown. The Mermaid of Copenhagen has been bothering me for days, but I couldn’t think of anything to do with her!

There’s a post on the great cartoon site Bloghorn lamenting that so few magazines use illustrations and cartoons for their covers. So true. Their example is Radio Times, which always has an illustration only for the Christmas edition.

Bloghorn says: “It’s rare to see cartoons and illustrations on magazine covers in this celebrity-driven age. There are a few notable exceptions, magazines such as The Week and The Oldie, but you don’t generally see them on the cover of TV guides any more except at Christmas.” Ah, the good old days.

I’m really sorry to burst a bubble of nostalgia, but…

I was in VinMag, that retro magazine and poster shop on Brewer Street the other day and happened to look through loads of old Radio Times’ from the Seventies and Eighties. For pure cringe-making reasons. The covers were all awful photos of Terry Wogan, Bruce Forsythe, and that programme, what was it… Read More

Cartoonists have to have a view about the strange political happenings that go on around their readers/viewers. Their raison d’etre  is to comment on the world around us.

So what happens when the story of the day is disputed? What happens when there may be no real right or wrong. The answer is usually, reflect the view of the paying readers of your publication.

The climate change discussion/scandal at the moment is interesting, to say the least. I’m fascinated by it. I’ve been trawling the internet, looking at pros and cons. There are a lot of loud voices out (in?) there. The Guardian had 1500 – at the last count – comments on one article on the subject alone. A staggering feedback.

I know very well what Telegraph readers think of all this. But what do I think? What am I going to cartoon about this?

Strange, but I think what (Right of… Read More

Among the usual, terribly weak and forced American cartoons, I have found this rather dry, witty one on our consumerist society by Joe Heller.

What a strange job, being a war artist. It elevates painting and drawing to a truly honourable dedication. The current one is Arabella Dorman, who is in Afghanistan. In an interview in The Times today she says “As a portrait painter I am drawn to the human drama, the psychology and bravery. In the theatre of war, experience is condensed, there is an intensification of life.”

Her pictures are superb. Some, bold and forthright in line and stroke, others sedated and still, in shadows. But all are spellbinding and of course, loaded with a depth that most paintings, however honest their intent, could never achieve.

See her pictures from Iraq here.

Who’d have thought that a golfer having a small motor accident would make such big news. Morten Morland of The Times is on the bandwagon with a great cartoon here that sums it all up.

Another day, another political portrait. Today it’s David Cameron’s turn, after yet another Thatcher painting last week. My first thought is, why? Why do politicians feel the need to be endlessly painted? I can just about see why the Queen is done so often –  the changing face of the country’s most iconic figure. But why does the former PM need another portrait? And why does Cameron need one at all? In any company boardroom, there may be a portrait on the wall, but usually it’s the founder or a former CEO. Not a 43 year old, who’s been in the job a couple of years. The vanity.

My second thought is on the actual portrayals. A caricaturist’s job is to spot the defining feature or characteristic of someone, and then exaggerate it to mock. A court  painter’s job is the opposite. To… Read More

I wrote a piece for the Telegraph today about Modern Art and students. Read it here if you want.