This Exhibition is a Work Event: Artist Catalogue

This Exhibition is a ARTIST

Wo r k E ve n t *

Annie Tempest was born in Zambia in 1959 and moved to the UK with her family in 1962, after which her father inherited the magnificent Broughton Hall which was was later to become the inspiration for Tottering-by-Gently. At the age of 24, while working as a medical secretary, she began to teach herself how to draw. This, coupled with a love of cryptic crosswords, combined to sow the seeds of a career as a cartoonist, initially working for the Daily Mail for seven and a half years with a strip called ‘The Yuppies’. In 1989 she was voted Strip Cartoonist of the Year by her peers in the Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain.

Annie created Tottering-by-Gently and joined Country Life magazine in 1993. Her subtle and humorous depictions of Dicky and Daffy Tottering and their family has expanded into a small empire both through syndication and licensing as well as a number of memorable exhibitions abroad in Mexico and New York but also at The O’Shea Gallery. In 2009 she won the prestigious Pont Prize for her portrayal of the British Character. Annie is still living and working in rural Norfolk in a beautifully converted barn surrounded by glorious gardens. Her studios are filled with Tottering delights.

I don’t usually go near politicians in my work, preferring to comment on social mores, the generational differences in perspectives and the human condition generally. During Covid, I indulged in drawing ‘Daffy’s Daily’ cartoons purely to post on Instagram to hopefully draw a smile from behind all the closed front doors - in the spirit of ‘war effort’. I did them when I woke in the morning from my bed and they were drawn at some speed, as you can see, as I only thought their life span would be one day

AL is an arts graduate who has been drawing since they can remember. They use both traditional and digital media to create illustrations.

I could not resist drawing the carefully choreographed buffoonery of a narcissist who lied to Queen and country. While people were suffering, Boris Johnson was having his cake and eating it at taxpayer-funded parties. Don’t expect him to give you any crumbs!” – AL

…play with and stretch the limits of the caricature. It’s easier to do once you have the foundation of your character. For example, with Boris’s characteristic of dishonesty – the Pinocchio nose was constantly there. I was then able to use the nose as a prop to explore visual gags, often in addition to the overall idea expressed in the cartoon. Kind of like with Trump, he always had the long red tie. It didn’t really make any particular political point, but you could use it as a prop to open up all of these opportunities to aid different ideas. It’s just important that these recurring features aren’t too rigid, so that you can let them flourish without interfering with any concept you wish to pursue.

BEN JENNINGS

Ben Jennings (b. 1990) is a UK based cartoonist and illustrator whose work regularly appears in The Guardian and The i Newspaper.

When you start drawing a new character, you’re trying to find which features to focus on. When I began drawing Boris it was quite detailed and it was easy to get lost over-working the hair. Over time my depiction of him became rendered down to a simple blonde mop covering his eyes (a reference to his lack of political vision) and a permanent, protruding Pinocchio nose, along with a big gob. He became more and more disheveled every time I drew him, especially as Partygate revelations emerged.

As a political cartoonist, caricature is an ongoing process of capturing a public figure that is never fully complete - you just learn a bit more each time. Rendering it into as simple a form as possible allows you to really…

After Partygate, I began drawing Boris constantly with party objectswhether it be a glass of wine in hand or surrounded by party detritus, stray bottles etc - as a recurring theme. Even if the cartoon itself wasn’t about Partygate, having the iconography consistently present symbolised the inappropriateness of it all and how the issue had begun to loom over his entire premiership.

I think the time limit we have as editorial cartoonists can be strenuous, working from conception to completion all within a day. If you are struggling to capture the person you’re drawing then it can really eat it into the time you need to create an artwork. So practically, it needs to get to a stage where the way you draw them is second nature and becomes a tool that you can use to make any point you like. Also, with caricature you are using their likeness but it is more about capturing them as a person and as a public figure. It is not just reproducing an exaggerated version of their physical attributes for the sake of it but a broader pursuit of capturing the character. A good caricature should end up looking more like the person than they do.” – Ben Jennings

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BRIDGET MEYER RAMSEY HASSAN

Bridget Meyne is a comic maker and illustrator based in London. Frequent themes and inspirations include real life magazines, the internet, books, dystopian futures and 5 minute crafts.

Ramsey Hassan (Ramzee) is a London based storyteller and cartoonist who immigrated with his family from Somalia as asylum seekers. He read way too many comics and fantasy novels as a child. Luckily, he turned that into a career. He started making comics in 2015 and was nominated for a British Comics Award in 2016. He has created many comics, including work for 2000AD and Marvel Comics. Ramsey is also a playwright, screenwriter and children’s author and he runs comic and illustration workshops.

Bridget and Ramsey collaborated on this comic as part of the book LDN, a collection of stories, each set in a different corner of London - North, South, East, West and the City of London in the centre - published by Good Comics in 2019.

Boris Johnson is a very easy man to satirise, which is, I think, what makes him so scary. There’s a lot of clownery and buffoonery which is easy to make fun of, but actually distracts us from very sinister views and policies in the end. When I wrote this comic in 2019 a lot of this was meant to be a sort of nightmarish projection - it doesn’t seem so funny now!” – Bridget Meyer and Ramsey Hassan

Boris presented himself as a character out of P.G.Wodehouse novel, a ruse that worked wonders for him at first. With the mop of unruly hair, the disheveled look and the bumbling demeanor of someone “who had always been...incapable of walking through the Great Gobi Desert without knocking something over”; he became instantly recognisable. Unlike many staid, colourless politicians following the party line, he offered the dangerous ploy of personality and charisma to entertain the masses. But eventually the overall image of a posh overgrown schoolboy rolling out of an exclusive club, kicking a champagne bottle down the road, saying.’Oh come on, officer – it’s only me!’ became too much of a good thing.” – Chris Duggan

CHRIS DUGGAN

Chris spent time at St Martins and Goldsmiths not studying cartooning and did a few jobs to pay the bills before starting work as an illustrator and cartoonist for various titles from Vogue to Marxism Today, including Time Out, The Spectator, New Statesman, The Independent, Daily Telegraph and The European as well as several legal and business publications. For a time he was the cinema artist for Punch magazine. Chris cartooned for some years at the Financial Times, and is now business cartoonist for The Times. His exhibitions have included A Face Odyssey (2001 portraits) at The Coningsby Gallery and Drawn to the Globe at The Globe Theatre.

All of Chris’s digital ‘cartoon collages’ are made in basic Photoshop Elements 9 using his own ‘techniques’ borne out of ignorance of how digital tools really work. He probably took a lot of ‘longcuts’ rather than shortcuts, to emulate actual cut and paste paper collage. While in no way making any comparison, he’s always admired the fantastically inventive, technically superb and unbelievably brave photomontage work of John Heartfield (Helmut Herzfeld, 1891-1968), who worked during a period that makes our own unusually crazy times seem like a holiday in Utopia. And he didn’t even have Photoshop Elements 9…

CHRISTIAN CRESEVEUR

Christian is a French artist who has been creating cartoons since 2010. He first had his cartoons published in Le Post (now the Huffington Post), before becoming a selected blogger for l’Obs.com (Le Nouvel Observateur online). He has also published on Mediapart and works for local newspapers in France.

DAVE BROWN

Dave Brown studied Fine Art at Leeds University 1976–1980. After graduation he worked as an art teacher before becoming a full-time artist, working as a painter, freelance graphic designer, stage designer - and motorcycle courier. In 1989 he won the Sunday Times Political Cartoon Competition and his first cartoon appeared in the Sunday Times on 11 June 1989. He has been a full-time cartoonist ever since.

In 1996 he became Political Cartoonist for the Independent, and has also been a contributor to Daily Express (sports cartoons), Guardian, Scotsman, New Statesman, Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday (sports cartoons), Prospect, Economist and Financial Times. Dave is also a sculptor, figurative painter and drummer.

Whilst politicians generally like to present us with a carefully spun and tailored image, the political cartoonist likes to unpick it. Like the child in the fairy tale we point and say “but he isn’t wearing any clothes”, though we often like to add “and he has a really tiny ****!” The point being that Adam Ant was wrong, when it comes to our political leaders, ridicule IS something to be scared of…

I have to say that people like Boris, like Trump, or like the Sarkozy we had in France, are somehow blessed people for cartoonists. The exaggerated way they do things, the way they lie or provoke, brings us so many entries that it’s always a piece of cake. Furthermore when you have a punk like Boris Johnson unable to dress himself correctly, having flying hairs, you don’t need anything more. When they leave, it’s a heartbreak for us. Even though you may be happy that they and their policies get out, their departure leaves us somehow in the blue.” – Christian Creseveur

…But how to ridicule Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, a man who has already carefully and purposefully cultivated the persona of a clown? When the man’s very haircut appears to be an act of self-satire, what is there for the caricaturist to exaggerate?

Of course the mistake here is to think that cartoonists exaggerate - we don’t. Portraitists flatter, the camera lies, AI produces ‘deep fake’ video; political cartooning is the only art form that tells the unvarnished truth. A Tory MP once complained about how I drew his then-leader, telling me William Hague was “almost six foot tall”, however cartoonists all recognised the truth, he would never be more than a man of little standing.

So how do I approach drawing ‘Boris’? As always I simply draw what I see. This is life drawing, nothing here is invented, nothing exaggerated, just the truth and nothing but the truth…have a look and tell me I’m wrong!” – Dave Brown

DAVID SHENTON

David Shenton (aged 73 and a half) has been cartooning since the mid-seventies, mostly in the pioneering gay press and HIV/AIDS journals, exploring LGBT+ life and issues. ‘Stanley and the Mask of Mystery’ (1983) was one of the first LGBT graphic novels. He has published 8 books - a new one due in 2023 - and appeared in several anthologies.

He was Steve Bell’s back page strip cartoon stand-in for many years in The Guardian. He now works his drawings in with textiles, and several of his craftivism pieces have found a home in Norwich Castle Museum.

My strips are usually about ordinary people coming to terms or coping with the forces and threats that are constantly thrust upon them/us… things we can do very little about. Over the years, I recognise similar things happen again and again. All we can do is sit on the rollercoaster and let it plummet us down; we were threatened with the millennium bug, steamrollered into Brexit, and now the mockery of the Johnson years segueing into Truss and economical collapse.

This cartoon has been wheeled out three times; the first time in the Guardian 1997, the other two on my Facebook page ‘These Foolish Things’, in 2016 and 2022. It is very telling that it is possible to do just that.. spotlighting perils chucked out at the general public through political greed and hard-heartedness happening time and time again. I fully expect to be able to use these very same strips again in - a year’s time? Five years time? Ten? - just by changing the title of the final plunge.”

– David Shenton

I’m not much of a caricaturist

ED NAYLOR

Ed had his first cartoon published by Private Eye in February 2020 on the eve of the Pandemic. Lockdown then allowed him to spend a lot more time drawing, albeit mostly spiky green blobs. His work tends to be topical but he sometimes dabbles in whimsy. The trouble with ‘timeless’ gags is he always thinks ‘surely someone, somewhere, has done this before?’. One (unnamed) cartoonist told Ed he’d once inadvertently submitted a cartoon to a magazine (also unnamed) that had already published it five years earlier. They published it again.

but Boris Johnson was pretty straightforward - a shambolic haystack of hair immediately identifies him. I suppose some cartoonists will miss drawing him but I won’t. I think buffoonery and phony self-deprecation are so integral to his political brand that you have to work quite hard to make clear you’re laughing at him and not with him.” – Ed Naylor

ELLA BARON

Ella’s dark and spiky cartoons have been published by The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Financial Times and the BBC. She was staff cartoonist of The Times Literary Supplement, 2017-2020. Ella has collaborated with Médecins Sans Frontières to raise awareness of women’s health issues, drawing in their field hospitals in Lebanon and South Sudan. Solo exhibitions of her work were held at Christie’s and The French Cultural Institute. Part of the first generation of ‘born-digital’ artists, Ella grew up with a stylus in hand. She is currently working on the remaining 312 pages of her debut graphic novel Interface. It will be published by Virago in 2025.

Just about the only thing I liked about Boris was drawing him. He was probably the first politician I ever caricatured. You could draw a stickman with a yellow scrawl on top and people would know it was Boris (then of course Trump came along and I had to slightly refine my yellow scrawl technique). The thinking for this cartoon was that, full of hot air as he is, Boris might do a better job as an inflatable Santa than as our PM.” – Ella Baron

FRED CAMPBELL

Fred Campbell is an Illustrator/animator from the Isle of Wight, currently based in leafy North London. Fred graduated with a B.A. in Illustration from Middlesex University in 2013. Since then he has worked in a variety of fields – from editorial illustration, comics, and picture books, to site specific animation works. His collaboration with the theatre group Gingerline was longlisted for the 2020 World Illustration Awards. Fred loves to use traditional penand-ink drawing methods with modern digital colouring techniques. He loves storytelling and brings a strong sense of narrative to all his work. Fred is also a founding member of The Drawn Chorus, a collective of artists and illustrators who have put on themed exhibitions and published comics and zines.

HANNAH BERRY

Hannah Berry is an award-winning graphic novelist, comics creator, writer, illustrator and campaigner. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was appointed UK Comics Laureate 2019-21. A regular guest of art, literature and comics festivals in the UK and around the world, her artwork has been exhibited in solo and collective exhibitions worldwide.

She began her first graphic novel BRITTEN & BRÜLIGHTLY while studying illustration at the University of Brighton, and it was subsequently published by Jonathan Cape in 2008. It has since been published in the USA, Italy, Holland, France and Serbia, with the French edition chosen for the official selection of the 2010 Angoulême International Comics Festival. Her second graphic novel ADAMTINE was published in 2012 and her third, LIVESTOCK, in 2017, both by Jonathan Cape and both to a pleasing amount of critical acclaim. LIVESTOCK was nominated in the Best Graphic Novel and Best Writer categories at the 2017 Broken Frontier Awards, winning the Best Writer Award.

In her role as Laureate she instigated and carried out the first national survey on UK comics creators to gain a better understanding of the fledgeling industry and find ways to help those working within it. This led to the founding of the Society of Authors’ Comics Creators Network – of which she is on the steering committee – which aims to advocate for creators and offer professional support. Alongside this she is also a trustee of The Cartoon Museum, because the late, great, Alison Brown once suggested it.

Berry is half Ecuadorian and lives in Brighton with her partner, daughter, cat and tortoise. She is extremely partial to cashews; the Ferrari of the nut world.

Johnson is a tough person to draw. Not his likeness: that’s actually pretty easy to replicate; what’s hard is to look at reference photos of the man himself without combusting from rage.”

– Hannah Berry

HANNAH HILL

Hannah Hill, a London based illustrative artist specialising in hand embroidery and textiles. My work tells human stories, full of bold colourful motifs representing history, sex, politics and emotions. I’m inspired and motivated by humans’ 40,000-year connection with the needle and thread. My point of view stems from being half coloniser, half colonised, living in London, one of the most diverse cities in the world, while in the centre of what was the most successful European empire.

HANNAH

ROBINSON

Hannah Robinson is an illustrator and cartoonist based in London, United Kingdom. Her work never shies away from the rude and silly, using humorous characters to grapple with the ever-changing contemporary world. Aged twenty three, Hannah’s position as a cartoonist is firmly shaped by her generationone too young to vote in the Brexit referendum and apprehensive of the socio-economic future ahead. Her work has appeared numerous times in The New Yorker and The Guardian among other publications.

My illustration inspired by Boris and the rest of this Tory party is fuelled by anger, outrage, and frustration. When I voted for Corbyn’s socialist manifesto in 2019, which aimed to create a fairer society for all, I knew the evil of the Tory party would know no bounds. The pandemic showed truly how greedy, evil, selfish and fascist this government have been, creating hostile racist environments which deports refugees, allowing over 170,000 people to die of covid in a supposedly rich and developed nation with a national health service, dishing out dodgy contracts to other greedy rich friends while the general public struggle to feed their families and heat their homes. My anger and hatred for the Tory party, for the media and for the centre/right of the Labour party is endless and that has fuelled some of my artwork in recent years.” – Hannah Hill

Personal experience during the Boris years was complex, but it was student life that I tended to explore through drawing. As Boris’ cabinet mismanaged the pandemic, my student community struggled through a lockdown of deadlines and exams that still counted towards our futures. No more were the days of stimulating tutorial discussions, parties and day trips. Nor could we get a drink to let off steam after weeks of exams. As I finished my last exam in my bedroom, I remember closing the laptop with the words ‘….I guess that’s it then?’ I was lucky enough to have wonderful flatmates though who, through games, experimental recipes and movie nights, helped me get through this isolating period.” – Hannah Robinson

JAMES MELLOR HENNY BEAUMONT

Henny Beaumont is an award winning political cartoonist and graphic novelist. She is the creator of the Disappearing Women project, painting the victims of male violence, featured in The Guardian, Channel 4, BBC, Sky and more.

Her publications are Hole in the Heart, a Graphic Memoir, and Equal to Everything: Judge Brenda and the Supreme Court and she has contributed to the Maternal Journal, The Inking Woman and the Book of Homelessness. Henny received an Arts Council England award for her second graphic novel and was long listed for the Women Poets’ Prize.

Her political cartoons and illustrations have appeared in The Guardian, BBC, Society of Authors, Counsel Magazine, Canary, The Morning Star, as well as many other publications.

She was artist in residence for the Hay festival and Stoke Newington literary festival 2019 and is currently artist in residence for BILD.

James Mellor is a freelance cartoonist based in the UK. He is a regular contributor to Private Eye and has been published in The Sunday Telegraph, The Critic Magazine and numerous other publications. James’s cartoons have been used in charity campaigns for Amnesty International, DKMS, and Harlequins Rugby. James also received the runners-up award for Pocket Cartoon of the Year 2021 at the UK’s Political Cartoon awards. James has authored four cartoon books. He is the Treasurer-Elect to the British Cartoonists’ Association and is the Honorary Historian to The Company of Entrepreneurs in the City of London.

When drawing Boris, I’m always very aware that he voluntarily presents himself as a cartoonish figure. Sometimes it’s necessary to go along with the enthusiastic, clownish image for a gag but you worry whether you’re playing into his own PR. I prefer to draw him in ways that puncture that image rather than reinforce it – showing him dejected, deflated or, in this case, drawing the culture he built rather than the man himself.” – James Mellor

I enjoyed hating Boris. When I drew him, it was always tempting to exaggerate his buffoonish appearance, but caricaturing Boris was too easy. He wanted to be a cartoon. He’d decided a long time ago to use his buffoonery, deliberately messing his mop of hair, wearing his clothes crumpled to cast himself as a cartoon figure. He employed his ‘look’ as an ‘endearing technique’ to appeal to the public. To draw him as a clown was playing into his own hands. More difficult was to resist the impulse to caricature his calculated idiocy and instead capture the mean glint in his eyes that he fought to suppress and disguise.”

– Henny Beaumont

JEREMY BANX

Jeremy Banx is an award-winning cartoonist. He has contributed to newspapers, magazines and comics including Private Eye, The Spectator, New Statesman, Wall St Journal, American Bystander, Barron’s, Punch, Vice, Oink!, Toxic, Cracked, She, Mail on Sunday, and the Financial Times. His books include Cubes, The Many Deaths of Norman Spittal, Big Fat Sleepy Cat, The Dewsburys and Frankenthing (translated into French as Frankentruc). More than 150 animated short films have been based on his character Norman Spittal.

He lives and works in Greenwich, London, with his wife Elaine and he has four children. The Derby-winning Thoroughbred racehorse Dr Devious was named after one of his characters.

JO SARGINSON

My name is Jo Sarginson and I am a writer, cartoonist and stand-up comedian based in Liverpool. I first started drawing illustrations as part of my humour blog (www.joannesarginson. com) and then transitioned into drawing cartoons on Instagram (@joannesarginson). I also perform comedy and was selected for the BBC New Comedy Award in 2021. I also took part in Leicester Comedy Festival’s Circuit Breakers programme in 2022.

Boris Johnson was always going to be a challenge. Hard to ridicule the already ridiculous. Tough to exaggerate the already exaggerated. Near impossible to out-gross his particular grossness.

And yet the responsibility - the very urgent responsibility - was always there to highlight the terrible danger of his lies, his mendacity and his fraud. At least he was easy to draw. But only because he branded himself that way.”

– Jeremy Banx

Drawing cartoons has always been a good way for me to process what is going on in the wider world and this was particularly relevant during the coronavirus pandemic. Being able to turn what was a very confusing, surreal time into a concrete piece of satire was quite a therapeutic process for me and a way to keep things light in a chaotic period.” – Jo Sarginson

JOSEPH

SAMUELS

“When attempting satire it’s always helpful to have an interesting subject who catches the public imagination and Boris Johnson has been the well that never runs dry. The artwork shown is an unpublished piece I illustrated for Bobby Joseph’s 2017 graphic novel ‘Scotland Yardie’. The image still retained its social relevance making it easy to add new dialogue relating to Boris Johnson’s time as Prime Minister. The wine box came about through the ‘Partygate’ scandal, and I think the artwork speaks for itself.”

– Joseph Samuels

Dr Louisa Buck is an artist and academic who is interested in the adaptation of classical mythology in contemporary times. For her PhD she looked at the use of Greek mythology in the British Political cartoon. You can see more of her artwork at www.LouisaBuck.com

These artworks were made during the pandemic lockdown in 2020 in collaboration with Paul William Cooper, who wrote the words. It is a modernised Aesop’s fable in response to the #DrawBorisJohnson challenge on Twitter by Martin Rowson. The tale follows the news events unfolding in the UK during the first lockdown beginning in March 2020. The simplicity of the text plays to the subversive and ironic nature of the Aesopic tradition, which was originally intended for an adult audience. Their purpose was to provide political criticism in an era of repression - a fitting parallel that serves to highlight the disinformation and self- serving politics of the Boris Johnson government.”

– Louisa Buck

Marcus Orlandi is a contemporary artist based in London. He creates work in response to past and present day political and societal stories and movements that are referenced in performance, textiles, drawings and sculpture. He steals from both high and low-brow cultures that range from 1960’s conceptual performance art to professional wrestling and British sitcoms. His banners are influenced by the hyperbole of tabloid headlines and Jenny Holzer’s Truism series. He has been commissioned by Camden Arts Centre, Bodleian Libraries, Ty Pawb, and Estuary Festival and was a previous recipient of the Kingsgate Emerging Artist Award.

This banner mixes professional wrestling and contemporary politics and specifically references the result of the 2019 general election where the Tories, under Boris Johnson, won an overwhelming majority. In wrestling language, “The Heels” are the bad guys, and “going over” is to win a match, i.e. The Tories Win Again. The phrase was inspired by a series of tweets made by Dominic Cummings where he uses the word “Kayfabe” which is a very specific wrestling term dating back to the carnival days, meaning to keep the illusion of reality even in a predetermined (fake) sport. Cummings used it in reference to Johnson and his government spinning a web of lies paraded to the general public as though they were truths. The design is square like that of a wrestling ring and made up of red, white and blue for the obvious jingoism Johnson represents. The four red arrows are a slight reference to the Labour Party / socialism closing in, while harking back to the Dads Army intro from yesteryear. Between the years of the Brexit vote in 2016 and the December election of 2019 I would sit with the radio on and create drawings in response to the idiocy of it all. On that miserable night of the Tory landslide I turned off the radio and never went back. Boris had won, the country had lost, satire was dead and it couldn’t possibly get any worse…”

Marcus Orlandi

MARK WINTERS

‘Chicane’ is the pen name of Mark Winter, who has been scribbling cartoons - both static and animated - for over four decades. His work has been published, exhibited and screened globally, winning numerous international awards. He has twice been the recipient of the Sir Gordon Minhinnick Memorial Trophy for Cartoonist of the Year in his native New Zealand’s annual Media Awards. Mark lives and cartoons in London, where his ‘Chicanery’ appears in a variety of publications.

MARTINROWSON

Martin Rowson is a multi-award winning cartoonist, illustrator, writer, graphic novelist, broadcaster, ranter and poet.

The original hand-drawn work of this piece started life as Boris imitating Nixon, based on the US President’s resignation photo. Little did I know how prophetic it would be when I published it back in 2019. Both Nixon and Boris abused power and were forced to resign before they were removed, respectively, due to Watergate and Partygate (the latter coined after the former).

Also, because of Boris’ obsession with Churchill, his main motivation for becoming PM at any cost, I adapted and combined the Nixon/not a crook with his image channeling Churchill from an iconography point of view, incorporating his famous cigar and hat and his frequent use of the V for victory hand sign which infamously reversed in some pictures. Here the V is reversed resembling a more inappropriate gesture, reflecting Boris’s self-centred,’don’t care’ attitude, and contempt. While he may have wanted to emulate his hero Churchill, Boris was, in fact, the complete opposite, becoming the worst Prime Minister in UK history.”

– Mark Winters

Since becoming a full-time professional cartoonist six months after he graduated in 1982, Martin’s work has appeared regularly across the gamut of UK newspapers and magazines, from The Guardian, via Time Out, Morning Star and The Erotic Review, to The Times and Spectator, as well as The Independent on Sunday, Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Index on Censorship, Tribune, The Racing Post, New Humanist, The Modern Review, The Sunday Correspondent, The Irish Times, The European, The New European, Today, Sunday Today, The New Statesman, The Observer and, indeed, almost everywhere you can think of apart from The Sun and Private Eye.

He has also authored, illustrated or contributed in one way or another to 60 books, most notably Scenes From The Lives of the Great Socialists (1983), Lower Than Vermin: An Anatomy of Thatcher’s Britain (1986), The Nodland Express (with Anna Clarke, 1994), Fuck: The Human Odyssey (2007), The Dog Allusion: Gods, Pets and How to be Human (2008), four volumes of The Limerickiad (20112016) and Pastrami Faced Racist & Other Verse (2018). His memoir Stuff was longlisted for the 2006 Samuel Johnson prize, and over the past 30 years he’s produced a series of comic book adaptations, including T.S.Eliot’s The Waste Land (1990), The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1996), Gulliver’s Travels (2011) and The Communist Manifesto (2018). He’s also illustrated books by Will Self, journalist John Sweeney, former MP Bob Marshall-Andrews and Andrew Gimson, deputy editor of the Conservative Home website.

In 2001 Rowson was appointed Cartoonist Laureate for London by Mayor Ken Livingstone, in return for one pint of London Pride bitter per annum (still 6 years in arrears). He’s also a former chairman of the British Cartoonists’ Association, has served three times as a vicepresident of the Zoological Society…

I started drawing Boris 20 years ago. When drawing someone, you begin by identifying their three defining characteristics. But with Boris his three defining characteristics are his hair. I knew that the hair was in fact just a distraction, as he does that himself. The hair is his auto-icon, his way of distracting everyone by saying “look at my hair; I’m funny”. So, I quickly realised I had to ignore the hair and instead concentrate on the eyes. Because his eyes, despite this being the oldest cliche in the book, truly are the windows to his soul and all the dark horrors contained therein. They’re also far too close together, and without the benefit of observable eyebrows. Indeed, combined with his nose and lips he looks a bit like the young Peter Ustinov, weirdly enough.

In common with all of the pathological liars that I’ve met, Boris always looks sideways when he is lying because he is thinking: can I get away with this? That is how he gets his kicks; he lies and then he waits to see if he gets away with it. That is what Boris Johnson does.”

– Martin Rowson

…of London, is a former trustee of the British Humanist Association and the People’s Trust for Endangered Species and holds an honorary fellowship from Goldsmith’s College and an honorary doctorate from the University of Westminster. In the late 1990s he was resident Cult Books Expert on Mark Radcliffe’s late night Radio 1 show, and his many broadcasts include presenting (and illustrating) a 2005 BBC4 documentary about Ronald Searle and presenting “Life Drawing”, a series of 15 minute “sittings” with interviewees ranging from Ralph Steadman to George Osborne, on Radio 4 in 2017. He also gives frequent talks and recitations - the poet Linton Kwesi Johnson describing one such gig Rowson did at The Laugharne Weekend Literary Festival as “the dog’s bollocks”.

In a full-page editorial in 2017, in response to one of his Guardian cartoons, The Daily Mail denounced him and his work as “disgusting, deranged... sick and offensive.” Martin is a Trustee of The Cartoon Museum.

MATT PRITCHETT

Matt has been the page one cartoonist for the Telegraph since 1988. He is the son of journalist Oliver Pritchett, grandson of novelist Sir Victor (V. S.) Pritchett and father of cartoonist Edith Pritchett. He studied graphics at St Martin’s School of Art and, unable to get work as a film cameraman, was for a time a waiter in a pizza restaurant, drawing cartoons in his spare time. He had his first drawings published in New Statesman. His work has also appeared in Punch and Spectator. His awards have included Granada TV’s What the Papers Say Cartoonist of the Year (1992), UK Press Gazette’s Cartoonist of the Year (1996, 1998) and Cartoon Art Trust Pocket Cartoonist of the Year (1995, 1996).

An awful lot seemed to happen when Boris was PM. Cartoonists were never short of material. Not everything was Boris’s fault; covid and working- from-home affected the whole world. But Partygate was a self-inflicted wound that provided lots of material.”

– Matt Pritchett

Working closely with Paul Atherton was a pleasure. The brief was very challenging, as the story covered many serious issues that face those homeless. The story stretched to two double page spreads over two issues of the magazine.” – Mike Stokoe

MIKE STOKOE

First published in Punch magazine in 1997, Mike’s cartoons now appear in Private Eye, The Spectator and commercial advertising for Anglo American Oil Company. He has a cartoon hanging in the National Football Museum, and was the set cartoonist for the animated feature film Strike.

MONIQUE JACKSON

The art Monique has made since 2020 is mostly influenced from her experiences of the pandemic as someone living in London with Long Covid. Monique continues to create artwork which raises visibility of the condition and is trustee for charity Long Covid Support.

The pandemic highlighted existing inequalities in the UK such as health inequity, deprivation, low income and poor housing. These factors, intersected with issues such as race, socio-economic background, location and gender, have had a direct impact on individuals’ chances of contracting COVID-19 and thereby increasing their risk of illness and/or death.”

– Monique Jackson

MORTEN MØRLAND

Born in 1979 in Arendal, Norway, Morten moved to the UK in 2000 to study graphic design. He started drawing political cartoons for The Times in 2002 and has been with them ever since. He has been a regular contributor to the Spectator magazine since 2009 and for the last 7 years or so he’s drawn weekly covers for them, as well as for their monthly international edition Spectator World since its launch in 2019.

In 2017, Morten also became the political cartoonist for The Sunday Times. In addition to print cartoons he also produces regular animated cartoons for The Times online. He also contributes weekly cartoons for the Norwegian newspaper VG, as well as illustrations for other national and international publications.

Boris was, in many ways, the perfect Prime Minister for cartoonists, I think. Full of character both in his personality and the way he looks. The fact that his hair alone made him recognisable meant that he could be turned into whatever you wanted, and the reader would still immediately recognise who it was. His bungling politics and bumbling, chaotic personality meant there was always a Boris story to pick up on.

The downsides of all this, similarly to with Trump, was that at times it was hard to make things more ludicrous than it was in real life. If mockery and caricature is about making things more ridiculous in order to make a serious point, it’s harder when reality is sillier than you could have imagined… …In my cartoons of him he grew steadily fatter, despite his own periodic attempts at dieting. He ended up practically a circle in some of the last depictions. Partly because of his actual bulk, but more so because his persona more and more resembled a boulder crashing through British politics. So it suited him.

The, at times, massive mouth and small, practically-shut eyes were also more a caricature of his personality than an attempt to draw likeness. The hair alone provided likeness. The rest illustrated his personality.” – Morten Mørland

NEVILLE ASTLEY

Neville Astley is an Animator and Filmmaker. He is the co-creator (with Mark Baker) of Peppa Pig, Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom and The Big Knights. Neville studied a BA (hons) in Graphics at Middlesex Polytechnic 1981–1985. He created the short animated films The Jump (1981, co-director Jeff Newitt), Living in a Mobile Home (1985) and Trainspotter (1989, co-director Jeff Newitt) and was a freelance TV commercial animator for various Soho animation studios 1983–1994.

In 1994, Neville formed the animation studio Astley Baker with Mark Baker, and they created the BBC2 TV series The Big Knights. In 2002 they formed Astley Baker Davies with Phil Davies, and together created the TV series Peppa Pig and Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom. In 2021, Neville produced his cartoon lockdown diary “Now is not the time for Sossidges”. In 2022, Neville created the photographic exhibition and book “PUNK-YORK-77”.

NICOLA JENNINGS

Nicola Jennings originally trained as a theatre designer and started her career designing for opera. She began caricaturing for the London Daily News in 1987, went on to work for the Daily Mirror and the Observer, and then has been cartooning for The Guardian since 1991. She has also produced animated cartoons for Channel 4’s A Week in Politics and drawn live on BBC2’s Midnight Hour. She became Chair of the British Cartoonists’ Association in August 2022.

Boris was revolting to draw; fat, deceitful and narcissistic. I am permanently psychologically damaged from having to spend so many hours looking at him.

I’ve been sporadically scribbling cartoons of daily life over the last 30 years, mainly in-jokes and events that would mean little to anyone who wasn’t there. Then came LOCKDOWN and we were all trapped in the same bubble, trying to make sense of the shifting guidelines and the daily nonsense spouted by Boris, Hat Mancock and their chums…At the time I had no intention of exhibiting the cartoons or making them into a book, it was just a way to keep sane and reach out to anyone beyond our front door.”

– Neville Astley

When I caricature someone I try to imagine what it is like to be in their head, I impersonate them in order to work out how they use their face and what expressions to capture and then I exaggerate them in order to ridicule them. Boris’ hair was his logo (and self caricature) which couldn’t be ignored.”

– Nicola Jennings

NICK NEWMAN

Nick Newman has been a pocket cartoonist at the Sunday Times since 1989, contributes regularly to The Spectator and is one of Private Eye’s chief writers. He also writes for radio, TV and the stage - his latest play SPIKE is on tour until the end of November.

For all topical cartoonists, Boris Johnson was the gift that kept on giving. Easy to draw, mired in scandal and hopelessly incompetent - for which, thanks as a satirist, not so much as a citizen.” – Nick Newman

OLIVER PRESTON

Oliver has been a British cartoonist for over 25 years and is chair and co-founder of The Cartoon Museum.

Oliver grew up in London and the Cotswolds and from an early age developed a love of cartoons and caricature through the books of H M Bateman, Thelwell, Tintin and Charles Addams. As a child and at school Oliver drew extensively. He is completely self-taught. After Eton College, where he won the Gunther Graphics Prize for Art, Oliver attended Exeter University, and then spent ten years working in the City of London. However he saw the light in 1995 and left the City to become a full-time cartoonist and illustrator. His early cartoons were published in Punch Magazine, Paris Match, The Beano, The Dandy and The Spectator, and from 1995 to 2020, Oliver was the regular cartoonist for The Field Magazine. From autumn 2019-2021 Preston has been drawing weekly cartoons for Country Life Magazine.

His cartoons have also appeared in Cotswold Life and The Polo Magazine amongst others, and he has contributed to The Times, The Guardian, The Daily Mail and The Independent newspapers.

With a keen eye for social observation, his cartoons are beautifully drawn with a very individual style. The situations are very close to people’s everyday lives, and there is often a splattering of languid lovelies, dilettantes

In 2010 Boris was the Joker in my pack of cards, in 2015, the Knave of Spades, and in 2017 I drew him as the King of Spades. It’s always tricky shoe-horning politicians into a pack of cards! He was at the centre of Brexit so a Union Jack tie seemed appropriate. As a social cartoonist I am not as angry as other cartoonists which probably comes out in my drawings.”

– Oliver Preston

and doting dogs. Oliver has developed a wide following, especially for his shooting and skiing cartoons, and drawings that depict the quirkiness of British town and country life.

He has held one man shows at The Fine Art Society in Bond Street (1999), The Addison Ross Gallery, London (1990), The Mall Galleries, London, (2014 and 2016) and regularly at the Gstaad Palace in Switzerland.

He has also produced twenty books of his cartoons, (as collections and illustrations) which can also be purchased as limited edition prints, and as humorous birthday cards.

Oliver is based in Gloucestershire and over the past twenty five years, he has developed a loyal customer base, working for a diversity of clients, on caricature commissions, christmas cards, cartoon invitations, and much more.

Today, Oliver Preston’s greeting cards are published by Beverston Press which ships to trade and retail customers around the globe.

PEAKY SAKU

Having been raised in a council flat to parents of Algerian and Japanese descent in North Kensington, Peaky Saku has always faced dichotomies in his perspective. He found his passion for music during his mid-teens, and after winning a full scholarship to Charterhouse school, he learnt to make rap music for those that don’t like it. As soon as he left school, Peaky self-funded an independent tour in California, where he performed alongside Bone Thugz n Harmony and Devin the Dude. After returning to the UK with a fresh perspective, his neighbouring block Grenfell was set alight due to horrific government neglect. After candidly condemning gentrification in a BBC interview that went viral, he began to find his voice in public speaking, art and design. This led to speaking opportunities at Oxford and SOAS Universities, as well as performances at Jeremy Corbyn’s 2017 parliament square rally and an exhibition at Kensington & Chelsea college centred around colonialism, candidly titled “R.Ape”.

Now, after a brief hiatus, Peaky Saku prepares for the release of his forthcoming EP, Her Majesty’s University of Crime.

I have, as with many of us, gotten tired of seeing Boris masquerade for so long as a man who cares, rather than simply doing his job. I sampled an image of Boris at the Euros, doing what he does best (acting), and employed the use of Virgil Abloh’s 3% rule in altering it to depict the message I wanted to convey. He wants, so badly, to be seen as a man of the people, but cares very little about actually being this man; a sentiment demonstrated by the ‘Suppress’ box logo on his chest. The discussion he is having with his missus reflects the underlying intent that I perceive him to have. Sharing the opinions I have about the circus that is UK politics can often lead me to a state of passionate anger, which many people aren’t ready to accept or respond to in conversation. Therefore, through my music, clothing and art, I serve these to the public in a more palatable medium.”

Peaky Saku

PAUL ATHERTON

Paul Atherton (FRSA) is a noted filmmaker, as well as an artist, playwright, author, journalist & broadcaster; which all underpin his social campaigning. His 13 years of ongoing homelessness in Central London, has meant he always focuses on things that matter, currently, housing & welfare.

He’s a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and his work has been collected into the British Film Institutes’ (BFI) Archive, Museum of London & performed at the Odeon Leicester Square, on the Coca-Cola Billboard, Piccadilly Circus and in Camden People’s Theatre.

Selected as an emerging writer 2021/22 by The London Library, he’s currently writing his memoir.” Few words about the experience of writing about Boris. “The problem with writing about government policy is it is incredibly dull and nobody reads it anyway. So I was over the moon to be introduced to Private Eye/Spectator Cartoonist Mike Stokoe, after developing an idea for The Pavement Magazine, The Best Of Times... The Worst of Times. It was originally envisioned as a compare and contrast list, but I quickly realised it was perfect for a comic strip which as a medium, could very easily and entertainingly be read and perfectly highlighted the differences between what Boris Johnson’s Government believed should be happening when they introduced the idea of getting everyone experiencing homelessness inside for the duration of lockdown, nicknamed Everyone In” against the reality that I was living and seeing others go through firsthand. Mike made the experience incredibly painless, especially as I’d never done anything like this before. Whilst I wrote the text, he had to bring me to life in the drawings and even harder, make some very dark things, very funny, which I believe he pulled off with great aplomb. The hat being in every picture was his idea, but is utterly true, I rarely take it off. The strip was a great way to highlight the true chasm between Governments beliefs and what happens on the ground and encapsulates Boris Johnson’s premiership perfectly. He lives in a dream world where he says something and everything works out, which of course in real life, it doesn’t. It’s why I’m so proud of this work and so pleased Mike was able to collaborate.

In September 2020, I visited The Cartoon Museum and was inspired by the collections to use cartoon art for my next work, a collaboration with Private Eye and Spectator cartoonist Mike Stokoe called The Best of Times…The Worst of Times, serialised in Pavement magazine. Our co-created piece takes a look at the failure of Boris Johnson’s so- called ‘Everyone In’ initiative that aimed to house those homeless in hotels during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the perspective of someone caught up in it at ground level.” – Paul Atherton

many ways that was self-defeating; eyes are very expressive. There were many moments where I wished I could have drawn his eyes, but I had to keep him more or less the same. It can be a difficulty when picking a theme for a politician – it can become limiting and you feel trapped by it.

PETER BROOKES

Boris Johnson was the gift that kept on giving. It was non-stop. He was his own satire, much like Trump. He could do much better than you could ever do against him himself; it was tricky really. In the end there was a familiarity, an ease with which you were always kicking him. And, of course, political cartoonists don’t do otherwise; you don’t praise anybody. When, for example, the Queen died – that’s a different thing. But with politicians you do anything but go soft on them. You’re always giving them a kicking.

I started drawing Boris when he became Mayor of London. He’s always been very much in the public eye. Even before he was Mayor of London, he was doing Have I Got News for You, and I was drawing him as an MP. I remember doing covers for the Spectator with Nick Garland, alternating week by week, and drawing Boris with his hair over his eyes. Referencing his lack of vision and all that, I thought, yes, I’ll stick with that. So, I’ve always done him that way, with his hair covering his eyes. But in

But Johnson was always good to draw, he was always such a mess with his shirt hanging out and his mismatched socks. There was this wonderful moment, I think it was early in his premiership and people were after him, when a photographer captured the inside of his car. It was an absolute tip in there, coffee mugs, women’s underwear, newspapers everywhere. It was worse than my son’s room when he was at university. I remember doing a cartoon showing his car and a silhouette of Boris where you could see the inside of his head as a total mess - if his car is like that, what’s the inside of his head like? He’s a gift for cartoonists. There are wonderful photos of him when he was around 30, his hair sleek and beautifully combed. Not at all like now, when you can sense him messing his hair before he appears in public. And yet does it do him any good? The big plus he got out of it was that ordinary people think he’s just like us; he’s not this smooth, sleek public-school boy. But he always sounded so fruity-voiced and cynical, he could never truly hide who he is. It is plainly there for all to see. Boris was so consistent in the crap he was turning out, with the awful premiership he had. In the end it became tiresome, in a way. But he will be missed, if only for the fact that he could still make you laugh even if you hated his guts. Liz Truss is worse than Johnson and she doesn’t even make you laugh.” – Peter Brookes

PETER MOREY

Peter Morey is a cartoonist and graphic scribe. His work as a graphic scribe is usually made live in response to talks, presentations, discussions, and as part of the facilitation of conferences and workshops. He is the creator of the comic Endswell, described by Pipedream Comics as having “the melodrama of the Archers as if projected through the lens of a British small press comic”.

PETER SCHRANK

Swiss-born Peter Schrank is an internationally award winning political cartoonist. He spent twenty years as a freelance cartoonist and illustrator in London. He now lives in Norwich, Norfolk. Schrank was Political Cartoonist for The Independent on Sunday, and more occasionally the Independent, 1995 to 2016, for Business Post in Ireland from 1990 to 2021 and Basler Zeitung in Switzerland 1993 to 2019. He continues to work regularly for The Economist, also the Times and Sunday Times, and most recently for Encompass, the Brussels-based online publisher. A book of his cartoons (An Independent Line, with Dave Brown and Tim Sanders), was published by the Political Cartoon Society in 2008. Currently his work is featured in The Best of Britain’s Political Cartoons of 2021, published by Hutchinson/ Penguin. His cartoon on Afghanistan was voted best cartoon at The Political Cartoon of the Year Awards in 2021. When not drawing he enjoys playing the guitar and messing around on boats.

Boris is a showman politician. Showmen often have a gimmick: Churchill had his cigar and boiler suit, Harold Wilson had a pipe. Boris has his messy hair and disheveled appearance. These things help the cartoonist.

I learned two things from drawing Boris: first, the importance of simplifying the caricature. The more it can be reduced to basic essentials the better. Boris is already a cartoonish figure, this makes it all the easier.

Second, paying attention to the whole body. Getting the body shape, body language and posture right is as important as getting the face. Boris’s distinctive posture and body shape are very easy to pick up on.

He’s a pleasure to draw. He represents the contradiction at the heart of our profession: bad news is good news for us cartoonists.” – Peter Schrank

This drawing was made as a form of catharsis in September 2021, as part of a Twitter event run by Gosh Comics/Broken Frontier called Drink & Draw (#GoshBFdd). Participants draw for 30 minutes per round in response to a prompt - this one was ‘Discombobulated’. So, I drew an evil floating Boris Johnson head. He had given a ridiculous climate address to the UN General Assembly the day before, which was in the news all day. I added part of this speech to the drawing and embellished it a bit. I wanted to convey how he always (dangerously) seems to make any topic revolve around himself.”

– Peter Morey

PIA BRAMLEY

Pia Bramley (she/her) is an artist and illustrator interested in documenting the ordinary and extraordinary. She works from memory, making small line drawings that hope to capture and transmit some of the wonder, mystery, and confusion of daily life. After a decade in London she now lives and works in The New Forest. Her first book Pandemic Baby was published in 2021.

In 2019 I was living in London, had a peaceful studio in which I could work for unbroken hours, plenty of friends to meet at the pub, and connections with some incredible arts organisations who paid me to do fun and fulfilling work. It is now 2022. I have left the city that was my home, and all those good friends and pubs. I now live with a toddler in The New Forest and do most of my drawing at the kitchen table when he sleeps. I have a lot less time for work and, like almost everyone, a lot less money to spend. To cut a long and tangled story short - the Boris Years have been some of the most complicated in my life, but I’m glad to have spent at least some of that time making drawingsI’ve always drawn from ordinary experiences of daily life. In the first months of motherhood and the emergence of Covid, caring for a baby was my only experience, and mydrawings reflected that. During the lockdowns I often found it hard to get started and I had to sort of pretend that I wasn’t really drawing and look out the window or think about something else - anything just to get the pen moving. But once I got going it was a source of comfort and a way of grabbing a hold of something solid when everything was so unsettled. Drawings let you shape your story, you can edit things outcommemorate or invent triumphs, and drag humour from failure. To draw a silly little picture about a moment of…

…despair is a very useful way of coming to terms with it. I now have boxes and boxes of baby drawings from this time, and the best of those I shared online. In 2021 these were noticed by a publisher at Icon books who asked if I’d be interested in developing a short narrative about becoming a parent in a pandemic, which took shape in a matter of weeks and emerged as my first book at the end of that strange year. The book is a mixture of my own very personal record of those days, and drawings inspired by conversations with other parents who experienced the most dramatic change in their lives at the strangest possible time. So whilst I never think of my drawings as being ‘for’ anyone but myself it’s been interesting to receive messages from plenty of parents for whom the events in the book resonate. Small bridges after a few years when everything felt so disconnected, and for that I’ll always feel thankful.” – Pia Bramley

REBECCA

HENDIN

Rebecca Hendin an award-winning BritishAmerican freelance illustrator, cartoonist, and animator, working across a broad range of clients and subjects. Her political cartoons are currently seen regularly in the Guardian. She previously did a weekly political cartoon for New Statesman, and worked in-house as an artist at BuzzFeed and the BBC, where she continues to regularly freelance. Her work tends to be realistic in its root, with a surreal twist. She’s based in London, where she lives with her four year old son Cosmonaut, who is a cat.

Boris has been… fine to draw? Obviously he’s got a cartoony look-stroke-entire general aura. But stylistically, as I’m more of an illustrator than caricaturist, that doesn’t really matter. But from a satirical perspective, he was gold. His policies and ideas were rotten, exacerbated by the reliable ridiculousness of his spoken delivery. In that sense, the jokes wrote themselves. There’s nothing more helpful as a satirist than a mad politician with mad ideas and mad delivery.”

– Rebecca Hendin

RIA GRIX

I made this piece at the end of the Brexit transition period. I think I was portraying Boris as an unfit parent, dragging the population away from the playground.” – Ria Grix

Ria is an Illustrator and Comic Book Artist who has created work for Titan Books, The Evening Standard, The New Scientist, Star Trek Magazine and Aceville Publications along with many independent publishers and selfpublishing clients.

ROS ASQUITH

Ros Asquith is the author/illustrator of over 80 books for young people, published in 21 languages. She’s painted murals in seven countries, juggled in a circus, cuddled a wolf and was theatre critic for Time Out, City Limits and the Observer. She drew cartoons for the Guardian for 25 years, also for Private Eye, the Oldie, New Statesman, SHE magazine and many others. She’s published four solo collections of cartoons, was Muir Trust Artistin-Residence (2009) and the first ever hospital Cartoonist-in-Residence at UCLH, (University College Hospital, London) from 2016-2018.

DORIS appeared in Weekend Guardian for ten years. Doris cleaned for the chattering classes but never spoke herself. To me, she represented a figure in all of our lives: that of the barely visible worker, mother, grandmother, aunt, undervalued by the society whose wheels she is oiling.

Doris endured many insults, but perhaps her highest praise came from a rehabilitated prisoner who told me: ‘I love Doris. My mother was a cleaner. I used to sit in the corner while she tidied little Tarquin and Amanda’s nursery. I couldn’t wait to grow up and rob the lot of them.” – Ros Asquith

The hardest thing about drawing cartoons during the Boris Johnson years was, quite simply, keeping up. The news seemed to change so quickly during the successive debacles of Brexit, Covid and Partygate that a topical cartoon could be out of date before the ink had dried. Luckily I draw digitally so I was able to hit the undo button a lot.” – Royston Robertson

ROYSTONROBERTSON

Royston Robertson is a freelance cartoonist published in Private Eye, The Spectator, The Critic, Reader’s Digest, Saga and New Humanist, among many others. Born in Catterick, North Yorkshire, in 1968, he now lives in Broadstairs, Kent.

RUBY ETC.

Ruby Elliot is a cartoonist, illustrator and author. She enjoys drawing sad things in a funny way and vice versa. Ruby makes autobiographical work and has been publishing drawings online and in print under the name ‘rubyetc’ for the last million and three years. She also runs workshops for people of all ages and artistic abilities, encouraging them to utilise drawing for self-expression and have fun with the creative process.

I often felt very stuck with drawing, particularly through the pandemic and having no time to catch a creative breath between unprecedented moments. I kept thinking: ‘How can I turn this into a joke when it is already beyond parody?’ I came to the conclusion that it was better to make something rather than nothing, if only to communicate with others and feel a bit less mad in the process.

I shared this comic online and wrote the caption for it on the 27th of March 2020, the day after Boris Johnson announced lockdown measures would legally come into force across the UK. It read: ‘this is a comic about food and eating in the pandemic. An important caveat to this drawing is that many people will not have enough food now or be able to access it due to Isolation. If you can afford to, please donate to The Trussel Trust who are taking donations of food and cash.” – Ruby ETC.

STEVE BELL STANMCMURTRY(MAC)

Born in Edinburgh, Stan McMurtry (Mac) moved to Birmingham at the age of eight and attended Birmingham College of Art. His first cartoon was published in Today in 1961. He was a cartoon film animator at Henleyon-Thames, producing films for ITV before becoming a freelance cartoonist in 1965. At first he drew strips for children’s comics while also contributing joke cartoons to Punch (including covers), and elsewhere. He then worked for the Daily Sketch as Political and Social Cartoonist until it was absorbed by the Daily Mail. He then worked as Political and Social Cartoonist on the Daily Mail until he retired in 2018.

Mac has worked in advertising, book illustration and greetings cards design, written comedy scripts and produced a children’s book, The Bunjee Venture, which was made into a cartoon film by Hanna-Barbera. Twice voted CCGB Social and Political Cartoonist of the Year (1983, 1984) and twice CCGB Cartoonist of the Year (1983, 1988), he has also been voted Man of the Year by RADAR. A miniature portrait of his wife always featured somewhere in his Daily Mail cartoons since began in 1980 – unless the subject was purely political. Mac came out of retirement in December 2020 to work for the Mail on Sunday.

Boris was a gift to all cartoonists with his unruly hair, slightly stooped stature and a hooked nose. He always looked smaller than he really was, probably due to the baggy suits he wore and that stoop.

He laid himself open constantly to criticism by all the gaffs he made while in Office. Telling porkies about Downing Street parties and not always getting his facts right before announcing them at the despatch box.

The stoop, the disheveled appearance and that blonde hair which resembled a windswept wheat field; together with Donald Trump he will be missed by all cartoonists, not because of their politics but mainly because they were both so easy to draw.” – Mac

Steve Bell was born in Walthamstow, London and studied at Teeside College of Art (Middlesbrough) and Leeds University, graduating in fine art. After taking a teaching certificate at Exeter University he taught art at a secondary school in Birmingham before becoming a freelance cartoonist in 1977. His first regular paid work was for Whoopee! comic in 1978.

A political cartoonist on the Guardian since 1990, he has also contributed to Private Eye (with colour covers for Christmas issues from 1992), New Statesman, New Society, Leveller (Lord God Almighty strip), Social Work Today, NME, Journalist, Time Out, City Limits and others. He created the popular ‘If…’ political strip cartoon series for the Guardian in 1981, and an earlier Time Out (later City Limits) series, ‘Maggie’s Farm’ (begun 1979), was described in the House of Lords as ‘an almost obscene series of caricatures’ in March 1987.

Steve has also made animation shorts (with Bob Godfrey) for Channel 4 and BBC TV. He has been voted CCGB Humorous Strip Cartoonist of the Year (1984, 1985), What the Papers Say Cartoonist of the Year (1993), Cartoon Art Trust Political Cartoonist of the Year (1995, 1997) and Cartoon Art Trust Strip Cartoonist of the Year (1996, 1997, 1998). Steve Bell is a Trustee of the Cartoon Art Trust.

STEVE BELL

ON THE

This drawing includes a more or less exact replica of a campaign poster for Boris Johnson, running for a second term as Mayor of London in 2012 who, at the time this was drawn, in direct breach of his pledge was planning to close a large number of manned ticket offices. This is the first appearance of Boris as an arse, though I continued to draw increasingly rudimentary caricatures of him under his trademark blonde thatch for some time, even though - as this drawing demonstrates - Boris-as-arse is the far more effective caricature.”

– Steve Bell

STEVE BELL

ELECTION ON COVID

Boris Johnson is an unusual target for me as I had personal dealings with him before I ever got around to drawing him. He had always been something of a celebrity in Tory circles as well as in the public prints, and I regularly saw him in action at Tory party conferences, rattling the bucket to collect funds from the faithful during the black days immediately after the Labour landslide in the days of the disastrous leadership of William Hague and the even more catastrophic era of Ian Duncan Smith. He had an uncanny ability to make the Tory horde, despised and outcast by the electorate, feel good about themselves again. Johnson was by now editor of the Spectator and, out of the blue (to coin a shitty pun) he approached me to do some work for the magazine, mainly covers. He seemed genuinely enthusiastic and I thought, why not? It made a change from the Grauniad and, apart from its more swivel-eyed sections, it was an intelligent rag that had a reputation for using good cartoons and cartoonists.

I continued doing regular cover drawings until he moved on from editing the Spectator and his successor, who was not interested in my stuff at all, took over. By the time he became London Mayor he had become a rather prominent target and I started drawing him on a more regular basis. He quite enjoyed my earlier efforts and even bought some of the artwork, but I haven’t heard from him since I started drawing him as an arse on a regular basis.”– Steve Bell

THOMAS

JOHNSTON

Tom Johnston is an aspiring cartoonist from Old Warley in the West Midlands, graduating from Wrexham University in Illustration in 2020. Mainly working on political cartoons in his spare time, he posts work online somewhat frequently and occasionally in books and publications. He finally learnt to make tea and coffee this year. He is 25.

I suppose my way of depicting Boris isn’t really that unique from anyone else’s. It’s hard to exaggerate or add stuff to him caricature wise, with his triangle eyes, stupid hair, podgy belly, his slightly penis-looking nose. So my Boris was fairly standard but on occasions I’d depict him as other things, my favourites include Mr Blobby, a Pig, a Killer Clown, a Soviet Dictator and, in his final months, a naked Emperor. I was quite pleased with that depiction and stuck with it but now he’s gone, so oh well…” – Thomas Johnston

WILFRID WOOD

Wilfrid Wood started off working on the satirical TV program Spitting Image. He now draws and sculpts portraits of friends, celebrities, oddities and pets.

I have sculpted Boris as well as Chris Witty. Really, Boris sculpted himself! I had a lump of pink plasticine and a chomped up bit of yellow, I put one on top of the other, added a couple of sausages for lips and there he was!”

– Wilfrid Wood

ZOOMROCKMAN

Born in 2000, Zoom Rockman is an awardwinning political cartoonist, puppet animator and illustrator who became the youngest ever contributor to The Beano (age 12), Private Eye(age 16) and The Sunday Times (‘Zoom’s Week’, age 21). Zoom has illustrated Iain Dale’s ‘The Prime Ministers’ (Political Book of the Year 2020) and ‘The Presidents’ (2021), the cover for Private Eye’s ‘Dr Hammond’s Covid Casebook’ (2021) and Michael Rosen’s, ‘St Pancreas Defendat Me, The Boris Letters’ (November 2022).

I was eight when Boris became Mayor of London. I’d laugh whenever I saw him on the TV in the same way I’d laugh at any other cartoon character. I sent him an early issue of one of my comics because he’d made a few appearances and he actually wrote back a really nice letter with loads of advice and encouragement!

When I was 12 he invited me to become an advisor on his Youth Board but I quit after about a year when I realised we didn’t do anything apart from eat pizza. I guess that’s what made me suspicious of politics!

When he became Prime Minister I just remember thinking ‘I can’t believe a cartoon character is going to be running the country!’”

– Zoom Rockman

ZOOM’S PEEP BOARD REMOVED FROM HERNE BAY FESTIVAL

The peep board tradition did not start with Herne Bay Festival but they have been a big part of our events. On the Sunday of our festival weekend we invite the visiting cartoonists to create giant cartoons and peep boards (also known as ‘Aunt Sallies’) at a live event. They usually create them in around 4 hours. In its first years the live event was held at the Bandstand but we moved to the Pier in 2017 and have staged it there every year since (except 2020 when there was no festival). The boards are really popular and most of them stay on the pier all season and sometimes through the winter.

One of the Boris boards you have by Zoom was created last year in 2021 and I think it is fair to say it has been one of the most popular boards ever. Countless hundreds (possibly thousands) of people have had their photo taken with their head through Boris’s bum (or their dog’s head which is also very popular.)

This year his board was a bit more controversial and on the day of the live event we had a complaint from one of the pier stallholders. We agreed to move it further away from this individual’s stall as he was objecting to it being outside his space. This seemed to calm things down, but after the event had finished we learned that a member of the Pier Trust had taken it upon himself to move Zoom’s board to the far end of the pier…

…This same individual (who is a local councillor as well as a trustee of the pier) has also objected to our poster being biased against the Conservative Party and decided to remove it from the pier where it had been placed to advertise our event there. Prior to this, the poster had been creating its own controversy and a story about this appeared in Private Eye.

Every year we invite a different cartoonist to design our festival poster and this year we asked Andrew Birch. Andrew’s design was brilliant and was finished whilst Boris was still in office. It makes fun of Boris and his whole (then) cabinet. One of our sponsors asked for their logo to be removed because they were unwilling to be associated with something political. We agreed. Andrew tweeted about this, and a freelance journalist picked up the tweet and pursued it. She contacted the press office at Kent County Council who denied they had requested removal of their logo. She wrote up the story anyway. This enraged the above mentioned councillor and trustee. However our local Conservative MP, Sir Roger Gale was very amused.”

– Sue Austen, Herne Bay Festival Producer