Progressive Humour 2018

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Focus On Humour News

LAUGHING GEAR

Below left: The Windsors on Channel 4 is to return soon with its spoof on Harry and Megan’s Royal Wedding.

Below: Appealing to mums and gin lovers, a Katie Kirby design from Cath Tate Cards.

Below: Cath Tate and Nicola Streeten at the launch party of The Inking Woman.

A tittering tonic

With the recent revival of cult comedy The League of Gentlemen, Peter Kay’s Car Share’s much anticipated return and The Windsors wedding special in May to coincide with Harry and Meghan's nuptials, British comedy - from its dark and satirical form to sitcom and parody has never been so popular or diverse; even the current regeneration of 70’s game show, The Generation Game, formerly hosted by Bruce Forsyth and then Larry Grayson, satisfied nostalgic pangs for a bit of farce, slapstick and gunge.

With a conveyor belt of hilarious, saucy, witty or wonderfully weird humour greeting cards reflecting the UK’s tittering tastes, Focus On Humour Cards shares the news, views and fresh range releases in this sector of the market.

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Overview Pun Fun On Cards New Launches Female Cartoonists Retailers’ Views

Editor in chief: Jacqueline Brown (jw@max-publishing.co.uk) Main contributor and Deputy editor: Gale Astley (galea@max-publishing.co.uk) Advertisement director: Warren Lomax (warren@max-publishing.co.uk) Contributor Michelle Board (michelleb@max-publishing.co.uk)

Focus On Humour is published annually by Max Publishing (publishers of Progressive Greetings). It is distributed with the May edition of Progressive Greetings.

Max Publishing, United House, North Road, London, N7 9DP Tel: 020 7700 6740 www.progressivegreetings.co.uk

Cath Tate Cards has teamed up with the magnificent Katie Kirby of Hurrah for Gin. Katie’s hilarious stick figure cartoons for ‘perfectly imperfect’ parents brilliantly sum up the daily struggles of parenthood.

She started her award-winning blog when she was struggling with the reality of having two small children. Finding the humour in the everyday dramas of motherhood was cathartic for her, and really touched a nerve with many other mothers. So much so that a few years down the line she has over 425K followers on Facebook and two best-selling books under her belt.

Cath Tate Cards is excited to be working with Katie, not least because everyone in the office (except for Cath) has children under the age of 5. The range has launched with 16 laugh-out-loud everyday cards and eight Christmas cards.

Not all the designs are mum-based but they all follow the same theme: the pitfalls of being an adult… and gin.

Cath Tate takes to the airwaves Cath Tate, the namesake of the eponymous card company she runs with her daughter Rosie, was interviewed by BBC Radio 4’s Woman Hour’s legendary presenter Jenni Murray at the end of March about her new book, entitled The Inking Woman, which celebrates 250 years of women cartoonists and comic artists, featuring many of the women Cath has published on cards and postcards over the years.

The book, co-written with illustrator and graphic artist Nicola Streeten, is a follow on from an exhibition of the same name that Cath curated at The Cartoon Museum in London last year.

The Inking Woman book is published by Myriad with an RRP of £19.99.

Blowin’ the blimmin’ candles out One of Rosie Harrison’s cards (owner of Rosie Made a Thing) graced the mantelpiece of Michael Caine’s home for his 85th birthday! Rosie had a phone call from stockist, My Favourite Things in London, to say that a customer had bought one of her cards to give to Michael at his birthday party. “The retailer recommended my card because he is a proper legend!”, states Rosie. “I can’t believe he’s 85 years old now. The design is actually based on my middle son who dabbles in a bit of acting himself.”

Above: You Legend. An apt Rosie Made A Thing card card for Michael Caine.

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Focus On Humour News

Ceiling the deal With over 100 million cards sold to date, Emotional Rescue’s On The Ceiling range must be one of the most successful humour card ranges ever created.

The instantly recognisable retro figurative black and white photographic cards are made funnier by the saucy jokes juxtaposed with the ‘Cholmondley-Warner’ style English voice, and this has been its recipe for success since the range launched 27 years ago.

Since earlier this year, when Martin Nevin, md Above: An On The Ceiling from Emotional Rescue. of Emotional Rescue, stated he has “a very defined design Below left: The spread in the Daily Mail just four days prior plan for the development of the On The Ceiling to Mother’s Day. brand”, orchestrated through an expanding licensing programme for 2018, ER’s On The Ceiling has clinched two double-page spreads of publicity in the Daily Mail.

The first article was at the beginning of November, when the newspaper’s 7 million readers could not have failed to notice the headline ‘Battle of the Sexists’, the visual editorial spread of a selection of On The Ceiling artworks (which would have cost £thousands had it been paid for advertising) highlighted the publication of six new Wit and Wisdom books, which had just been published by Studio Press as a result of a licensing agreement with ER. Then in March, On The Ceiling’s second appearance in the Daily Mail featured cheeky messages from its Mother’s Day range - under the headline ‘Irreverent Mother’s Day cards to give the PC lobby a sense of humour failure’. The double page spread showed 14 funny messages from Studio Press’ new book The Wit and Wisdom of Mum. “It’s great to have yet another double page spread in The Daily Mail featuring On The Ceiling,” says Jennie Rutter, creative director of Emotional Rescue. “We’d like to think that On The Ceiling being selected as a feature for a second time is testament to its funny, relatable content and strong identity. All credit goes to our book publisher, Studio Press and their super-active PR team for the work they have put in on this project. We are chuffed to bits with the opportunity it has given us to continue to increase On The Ceiling’s consumer awareness – 7 million readers are certainly not to be sniffed at!”

Wordies from The White House Splimple’s Stuart Caldwell really doesn’t like Donald Trump. Where’s the news in that, you may ask? He’s not too keen on Kim Jong-un or Boris Johnson either (though he quite likes Janet Street-Porter, but that’s another story).

So late last year, Stuart continued his habit of writing special cards for a few likeminded friends – including the one shown here, which went down rather well. So it’s now been added to Splimple’s Wordiescollection, with tick box options to send it to Donald, Boris, Kim or the tonsorially-challenged man in your life.

It’s the latest addition to a range which now has an unbroken publishing run of over 15 years. Unlike Mr Trump, it’s made more friends than enemies. If only Mr Putin had dodgy hair!

Above: For the tonsorially challenged, a Wordiescollection design from Splimple.

FOCUS ON HUMOUR 2018

Cloud Nine shines The forecast looks sunny for Redback Cards who is extending its Henries’ Best Humorous Range 2017 awardwinning Cloud Nine card range into gifts in a licensing alliance with giftware company Transomnia.

Head of buying and design at Transomnia, Greg Rose says: "We are looking forward to launching our fabulous new range of gifts developed in collaboration with Redback."

Redback Cards will be giving retailers a sneak preview of what’s to Above: A Cloud Nine unicorn card. come on its stand at PG Live.

Go on, go on, go on Fond of pop-culture reference, and never shy of making a political comment, James Murray (aka Jim'll Paint It) has been a licensing triumph on Lesser Spotted Images’ cards for over two years.

So it was a fine Irish brew of an idea that stirred Lesser Spotted’s founder Dominic Greyer to offer his new satirical Father Ted design, created

by James, as a charity card with all the proceeds of the cards’ sales going to the Irish Heart Foundation.

A big fan of the comedy series featuring three priests living on Craggy Island, off the coast of Ireland, Dom has actually been on the Father Ted Tour where the series was filmed near Killinaboy in The Burren National Park, County Clare, on a stag-do.

James’ Jim'll Paint Facebook has almost 700k fans who suggest bizarre scenarios featuring celebs and characters for him to paint in his own inimitable fashion. As a result James has created the cast of Star Wars on a drunken night out, Postman Pat as Walter White in Breaking Bad, Wolverine stuck in a cat-flap, an awe-struck Smeagol at the window of a jewellers, the long lost Nintendo game Coronation Street Fighter 2, an awkward Star Trek orgy and PM Theresa May as Darth Vader receiving orders from Emperor Thatcher.

Above: The Lesser Spotted Father Ted card, featuring the ‘lovely girls’ from the local beauty pageant episode, which is raising money for the Irish Heart Foundation.

Above right: Lesser Spotted’s Dominic Greyer on the Father Ted Tour outside the parochial house re-enacting the ‘Kicking Bishop Brennan Up The Arse’ episode!

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Focus On Humour News

Seeing the funny side When Tim and Annie Gould, husband and wife team of funny card publisher Objectables decided to move from Sussex to Folkestone in Kent last summer, the humour card publisher needed a studio.

As with many British seaside towns recently, Folkestone has a growing artistic community, that is curated by a foundation called The Creative Quarter, and Tim quickly found that due to the support for creative businesses in the area it would be just as cheap to rent a shop... and so Objectables the card store was born.

“We had no idea about running a shop so Above: Annie and Tim Gould designers of Objectables’ cards and now owners it has been a bit of an eye opener, but already of a humour card store in Folkestone. after only eight months it has given us a great Left: An Objectables design. insight into how our wholesale customers run their businesses”, explains Tim, adding, “We stock roughly 50% our own cards and 50% other small publishers, mostly humour, but with few great design based ranges too.”

Tim feels one of the bonuses of running a card shop as well as being a publisher is that he’s able to see how customers react to Objectables’ card designs. He says: “We are more able to see holes in our ranges and we have been able to tweak cards that maybe haven’t quite worked.

“We have already designed a few cards based on funny things customers have suggested too. But the best part is that we see and hear people laughing all day in our place of work which is a real pleasure.”

A ‘Thumbs Up’ for David Shrigley Brainbox Candy has always loved David Shrigley’s surreal and quirky work, so a licensing tie-up with the British visual artist whose ‘Really Good’ sculpture, a bronze cast of a fist with an out-of-proportion thumbs-up, had been until recently on Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth since 2016, was a exciting coup for Brainbox’s Mark Williams and Ben Hickman.

And it's been ‘really good’ for the publisher, as the David Shrigley card range is going great guns, with retailers and consumers loving them. “We have been blown away with how popular the designs have been and a real broad mix of retailers are reporting fantastic sell through. We are also working with David on bespoke designs which also adds another unique dimension to the range”, reveal the Brainbox duo.

Below: Just a few of the David Shrigley designs from Brainbox Candy.

Licensing lookout Its chuckles all round at Hallmark, who has a number of newly released humour licensed ranges. The publisher’s head of creative for humour, properties & licensing, Matt Goodman, elaborates on its comedy line up: “Out of the box - Come to the Dark Side… we have toys! Hallmark’s new Star Wars humour range is guaranteed to bring out the playful side of family and friends alike. The funny cards feature everyone’s favourite sci-fi fantasy figures and play on classic packaging designs. Laugh… it is your destiny!

Marvel comic book - Are your super-card senses tingling?! Hallmark’s latest range comprises of easy to send humour cards featuring retro comic book characters from the Marvel archives in bright primary colours.

Fun for everyone, they’re sure to be a smash!

Superhero cartoons - What happens if you put Iron Man through the car wash, or if Spiderman wraps your birthday present? This bright, fun humour range from Hallmark pitches larger than life heroes against real life situations. They’re the heroes you’ve been holding on for.”

Above: Go to the Dark Side with Hallmark’s Star Wars range.

NIBS p Maverick cartoonist gang, Modern Toss is excited to announce it has teamed up with TeNeues to produce a mini and 30 x 30cm grid calendar for 2019 (right). p Ling Design recently acquired Saffron Cards and with it, the hilarious humour ranges from The London Studio. Look out for Animal Crackers, which features bold contemporary design and animal-themed puns, which will have you roaring with laughter. The Puntastic and A Slice of Life collections are also a hoot!

Political fluff Last year Tracks released one of its most popular Fluff cards featuring a cat with the likeness of Donald Trump with the caption “We are gonna make your Birthday Great Again”, and it quickly became one of its best-selling cards, even inspiring a Valentine’s Day variant with the caption “I wouldn’t build a wall between us.”

In 2018, keeping up to speed on topical events, Tracks has Above: A fantastic play on words on a new design from Tracks. launched two new designs featuring the likeness of a particular leader of North Korea. One being a birthday card stating ‘Hope your Birthday is a Blast’ and the second being a New Job card with the caption of ‘Good Luck in your New Korea’.

The Tracks team is not sure if it will be ‘Putin’ any other influential leaders into its range however!

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Laughter Lexicon

IT’S A PUNNY OLD WORLD From Egyptian hieroglyphics to the Two Ronnies' ‘Four Candles’ sketch, puns have always been part of our comedic history and the witty wordplay continues with a vengeance, especially on greeting cards.

From avocados to llamas, gin to cheese, the subject matter that is proving ripe for linguistic gymnastics span an ever wide spectrum.

PG delves into the dictionary with some masters of pun-ery.

Like the double entendre, there is something intrinsically British about the pun. There might be an element of nostalgia, understood by young and old alike and acknowledged for their clever comedic value.

“Puns have been creeping back into the world of greeting cards for some time now,” says Emma Young, head of art and production for Paperlink. “Puns are almost an artform in their own right but easy to tap into; once you start, you can’t stop and they become very interactive. They are perfect for pairing with animals or bringing inanimate objects to life. We have noticed that they are moving on from just one word, for instance, ‘she who dares gins’ to whole phrases like ‘don’t go bacon my heart, I couldn’t if I fried.’ New favourite animals keep emerging - from ‘not being allama-ed’, to

Above: Brits have been laughing at word play for a very long time – the Two Ronnies’ ‘four candles’ sketch is still a classic.

Left: Paperlink’s Avo-cuddle card was a hot seller for Valentine’s Day. Below left: It’s a bit cheeky, but it’s also one of the best sellers year-in-year-out for The London Studio from its popular A Slice of Life range.

Below: UK Greetings’ Punny Profiles range is a pun-fest depicting different lifestyles.

‘flaming-go-ing for it’ - as do favourite food stuffs like ‘let’s avo-cuddle’, `you’re one in a melon’ or `have Edam fine Birthday`. Of course, the subject matters that become popular are those that lend themselves to an appealing visual.”

Soula Zavacopoulos, director and founder of the London Studio - which sits within the Saffron (and now Ling) family of brands - is a master of the pun, with many of her best-selling card designs being pun-based.

“One of the reasons we love puns is because they are so quick to get - they require no context and they don’t require a long set Avocados are not a particularly funny fruit you might think, but that hasn’t stopped them up or a lot of words, which is perfect in becoming quite a ‘thing’ on greeting cards over the past few years. the retail environment, when you don’t In fact Jelly Armchair’s business was kickstarted by one of its have long to catch a customer’s avocado puns going viral back in 2015. “Avocados are definitely attention. Puns have been embedded in vogue at the moment,” says Liz Faulkner, co-founder of in British life and language for a very Jelly Armchair. “Our avocado puns have been so popular that long time - even the likes of Chaucer Cat (the illustrator for Jelly Armchair) has actually been and Shakespeare regularly used puns. commissioned to produce a book for Penguin. It came about as On the stage and in television, puns one of the publishers at Penguin Random House had been buying have been used for many years to our 'He Does Avocado' card for her mum every birthday from smuggle rudeness into scripts, to add Paperchase. She wanted Cat to produce an illustrated book of 128 avocado puns, so that's what Cat's done. Believe it or not, humour in a cheeky but inoffensive way.” she had to cut out some puns!”

It is the same with Soula’s card Right: The avocado pun that kicked it all off for Jelly Armchair. designs as she explains: “it’s a way that I

Are you avocado-ing a laugh?

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Laughter Lexicon

can inject some cheeky humour in an inoffensive way.” An example is a card from her A Slice of Life range showing two slices of toast having sex, with the caption ‘I think I’m gonna crumb!’ Soula says: “It has consistently been a best seller for several years now as though it touches on a rude subject, people love it as it is cheeky and funny rather than crude or vulgar. It’s about the way the joke is delivered.”

It’s this inoffensive nature and the fact that they are general seen as ‘good clean fun’ (or ‘pun’ you might say!) which makes them so popular according to Mark Graham, humour editorial manager of UK Greetings. “Puns work across the whole spectrum of humour, from simple sentiments such as ‘Purr-fect Friend’ in our new Catmosphere range to the more highbrow and witty in the New Yorker ‘I have a suspicious looking mole on my shoulder’.”

Mark believes Twitter has been a big factor behind the current pun boom, with the format and character limit lending itself well to witty and creative wordplay. Punning contests such as Make A Film Title Boring trend daily on Twitter enable punsters worldwide to pit their wits against each other. “Our Punny Profiles range capitalises on this, with each design a total punfest aimed at different lifestyle subject matters,” says Mark. “A real ale fan's favourite film? ‘How To Drain Your Flagon’. A wine lover's favourite song?

‘Sauvignon Kisses For Me’. The possibilities are endless with puns, and that's why we're going to be seeing them on greeting cards for evermore!”

Tim Gould, owner of Objectables thinks that puns and greeting cards are a natural fit because “they are a quick hit but it’s also about the space in between looking at the card and then getting the joke. Puns make people laugh because they present you with the unexpected. Ours are usually quite silly and just one word. I feel like all the avocado puns have been made now but you should ‘pre-pear’ yourselves for more! Our best-selling pun card is probably Catatonic, which features cats and gin and people love them both.”

Animals and drink work for Tracks Publishing as well. “A witty pun will naturally make you laugh, but you also can’t help but laugh at a pun that sounds so forced and is probably quite bad really,” says Joshua Randall, marketing manager for Tracks Publishing “Our animal puns tend to do best - Hap-Bee Birthday or Have a Flamingo-od Birthday are two of our best-selling cards. Food and drink tend to be a hit for puns, so along with more

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Having a laugh on celebs Jess Howell, founder of Rumble Cards has a large collection of cards based on celebrities, TV shows and politicians.

“Puns are a great way to connect with a large but at times, targeted audience,” says Jess. “It makes a person feel like a card has been made just for them, and a lot of the time I am thinking about a certain friend or family member when I’m designing my cards. Puns are definitely becoming more popular as people become accustomed to bite-size humour and word play, particularly through social media with the rise of visual comedy like memes. Some of my most popular designs are centred on celebrities. My ‘Frida' design is very popular at the moment and I like to think it’s because she’s a strong symbol of female empowerment in light of events this year.”

Above: Frida Kahlo is a popular design for Rumble Cards.

Top left: Gin and cats – a winning combination for Objectables.

Left: Puns based on prosecco are a winner for Tracks Publishing.

Below right: Pasta la vista is a popular design for The Taste Buds, with people actually googling ‘pasta puns’.

Below left: The number of llama-based puns is somewhat allama-ing, such as this from Duke & Rabbit.

avocado-based puns, I’m finding there are more alcohol-based puns, playing off the popularity of prosecco and gin.”

Food-based puns are a winner for Sai Pathmanathan, founder of The Taste Buds. “Puns can work on so many levels, from the school playground to the corporate boardroom there’s a funny little something for everyone,” says Sai. “Our cards and gifts incorporate a variety of cultural dishes, music lyrics and diverse languages. Our most popular cards are those with pasta on them (people actually find us through googling ‘pasta puns’!), and of course the carrot cake design.

Puns may be silly, but whether they make you honk with laughter or groan loudly, they’ll never cease to raise a smile.”

Animal-based puns are a big hit for Duke & Rabbit, with designer Adam Watts picking out ‘Globetrotter’ (a pig walking on a globe), ‘You’re allama-ingly good looking’ (a very pretty llama) and ‘Have a purrrrfect Birthday’ (cat, of course!) as three of the company’s most popular pun-based designs. “I definitely think animal pun cards are appearing more and are always fun to design, but a punny card can almost work with anything,” says Adam. “And that’s their enduring beauty.”

So, now, what makes a winning pun-based design is less of a closely ‘carded’ secret!

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New Humour Launches

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THE CHUCKLE NEWCOMERS Taking to the mic, Focus on Humour Cards introduces a comedy club of publishers’ new humour range releases.

l Brainbox Candy has just launched two new humour ranges - Quotish and Lightbox.

Quotish is its newest range that brings humour and gold shiny foil business together in one beautiful marriage of convenience. Combined with a gold foiled bespoke envelope and printed on a high quality textured board, the end result is stunning. There are 14 everyday designs, printed on FSC board with more to follow shortly. l Hallmark has four new humour ranges to knock your socks off: Picking up on the trend for user-generated content and the DIY ethic of today’s consumer, *blank yourself lets you create your own joke from a selection of perforated punchlines for you to choose from; Cheeky cards have bold colours and simple typography and a little bit sarcy, they lovingly let the sender take the mickey without causing offence; Look at the squishy-faced little cheeky chops! Hey Baby! is a range packed with vintage black and white photos of bubbly babies awwwww!; Taking iconic characters and scenes from some of the best loved Disney films, both old and new, Hallmark has added a relatable funny twist to the scene shots.

l The Great British Card

Company has recently launched two new humour ranges – Bob On and A Bit On The Inside. Bold, brilliant and just plain silly, Bob On is GBCC’s new male humour range from master cartoonist Lee Fearnley. You can’t help but love Bob and the ridiculous situations in which he finds himself on 13 hilarious designs. And what makes a good humour range really great? A bit on the inside! The range of nine new humour cards, illustrated by Alex Gunn, each has its own novelty gift inside. Open them up and see what’s inside!

l Cath Tate Cards is excited to

launch its new humour tie-up with Hurrah for Gin! Each illustration is a real and humorous take on life and parenthood. Illustrator Katie Kirby draws the happy, the sad, the good and the bad in everyday situations so we can all feel a bit better about ourselves. There are 16 everyday cards and eight Christmas designs, size 12cm x 17cm, cellowrapped and with a kraft envelope. l Building upon the previous success of Ladybird Books for Grown Ups and Enid Blyton’s Famous Five, Danilo has launched several new additions, all of which target the everpopular retro market. Featuring nostalgic and quirky brands such as Action Man, Subbuteo, UVault (universal movies), classic Thunderbirds and Star Trek, these latest licensed ranges allow you take a trip down memory lane but with a humorous twist.

l Luxury lifestyle brand Divine Savages has released its new greeting card range full of its trademark luxury style, drama and humour. Covering a range of occasions, from birthday to celebrations, the company’s design-duo has developed an eye-catching collection with a focus on gorgeous tactile papers and luxurious gold foiling. The range caught the eye of judges at Top Drawer in January, who crowned Divine Savages a finalist in this year’s Spotted Awards. l Scare Bears is a cheeky and humorous range from Go La La for adults based on the concept of slightly anarchic cuddly toys. Think teddy bear picnic turns into a riot - meet the badly-behaved bears and their pals. Each card measures 145mm square, is on a silk board and individually cellowrapped with a white envelope.

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New Humour Launches

l Get your laughing gear around a brand new humour range from those frightfully funny fellows at Emotional Rescue. Side-splitting gags about getting older and birthdays in general, mean this fresh, funky and rather pokey little addition is guaranteed to give everyone a good giggle! The designs are available in 5” x 7” and come cellowrapped with a rather swanky yellow envelope.

l Holy Mackerel’s brand new humour range Cock-eyed Octopus is a fresh and funny range of cards by artist Rachel Hopkins that’s perfect for ginlovers, crazy cat ladies, unicorn believers and llama queens everywhere! There are 20 designs in the range so far (150mm square, and plenty more on the way) –browse them at your leisure on the Holy Mackerel website.

l Jolly Awesome has some great new

additions to its bestselling Originals range. There are 23 new illustrated designs joining this fun animal-based humour range, including the already popular Gin Bear. The A6 cards all come with white envelopes.

l kissmekwik is Ladybird Books’ longest running licensee and the publisher has just added eight new Ladybird Books cards to its ever popular range, meaning there are now over 100 designs available. l Ling Design has launched nine side-splitting new open cards into the much-loved Rainbow range. With cheeky captions, carefully-crafted illustrations and a bright and colourful finish in the signature style, these designs are bound to have you in stitches.

l How Funny has launched Love, a

range of 15 new designs to celebrate all things ‘love’, be it an anniversary, special occasion, birthday, Valentine’s Day or you just want to say a saucy ‘hello’! All cards are blank inside, size 150mm square, printed on premium 324gsm board and come cellowrapped with a striking red/fuchsia pink coloured envelope. l Due to the popularity of JellynBean’s SillyZoo collection, new captions have been added, including new uncle, son-in-law, brother-in-law and nephew.

The160mm square cards are accompanied by a 100gsm grey envelope and individually wrapped. Additionally, new captions have also been added to the TinKture range too.

l Modern Toss cartoonists’ latest card range, Punctuation Networking Event is a winning formula for grammar geeks everywhere! Graphically stylish, using the popular bold colours, punctuation marks are cleverly depicted as characters at a networking meeting, swapping work stories and jokes. l Objectables is adding to its

awful (its words not PG’s!) puns range of cards Dyaggedit for the first time in a couple of years. The designs are all printed on Callisto soft white board and come with brown kraft envelopes.

l Nutty Neon is the newest humour

hit from Pigment featuring fun pics, laugh out loud humour, super fluoro oranges, gold glittering, mad yellows and radiant pinks. With the vibrant colour, shouty typography and s-Edison finishes, these cards stand out on shelf. Expect lots more integrated captions in the coming months.

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l Celebrating everything at Nocturnal Paper, the publisher is helping celebrate both big and little wins. Whether it’s scoring a new job or new pair of shoes, Nocturnal has a card for it in its new Celebration range! And always aware of whatever is #trending, and the celebrity baby bonanza, it was only fitting it created some ‘punny’ cards for some cute baby announcements.

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New Humour Launches

l Ohh Deer has teamed up with the talented Catherine Ings from Twin Pines to create a bright, blunt and witty card range! If the popping colours don’t grab your attention then the relatable quotes certainly will. Launching with 10 designs there are more to come in time for Christmas.

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l Redrakoon launched the new ‘corrected range’ in 2018, which has been a massive hit. The range holds no punches and the designs say what you’ve always been to scared to say in the past. This new range is guaranteed to make someone cry with laughter or even pee a little. l Tracks Publishing is applying its

l Oliver Preston (of Beverston

Press) is launching new summer cards to add to his popular humour range. Gardening, tennis and of course drink-related themes, Oliver’s popular funny cartoons are based on town and country topics and have a very individual style. He says that he was thinking about reproducing some of his topical Russian cartoons, but having taken advice, he decided against it! l Paper Rose’s Silly Hilly range is a new collection from Nick HannafordHill. Simple graphic humour, some with a play on words, have proved very popular, such as the ‘Ironing Man’ design or the unicorn turning bad card, satisfying the counter movement to the obsession with the cutesy pink glittery unicorn.

l Paperlink’s new male-centric

range, Pixel has been very well received. Striking, funny and featuring evocative black and white photography with `shout out` editorial boldy emblazoned across the top in fluorescent neons, this range pops on the shelf. l Featuring awesome illustrations that give guaranteed giggles, Redback has just launched a fresh collection of 24 cards to its humour catalogue. The fun One Step Beyond range uses artwork from some of the best comic illustrators from around the world. A few favourites are already emerging, such as Let’s get drunk, Jumping on the bed and Visit to Grandma.

famous humour and neon fluff to more of its ranges this year. The best-selling Fluff Range is set to expand, adding designs to all of the landmark events of the year. A number of new designs have been added to the Christmas Collection, with both general Christmas and relations cards available. And this year, Tracks is adding a number of Fluff Designs to its Large Cards Collection, in a 224mm x 306mm format – its cards have never been fluffier! l Whale & Bird’s latest range is a quirky and humour filled journey through the mind of the artist known as Milkyprint. The range is made up of 15 everyday designs with each card individually packed into a cello bag along with a brown fleck envelope. l Pure Gold is a new humorous typography look from UKG. Gold foil lettering against a contemporary colour palette and painterly background patterns offers something for those who like their funnies to look good on the mantlepiece as well as raising a laugh. Relatable lifestyle themes such as ‘You know you're getting older when your bins go out more often than you do’ are combined with topical themes such as Prosecco. Pure greeting card gold! l Cinnamon Aitch is celebrating the glorious tea-time snack with its humorous rhyming card range, Custard Cream. Consisting of 10 C6 designs, playful hand-drawn animals are combined with photographic details and teamed with a unique cheeky rhyme. Characters include a puffa fish with a preference for Hobnobs and a doughnut crazy octopus. Quirky and cute C6 cards for any occasion, when a smile is just the thing! All designs are hand-finished with a chuckle and a googly eye or two.

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Funny Femmes

THE FEMININE TOUCH Female comedians and cartoonists are far from a new invention, but it hasn’t been easy for women to make headway in what has been a male-dominated arena. Times do seem to be changing though – for starters, at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, two of the three Edinburgh Comedy Awards were won by female comedians and women took the two top spots in the newcomer’s competition. But what about on greeting cards? PG takes a look at some of the funny women who are a right laugh.

We’ve been laughing at cartoons for hundreds of years, whether in magazines, newspapers, postcards, greeting cards and more latterly – online depictions. Women have always had their hand in drawing cartoons, but thanks to the efforts of card publisher, Cath Tate, their contribution has been recognised, through an exhibition, a book and of course on cards.

Cath Tate, the namesake of the eponymous card company she runs with her daughter Rosie, has been flying the flag for female cartoonists since the late 1980s, when she first started publishing postcards and greeting cards featuring women’s work. Now she’s put women back in the Above: The Inking Woman book, co-written

by Cath Tate reveals a wealth of women’s wit and insight from the last 250 years.

Left: One of Grizelda Grizlingham’s bestsellers from Cath Tate.

Right: Annie Tempest has been drawing cartoons for nearly 40 years.

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Left: Comedian Kathryn Ryan was the cover girl of the Sunday Times Culture supplement, which stated ‘Britain is enjoying a revolution, led by a new wave of female stand-ups’.

Far left: Gemma Correll is a respected contemporary cartoonist, whose quirky designs are published under licence on cards by Ohh Deer.

Below: One of 16 new designs in Katie Kirby’s Hurrah for Gin range for Cath Tate.

spotlight with her book – The Inking Woman - celebrating 250 years of women cartoonists and comic artists, featuring many of the women Cath has published on cards and postcards over the years. The book follows on from a successful exhibition of the same name at the Cartoon Museum last spring that she co-curated.

“I discovered when working on The Inking Woman book that there have always been women cartoonists but it is just a question of whether the people publishing the cartoons have the same sense of humour as the cartoonists,” says Cath.

“Cartooning is still a very maledominated occupation in places like magazines and newspapers who still are largely edited by men who decide what cartoons will be published. However, a lot of card companies are run by women, so cartoons by women are more likely to be published by them. Humour is in the eye of the beholder and what you find funny depends so much on your experiences in life.

Cards designed by women that reflect their experiences – the funny, the silly and the challenges of life - are attractive to card buyers as card buyers are mostly women!”

When Cath first started out in the 1980s and 1990s a lot of the popular cartoons by women were about relationships between women and men and feminist issues. Although these are still relevant issues, popular themes these days revolve around observations of everyday life. “As an example, our new range Hurrah for Gin from Katie Kirby, has a hilarious take on bringing up small children and the pitfalls of being a perfectly imperfect parent,” says Cath. “Another artist we’re doing very well FOCUS ON HUMOUR 2018

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Funny Femmes

with is The Surreal McCoy who deals with the aspects of everyday life in a very funny way. Our two top selling cartoon cards at the moment are by female cartoonists: Judy Horacek and Grizelda Grizzlingham, both of whom we have worked with for a number of years.”

Annie Tempest is the cartoonist behind the successful Tottering by Gently range published by Peartree Heybridge. Annie has been drawing cartoons for nearly 40 years, including a cartoon in the pages of Country Life magazine every week for the past 25 years.

Her simple life observations have struck a chord with the card buying public and her cards are some of Peartree Heybridge’s most popular.

“Simple life observations amuse me,” says Annie. “How women are different creatures to men, how the old interact with the young. Our human foibles interest and amuse me. I am not very interested in trends. I do what I find funny, and because we are all more similar than we would like to think, that usually amuses the card buying public too. Mars and Venus, families, gardening, dogs, dieting. These are my go-to subjects that people relate to.”

Another of Peartree Heybridge’s stalwarts is Sarah Boddy, the artist behind its Camilla & Rose range. Sarah entered the world of cartooning quite by accident as she explains: “I used to draw birthday cards for my friends depicting funny scenarios that had happened to them or us and then I started to receive commissions for bespoke cards and it just evolved from there.

Camilla & Rose were created as the two friends that found themselves in all these different everyday scenarios that happen between friends.”

Climo-ing to great heights American cartoonist Liz Climo has a huge social media following for her quirky animal cartoons, with over 500,000 Facebook followers.

Redback Cards launched its inaugural greeting card collection featuring her designs in 2016 with new designs joining the portfolio subsequently in response to the positive reaction. Liz’s cartoons highlighting the everyday problems and moments that animals might face if they interacted with each other in the way that humans do – are sweet but also strike the funny bone.

Right: Liz Climo’s cartoons are a funny look at what animals might say to each other if they interacted like humans.

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Left: Rosie Harrison picking up The Henries Award for Best Humorous range in 2016.

Below left: Annie Tempest’s Tottering By Gently is one of the bestselling ranges for Peartree Heybridge.

Below: One of the first designs Sarah Boddy did for Camilla & Rose which is still one of the best sellers.

Bottom left: As well as a fine artist, Sarah Boddy is also the creator of the Camilla & Rose range for Peartree Heybridge.

Bottom right: Yoga and alcohol are a winning combination for Rosie Harrison of Rosie Made a Thing.

Sarah’s cartoons reflect simple everyday occurrences, some of which have not changed for decades, while others recognise new themes. “One of the most popular cards is one of the first designs I ever did ‘It takes a long time to grow an old friend’. I think it somehow just fits so many friendships. A couple of the other best-sellers are about losing weight and shoes - most women identify with these topics,” says Sarah.

The topical themes of gin, exercise and yoga all feature prominently in Rosie Harrison’s cartoons for her Rosie Made a Thing card company. While a relative newcomer to the world of greeting cards, only launching in 2015, a year later Rosie received the ultimate greeting card accolade, winning The Henries Best Humour Range award for her Gin & Frolics range.

“Soon after the birth of my first child in 2008, I left my job in London and started looking for new hobbies that I could do with a small person attached to me. I certainly didn’t set out to create a funny card range or become a cartoonist. I feel very lucky to have fallen into a job which I love,” says Rosie.

Rosie’s cards depict family life and relationships. They are based on the funnier side of life of 40-somethings (like herself). Rosie describes where her inspiration comes from: “During the day, I will often jot down funny things that I hear. In fact, you have to be very careful what you say in front of me because I will write in down and stick it on a card! I am inspired by the ridiculous and the slightly inappropriate. So far, these haven’t been in short supply.”

Rosie adds, “There seems to be a trend towards boozing at the moment, notably gin and Prosecco. I think it would be fair to say that my cards are weighted pretty heavily in this direction but with a dash of cake, yoga and leopard skin!”

Sounds like a balanced diet of all the necessary ingredients to keep females in good humour!

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Retailer Feedback

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COMEDY CRITICS A trio of card retailers reveal what humorous card ranges are hitting their customers’ fave funnies as well as who gets them giggling from the world of comedy.

Karen Ebers, owner of Something Special in Edenbridge: Customer fave funnies: “Our most popular humour ranges are Avanti’s Look At It This Way from GBCC; Sassy and Funny Farm from Paperlink; Animal Antics from Pigment; Genius and Mindfulmess from Woodmansterne and Virtual Safari from Emotional Rescue.”

Comedic trends: “It seems to be that any range involving animals is hitting the spot with our customers. Other popular themes are Prosecco, wine, gin, shopping and shoes.

Good to see relatively new publishers, such as Redback Cards with its Cloud Nine range for example offering a new style of humour card that is currently performing well.”

Personal punchlines: “Recently I have been to see Jimmy Carr, Mickey Flanagan and John Bishop. Jimmy Carr, very rude but so quick and sharp. Mickey Flanagan, equally rude, very funny, more of a storyteller. While John Bishop talks about everyday life and the things it throws up.

Next on my wish list to see is Michael McInytre.”

Sarah Marsh, The Gorgeous Gift & Card Company, Biggleswade: Customer fave funnies: “We have a really new supplier of cards causing quite a stir - Cheeky Chops Cards. Some designs are really rude and customers either love or hate them. I have had a couple of complaints, but on the whole people are loving them.”

Comedic trends: “It seems to be that anything alcohol-related is very popular at the moment. I do think humour is ruder, and more shocking than ever.

There is arguably a shortage of Wife and Husband, Birthday and Anniversary humorous cards that husbands and wives can relate to in their struggle through marriage but knowing deep down they do love each other!

I also think there is a need for humorous designs which look more upmarket, with foiling, handfinishing and classy images.“ Personal punchlines: “My favourite funny is series called Him and Her. I also really like Gavin and Stacey. I also think Michael Macintyre is great - I am going to see him perform next month!”

Above: Infographics, pie charts and Venn diagrams are all used to comedic effect in Woodmansterne’s Mindfulmess range.

Left: One of the designs from Paperlink’s Funny Farm range.

Amanda Oscroft, co-owner of Love It in Bury St Edmunds and Stamford: Customer fave funnies: “Our customers still love all the Brainbox Candy humour ranges, especially the new Quotish range as the funny and classy designs appeal to our female customers. Plus, the addition of sparkle seems to hit the spot at the moment.

The Cloud Nine range from Redback Cards has also been a huge hit. The cheeky content (eg. ‘never make eye contact while eating a banana’), silvery writing on very bright coloured background seems to be a perfect combination.”

Comedic trends: “We have always stocked humour cards at Love it, but customers are getting even more daring and asking for ever more rude and risqué designs. Older customers seem to be less conservative too, opting for swear words and innuendo.”

Personal punchlines: “Will [Amanda’s husband and business partner] and I love the BBC mockumentary This Country, as well as The Detectorists with Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook.”

Top right: Cheeky Chops’ designs are going down well in Biggleswade.

Above: TV series Him and Her appeals to Sarah Marsh’s sense of humour.

Left: Stylish foiling and funny quips combine on Brainbox’s Quotish range.

Below: The TV mockumentary This Country is a hit with the Oscrofts.

FOCUS ON HUMOUR 2018

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