The New Cartoonist Mar/Apr 2025

ISSN: 2977-6368

NUMBER 4 thenewcartoonist.co.uk

MAR/APR 2025 £2.50

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH COVER STAR MARTIN ROWSON

POLITICALLY SPEAKING...

WITH SONIA SODHA

NEW STEADMAN EXHIBITION SPECIAL

BORN TO DRAW

GROWTH CARTOONS A THEMED SELECTION

A DIP INTO THE WORLD OF NIBS WITH MARSHALL NOT FUNNY

190 CARTOONS INSIDE!

PLUS: N MARK WINTER ON SCARFE N TNC MEETS A NEWBIE IN MY NEW BOSS N YCOTY WINNERS N A SPANISH LIFE WITH ANDREW BIRCH N PROPHETICAL MILDRED HOROSCOPES

CONTENTS PAGE 4

BLAME CULTURE

POLITICALLY SPEAKING WITH SONIA SODHA

PAGE 12

HEAD LINES MARTIN ROWSON PROFILE

PAGE 20

RALPH STEADMAN EXHIBITION

PAGE 23

CARTOON TRIBUTE JULES FEIFFER

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VIVA ESPANA LIFE IN SPAIN WITH ANDREW BIRCH

PAGE 30

THE 3 S’S MARK WINTER ON SCARFE

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GROWTH A CARTOON THEME

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TECHNICAL MARSHALL NOT FUNNY ON NIBS

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MY NEW BOSS WITH ELLERY MITCHELL

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PENS DOWN BOOK REVIEW

PAGE 51

YOUNG CARTOONIST AWARDS WHO WON WHAT

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FROM PROPHETICAL MILDRED p77

VIVA ESPANA

THE LIFE OF A CARTOONIST IN SPAIN MEET ANDREW BIRCH on p26

THE CARTOON MUSEUM WHAT’S ON

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ANIMAL FARM AT 70

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QU EST KEIR?

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AMIMATION SPECIAL NINA GANTZ

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SPRING CARTOONS

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THE DIRECTORY CONTRIBUTORS LISTING

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HOROSCOPES & CAPTION COMP

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PARTING SHOT WITH LUCY O’ MEARA

WANNA BE IN IT? GET IN TOUCH WITH YOUR COMMENTS, SUGGESTIONS AND CARTOONS AND WE WILL DO OUR BEST TO PUBLISH THEM!

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GET YOUR HOROSCOPES

WHO WON WHAT? CHECK OUT THE WINNERS

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Ed’s WELCOME Hello and welcome to the March/April edition. Spring appears to have sprung outside TNC towers - hooray for that!

First off an apology for anybody who has been trying to subscribe since the last edition.

The platform TNC is published through (ISSUU) has a fault, which means TNC subscriptions are currently unavailable.

I’m told this doesn’t affect subscriptions already purchased, but if anyone has had a problem then please get in touch or better still email: support@issuu.com. I could write a book on the conversations I’ve had with the A.I. bots, and there’s no direct number to call of course, so all I can do is raise multiple job tickets. Maybe a mass email event might elevate the problem.

As I write now the last communication I’ve had from ISSUU is as follows: Hi Peter, Again, we sincerely apologize for the delay we’ve been handling a high volume of requests.

We’ll be looking into this in the coming days and will be in touch to assist with troubleshooting.

We truly appreciate your

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SUBS UPDATE - This bug has now been fixed... patience and regret any inconvenience this has caused.

That was 10 days ago (as I write) and nothing further has happened, so you can understand the frustration this is causing. #facepalm and pullingouthair emojis

NUMBER FOUR Despite the major tech problems the juggernaut keeps rolling. In this issue we have the editorial cartoon heavyweight, writer, poet and performer Martin Rowson on the front cover. I caught up with Rowson in his studio at home in South East London, so make sure you watch the video as well as reading the interview. (Some viewers might be affected by the sweary content. Lucky them!)

We also have the fabulous Sonia Sodha in ‘Politically Speaking’ and a piece on the enjoyable afternoon I spent at The Ralph Steadman exhibition in sunny Pinner.

The winners of the Young Cartoonist of The Year were announced in March and the TNC was there at the Cartoon Museum to capture it all. We have a lot of political cartoons, not surprisingly dominated by ‘that giant orange man-baby’ from across the pond, and there’s

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a tribute to the legendary Jules Feiffer.

Mark Winter concludes his three S’s series with a thank you to Gerald Scarfe and his work, and there’s a brilliant look at nibs from Marshall Not Funny.

We also get a glimpse of the cartoonist’s life abroad with the always entertaining Andrew Birch in Spain.

There’s also cartoons galore in the form of a centre-spread special on something we’d all love a bit more of - Growth - (a mix of gardening / Rachel in accounts gags), and Spring.

Dy meets up with budding cartoonist Ellery Mitchell, and the most accurate soothsayer in Greater London, Prophetical Mildred, returns with your horoscopes. Finally, a parting shot from just off the A327, and an unexpected final destination.

Enjoy!

EMAIL PETE THE EDITOR

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POLITICALLY SPEAKING

MAKING THE HEADLINES CHIEF LEADER WRITER AND COLUMNIST AT THE OBSERVER, SONIA SODHA SPEAKS TO TNC PETE SONGI poking and probing As a political cartoonist I often find myself immersed in the aftermath of PMQs, listening to lively interviews on the radio or staying up late on a ‘school night’ to catch the debates on paper reviews.

That quest for more knowledge and urge to hear other opinions is hard-wired - but what’s it like from the other side? TNC checked in with one of those frequent participants, Sonia Sodha.

Sonia appears regularly on the BBC, Sky News and ITN, and is a contributor to the BBC’s flagship politics shows including, Politics Live, Question Time, Newsnight and the Today Programme. She has also made several critically-acclaimed documentaries for Radio 4, on a diverse range of subjects including Brexit, healthcare, immigration, the future of work, and the university system.

Sonia has also served as a trustee of City Year UK, a charity that supports role models to help students from disadvantaged communities, and of Trust for London, a charity addressing poverty and inequality.

We’ve just gone past Trump’s first 100 days; how do you think he’s doing so far? Do you think the US is slowly beginning to wonder what on Earth it has done? He seems to be in a rush to get a lot ticked off on his ‘to do’ list?

I think we’re only just starting to get our heads round what this second Trump presidency

SONIA SODHA A regular political TV pundit

means for global security. It’s such a fundamental change in the rules-based order and the American security backstop that Europe has taken for granted for decades. Trump is as unpredictable as ever but the one thing that’s certain is that Europe can no longer rely on the US and NATO to keep Vladimir Putin at bay in Europe. Whether or not Europe will step up in response remains to be seen, but our future security probably depends on it.

Back in the UK the Government is heading for another ‘fiscal event’ (spring statement/ Budget), with rumours of benefit cuts and possible tax rises. Do you think Rachel Reeves can still blame what she inherited?

DEBATING ON TV Sonia on Sky News

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Her inheritance is unenviable.

There are long-term structural issues with the British economy that governments of both colours have failed to fix: the low investment, sluggish productivity

and sharp regional inequalities that have led to stagnant living standards since the financial crisis. All this was made worse by fourteen years of austerity imposed by Conservative chancellors – which reduced support to low-income parents and have left the UK’s public services struggling to keep up with demand – not to mention the pandemic. But Labour’s weakness is that it didn’t front up about how tough this was going to be to fix with voters – instead, Keir Starmer promised voters that if they voted Labour it would all be fixed within five years, and that taxes weren’t going to have to go up. That might have worked as an electoral strategy, but it’s hamstrung the government in office. If she sticks to her fiscal rules and doesn’t make the case for putting up taxes, the risk for Labour is that voters don’t feel like things have improved by the time of the next election, further undermining trust in politicians and political institutions – and that the record of their first term in government is higher, not lower, rates of child poverty.

In 2019 you made a Radio 4 Documentary about the dream of a 4 day week. Do you think the

WITH SONIA SODHA WFH revolution that surfaced after Covid means that that dream is now officially over?

I think a better work-life balance and shorter working hours are an important long-term goal, but in the short to medium term there are even more urgent things that need sorting out in the labour market – such as the large number of low-paid jobs that offer poor progression prospects in the UK.

You appear on many political shows and newspaper review segments.

How did that start for you? Any top tips for newbies starting out in journalism?

The best way to get better at broadcast is to do it, so I’d recommend saying yes to podcasts and local radio stations when you’re starting out even if they don’t have a huge reach as it’s a great way to build your presentational skills.

You have written extensively about education and are very passionate about it. Do you think the Labour government’s policy to charge VAT on private school fees is going to lead to a rebalance in the education system or does it need more extensive reform and investment?

I think it’s fine and fair as policies go, but the amount of money it will generate is fairly

SONIA DRAWS! Earth calling Bruce Willis!

incremental and that the education system needs deeper reform to tackle the key issues – the education attainment gap between poorer and more affluent children and significant minority of young people who leave the education system without the functional numeracy and literacy skills that are so key to getting on in life.

Before working in journalism, you were a senior policy adviser to Ed Miliband. Did you ever wish he’d been advised to eat a salad ‘that day’ rather than a bacon sandwich?

That photo was taken a couple of years after I left the leader of the opposition’s office, so I can’t take any credit for it! It’s often said politicians should go out of their way to avoid being snapped while eating – sage advice, but sometimes easier said than done given the ubiquity of camera-phones!.

Political cartooning is becoming an increasingly precarious role for cartoonists. Do you think it still has a future in the age of AI and inclusivity? Have any cartoons stood out for you as a journalist?

A CARTOON FAVOURITE Sonia is a big fan of Grizelda

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Absolutely I do – I don’t (yet) see AI capable of producing the satire and wit of the best political cartoonists! I’m a big fan of Grizelda, who does cartoons for the New Statesman, Private Eye and the Spectator – there aren’t enough female

cartoonists, and feminism is an important theme of her cartoons, like this one which won political cartoon of the year last year.

What is next for Sonia Sodha? Any more books or documentaries in the pipeline? I hear you’ll be at the Hay festival. Can you tell us what your talk is about?

You’ll have to watch this space! I’ll be talking about assisted dying at the Hay Festival – a sombre subject, but one I’ve written about and broadcast about a lot over the last year. I’ve got huge concerns that the legislation that’s been introduced to parliament will put vulnerable people at risk of being coerced or inappropriately channelled towards an assisted suicide, and the MPs who are taking the bill through parliament have rejected attempts by those MPs who share my concerns to try and make the bill safer.

Finally, here at TNC we like a challenge and believe everyone was ‘born to draw’. Could you draw us a political cartoon?

Sure happy to - I have zero drawing/cartoon ability though just to manage expectations.

(See Sonia’s superb attempt above. Thank you Sonia!)

SONIA SODHA

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HEAD LINES

A PORTRAIT OF MARTIN ROWSON

DRAWING THE ‘FUR CUPS’

THE NEW CARTOONIST MET UP WITH LEGENDARY CARTOONIST & ‘NIB TIGGLER’ MARTIN ROWSON Political cartooning.... it never gets any easier does it? It’s harder than ever to keep ahead of the ever-changing headlines and endless news cycle. So how do our leading satirists cope with it all? The TNC took a trip into one of the darkest cartoon minds around - one of the true legends of putting the political establishment to task; the one and only Martin Rowson.

Rowson was adopted as a child, and educated at the independent Merchant Taylors’ School in Northwood in north-west London, followed by Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he studied English Literature. He is a multi-award winning cartoonist, writer, graphic novelist, painter, illustrator, performer and poet.

Rowson has drawn cartoons for most of the national newspapers in the UK (except The Sun - they never asked him), and has been on the comment pages of The Guardian since 1994.

As a political cartoonist myself I regard him as a true cartoonist icon. He’s an artist who invokes a response in anyone who looks at his work, who really makes you think, and who leads you into worlds far beyond the imagination with a palette as rich in it’s colourful language as it is dark in its mire. His content often provokes debate and compels to make you go back and have a second look; which is the job of a political cartoonist in a nutshell.

In short, you think you have a good idea for a cartoon on the news of the day - and then you log on to The Guardian website around 7pm on a Friday to see what Rowson has come up with.

You’ve been at this madness for over 40 years; poking and prodding the political establishment as a Political Cartoonist.

What’s the secret to your longevity, and where did it all begin?

It all started properly when I was ten, when I realised that I wanted to be a political cartoonist more than anything else in the world.

That was thanks to me pinching my sister’s school History text book, “An Illustrated History of Britain 1780-1945”, full of cartoons (as they weren’t called) from Hogarth – albeit a bit late for him – via Gillray and Cruikshank, through Tenniel up to David Low. I could always draw, and my (adoptive) father, who was a virologist, raised me to be sceptical of all authority, in the proper scientific way. One of his favourite phrases was “never obey orders, including this one”, which it took me about a decade after he’d

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IN SITU! Martin Rowson’s home studio

died fully to understand in all the nuances of its genius. It was the combination of attitude, aptitude and early exposure to genius that sowed the seeds of my ambition. That I realized the ambition is mostly down to a sordid combination of good luck, timing and contacts.

That I’ve lasted thus long is almost entirely good luck..

During the covid pandemic, you set up the ‘Draw Challenge’ on social media with the intention of encouraging new talent. This kept many cartoonists sane during that period, and inspired many others (including me!) to start drawing again. How did that come about? And did you unearth any gems?

Again, the origin of the #Draw Challenge was pretty sordid. It was during the vile 2019 election campaign (which I mostly spent doing a prop job for the historical comedy drama “The Great” about Catherine the Great of Russia, producing cod pornographic woodcuts of Nicholas Hoult sodomising serfs and Elle Fanning being fucked by a stallion).

The ludicrous Matt Hancock had done something or other truly annoying, and I realised

I couldn’t draw him to my satisfaction, the way you need to get your hand up their souls to make them look more like them than they do.

So I threw down a challenge to draw the little squit so I could – as we all do – pick up some tips through theft. The winning portrait, by Nuff (nom de plume of Colm Campbell) was so utterly brilliant I recreated it again and again during the subsequent months of horror.

As for unearthed gems, there’s too many to mention, though my favourites were the pseudonymous depiction of Toby Young as the artist’s shaved left testicle with glasses and a mouth applied in felt tip (this is called mixed media) and Mike Stokoe’s nightmarish image of Michael Gove’s face merged with Mike’s naked torso, with nipples for eyes. Yeeeech!

Political cartoons, especially those for print in national newspapers, seem to be diminishing at an alarming rate, with fewer contracts and slots available than ever before. Why do you think that is? And what advice do you have for anyone starting out in these uncertain times?

I’ve said for years that political cartoons in this

1 MARCH 2025 GUARDIAN

28 JANUARY 2013 GUARDIAN

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country existed and thrived for two-thirds of their existence, from around 1700 onwards, outside newspapers, where we’ve featured only since 1900. Like any other sensible parasite, once our host dies we’ll find another.

Which is slowly what we’re doing. Then again, there were never enough slots, and those that there were were bedblocked by old men who hung around forever. All three newspapers which still feature cartoons – The Times, Guardian and Telegraph - jobshare the space, something I advocated at The Graun in the 80s, and which nearly happened – except the cartoon share idea (to be divvied out between Steve Bell, Les Gibbard, me, KAL and, I think, Dave Brown) never got further than the great idea stage because the letters page editor had to go home at 3 to pick her kids up from school so

A BIT OF POETRY! IVY HOUSE, NUNHEAD ON 30TH APRIL WITH LUKE WRIGHT & WILLIAN WYLD

It always has been hazardous work. the page went to bed too soon. It happened We’re constantly saying the unsayable in an eventually, with a much healthier gender environment of shifting toleration. Personally, balance.

I think the merciless hounding of our leaders is Your cartoons are famously scathing at the first and last essential plank of our freedom, times, and often look like works of art that though many have disagreed, and should take days in the always have. making. Yet you somehow include that vast legion make The Guardian I soon discovered of These people who are themselves deadlines. Ever come close to within myself an personally neither targeted nor missing the press?

It’s got increasingly hairy, with untapped capacity affected by the cartoon, but tell me they want to kill me because tighter, earlier deadlines, and for vicious the objects of their veneration me basically falling out of love, about a year ago, with the committee politics – leaders, ideas, gods, prophets – are. adrenalin rush of getting in a In the 1950s a GP from Harrow herd of 1000000000 fur cups ridden by pigs in pin striped suits riding over the had a letter published in The Evening Standard in response to a Vicky cartoon attacking the death horizon finished with 10 minutes to go.

That’s why I recently cut back to one Graun penalty. The doctor said it was a shame Vicky and his family had escaped the Holocaust. toon a week, in recognition that I’m 66.

Which is a gruesome way of getting to my own little local difficulty in 2023, where a cartoon I’d You’ve walked the cartoon tightrope drawn about Richard Sharp was accused of using a few times over the years, trying to balance the need to punch up rather than antisemitic tropes. In this case, I was assailed by lynch mobs online and given a week long punch down. In 2023 you fell foul of the Guardian guidelines after a cartoon upset punishment beating in the Tory press by a whole a few, and you ended up out of the paper cavalcade of heel-clicking Tory hacks, most of whom I’d previously serially rolled in the shit for an extended period. Do you think ‘Political Cartooning’ is a poisoned chalice anyway. More importantly, although I’d deployed them unwittingly, once it was pointed out I could these days? A ‘canary in the coal mine’ see nothing but those anti-Semitic tropes, so role? Or is satire just dead now?

A PORTRAIT OF MARTIN ROWSON

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I never had high hopes of Starmer and I apologised, like you would after an accident in fact didn’t vote Labour in a general in which innocent passers-by have been hurt election for the first time ever. As to (including many of my Jewish friends who were the shit show across the water, I find it surprised to read that I’d secretly been a racist a personal affront that Trump should all along). constantly be trying to outstrip us satirists Then I was assailed by mobs of people telling in coming up with things Jonathan Swift on me I shouldn’t have apologised. One positive a good day would never make up in outcome is that I now regularly have a million years lunch with Dr Dave Rich of the This, though, is central to Community Security Trust, who his schtik: come up with made the original accusation. a fresh mad distraction This is called while his henchmen get reconciliation. on with the heist. That As for Satire, it’s died so said, Mush shows great many times in my lifetime potential, because as a – after 9/11, after Diana’s pathetic dweeb he’ll hate death, after Kissinger got it when the smart gang the Nobel Peace Prize – I’ve (us) starts laughing at him stopped sending flowers to the MARTINROWSON.COM A NEW WEB IDEA! and his terrible jowls and worse latest funeral. complexion.

Satire and being human, and I’m currently working on a new comic alive, and living in societies with strip called “Elon’s Ninja Nerds” about his team elites, are joined at the hip, forever... of teenage dorks who are closing down the US Government, Brett, Chet, Ket and Het and You love a bit of shit; often piles of it - and their crazy adventures. This is going to premier ‘fur cups’ often make an appearance in your exclusively on my new subscription service, work. Did you think after 14 years of Tories coming soon!. you’d have to retire some of those tropes once Starmer got in? Do you have any new Your work often appears very dark and ideas stirring, now that the giant, orange man-baby is back in charge of the free world detailed, and contains many gags that are less overt, giving it a ‘boomerang effect’, ie with his over-eXcitable sidekick?

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WED 9TH APRIL TELEGRAPH HILL FESTIVAL BOOK HERE NOW!

readers will often go back and have an ‘aha’ moment. Is that something that happens organically, or is it more intentional and pre-planned?

I’ve always wanted to give value for money, and as a big fan of the Pre-Raphaelites I like both detail and symbolism, even if it sometimes symbolises nothing at all. I was told a few years ago that a reader wrote into the Guardian to say unravelling my cartoons was as good a way of offsetting senility as doing Sudoku. But outside

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HEAD LINES the graphic novels, this style is mostly limited to the Guardian, where I have a relationship with the readership that goes back over 30 years, and they look out for the in-jokes as a shibboleth to prove they’re in the gang.

My stuff for The Mirror (before they sacked me and you took my job) was much simpler, because it was reproduced much smaller. And in fact the Guardian work became more complex specifically after 2010 and the forming of the Coalition Government. We suddenly had a crowded government which demanded a crowded canvas, and I remember deliberately seeking to create some kind of hybrid between Gillray and Giles.

Ed: “LOL ...Right place right time Martin and appreciate you setting that up for me”.

Cartooning is not your only passion. As well as having had many books published, you also produce amazing still-lifes, one man shows and you write poetry, which I’ve watched you read live in a Nunhead pub. Is writing a natural bedfellow to cartooning for you? Or just a release from the daily grind? You’re also a London Zoo patron! Can you tell us more about that?

All cartoonists can write, and have to be able

APRIL 1997 THE GUARDIAN

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A PORTRAIT OF MARTIN ROWSON to because a cartoon, even a wordless one, is still a synthesis between text and image. Few writers can draw, which tells you all you need to know, and why the accounts departments of newspapers (which are filled with the output of writers) find us so easily expendable – because we remind the hacks of their manifold shortcomings.

Anyway, the innate instability of the profession – I’ve been “let go” in all sorts of ways 46 times in the past 42 years – means I needed a hinterland.

I’d been a member of the Zoological Society of London in one way or another since I was seven.

Having become a Fellow in1989, they then announced they were going to close London Zoo and I got involved in the campaign to reverse this. Eventually we won and I was seconded onto the board of trustees aged 33, the youngest member of their Council since Prince Albert.

I soon discovered within myself an untapped capacity for vicious committee politics, which may explain why I lasted there 30 years while all my fellow revolutionaries have long since disappeared. There’s a lovely old Chinese proverb about sitting long enough on the riverbank to see the bloated corpses of your enemies float by. What they don’t say is you then

start getting called “an elder statesman” and they can safely stop listening to you. Though ZSL made me an honorary fellow in 2023 (alongside Darwin and the Emperor of Japan), which was nice.

You’ve recently announced that you’re dropping one of your weekly slots on The Guardian, taking you to one a week, on Saturdays. Is this just you taking a 66 yearold foot off the pedal, or are you making time for other projects? I hear you have something new coming online?

For years I’ve been wondering what it would be like to live on the edge like our great forebears, who sold their satirical prints as individual artefacts, unencumbered by either newspaper editors or their cheques. So, having become an OAP, I thought I’d take a leap into the dark and I’m launching a subscription service on 1st April, offering exclusive cartoons – at least 4 a month – delivered directly to your inbox, plus a whole pile of other goodies.

You can find out more on my website.

MARTIN ROWSON

TRUMPED! The Brookmill, 65 Cranbrook Road London SE8 4EJ

MARTIN ROWSON QUICK FIRE!

Thu, 27 Mar 2025 19:30 - 22:00 Doors at 7pm

“Trumped”, drawing on insights from his 40 years in frontline journalism and the thousands of cartoons about British, US & global politics he’s produced in The Guardian and almost every other publication you can think of (apart from The Sun & Private Eye), he’s hellbent on having a lot of desperately needed fun finding out...

FAVOURITE FILM? Mary Poppins/ It’s a Wonderful Life.

Expect cartoons. Expect jokes. Expect radical analysis, ranting and startling insights. Probably expect food based action painting.

BOOK HERE!

STUDIO SPACES

FIRST CAR? I used to borrow my father’s terrible old plastic Reliant kitten, to universal hilarity, when I was a teenager and in my early 20s. We got rid of our last car, a severely beaten-up second hand Volvo estate, 12 years ago.

It was a useful outdoor cupboard.

MOST-LOVED POET? Browning.

NICKNAME AT SCHOOL? I never heard what they called me.

A friend’s sister’s rather lairy boyfriend used to call me “Edge”.

Can’t think why.

YOUR CHANCE TO WIN A SIGNED MARTIN ROWSON COVER PRINT! Simply email: editor@thenewcartoonist.co.uk subject: Martin Rowson print competition DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES APRIL 20TH 2025

ENTER HERE NOW Congratulations to Jim Mortleman who was picked out of the hat from the last issue and gets a Nicola Jennings signed cover print

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PIECE OF EQUIPMENT YOU CAN’T DO WITHOUT WHEN CARTOONING? Bristol paper and 850 mapping pen nibs.

PLUM PUDDING OR GIN LANE? Gin Lane.

WHAT SUPER POWER WOULD YOU HAVE? Universal vengeance!

DOGS OR CATS? Cats. You don’t have to pick up their shit without first having to climb over the fence into the neighbours’ garden.

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A SUPER STEADMAN SHOW ALL TRAINS LEAD TO PINNER FOR THIS AMAZING COLLECTION OF ART FROM A TRUE ‘GREAT’ PETE SONGI learning something If you have ever tried travelling to Wembley from South East London when your 2nd love gets to a football final, you’ll know how long it takes. The fact Pinner is all that bit further is a testament to my first love of drawing and worshipping the legends that make it special.

Ralph Steadman for me is one of those legends, and to be able to get up close and personal to his work was an absolute pleasure.

All negative thoughts of the long trip out to North West London soon evaporated.

Situated in the grounds of the surprisingly tranquil Memorial Park, the Heath Robinson Museum is a mere stones throw away from Pinner station on the Metropolitan line. Meeting me there for a look around was TNC regular Glenn Marshall, on what turned out to be THE HEATH ROBINSON MUSEUM Memorial Park, 50 West End Lane, a pretty stunning day as my picture below Pinner HA5 1AE demonstrates.

THE DISPLAY The ‘INKling’ exhibition is divided into four sections across the four walls. Literary work, children’s illustrations, Gonzo and animal drawings.

The literary work includes stunning imagery from Alice, Treasure Island, and of course Animal Farm; well worth a close look, and truly original stuff.

The Gonzo wall, featuring work from his life-long collaboration and friendship with Hunter S. Thompson, takes a look into the ‘dirty water technique’, Gonzovation. In this section featuring

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BOOK CHATTER ING COLOUR P G BACKDRO STUNNIN and the wheres discuss Pinner s in wherefore the l Park of Memoria grounds thepanel

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endangered animals, Steadman explains how he splashes dirty water on to paper and returns to it after a couple of days to draw something the resulting stain inspires; he ‘either succeeds or it’s buggered’. Steadman adds that ‘there’s nothing more challenging than a white sheet of paper’.

There’s a huge variety of work on display, including the section on children’s illustrations, and dominating the space is a Steadman desk - by itself a thing of beauty. With an accompanying audio providing slightly haunting sounds of the great man painting, it gives you the sense that the artist is beavering away somewhere in the background, swirling his paint brushes and deliberating his next move.

You can have your picture taken alongside a life-sized cutout of Steadman, and learn more about his life with an interesting touch screen and a glass case including various artefacts and covers.

Finally, next door to the

HEATH ROBINSON EXHIBITION Well worth a visit

Steadman show is an interesting exhibition on William Heath Robinson himself. If you like weird mechanical contraptions and gadgets held together with bits of string, you’ll love it!

‘INKling’ exhibition continues until 10th May. There’s also an extensive programme of related events during the run including: 5th April – A conversation with filmmaker and writer Ceri Levi on collaborating with Ralph Steadman on the Gonzovation Conservation Project.

26th April – Film screening of the ‘For No Good Reason’ Steadman documentary followed by a Q&A Check the museum website for HEATH ROBINSON the limited opening times.

MUSEUM

EXHIBITION

AN ASSAULT ON THE SENSES The inspiring work of Ralph Steadman

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TRIBUTE

REMEMBERING AN ICON JULES FEIFFER: 26 JANUARY 1929 – 17 JANUARY 2025 Cartoonist, writer, satirist and 60s counterculture icon Jules Feiffer died Friday 17 January at the age of 95. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential American satirists of the 20th century.

As a playwright and screenwriter he wrote more than 35 books, plays and screenplays.

He contributed to the 1969 Broadway revue Oh Calcutta! and earned a Tony nomination for Knock Knock. For the big screen he wrote Mike Nichols’ Carnal Knowledge 1971 (from his unproduced play) and Robert Altman’s Popeye 1980 starring Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall.

Jules received a number of prizes and special honours in a storied and varied career. His book Munro, about a four year old accidentally drafted into the army, was made into an animated short and won the Oscar in 1961. He won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning in 1968, election into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1995, induction into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2004, the National Cartoonists Society’s Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004 and the Writers’ Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. The Library of Congress has recognised his “remarkable legacy” from 1941 onwards as a cartoonist, playwright, screenwriter, author, illustrator and arts instructor.

In 1969 and 1970 he won an Obie Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for his plays Little Murders and The White House Murder Case.

He published his ink stained memoir Backing

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Into Forward in 2010 and had been working on a visual version at the time of his death.

His final graphic novel Amazing Grapes was published only a few months before his death, described as a remarkable visual accomplishment full of offbeat humour and wordplay.

His cartoons appeared regularly in major publications, including the Los Angeles Times, The Observer (London), The New Yorker, Playboy, Esquire and The New York Times. Jules broke new ground by tackling taboos other cartoonists didn’t address. He used his comic strips – most notably Feiffer in The Village Voice from the late 50s until 1997 – as an editorial column, covering subjects like relationships, sex, depression, family troubles, existential angst, as well as current events.

He had a number of recurring characters, the most iconic was The Dancer, an unnamed female ballerina in a black leotard with a monologue about a topical issue, expressed through an interpretative dance.

The first of his annual Dance to Spring strips appeared in March 1957.

Stanley Kubrick (like Jules, born in the Bronx) twice approached him to do a film based on his dancer and to write a script for Dr Strangelove. He declined. He was asked last year for his thoughts on where society is headed, he said, “I think it’s an endless fight, and it goes on.

Endless fights go on endlessly.”

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A CARTOONIST PROFILE

A SPANISH INQUISITION!

NOBODY EXPECTED IT- BUT FUNDAMENTALLY IT TURNED OUT TO BE ‘VIVA ESPANA’ FOR BIRCHY ANDREW BIRCH sunning his knees I’d already decided to live abroad by the time I was forty, so my Argentinian boyfriend Miguel and I left London and moved to Spain, initially to a holiday house we’d bought in a small Andalusian town, then to Barcelona.

My friends thought I was mad, as I was making a name for myself as a cartoonist and illustrator, and it was before the technological breakthrough of sending cartoons by email.

Some people took it personally; when I told one editor and suggested I send my strip by fax, she not only said she’d sack me if I tried it, she rang again a few hours later to tell me she meant it. (later she relented and I sent the strip by special delivery mail for some months, until one didn’t arrive and I had neglected to send an emergency one. She sacked me - by fax). Fortunately other CARTOONIST IN DISGUISE! magazines didn’t mind, so my nightmare of Birchy arriving at Art Show ending up caricaturing passers-by on the Ramblas never came to pass.

Malaga. The capital city nearly thirty years ago We spent three enjoyable years in Barcelona, was a far cry from the fashionable and expensive and it was there that I bought an early tourist trap it is now: scruffy and down at heel, alien’s head iMac in a fetching shade of blue, with no tourists, pretentious restaurants or fancy and started sending stuff by email. Then we bars. We loved it, and soon made friends with a decided it was time for a change, and moved to

group of local artists, out every night getting drunk and partying. For the first year we lived in a rented flat high above the city with sensational views of the port and sea, then as there were so many fine old houses in the city centre empty and neglected, we bought a huge town house, empty for years, for a song, and moved in there.

THE GIG

POSTCARDS FROM MALAGA Dear Mum, fashionable folk here wear their sunglasses on their foreheads.

“The Sun’s bothering you? Wear another pair, darling!”

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One night I was invited to a bar by a writer friend to meet a bunch of journalists who were starting a new daily paper, La Opinion de Malaga, and after getting to know them, the editor asked me to do a daily cartoon. As the slot I was given was oblong, I came up with the idea of a postcard written by a clueless Englishman (me) to his mother in the UK, telling her about his adventures in the city, with a large accompanying cartoon. It was called Postales de Malaga (postcards from Malaga) and changed everything. All the doors opened, and Miguel and I were taken to the city’s heart. I was given a one man show Miguel had three - asked to judge young artists’ competitions and ran a cartoon workshop in the new Contemporary Arts Centre.

Having run out of ideas for postcards I changed the strip into a political one, Por el Tunel (through the tunnel, a Malaga reference) where I started criticising the ruling conservative

ANDREW BIRCH

RATS! The conservative Mayor of Malaga and the socialist head of regional Andalusian government both want to control city planning. Perhaps why I was sacked...

BLUE SKY THINKING! the glorious views in Malaga

Partido Popular. After being told to lay off the Mayor and not doing so, I was sacked.

I worked there for five years, and it made me an honorary malagueño.

POR EL TUNEL STRIPS Then Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar wanted a reference to christianity in the European Constitution

TODAY Time passed, as it tends to. Miguel died nearly four years ago. I sold the big old house to someone with the money to renovate it, and moved to a modern rented flat in a small town near Malaga with views directly over the sea that I post on social media to make everyone jealous.

Malaga has changed almost out of recognition, crammed with tourists, blocks of wildly expensive flats springing up and being bought by speculators, but it’s still my adoptive city that gave me so much, where so many dear friends live, a city that I call home.

BLUESKY - ON SOCIAL MEDIA

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ANDREW BIRCH

SMOKER’S CORNER “Yesterday was the Day without Tobacco. I’ve only got 364 left!”

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THE THREE S’s A CARTOON ICON SERIES

THE GERALD SCARFE EFFECT

LOOKING AT THE LIFE AND WORKS OF ONE OF THE GREATEST CARTOONISTS OF OUR TIME MARK WINTER reflecting “My father was a banker. He wanted me to be a banker. The only thing I could do was draw”. Gerald Scarfe completes ‘The Three S’s’ cartoon icon series featuring the British ‘Toon Trinity’ that I have admired and been inspired by.

The Daily Mail described Gerald as the “ruthless diminisher of power through political cartoons - grotesque, hilarious, shocking, pushing boundaries of taste” but asked where does all that fury come from? Gerald acknowledged his debilitating childhood illness during wartime and how it gave him a dark side.

He realised how vulnerable life is. “I have always YES PRIME MINISTER drawn, ever since I could hold a pencil. As a Scarfe’s work on TV classic young child I was a chronic asthmatic and spent long periods bed ridden either at home or in He decided to take matters into his own hands hospital, so I drew. Drawing became my way of and cycled from his home in Hampstead hoping communicating and exorcising my fears, that go meet Ronald at his house in Bayswater to ask still applies today.” said Gerald. advice. There was an arch shaped green front A 1965 Daily Express profile piece Mr Scarfe” door with a big brass doorbell, Gerald recalled. heralded him as, “undoubtedly possessed of He said he must have stood on that doorstep the most ghoulish line of British cartoonry about a dozen times, but could not summon the (an invented word for the occasion) today”. courage to ring the bell.

Gerald told The Big Issue, “Drawing was a way of “Despite this, Ronald Searle continued to be expressing myself – drawings of what I feared like an invisible mentor to me – a beacon of what I witches and werewolves, now it’s world leaders could achieve. There was a great truth in his work misusing their power.” He feels it’s the duty of which I believed being an artist was all about. I an artist to reinterpret the world and to freshen always yearned to emulate Ronald Searle. I took our stale vision. But always, Gerald says, he has one look at the world and I knew this was what I suffered from a lack of self confidence as well as wanted to do”. sensitivity about his status as a true artist.

Years later Gerald’s wife “One only has to go into a Chelsea Jane Asher organised home,” he notes, “to see that a secret birthday the real art is hanging in the meal at an exclusive drawing room and the cartoons restaurant in are hung in the lavatory”.

Provence. The only When he was about 14 other couple there Gerald discovered Ronald were Ronald and Searle. He became his hero. his wife, who lived Searle was working for the News nearby. On the table Chronicle and Punch Magazine at GIFT FROM SEARLE was a small package the time, doing wonderful satirical done up with a ribbon. portraits. However, Gerald didn’t know “‘Oh, is this for me?’ and Ronald how to go about being a cartoonist himself. said, ‘yeah, it’s nothing’, so I opened “My father was in banking so I didn’t get much it and here was a brass doorbell with encouragement there. Being a cartoonist wasn’t a note saying ‘please ring anytime’”. really a career choice in those days”.

They became great friends, meeting up in that restaurant every

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year… then going back to Ronald’s home for what he called, “a little bit more engine oil”. The cartoon genius was as generous with his advice as he was with the pricey champagne.

A LOOK BACK In 2019 Gerald’s memoir Long Drawn Out Trip was published – a sweeping account of his glittering 83 years and a career continuing a tradition of uncompromising satire dating back to Hogarth and Gilray. In its review the Daily Mail described him as, “our most famous living political cartoonist,” which included 50 years cartooning for the Sunday Times and 15 years for the New Yorker.

After leaving school at 16 Gerald became a self taught commercial artist, drawing domestic goods for advertisements. He despaired of this and called it “excruciatingly tedious”. After five years in the advertising studio he quit and started gag cartooning for Sketch, The Mirror and The Evening Standard, and in 1960 he finally had a cartoon published in Punch; the gold standard of mass market

cartoons, publishing ‘sophisticated’ humour and satire. He also covered the 1964 US presidential election for the Sunday Times and did illustration assignments for Esquire.

His career took off when he arrived at Private Eye, which Gerald said, “changed his life”.

It was his 5 April 1963 Private Eye Profumo cover caricature of a naked Harold Macmillan adopting the iconic seated pose of Christine Keeler that propelled Scarfe into the cartooning stratosphere.

“I already felt that the whole point of being an artist was to use my craft to tell the truth.

Advertising was lies – hoodwinking the public.

I think that’s the reason my cartoons became ultra truthful, because I realised the whole point of being an artist was telling the truth,” Gerald said.

He credits Private Eye with more than helping him to find his vocation, “for the first time I knew what I had to do – I knew the way”. He was deluged with commissions, offered books, interviewed on television, given exhibitions, won awards and, “critics took me seriously”.

It was only the beginning, as he prolifically continued, “to lash out in every direction, sometimes flailing wildly and hitting my targets by a combination of luck and instinct. I drew every politician under the sun as libertines, vultures, philanderers, dogs and pigs. It tumbled out, spilled and oozed. I was accused of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. I really enjoyed myself”.

POLITICS Gerald had discovered a signature approach to political cartooning. His drawings of politicians were becoming freer, exploding from the constraints of representational drawing, “wildly grotesque and rampantly febrile”.

Gerald’s striking illustration Churchill in the

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House of Commons, a charcoal sketch of a frail Winston Churchill in his final senile appearance in parliament in July 1964 is a personal favourite of mine. It was originally commissioned by the Times to record the occasion. “I sketched from the public gallery and was shocked how much he had deteriorated,” Gerald said. The chamber was crowded and they stood six deep at the back of the House.

The Times refused to print the image, fearing it might offend Churchill’s wife Clemmie. Months later Churchill was dead and the drawing appeared on Private Eye’s cover on 5 February 1965.

The original went on display at Portcullis House in the House of Commons as part of Gerald’s Hung, Drawn and Slaughtered exhibition, until it was included in the Scarfe at Sotheby’s auction in April 2017.

In the mid ‘60s the DailyMail won Gerald over with a lucrative salary, an E-type Jag and free petrol. But his stint was brief. He commented on his year at the paper, “The Daily Mail didn’t know how to handle me, because the stuff I’d been doing in Private Eye was fine for a cult audience, but for the general public it was too much”. So they sent him to Vietnam to provide reportage illustration of the war instead.

“The thinking I suppose was cruel, grotesque artist, let’s send him to a cruel, grotesque situation.” He vividly recalled visiting an American morgue in Tan Son Nhut airbase in Saigon. A sergeant asked him, “are you sure you wanna do this?” The hanger’s floor was awash with blood and human remains. There were 12 operating bunks with men on them. Dead men.

It suddenly struck him, unlike the John Wayne

films he watched growing up where everyone fell over in a full heap, these bodies end up in bits without arms, legs and heads. They became lumps of meat and ribcages. He told the sergeant he couldn’t handle it, “not just the blood and guts but the incompetence and the sort of stupidity of it all. I do pride myself as an artist on being able to drawing anything but Vietnam... my God it was horrific”.

Time Magazine commissioned him to draw a Beatles image in 1967. He started sketching, but instead of drawing or painting a final image, he chose a more experimental approach; translating his sketches into a three dimensional papier mâché sculpture which he then photographed. He continued to work in 3D, making sculptures of his cartoons. His son once told a teacher, “at home we have a dog, three cats, a goldfish and two naked Mrs Thatchers.”

THE GOGGLE BOX Inevitably he moved into film and TV directing a documentary on Hogarth for the BBC’s Omnibus series, followed by the 1973 hand drawn animated film A Long Drawn Out Trip, a psychedelic stream of consciousness featuring American icons like Mickey Mouse and the Statue of Liberty. This bought him to the attention of the rock band Pink Floyd; two members in particular saw it and proclaimed, “he’s fucking mad – we need to work with this guy.”

He became the band’s designer and animator for the 1974 live show Wish You Were Here followed by the sleeve artwork for the iconic 1979 album The Wall with totalitarian control as its central theme. He also created the design,

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THE THREE S’s A CARTOON ICON SERIES

animation and stage props for the live concert tour and the 1982 film adaption. An exhibition in September 2016 at the Barbican in London entitled Music and Scarfe focussed largely on The Wall album and the stage props. It also featured his designs for opera, including Peter Hall’s The Magic Flute, English National Opera’s Orpheus and the Underworld and the English National Ballet’s The Nutcracker. In 1994 Gerald won an Olivier Award for the Best Costume Design for An Absolute Turkey at the Globe Theatre.

Gerald provided the opening animated titles and end credit illustrations for the popular TV series Yes Minister 1980-1984 and the subsequent Yes Prime Minister 1986-1988 featuring the caricatures of Paul Eddington (Jim Hacker MP and PM), Derek Fowlds (Bernard Woolley) and Nigel Hawthorne (Sir Humphrey Applyby).

An episode for the BBC’s Arena series directed

by Gerald entitled Scarfe on Scarfe aired in 1986 as well. It was an irreverent investigation of his own personality, exploring how his work has developed through sculpture, animation, film, rock and roll and theatre. It has an innovative approach of Gerald illustrating his narration on the white walls of a bare room. One memorable image included a caricature of Rhodesian Premier Ian

Smith hanging Queen Elizabeth II by the neck.

Shortly afterwards Gerald met Princess Anne at a charity event, “I really enjoyed your TV programme” she said, “but did I see Mummy hanging from a tree?” Gerald won the BAFTA Award for Best Arts Programme.

As the scourge of the establishment he occasionally joined the establishment ,once dining with Princess Margaret after drawing her as a warthog. When he was honoured with CBE in 2008 he was both, “pleased and surprised – since I’ve spent much of my professional life being rude to people. When I met the Queen she asked ‘Are you still doing it?’ which took me aback”.

Many have been subjected to Gerald’s venomous nib, with one person in particular. His portrayal of Margaret Thatcher made the most impact, depicting her in a range of striking and shocking guises, from a shark to a handbag to a bloody axe.

“I find a particular delight in taking the caricature as far as I can”. Gerald’s first Maggie cartoon for Private Eye depicted the newly elected Conservative Party leader as the Top Bitch at Crufts. He felt she grew progressively more scythe like and cutting as time went on.

While he never actually met Thatcher he was in the same room as her once, but was never introduced. “To be honest I don’t ever want to meet my victims, or whatever you call them,” he told one journalist.

EXHIBITION In 2015 he presented his exhibition Milk Snatcher – The Thatcher Drawings at the Bowes Museum in County Durham. Thatcher remains hated by many in the North East. During her time as Conservative Prime Minister (19791990) she oversaw the closure of dozens of coal mines, leading to thousands of job losses and the year long miners’ strike. “I didn’t agree with her values but she was an amazing material,” Gerald said in a BBC interview promoting the exhibition.

Not all of Gerald’s caricatures are grotesque,

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some are even comical. In April 1988 the Royal Mail used his artwork for a set of five commemorative postage stamps, honouring English comedians Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecambe, Joyce Grenfell, Les Dawson and Peter Cook.

Disney also played a big part in his early years – Pinocchio was a favourite, so getting the opportunity to work on the animated feature film Hercules was a career highlight for Gerald.

Directors Ron Clements and John Musker brought Gerald on board as a conceptual character artist and production designer.

He developed almost all of the characters, supervising the 900 Disney artists adapting his designs for the film. “People thought it weird someone with my vicious point of view could be working for Disney but it does have a history of pretty scary villains,” Gerald remarked to the BBC. Amongst Gerald’s numerous philanthropic pursuits was the The Gromit Unleashed project, to raise funds for Wallace an Gromit’s Grand Appeal in aid of the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children in the hometown of Aardman Animations and Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park. Gerald was asked to decorate 81 five foot 90lb fibreglass statues of Gromit, the long suffering canine companion of the cheese loving inventor Wallace. The pre-auction display, entitled The Greatest Dog Show On Earth drew crowds of over 25,000 people.

Gerald’s contribution involved Gromit battling an ink pot entitled Watch Out Gromit! which attracted the second highest bid (£50,000, behind Pixar’s Toy Story Gromit Lightyear) and ended up in a private collection in Miami, Florida. In total the auction raised £2.3million.

Irreverence is a key theme in Gerald’s work, and a mistrust of authority that goes back to his dodgy treatment as a child. “I mistrust politicians obviously,” he said, “and I think we’ve all fallible. I mean I’m part of it, I’m often talking about myself in my drawings – we’re all here not quite knowing why we’re here, what we’re doing and why we’re doing it”.

Surely the ultimate recognition is to have a bar and a fossil named for you. In 2011 a fossil pterosaur discovered in Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset was named Cuspicephalus Scarfi. And in 2014 the Rosewood in Holborn opened Scarfes Bar (without the apostrophe) but with the walls adorned with Scarfe’s work.

Get ‘scarfed’ at Gerald’s eponymous bar, where potions and paintings meet.

Cheers – thank you Gerald.

THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF GERALD SCARFE

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GROWTH

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GROWTH

CARTOONS MORE OR LESS WHITE SPACE AND LET THE TOON BREATHE - OR CRAM IT FULL OF GAGS FOR LATER? RUPERT BESLEY from the coalface Cartooning has come a long way from the first ‘cartoon’ that appeared in Punch in 1843. It needed to.

Of course, that wasn’t the first cartoon.

Punch began in 1841 and came with humorous illustrations. In the previous century, Britain was already enjoying a Golden Age of cartooning (or caricature, as it was then known) from the sharpened pens of Gillray and Rowlandson.

Cartooning is as old as the hills, going back to the first troglodyte to stick a finger into a fresh pile of mammoth poop and start outlining something a bit rude on the pristine walls of a limestone cave.

But the one in Punch was the first to call itself a cartoon. ‘Cartoon No. 1’ was satirical, if not that funny then or now, and it set the pattern for much of what followed on for the next halfcentury: detailed naturalistic engravings of scenes to illustrate the dialogue beneath.

The growth of the spot gag is a story of negative growth: a cutting back of line and text, with less meaning more. The simplification and UNDER THE MICROSCOPE freeing-up of cartoon drawing in publications A common ploy is to bring a complex issue down did not come overnight. It took time to go from to ground level and the ordinary individual. The a kind of photorealism to something lighter, day after the appointment of Rees-Mogg to more imaginative and surreal.

Minister for Brexit Opportunities It needed progress in printing the Banx cartoon showed the WHO KNOWS methods along with the input desk and chair made ready and of inspirational artists like labelled for the incoming minister; WHAT’S NEXT? Phil May, ET Reed, Fougasse, the desk was just one thing, a I’M GUESSING 3D on Thurber, Paul Crum, Bosc, microscope. A perfect cartoon. Put David Myers, Mel Calman and TOUCH OPERATED in anything extra and this gets in art-teacher Larry (encouraged the way of the joke, robbing it of CARTOONS... by cartoon editor Hewison the immediacy and punch that are to do nothing further to the its reasons for existence. roughs he submitted). And it While the pocket cartoon is all about speed required Osbert Lancaster to nick from French and reduction, there is plenty of cartooning newspapers the idea of a pocket cartoon. that goes in the other direction, cramming the ‘Brevity is the soul of wit,’ says Shakespeare’s space with secondary humour. Busy scenes with Polonius in Hamlet and the pocket cartoon extra jokes in every detail are just the job for does that in spades. Matt Pritchett, Jeremy book covers/calendars etc and much requested Banx, Nick Newman, Grizelda, Kathryn Lamb, by private clients. These take time to do, in the Jonathan Pugh and others to include in any course of which you end up thinking (as Giles such list have been churning these out for more must have done), why draw a house roof without years than they may care to be reminded of a football stuck in the gutter, an armchair (I hope they won’t mind me saying) and they without Grandma’s missing glasses underneath, have it down to a fine art. Nail on the head, in a hospital ward without last remnant of a nutshell. They make it look so easy - and of Christmas decoration high on the ceiling - why course it’s not. bother to draw anything if you don’t make it

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funny?

Anyone new to a Martin Rowson editorial cartoon might be baffled and bothered at not being able to get its finer points. But aficionados delight in spotting the furcups and picking up the witty references that lurk in every corner, like regular old-timers in a slightly seedy pub.

From those early cartoons has grown a large garden of humorous delights beyond the single gag or busy narrative: caricature, blossoming into Spitting Image puppetry and animatronics; animation, Disney, Aardman; strip-cartoons, DC Thomson’s comic geniuses, graphic novels, the list goes on.

Who knows what’s next. I’m guessing 3D touch-operated cartoons that speak their own captions and emit a different smell from each detail the viewer chooses to blink at. Just so long as we’re not heading back into the territory of that first ‘cartoon’ in Punch, overcomplicated, laboured and lacking in wit. Hang about, isn’t that just where AI is taking us now?

RUPERTBESLEY

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THE GROWTH GALLERY

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THEME FOR THE NEXT ISSUE:

ESCAPE

Email entries to editor@thenewcartoonist.co.uk Deadline: APR 27th 2025 thenewcartoonist.co.uk

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GROWTH

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CONNECT WITH US thenewcartoonist.co.uk

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TECHNOLOGY

MARSHALL NOT FUNNY getting filthy As an award-winning, leading global cartoonist people often come to me for sage advice and the second most common question I’m asked is why haven’t I embraced digital technology? It’s a question I often ask myself.

The answer is rich and nuanced and not down to Luddite tendencies - I did once use a biro and NO it’s not because I’m so old our school desks had inkwells (I wish you could still get desks with inkwells) I have looked into migrating to digital platforms by running multiple evaluations and trials on the various software set-ups and comparing them with analogue. I’ve made lists of pros and cons and talked extensively to fellow professionals. After completing all this analysis it came down to this: iPad Pro, Apple Pen & Procreate £1,209 Leonardt nib with bottle of Higgins Black Magic ink £12.90. You can also use the latter in the bath.

Add to this, artists whose work I greatly admire include Leonardo, Caravaggio, William Blake, and they never went digital either.

I also love the visceral thrill of scraping a pen across rough paper with all that entails. I use inappropriate, coarsely-textured watercolour paper and if you don’t draw very quickly it acts like blotting paper so your lines develop spidery veins which can be pleasing in itself. I’ve yet to find a digital ‘spidery vein’ brush tool… though I bet there is one. The rough surface also gives your line drawing a nice kick or hiccup occasionally.

I always liked the Paul Klee quote that ‘drawing was taking a line for a walk’ although in my case it’s more like taking it for a drunken stagger. I’m an egalitarian so I like to think of me and my dip pen as equal partners: sometimes I decide where the line goes, sometimes it does.

One thing about the digital world I really don’t care for is CMD Z which is clearly for commitment-phobes! If you draw a line you’ve gotta commit…it might be wrong but sometimes a wrong does make a right.

When I started out as a cartoonist our version of CMD Z was a bottle of Tippex which after about five uses the brush would clog up and you’d have to scrape semi-dried Tippex onto your drawings. Hard times.

I will admit that there are some pluses with digital drawing - for example all my clothes,

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even the ones I keep for best, have ink stains on them.

In my quest for finding the perfect drawing implement I naively buy any art material that someone whose work I marvel at uses, in the hope that all of a sudden I’ll be able to draw more like them, but no matter what I try it still ends up looking like a regular ‘marshall’ scrawl.

A favourite pilgrimage for nib aficionados was ‘His Nibs’ on Drury Lane run by Phillip Poole since the 1940s. You could while away your afternoon talking to Philip about nibs and Communism. It was he who put me on the path of righteousness wantonly discarding my Pentels and Uniballs. He had heaps of vintage school nibs that I used for years until his stock ran out.

When Martin Rowson was given some Ronald Searle nibs he said he had similar hopes of

CHRIS DUGGAN

The chaotic cornucopia of nibs in Martin Rowson’s studio

assimilating some Searle magic when using them (NOTE TO SELF: I must cadge a Rowson nib from his huge collection in an attempt to gain his draughtsmanship). Here’s Martin drawing and talking to Ralph Steadman from the BBC Radio Four series ‘Life Drawings’

SEARLE If I think I’m a nib obsessive, Ronald Searle was next level with his fastidious notes about the ones he tried.

On p38 is my completely impartial consumer review of the various nibs I’ve tried and I am currently using.

When he had to close the shop in 1989 due to the huge rent hikes by the fascist bourgeoisie overlords, Philip and his nibs moved into a corner of my favourite art supply shop L. Cornelissen & Son. near The British Museum. Cartoonist Chris Duggan said “A visit to Philip Poole was like being measured for a suit in Saville Row, the perfect nib in exactly your size and style would soon be forthcoming.”

Phillip is sadly long gone but the store is still a dip pen drawing haven. I like to take a day trip there with a packed lunch just to visit the nib drawers.

The Cartoon Museum had a wonderful exhibition ‘Dear Mr Poole’ which showcased letters and cartoons given to Philip Poole over the years. This included a few films of artists discussing their work method: this one features Steven Appleby talking about his techniques and the first class William Mitchell Post Office nib.

I still get a strange thrill taking a freshly bought nib straight out of the bag and giving it a road test.

This is just an extract from my 24 volume nib part work that I’m still trying to find a publisher for. With this review I’ve just scratched the surface….which also describes my drawing technique.

My suggestion is to get yourself one of the L. Cornelissen & Son random nib selection bags, put that tablet aside for half an hour and have some filthy fun.

Next issue: ‘A Quick Think About Ink’

MARSHALL NOT FUNNY

A drawing by Chris Duggan of Phillip Poole and his multi-story nib draws using the ornamental looking Somerville Fountain Spear nib Phillp introduced him to.

Ronald Searle nib notes

A drawing given to Philip by Steven Appleby

A nib tray at L. Cornelissen & Son (I’ve pixilated out the Gillott 303s as they’re not suitable for a family publication} Nib test by Glenn Marshall P.T.O for a guide to his favourite nibs...

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MARSHALL NOT FUNNY ...and testing

Leonardt Index Pen The pointy finger one. Very flexible, a calligraphy nib. (I should’ve used this to draw the cartoon on page two).

Leonardt 256 My beloved 256. Robust, bendy, you can draw very fine lines up to SHUT THE FRONT DOOR. You could chisel marble with it. It also seems to go well with whatever I’m wearing.

Surprising how many nib manufacturers are from the West Midlands: the UK may have lost much of the car industry but for nibs we’re still a global titan.

Automatic pen Very ink heavy but ideal for dictator moustaches…which alarmingly is becoming increasingly useful.

Bamboo stick Excellent for Japanese calligraphy and faux Hokusai. Be careful not to leave them out if you have a pet panda.

Gillott 303 I tried these because I noted that several cartoonists whose work I admired use them but they just splinter like crazy - I was getting through about ten a week. They’re my nib hoodoo.

My Room 101 nib. The nib sperm of the devil.

The GiIlott 666. I couldn’t even bare to be in a room with one.

It has been pointed out that my problem may be that I have a fist made of ham. One for the delicate cross hatchers.

The Stave Pen Originally for musical notation but great for telegraph wires and Keir Starmer’s hair

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Feather quill Great free nib resource found on our beaches…along with all the plastic bottles, used vapes and raw sewage pumped into the sea by our water providers. Just cut in a small notch at the tip and you’re away.

Mystery nib There’s always some random nib you have no idea were it came from and why you’ve got it. Not sure what this is designed for, personally I use it for filleting fish..

DO YOU WANT TO BECOME A MEMBER OF THE PCO?

WHAT IS THE PCO?

Our title pretty much gives the game away: we’re an organisation for, erm, professional cartoonists. We considered Professional Political & Gag Cartoonists’ and Caricaturists’ Organisation…but not for long.

WHAT DOES IT DO?

The PCO promotes the work of its members and champions the cartooning arts across the board and around the world. We organise and support exhibitions and festivals.

We also stand up for, and have campaigned on behalf of oppressed artists.

All before breakfast.

HOW DO I JOIN?

The majority of your earnings need to come from cartooning and/or caricaturing.

Then you can send samples of your work or links to a website/social media platform to the esteemed Andrew Birch here: pcomembership@gmail.com

BENEFITS! You get a badge!

RECENTLY JOINED...

ELLA BARON

LEWIS MARSDEN JOIN TODAY

MARK DAVIES CONNECT WITH US

ANNIE WEST

MY NEW BOSS!

A VERY VERY NEW CARTOONIST...

TNC CATCHES UP WITH THE NEW AND UPCOMING TALENT CHOOSING TO POKE FUN WITH A PENCIL, PAINT, FELTS OR iPAD DYANA SONGI meets Ellery Mitchell

What influences your artwork?

I love Ronald Searle and a lot of the classic British cartoonists from his time - Osbert Lancaster, Gerard Hoffnung, Leo Baxendale and Quentin Blake; I copied them a lot. I am also influenced by the Fleischer Brothers and early Disney, ‘80s cartoons, and the cross-hatching in Marvel and DC.

Ellery is 12 years old and has a particular gift for caricature. He attends Priory School in Lewes, loves Monty Python and Ronald Searle and lives for playing bass guitar, banjo, mandolin and piano and writing his own What equipment do you use? music. He is a member of the composers’ I sketch in pencil, then outline with a Tombow group New Music Brighton. hard-tip brush pen, and colour with Windsor and Newton inks or alcohol markers, Copic pens and Where do you get your ideas from? colour pencils.

I draw for fun, but sometimes people ask me to do drawings for them. For ages I just copied drawings I like.

ELLERY MITCHELL

You might be my new boss one day Ellery – what sort of boss will you be?

I like to think I’d be very easy-going and approachable. I’d welcome everybody’s input and, if they don’t have the same idea as me, fire them on the spot. And if your face, or voice, or general manner is really annoying, you’re also fired. Any member of staff who interrupted me during tea and biscuits would be executed. To be honest, I’d probably end up running it all by myself and be happier that way.

MAKING STUFF MOVE Ellery’s puppets

Uncle Robert

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BRILLIANT PORTRAITS Ellery’s cartoon studies GREETINGS! Ellery’s birthday cards

MORE GREAT PORTRAITS ALBUM COVERS

Would you like to have your work featured in My New Boss?

Please email editor@thenewcartoonist.co.uk with your full name, date of birth, and a parent/guardian’s name, mobile number and email address. You must be aged 12 or under, and be resident in the UK or available overseas.

You must also be prepared to take part in a Zoom interview and submit your own work only. thenewcartoonist.co.uk

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PENS DOWN!

DRAWING A CLASS WAR

UK HISTORY THROUGH A CARTOON LENS, CAPTURING A LOOK AT THE 1984-85 MINERS STRIKE GLENN MARSHALL a review and interview A new book shines a Davy lamp on political cartoons during the bitter miners’ strike in the mid eighties. It includes around 130 cartoons.

It’s by Nicholas Jones who was the BBC industrial and senior political correspondent for over 20 years. He’s also written many books on UK politics and industrial relations.

The miners’ strike was one of the most monumental stories during his long career.

Nick kept an impressive archive of newspaper cuttings and magazines as well as his BBC scripts on the strike, all of which included a large amount of the daily cartoons from the print media. He has since donated this collection to Sheffield University.

The book includes a foreword by former Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell. Steve has also been recording his reflections 40 years on from the miners’ strike on his personal blog.

THE LAUNCH Nick Jones talking at Barnet Church

THE STRIKES This fascinating book looks at how cartoonists covered the miners’ strike. One interesting aspect is how much prominence political cartoons had in a very different media landscape well before the diversification of how people encounter news.

There was no internet or 24 hour news channels and newspapers had huge readerships.

On the whole the mainstream news outlets, even the ones

A MOMENT IN HISTORY the new book by Nick Jones

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considered centre left, took a position against the strike: it remained for smaller, harder left publications to give an alternative voice.

This was also reflected in the cartoons. NUM President Arthur Scargill was portrayed as the pantomime villain and Labour opposition leader Neil Kinnock depicted as his puppet. This amplified the feeling of ‘us versus them’ and the siege mentality of the striking mine workers.

All the newspapers were still black and white which really suited the cartoons on this often bleak story of pit closures, divided unions, picket lines, aggressive Margaret Thatcher government and brutal

STEVE BELL The Guardian

PETER BROOKES The Times

confrontations with accusations of ‘over zealous’ policing.

Q&A WITH NICK JONES Why did you collect so many cartoons?

During the 1984 miners’ strike, when I was labour and industrial correspondent for BBC Radio, I built up my own archive of newspaper clippings together with my radio scripts and notes.

Over the 12 months of the dispute, I cut out literally hundreds of cartoons because they attracted my attention. Many were eyecatching and particularly memorable given the controversial nature of press reporting of the miners’ struggle against pit closures. I knew that some were seen as being offensive to the strikers.

What part did the cartoons play in the press coverage?

Most national newspapers denounced the NUM President Arthur Scargill. They backed Mrs Thatcher in demanding that the police crackdown on picket line violence. Cartoons, especially in the leading tabloids, tended to be staunchly pro-government, against the miners, portraying Scargill as a threat to law and order. After the miners’ defeat in the Battle of Orgreave in June 1984, the government’s tactic was to try to break the strike by persuading the men to return to work. Most of the cartoons backed the government’s agenda.

Did cartoons influence public opinion at the time?

My view at the end of the strike was that the media front line had become as important as the picket line in determining the outcome of the dispute. Press reporting was biased heavily in support of Mrs Thatcher and the leading cartoonists followed – and clearly backed – the government’s agenda. So yes, I think many of the cartoons did play their part in demonising the miners and in influencing public opinion.

ECCLES Morning Star

thenewcartoonist.co.uk

Why have you waited forty years to write about this?

During the strike I became fascinated by the crucial role played by the media during the strike and the way the media were being manipulated –

hence the title of my first book Strikes and the Media (1986).

I did include a couple of the cartoons. But it wasn’t until a year ago, when I started preparing for the 40th anniversary of the strike, that I went back into the loft and looked through my archive once again.

What struck me immediately were the cartoons. They jumped out from heaps of press cuttings and scripts. They told the story of the strike in such a graphic, provocative way. They were STANELY FRANKLIN in your face, as they say.

The Sun

Was the work of many of the cartoonists really so one sided against the strike?

Yes, but not entirely. Clearly some of the cartoonists on national newspapers had their doubts and were critical of Mrs Thatcher. In retrospect, what was so important, was that I had made a point of cutting out cartoons from every left-wing newspaper, magazine or journal which I read.

ALAN HARDMAN Young Miner

ALAN HARDMAN Miltant Miner

What were cartoonists for the left-wing press trying to achieve?

They were often trade union activists, volunteers, and they were up against the highly paid cartoonists of what was then Fleet Street.

I have a chapter looking at the fight-back by the left, how the emphasis of their work was on building solidarity and finding ways through cartoon imagery to attack the Police and Mrs Thatcher.

Is the work of cartoonists and illustrators an untold story about the media’s role in the strike?

Yes, in the mid-1980s newspapers had much greater influence than today. There was no rolling news or social media, and it was cartoonists who could often portray images and encapsulate thoughts that could not be captured by the printed word.

THE ART OF CLASS WAR The Campaign For Press & Brodcasting Freedom (North) £12:00 Contact: Granville Williams, Editor MediaNorth email: cpbfnorth@outlook.com BUY HERE

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BCA EVENT

THE YOUNG CARTOONIST AWARDS 2024

AND THE WINNERS ARE...

STARS ARE BORN AS THE PROCESS TO FIND THE YOUNG CARTOONIST OF THE YEAR CONCLUDES

Credit: Pictures Mark Winter

The annual quest to find the best new cartoon talent reached the final stages at the Young Cartoonist Awards 2024. The event is traditionally held at London’s Cartoon Museum, and the competition is run jointly between the Cartoon Art Trust and the British Cartoonists’ Association.

The Young Cartoonist of the Year Award was originally founded as the Mel Calman Award in 1995, in memory of The Times cartoonist and Cartoon Art Trust founder.

This year saw an uptick in interest with over 130 entries from young cartoonists across the country all vying for the coveted prizes in the Under 18s & 18-30 categories.

Also up for grabs was the Woodcock prize for the most surreal entry. Check out the winners below...

WINNER JESS JUDGE (Far right) With Nicola Jennings & Leonie Wykes-Mahood I’D LIKE TO THANK MY MUM, MY GRANDMOTHER, MY GREAT GRAND MOTHER...

Digial print by Jess Judge WINNERS ON THE WALL In situ at The Cartoon Museum

HEY, GUESS WHAT? Biro and felt tip on paper by Rafe Carver

18 - 30 Winner: Jess Judge

runner up: Ryan Fairbanks

Under 18 Winner: Artie Hicks

runner up: George Green

Woodcock Prize (Most surreal): Rafe Carver thenewcartoonist.co.uk

THE BRAINLESS BOFFINS Pencil and felt tip on paper by Artie Hicks

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63 Wells Street, London W1A 3AE

5 minutes walk from Oxford Circus underground station

Event: 3rd April Norman Pett’s Jane Norman Pett’s Jane has been called the most popular comic strip of the Second World War and “the world’s first super-model, page three girl and pin-up”.

Yet she was also much more than this. In continuous publication between 1932 and 1959, Jane was the most popular comic strip to appear in the British tabloid the Daily Mirror. Combining confidence, irreverence and bravery with high glamour and sex appeal, Jane was a groundbreaking character that reached an audience of millions and held a particular appeal for the largely female audience to which the Mirror was targeted.

Join Adam Twycross, author of British Newspaper Strips: A Contextual History, for an evening celebrating this legendary series.

With a chance to learn more about Jane’s secret history, original art on display, and a plethora of rare and unusual items, the evening will culminate with the first public airing in 80 years of an excerpt from a previously unknown Jane radio show, created exclusively for the British armed forces in 1945 and never heard in public since!

MORE HERE

Join us on the 3rd of April for this very special event.

Arrive from 6:30pm for a 7pm start

Event: 22nd May Comic Panel Discussion: Speed Switch: A Deep Dive into Chaos in Motion Buckle up for an electrifying panel discussion with the creative team behind Speed Switch, the high-octane cyberpunk racing saga that’s taken comics, animation, and gaming by storm. The creators will take you on a journey through the origins of Speed Switch, sharing the inspirations that fueled its creation and how the series evolved into the action-packed story it is today.

The discussion will explore the team’s collaborative process and the challenges of bringing the world of Speed Switch to life across different mediums, from comics to new frontiers in storytelling. Fans will also get an exclusive look at Issue 3 and a recap of the story so far, delving into how character-driven narratives and dynamic artwork keep the series moving at full throttle.

To top it all off, the creators will tease what the future holds for the franchise, so get ready for surprises, insights, and an inside look at the chaos in motion!

Check out their work on Instagram: @senarkoraltan @shanefaced @ramzeerawkz @speedswitchgame www.speed-switch.com 54

MORE HERE

Join us at The Cartoon Museum from 6:30pm for a 7pm start on Thursday the 22nd of May.

EVENTS & ADS

Cats in Cartoons Saturday 5 April 2025 10:30am Sunday 7 September 2025 17:20pm From Garfield to Simon’s Cat, Krazy Kat to Bagpuss and everything in between, there is a long line of iconic cartoon cats.

For the first time, The Cartoon Museum is collecting many of the greatest cats to grace or comics, newspapers and magazines to explore why people love cats so much and what cats tell us about life.

Featuring works by artists such as Louis Wain, Ronald Searle, Heath Robinson, Wendy Eastwood, Simon Tofield, Anthony Smith, Gemma Correll, Natty Peterkin and Hunt Emerson - and more!

MORE HERE thenewcartoonist.co.uk

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ANIMATION

ANIMAL FARM AT SEVENTY ONE OF THE DEFINITIVE ANIMATED CLASSICS OF OUR TIME CELEBRATES PLATINUM STYLE MARK WINTER out and about

ANIMAL FARM STILL

The sold out 70th anniversary screening of Halas & Batchelor’s classic animated feature and BAFTA-nominated Animal Farm took place at the BFI earlier this year, celebrating the film’s 1955 London premiere.

It remains the definitive adaption of George Orwell’s allegorical ‘fairy story’ of power, corruption and the control of ‘truth’ that still resonates today.

Britain’s first animated feature film received its actual premiere in New York in late December 1954, a nod to its American financing but the film’s production was very much rooted in the British animation industry. The New York Times called it “a vivid and biting animation of Mr Orwell’s popular tale of social revolution and disillusion”.

The film was an immediate hit, “The British outDisney Disney,” read one newspaper headline.

Based on Orwell’s 1945 novella Animal Farm: A A SIGNED ORIGINAL Fairy Story, it follows a group of anthropomorphic farm animals who rebel against their human Clark Gable! They were acquired by the innocently farmers, hoping to create a society where the named US Office of Policy Coordination, a branch animals can be equal, free and happy. But the of the Central Intelligence Agency that dealt with rebellion is betrayed. Under the dictatorship of a the use of culture to combat communism. The US pig named Napoleon the farm ends up in a state Army also wanted to make the film, as well as the far worse than before. It parallels events leading producers of the Woody Woodpecker cartoons. up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Animal Farm was funded by the CIA, who subsequent Stalinist era of the Soviet bankrolled most of the $500,000.00 Union under a Marxist-Leninist needed to fund the project. They ideology. TIME magazine chose it also demanded changes – as one of the 100 best English particularly to the ending – to language novels (1923-2005). the original script “to meet the John Halas immigrated from Agency’s objectives”. In the Hungary to England in 1936 film version there’s no mention and married Joy Batchelor of humans – only the pigs are four years later. Together MEETING HALAS totally corrupt. Halas & Batchelor they established the Halas Mark in 1993 were chosen because the duo & Batchelor studio which was had experience working on British briefly taken over by the Ministry propaganda movies and because Louis for Information to create propaganda de Rochement, the US producer who had worked and education films for the war effort, producing with the FBI on the anti-Nazi spy film The House roughly 70 films between 1940 – 1944. Joy of 92nd Street (1945), also questioned the loyalty helped write, direct and animate most of them. of some Hollywood artists.. The Agency took a leaf After the war they continued to produce shorts from the KGB playbook, using literary and artistic for the government. Joy designed ‘Charley’, the titular character of the Charley films the company expression as “organs of state policy”. Animal Farm became known as the movie that helped CIA spies created for the Central Office of Information.. win the Cold War. A comic strip version of the film was created FINANCE by the UK’s Information Research Department, The rights for Animal Farm were immediately bought after Orwell’s death in 1950 from his widow set up by the Foreign Office to counter Soviet propaganda, which ran in Brazil, Burma, Eritrea, Sonia, whose only condition was that she meet

thenewcartoonist.co.uk

1955 POSTER

PRODUCTION CELL AND LINE DRAWING

India, Mexico, Thailand and Venezuela.

Joy, who co-directed Animal Farm with John, became the first woman to helm an animated feature since the legendary German pioneer animator Lotte Reiniger. It was narrated by Gordon Heath with Maurice Denham providing the voices of all the animals.

I had the privilege of meeting John at his Hampstead home in North London in 1993, a highlight of my Winston Churchill Fellowship study tour of North American and British animation studios. He had been a jury member at the Bombay International Film Festival for Documentary, Short Fiction and Animation where two of my animated shorts were selected for competition. John had contacted me to ask if he could use one of the films at a symposium he was speaking at. Joy had passed away two years earlier.

John died soon after in 1995, aged 82. He was honoured with an OBE and received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the World Festival of Animated Films – Animafest Zagreb in 1990 Halas & Batchelor were the largest and most influential animation studio in Western Europe for over 50 years. “They were pivotal to the creation of the animation industry,” said Jez Stewart, the BFI’s Archive Curator who introduced Animal Farm at the anniversary screening.

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EVENTS & ADS

A marketing newsletter for cartoonists and gagwriters.

Write for a free sample copy:

www.gagrecap.colemantoons.com AVAILABLE NOW! Exclusive signed prints of Chicane’s original cover art from the Sep/Oct issue of The New Cartoonist

OPEN 6th - 27th March 2025

CONTACT MARK FOR MORE DETAILS

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The Artwork of Lorna Miller Exhibition Reid Ground Floor Corridor, Reid Building The Glasgow School of Art 164 Renfrew Street Glasgow G3 6RQ

CALL FOR CARTOONS

PM ACROSS THE CHANNEL A NEW EXHIBITION IN 2025 AT ST JUST IN FRANCE WILL ASK THE QUESTION; QUI EST KEIR? My name is Olivier Auvray.

“Qui est Keir ?” (Who is Keir) is the title of an upcoming exhibition I am working on for the next Salon International de la Caricature, du Dessin de Presse et d’Humour that will take place in Saint-Just-le-Martel, near Limoges, in France next September (see Des Buckley’s article about this Salon in the New Cartoonist Nov/Dec ‘24.)

I already have great British or London-based cartoonists on board, first of all my very good friend Steve Bell, but also Dave Brown, Nicola Jennings, Pete Songi, Graeme Bandeira and British kiwi Mark Winter as well as Tayo Fatunya and Samuel Ojo. If you’re interested in joining in, please do contact me through Pete Songi at “The New Cartoonist” below.

POURQUOI?

GEORGES MILLION Draws Keir and TNC Editor Pete Songi

In France, when asked the question: “Who is the British Prime Minister?”, most people you would bump into wouldn’t know his name and, consequently, would know very little about him.

People who are interested in politics would know who he is but, still, would have very little to say about him. How come? How can you explain that?

Funningly enough, his name could be part of the answer. His first name is so uncommon that even in the House of Commons, it was apparently spelt incorrectly on his mail box: “Kier” instead of “Keir”!

Another reason could also be that he seems to be the antithesis of a former British Prime Minister called Boris Johnson… Does that mean he lacks charisma? Is he boring? Well, you probably know more than I do.

So, any cartoon expressing your point of view on this matter and/or on your PM would be very welcome.

Thank you..

QUI EST KEIR EXHIBITION

thenewcartoonist.co.uk

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ENTER HERE

ANIMATION

ANIMATING A WINNER

CELEBRATING ‘WANDER TO WONDER’ NINA GANTZ’S LATEST STOP-MOTION SHORT MARK WINTER out and about Nina Gantz’s 14 minute “touching, twisted and dark” animated short Wander to Wonder has been an award magnet and festival darling since it premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2023, winning over 40 awards including a BAFTA and receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short.

The film centres on Mary, Billybud and Fumbleton; three miniature actors who starred in the once loved 1980s children’s television programme Wander to Wonder. After the creator of the series (Uncle Gilly) dies, the trio are left alone in a decaying studio. They continue to make increasingly unhinged episodes for their ‘fans’ as they slowly starve to death.

Mary is clinging to the show, convinced that there aren still people watching, somewhere.

Fumbleton, an unfulfilled thespian, feels freed now that Uncle Gilly is dead and he can finally show his skills as a serious Shakespearean actor. Billybud is still performing and doing the thing he knows and takes comfort in: juggling.

Nina is a Dutch-born, Brighton-based animation director. She graduated from the Akademie Voor Kunst En Vormgeving St Joost in Breda in 2010 with the award-winning Zaliger animated short. In 2015 she graduated with a Master’s in Directing Animation from the National Film and Television School.

Wander to Wonder marked Nina’s first independent work since her acclaimed NFTS student film Edmond, which won a BAFTA and months of filming on two sets with three months also combines live-action and stop motion in post-production. They created everything ‘inanimation, inspired by the work of the legendary camera’ instead of using CGI. Ray Harryhausen. She also works on commercials Because of a complex financing situation the as a director for the London based production film production involved four countries. company BlinkInk. “I made the animate in the UK, The project took seven years of where I live,” explained Nina. development and struggling to raise “We made the puppets in the funding due to the COVID pandemic.

Netherlands and had to film in During the time of the last rewrite a certain part of Belgium with Nina and her husband Terence people from that region and Dunn (the film’s composer) were also the post-production had to be looking after a loved one who needed in the South of France, which is palliative care and when he passed away, where the funding came from”. A NINA MEETS MARK “I saw how differently everyone deals with late hiccup occurred a week before Mayfair hotel in Feb loss and grief. It had a significant impact on the shoot was set to start when the the final script and how we approached a heavy animation studio went bankrupt and sold off all subject using humour and absurdity,” Nina said. their equipment.

It took about a year in total to make; creating The film was co-scripted by Nina, Simon the puppets, constructing the sets and then five Cartwright, Daan Bakker and the Amsterdam-

thenewcartoonist.co.uk

based producer Stienette Bosklopper from Circe Films, with the voice talents of Toby Jones (Fumbleton), Amanda Lawrence (Mary), Terence Dunn (Bullybud) and featuring Neil Salvage as Uncle Gilly.

“The success of the film has been crazy,” Nina said. “It’s really nerve-wracking the first time you release it into the world, because you’re so close to it. The awards and festival selections just make you feel that people want to see your work and that keeps you going, which is very nice”.

Nina is currently developing two feature length films and said a longer version of Wander to Wonder could be a possibility, “I’m not saying it will look exactly the same, but the world of it still intrigues me” she said.

I had the pleasure of meeting Nina as she arrived for the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards in February at the Mayfair Hotel where Wander to Wonder won British/Irish Short Film of the Year.

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SPRING!

ERR...HAS IT SPRUNG YET? The endless grey and gloom that seems to last for 70% of the year could finally becoming to an end, and BTW what is that yellow thing?

But seriously - is it just around the corner?

Has it sprung? Or is the change in temperature just a ruse and the prelude to a huge weather snow bomb lurking in the Atlantic? In the UK who knows? Our national obsession with the weather peaks at this time of year - we all enjoy spring. The fact that our summers come and go in the blink of an eye doesn’t dampen our enthusiasm when the winter is coming to an end. We forget that it’s a bit like the pleasing feeling of reaching Friday.

Just before you can enthusiastically say “Have a great weekend”... it’s Monday again!

Anyway, TNC asked cartoonists to wake up and smell the daffodils. These are their stories...

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thenewcartoonist.co.uk

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SPRING!

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thenewcartoonist.co.uk

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THE DIRECTORY

ANDREW BIRCH CONTACT HERE

VRONI HOLZMANN CONTACT HERE

MARK WINTER CONTACT HERE

ALLAN HOSS MCDONALD CONTACT HERE

PHIL REX YARDLEY-REES JOHNSON CONTACT HERE

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JESS JUDGE CONTACT HERE

IAN BAKER CONTACT HERE

MEL DIXON CONTACT HERE

DAVID JAN BOW REY CONTACT HERE

ROGER PENWILL CONTACT HERE

A LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

ERIC TRUANT

FERGUS BOYLAN

CONTACT HERE

CONTACT HERE

AIDAN COONEY

DEREK SCOTT

CONTACT HERE

CONTACT HERE

DES FONDANT CONTACT HERE

DEAN PATTERSON CONTACT HERE

MICK OHARA CONTACT HERE

thenewcartoonist.co.uk

ACHAZ VON HARDENBERG CONTACT HERE

MIKE STOKOE CONTACT HERE

SEBASTIAN TANTI BURLO’ CONTACT HERE

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THE DIRECTORY

PETE DREDGE CONTACT HERE

VIKTOR RICHARD G KHOURY UNGAR CONTACT HERE

ED NAYLOR CONTACT HERE

FIRUZ JOSS ATHEY KUTAL CONTACT HERE

STEVE LILLIE CONTACT HERE

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NICK NEWMAN CONTACT HERE

ROYSTON ROBERTSON CONTACT HERE

JOHN AGIM SULAJ DALY CONTACT HERE

CHRIS ‘DINK’ WILLIAMS CONTACT HERE

THE SURREAL MCCOY CONTACT HERE

A LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

KERINA STREVENS CONTACT HERE

CONTACT HERE

PLOP ET KANKR

VALERII MOMOT

CONTACT HERE

CONTACT HERE

JAMES MELLOR

SAMUEL OJO

CONTACT HERE

CONTACT HERE

STEPHEN DEAN

KEVIN WELLS

CONTACT HERE

CONTACT HERE

MARSHALL NOT FUNNY CONTACT HERE

thenewcartoonist.co.uk

ROY NIXON

GRAHAM COCORAN CONTACT HERE

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THE DIRECTORY

DANIEL HODSON CONTACT HERE

VILNISSIMO CONTACT HERE

DAWN MOCKLER CONTACT HERE

SAM SKORONSKI CONTACT HERE

DES BUCKLEY CONTACT HERE

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VIKTOR NICOLAG JENNINGS KHOURY CONTACT HERE

ANDY BUNDAY CONTACT HERE

GRAHAM LUKE CORCORAN FAROOKI CONTACT HERE

MIKE SEDDON CONTACT HERE

LEWIS ELIOT MARSDEN LORD CONTACT HERE

A LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

WILL SAMUELS CONTACT HERE

STEVE BELL

CONTACT HERE

BEN CHILTON

CONTACT HERE

CONTACT HERE

JOHN LANDERS

RUPERT BESLEY

CONTACT HERE

CONTACT HERE

TONY NOON CONTACT HERE

HARRIET MERRY CONTACT HERE

thenewcartoonist.co.uk

KIPPER WILLIAMS

ROS ASQUITH CONTACT HERE

ANNE DERENNE CONTACT HERE

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THE DIRECTORY

DANIEL ED HODSON GARCIA CONTACT HERE

VILNISSIMO MICHAEL KING CONTACT HERE

DAWN TIM MOCKLER RUSCOE CONTACT HERE

DRSAM DAVID SKORONSKI WAYWELL CONTACT HERE

DES JO BUCKLEY YOUNG CONTACT HERE

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NICOLA MARK JENNINGS DAVIES CONTACT HERE

STEVE ANDY BUNDAY BRIGHT CONTACT HERE

GRAHAM BRIAN CORCORAN FOX CONTACT HERE

GRAEME MIKE SEDDON KEYES CONTACT HERE

RADICAL ELIOT EMBROIDERER LORD CONTACT HERE

A LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

STEPHEN ASHMAN CONTACT HERE

CONTACT HERE

MARTIN ROWSON

DAVE BROWN

CONTACT HERE

CONTACT HERE

NICOLA JENNINGS CONTACT HERE

GEORGES MILLION CONTACT HERE

THE PCO CONTACT HERE

thenewcartoonist.co.uk

STEVE JONES

HEATH ROBINSON MUSEUM CONTACT HERE

THE CARTOON MUSEUM CONTACT HERE

THE CCGB CONTACT HERE

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SUBSCRIBE TODAY AND SAVE 10% FIND OUT MORE HERE or email: editor@thenewcartoonist.co.uk for more details

KEEP ‘THE LAUGHS’ COMING IN 2025

CARTOON SUBMISSION DEADLINES FOR THE MAY/JUN ’25 ISSUE CARTOONS FOR CENTRAL SPREAD THEME OF ‘ESCAPE’: APRIL 27TH GENERAL GAG CARTOONS: MAY 5TH POLITICAL CARTOONS: MAY 10TH

email cartoons to: editor@thenewcartoonist.co.uk

CAPTION COMPETITION!

WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY? Can you match the cartoonist?

Opposite is a caption from a finished cartoon.

Send us your suggestions. The winner will be published alongside the original cartoon in the next issue and win this fantastic TNC mug.

Winner!

Tony Noon

Email jpg entries by 27th April 2025 to editor@thenewcartoonist.co.uk or hit the link below!

The winner will be selected purely on humour and originality, open to all skill sets!....

Get drawing... & good luck!

CAPTION COMPETTION

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WIN ME!

I THINK THE DOG WANTS TO GO OUT BARRY

CONGRATULATIONS! Tony wins a TNC mug for matching up against Roger Penwill from the last issue!

Prophetical Mildred

HOROSCOPES Scorpio

the most accurate soothsayer in the Greater London region for cartoonist horoscopes

24 October – 21 November Someone will bet you a decent sum of money that you can’t go two weeks without cartooning. You last 37 agonising hours before – manic with drunken insanity – you find yourself a nice Dalmatian and begin joining the dots with a Sharpie in cartooning desperation.

Aries

21 March – 19 April You will be kidnapped and tied up, however you also have a cartoon deadline. You will devise an ingenious method of drawing with just your mouth and then learn various bird calls in order to entice a friendly pigeon to the window to deliver the toon to your editor.

Sagittarius

22 November – 21 December You will learn how to draw noses badly, as that’s what all the cool cartoonists are doing

Capricorn

22 December – 19 January

Taurus

20 April – 20 May You befriend a mad scientist whilst waiting for a bus outside the local meth lab. Together you devise a plan to grow reams of your own skin in the lab and use it as specialist cartooning paper.

He takes a sample of your DNA in order to get started and promises to get in touch within 6-8 months.

Gemini

21 May – 21 June You will sell a cartoon at an exhibition to an eccentric billionaire’s cat. You will then brainstorm ideas for more cartoons to sell to other wealthy moggies, hoping to corner the market.

Cancer

22 June – 22 July You will become determined to book a summer holiday to the original desert island that features in all of the famous cartoons. After 11 straight days of scouring Google Maps you find the exact island, but it is rumoured to be frequented by cannibals.

Leo

23 July – 22 August A devilish fiend will feed 87.3% of your life’s cartooning work into an AI neural network training thingy with the intention of ripping you off artistically. Instead, the AI will develop a strange yet contrary sentience and somehow

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convince all the other A.Is to do a lot of drugs.

Chaos will reign.

Virgo

23 August – 22 September A fledgling art company will sponsor your artistic endeavours by gifting you 66 litres of their new brand of ink. Unfortunately, the ink stinks. Literally. It smells like a yeti rolled around in a pile of decomposing squirrels and then flicked whatever was under his toenails directly into you nasal passages. The neighbours will complain loudly and flamboyantly about this new stench.

Libra

23 September – 23 October A fellow cartoonist will kindly gift you a large amount of a new brand of ink as you desperately need some for a last minute cartoon exhibition. Unfortunately, the new ink smells awful. It’s so bad that it’s basically impossible to stand in the exhibition room without heaving. Desperate to save the exhibition and garner an audience you attempt to infect passersby with covid in the hopes that they will quickly lose their sense of smell. Not all passersby, of course, just the ones who pass the ‘wealthy arseholes looking to spend big’ vibe check. You have some kind of conscience.

A very renowned cartoonist will begin to slightly lose their mind, their self respect and all manner of sanity after years of following the news cycles too closely. You will find them sitting in the middle aisle of Lidl babbling incoherently and trying to sell bespoke cartoons of Trump they’ve attempted to draw on their own arse. You consider bringing in professionals to help them. Instead, you get a nice original doodle on your potatoes.

Aquarius

20 January – 18 February You will hear a rumour that a certain editor will not publish your cartoons because you look a bit like someone they went to school with who was a knob. You will track down everyone they went to school with and discover one with remarkably similar ear wrinkles to yourself. You will march them into the editor’s office and dramatically cut off your own ear, firstly so that they won’t look like you anymore, and secondly because ear cutting is the kind of thing truly artistic people do on a whim.

Pisces

19 February – 20 March That guy who used to work in your local pub seven years ago will join a cult and ask you to draw all of their propaganda posters. You agree. Eventually all of the propaganda is basically enticements for followers to buy you fancy pens. You take over the cult. You grow a magnificent beard. Your beard is filled with pens.

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PARTING SHOT

SNACKS, SWEAT AND ‘ARE WE NEARLY THERE YET?’ IN 100 YARDS YOU WILL HAVE REACHED YOUR DESTINATION.... I PROMISE! LUCY O’MEARA feeling hot hot hot Picture the scene. It’s 29 degrees in the shade. UK summer. We Brits are notoriously ill-equipped to navigate even the slightest weather extremes.

It causes consternation. Worry.

Anxiety. And never more so than for the parents of two children under five, on a lengthy bank holiday car journey to a busy English Heritage site.

THE JOURNEY I was one of those parents. I’d taken responsibility for the bulk of this trip to see my in-laws. And by responsibility, I mean snacks, entertainment, suncream, sun hats, I-Spy, snacks, toilet stops, nappy bags, water bottles, snacks. And more snacks. All the snacks.

My husband? Well, he was in charge of tyre pressure and the sat-nav.

Now is not the time to examine that division of labour but suffice to say ILLUSTRATED BY CARA HORLEY phrases such as ‘mental load’ and ‘patriarchy’ and ‘why am I always stuck with all this bollocks’ have been bandied probably have gone with ‘slavishly’ and still been finest flowers, plants and horticultural events. about both pre and post this infamous trip.

And two, Wisley Gardens, Farnborough: just off the right side of exaggeration. You know when So, we’re in the car. Children are 2 and 5. It the A327, home to a tiling shop and nestled you read about people who drive into lakes is hot. Even by UK standards. I mean seatbelts beside a Premier Inn. I will give you two guesses because Google Maps told them to? I…kind of burning your shoulder when you put them which one my husband’s slavish devotion to his see how that happens. on, thighs sticking to the plastic seating hot.

Anyway we’re an hour in; thirty minutes to go. phone’s Maps app has brought us to.

There’s some whinging, mainly from the kids, Reader, I married him. I mean I already Hurrah! Plenty of time! No one’s mother-in-law sometimes from me. But we’re on our way! We’re is going to be let down on our watch! bloody had married him and that’s mainly how I up against a bit of a deadline as the entry slot found myself in the arse end of nowhere (sorry And yet…. ten minutes away. It’s not exactly how to the aforementioned English Heritage site is Farnborough) with two fed up kids and four I pictured the area. And it’s curious there’s no pre-booked but that’s ALL GOOD. We have left sign advertising how tantalisingly close we are to rapidly expiring timed entry slots. enough time for this, plus contingency for wee Postscript: We made it to the real Wisley this iconic tourist hotspot. stops.

Gardens, we’re still married and every trip begins Two minutes away.

We’re heading towards Wisley Gardens, iconic with me asking ‘You’re absolutely sure there isn’t One minute. family day out venue, with time to spare and ANOTHER Thorpe Park but it’s actually a car park With a flourish my husband turns into ‘Super Simple Songs’ blasting out the speakers. in Crawley?’ a nondescript street that leads onto an We’re winning: at days out, at life, at parenting. unremarkable industrial estate.

Kids have all the snacks and husband is faithfully Did you know there’s technically two Wisley following the sat-nav. He loves the sat-nav - I Gardens? One, the flagship RHS site in Surrey GOT A ‘FUNNY’ STORY YOU WANT TO SHARE? have said he ‘faithfully’ follows it, but I could packed to the rafters with some of England’s e: editor@thenewcartoonist.co.uk

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2024 WINNER BEST CARICATURE

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KEVIN WELLS

THE END PORTRAIT BY: KEVIN WELLS

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