Bloghorn

Here's another cartoon submitted for exhibition at this year's Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival, where the theme is "Flying". This is by The Surreal McCoy.

We will be featuring more great cartoons submitted to the festival exhibition by our members ahead of the festival in April. You can see the first drawing here.

If you're not familiar with the festival, here's a Bloghorn report on what we got up to last year (with more here and here.)

All good things must come to an end, and so it has come to pass that Foghorn, the magazine of the Professional Cartoonists' Organisation has reached its final issue. Fear not, for it is going out with a smile on its face. The theme, as featured on the cover by our out-going Chairman Andy Davey, is "We're all in this together".

What's inside? ¶

Rupert Besley reflects on pyramids, pillocks and Gizas

How architects deal with austere times by Roger Penwill

Foghorn's Guide to All Being In It Together

Curmudgeon calls for a National Moan

... and many, many cartoons, including a full page of work from Clive Collins MBE.

You can read the whole thing online here! 

And what now for Foghorn? well, changes are afoot. Watch this space ...

Rosie Brooks, a member of the Professional Cartoonists'  Organisation, which runs the Bloghorn, has found a piece of her artwork adorning a US postage stamp. That's because she painted the guitar that Sir Paul McCartney is pictured with on one of a range of stamps for the animal welfare charity PETA. You can watch Rosie painting the guitar (at high speed) here.

The Christian Institute has latched onto a recent cartoon by The Telegraph's Matt Pritchett, arguing that his gag reflects public opinion over the recent banning of prayers as part of council meetings. You can read their take on the cartoon here.

Stephen Collins, cartoonist for The Guardian, Prospect, The Spectator and others, has contributed a range of cartoon postcard designs for the Time To Change mental health campaign. See them here.

Forbidden Planet reports here on Marvel's legal victory over the comic-book writer Gary Friedrich, while The Daily Cartoonist points out that the legal tussle does the publisher no favours with fans.

Lord Baker of Dorking appears on the Panel Borders podcast to discuss his love of cartoons and his contributions to the Cartoon Museum's latest exhibition, Her Maj.

And finally, Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, Life In Hell and Futurama,  has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

As the ice melts, thoughts turn to spring and that means the annual cartoon festival at Shrewsbury.

The event theme this year is "Flying" and we will be featuring some of the terrific art submitted to the festival exhibition by our members in the coming weeks, in between explaining what you can expect when you reach the Shropshire town.

We've debuted the cartoon above by Denis Dowland today.

The local "fly-by-day-or-nights" from RAF Cosford are heavily involved in this year's event as are our friends from Reader's Digest magazine. We'll have more details on the Bloghorn soon. In the meantime, you might like to relive some of our previous coverage from other years of the Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival in the archives of the respective "springs" you'll find on the right-hand side of your screen.

The struggle of the gag cartoonist is the subject for an article in the current issue of the Association of Illustrators magazine Varoom! It's by Martin Colyer, Design Director at Reader's Digest, who asks: "What other profession has within its job description such a huge element of rejection? Even actors, famous in the rejection stakes, don't have to actually write the plays they perform in."

Cartoonists must "churn" ideas, he says, and send them out knowing that "they will be placed in piles, summarily judged, occasionally accepted, mostly rejected and returned to sender". He uses as an example, a cartoon by the PCO's own Wilbur Dawbarn that was accepted by the Digest but was never run, owing to a change of editor.

The article includes a short interview with Wilbur about the cartoon, which is featured as Varoom!'s "Unseen" artwork. We've included one of Wibur's cartoons that did make the cut at Reader's Digest here.

Bloghorn says: Yep, it's a tough life, but cartoonists are made of stern stuff! Onwards!

Read about and subscribe to Varoom! here

Our friends at the Creators’ Rights Alliance and Consumer Focus are holding a joint seminar on copyright for artists and illustrators to which Bloghorn would like to bring to your attention. It is being held at The Free Word Centre in central London on Tuesday 21st February from 10-5.30pm.

You can download the full PDF details here.

The big story in cartooning this week unfolded in the US, as a large number of editorial cartoonists took issue with The New York Times for soliciting cartoons on-spec (see No!Spec for useful background on this issue).

Aardman Animations, the studio behind Wallace and Gromit, has denied it is unhappy with comparisons between their hapless inventor character and Labour leader Ed Miliband in cartoons by Times cartoonist Peter Brookes. Responding to press reports that had claimed it was concerned about damage to its brand, Aardman said the cartoons are 'great fun'. A piece in The Telegraph goes further, suggesting that Miliband should be flattered by the comparison.

When singer-songwriter Ryan Adams banned photography from his latest tour, the St. Louis Riverfront Times sent an illustrator along instead.

In Morocco, an 18-year-old has appeared in court after posting caricatures of King Mohammed VI on Facebook.

Royal Mail has unveiled a new set of Roald Dahl stamps, with illustrations by Quentin Blake. 

And there's more on the Cartoon Museum's alternative Jubilee show, Her Maj, as curator Anita O'Brien guides Culture24 though the exhibition.

Bloghorn's attention is drawn to an eye-opening story from the United States reported by our colleague cartoonist Mike Lynch.

In line with recent concerns about the business of cartooning it involves unlicensed use of an image in this case by the broadcaster MSNBC. The cartoonist Lian Amaris had one of her images used without permisson or licensing on the broadcaster's Up with Chris Hayes show.

The broadcaster initially explained use of the image, in this video clip from the show (time stamp 39mins 40secs), as simply "shared on Facebook" and as a "grassroots thing".

One of the features of the way the US cartoonists highlighted the error, led by Mike Lynch and Tom Tomorrow, was the use of real-time communication via Twitter. This involved direct contact with Chris Hayes the presenter of the show in question. We were pleased to help with this.

You can read Bloghorn on Twitter here.

“Ask anyone you meet in the street what the most popular feature of The Spectator is, and they will reply in unison, 'The cartoons, of course',” says Michael Heath of the magazine.

Of course, he is a cartoonist and the magazine's cartoon editor, so he would say that ... but the Bloghorn agrees heartily!

Following a succesful exhibition at Browse & Darby in London, The Spectator is now selling cartoons online. Originals and prints, framed and mounted, are up for grabs, including work by gag cartoonists from the PCO.

Visit the online exhibition

Cartoon by Denise Dorrance

Martin Rowson and Steve Bell, political cartoonists and members of the Professional Cartoonists' Organisation, will take part in The Guardian news organisation’s Open Weekend next month. Details of their respective events here and here.

Bob Mankoff, cartoon editor for The New Yorker, considers the importance of accuracy in gag cartoons.

Staying woth The New Yorker, the US cartoonist Bob Staake, tells Wicked Local Eastham about the process for creating a cover image, his studio environment and embracing digital techniques. Read more here.

Rod Warren is also passing on his skills on to the next generation.

And finally, the Cartoon Museum in London is receiving plenty of good publicity for its new Jubilee exhibition, Her Maj, including this from Sky News. PCO member Simon Ellinas also reports on the private view here.