Bloghorn posts in “Bloghornery”

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.

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.

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.

Bloghorn can recommend a visit to the Cartoon Museum on behalf of Her Maj. Opening night was packed and once the TV cameras had been dodged it was possible to see some fantastic work on the walls. We've featured a little below, from, ahem, our members and we thank the good folk at the museum for their help.

The Queen in Ireland, Private Eye, 2011 by Colin Whittock

We should also point to yesterday's episode of Radio 4's Midweek in which Museum patron Lord Baker discussed the show with Libby Purves, a patron of the PCO. You can listen to it on iPlayer here.

Up The Mall: An Everyday Tale of Royal Folk. Private Eye, 1968, by Ralph Steadman

And with that, Bloghorn defers and retreats to draw the new Royal dog.

You may have seen the above in this week's edition of Private Eye, in the Street of Shame column, which focuses on the misdeeds of British newspapers.

When "Cartoonist Idol" was launched, there was much discussion behind the scenes at the Professional Cartoonists' Organisation (Shurely shome correction - Ed) on our members' forum.

There was a great deal of scepticism, as professional cartoonists have all seen this kind of attempt to get work using competitions before. What we did not see, however, were any terms and conditions for the promised employment. Until we knew the outcome of the contest we gave the i the benefit of the doubt. Many professionals, members of the PCO and otherwise, decided to give it a shot.

Here on the Bloghorn, where we try to be positive about cartooning rather than negative (difficult though that can sometimes be) we reported the shortlisted cartoonists, noting that many were PCO members.

Once the winning PCO members told us what they had been offered, however, we wrote to the i and that led to a conversation with the paper. The conversation was amicable, but the i wasn't budging.

While we expected that the money offered would be poor, the PCO could not accept the demands made on copyright and exclusivity. We approached Private Eye as we thought they would find it an interesting, if depressing, story. They agreed and we hope you do too.

An article on the Independent website -- Where have all the book illustrators gone? -- appears to have provoked some rather angry debate.

The piece wonders why we do not see much illustration in books aimed at adults, something that was common in the days of Charles Dickens, who collaborated with illustrators such as Hablot Browne, aka Phiz, above.

Much of the angry reaction is directed at Dan Franklin, of the publisher Jonathan Cape, who claims that "there aren't that many great illustrators ... it's hard to find someone who can draw the human figure, it seems to be unfashionable now".

The PCO's Jonathan Cusick contributes, conceding that it is true that drawing of the human figure is not taught on art courses to the extent it once was. Though, as Jonathan's work shows, that hardly means accomplished artists are not still out there.

Bloghorn wonders how much cost is a factor. Is the absence of book illustration at least partly due to publishers' reluctance to pay the proper rates for cartoons and illustrations? We can't help thinking that many publishers are waiting for the day when Patrick Tresset's drawing robot, which went on show at the London Art Fair last week, is available for commercial work.

In the digital age it is possible for cartoonists to easily publish their work in ways that the expense of print made hard to achieve.

However, many recent ease-of-use digital tools also come with legal caveats that affect the copyright, licensing and format rights attached to an individual piece of work.

Apple has just launched its iBooks Author tool, which is already a subject of controversy because of this. Briefly, the consumer electronics and publishing services company expects exclusive sales rights for formatted "works" sold through its digital outlet store and a traditional middleman's commission fee.

In this post Boghorn offers some links to help you decide whether this sort of service is really what you need. We'd welcome any more useful links you could add in the comments.

As a part of a short series about copyright and artist rights Bloghorn is pleased to have received permission from comics artist Jamie Smart to reproduce a piece of his work below. We think you will enjoy it. Includes use of profanities to make a point.

And if they do, it pays to know your rights so you can defend the value of your work.

Eastbourne will be much more bracing when a gallery of salty and saucy imagery opens its doors this June. 

Tim Benson, who previously ran the Bloomsbury-based Political Cartoon Gallery, will reopen the gallery in premises in the East Sussex town this summer.

Dr Benson plans to host regular exhibitions of cartoon art as well as a cafe. Plans are afoot for an opening exhibition by a leading British cartoonist and the publication of a full colour anthology of his work. 

The cafe will also host a mural made by leading cartoonists carrying a suitable seaside theme and there will be a permanent exhibition of some iconic cartoons from the 20th Century.

More news here when we get it.

Many people buying cartoons do not know how copyright law works, and in the digital age, more that ever, it is important for cartoonists to let clients know where they stand.

Copyright can seem complex but it is actually fairly straightforward. When selling a cartoon for publication, copyright law means that as long as you have signed no agreement to the contrary, you always retain copyright in your material.

Typically, a cartoonist will sell exclusive first rights for an image within a defined area (ie the UK) or for a defined purpose (website publication and archiving) to the publisher.

If, however, you receive a communication from a publisher requiring all rights in return for payment and the publication of your cartoon, you must write back to clarify your terms. Refusal to communicate isn't wise because silence may legally be regarded as agreement to the publishers terms. A reply and a statement of your rights allows the cartoonist to retain rights.

In recent years, some unscrupulous publishers have issued contracts which acknowledge that you own your copyright, but go on to demand an all-encompassing range of licensed rights, for little or no extra payment. Bloghorn believes this is like them saying "We were asking for the freehold to your house for the price of a month's rent, but now we just want a 999-year lease."

Again, it is wise to respond to such contracts, in writing to clarify which rights the publisher actually wants and needs, immediately. Discuss how much will be paid for anything more than first use in the publication that commissioned you (that is, if it's in the UK, First British Serial Rights). It is wise to leave open the opportunity to renegotiate should further licences be required.

It is clearly accepted by the Copyright Act that freelance cartoonists and illustrators who are paid by the day own their pictures.

In summary, communication is the key. Cartoonists must let clients know what rights they are buying, and the artist should strive to retain ownership of the drawings.

Bloghorn would like to hear your stories about looking after business in the comments or here.