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Bill Stott to address the nation

April 15, 2013 in Events, News

Bill Stott at last year's Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival

Bill Stott, cartoonist, founder member of Procartoonists.org and all-round raconteur, is to appear on this week’s edition of Midweek on Radio 4, chatting to Libby Purves and fellow guests.

He told us: “Libby is very pro-cartoonist. I have worked with her many times over the years. Hopefully she’ll ask me nice questions. It’s all unscripted, so it’s anybody’s guess.”

Bill is also a member of the organising committee of the Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival, so we’d hazard a guess that the 10th festival, which is held this weekend, might come up.

Midweek is a famously eclectic show which sees Libby Purves, who is a patron both of the festival and of Procartoonists.org, steering the conversation among a wide variety of guests. So who will be be sharing the microphone with Bill?

Bill: “Fellow guests include a brother and sister who have a remarkable collection of letters from their father, and an American sailor who sailed the wrong way around the world. I’m reliably informed that this does not mean blunt end first. The only spanner in the works is that the programme clashes with Mrs Thatcher’s funeral.”

That sounds to us like a useful listening alternative.

Midweek is on Radio 4 at 9am on Wednesday and will be available online.

Tags: Bill Stott, Libby Purves, Midweek, Radio 4, Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival 2 Comments »

by Blog Team

Opinion: Illustration is easier than cartooning

January 24, 2013 in Comment, General

Cartoonist_or_Illustrator_@_procartoonists.org © Bill Stott

When it was suggested by the editor that I should write a piece to the statement, “Illustration is easier than cartooning”. I thought he also ought to reverse the notion and ask an illustrator too.

Trouble is, I’m not an illustrator so know little of their strange and arcane ways. Actually, that’s not entirely true. I have illustrated a couple of books in what might loosely be called a non-cartoon style. And many years ago whilst doing a fine art degree, a snotty lecturer suggested I should switch to Illustration because my work was “rather slick and commercial”. The fool! Did he not see that I was going to be the next Jack Vettriano?

Cartoonist and illustrator are very wide terms. If by illustrator we mean those driven souls who churn out graphic novels – how do they do it? – then give me cartooning any day. On the other hand if, as a cartoonist, you get lucky with a multi-panel strip of Doonesbury or Calvin and Hobbes or The Fosdyke Saga proportions and you don’t have time to draw anything but the same re-occurring characters day after day, world without end, how do you stave off madness?

Do illustrators feel the same? What little illustration work I’ve done rapidly became tedious. Same characters, different situations. Rather more interesting to write than to illustrate. Unless, of course, you’re Victor Ambrus who is brilliant enough to stop even Tony Robinson becoming tedious.

However – I love that word, it means you’re about to kick the foregoing into the long grass – a good cartoon drawing has to be a good joke as well. Thinking of a good joke can be a killer. “Good joke” means one which in the first instance makes you the cartoonist laugh. Whether it makes a commissioning editor laugh is another matter entirely (Ian Hislop is such a tease). Some days good jokes pop up like weeds. On others – like today – there’s a great desire to draw funny stuff but nothing happens and an unhealthy amount of daytime TV is watched.

There. My head’s nearly empty now. The only thing I’d add is the word “good”. Good illustration is easier than good cartooning. Must dash, DCI Banks is on.

PS. If anybody wants a definition of “good”, ask the editor in the comments.

Editor adds: Thanks to Bill for putting his head above the parapet.

Tags: best British cartoonists, Bill Stott, cartoonist, cartoons, illustration, Illustrator, Procartoonists.org, Professional Cartoonists Organisation, Victor Ambrus 26 Comments »

by Rob Murray

The Round-up

January 18, 2013 in General, Links, News

Following on from our last post about what is and isn’t funny, we link to a recent BBC article about the history and humour of the pun – a weapon in the cartoonist’s arsenal that is loved by some and disparaged by others. (We at Procartoonists.org are happy to sit on the fence and say that while some puns deserve nothing but a weary groan, others – such as in the cartoon above, by Bill Stott – are inspired.) Read the article here.

There were equestrian puns aplenty bouncing around on Twitter this week, following the horsemeat burger scandal (log in and search for #horsemeat and you’ll find some good examples). Even Tesco itself decided to crack a joke on the subject.

The horsemeat story provided fodder for cartoonists, too, and The Telegraph’s Matt Pritchett was particularly inspired – producing no less than five gags on the subject in just two days. Click here to scroll through them.

BBC Radio 4 broadcast two programmes of interest to cartoonists and illustrators this week. First, there was a half-hour show celebrating the art and characters of The Beano (click here to listen). Then Lawrence Llewellyn-Bowen chose to celebrate the Great Life of Aubrey Beardsley (here).

And finally, the Chris Beetles Gallery in London is holding a sale, beginning this weekend. Click here to see the artworks available.

Tags: Aubrey Beardsley, Bill Stott, cartoons, Chris Beetles, horsemeat, Matt Pritchett, Procartoonists.org, puns, The Beano 7 Comments »

by Blog Team

Whither the art

November 20, 2012 in Comment, General

Our wise old cartoonist Bill Stott contemplates the state of the, er, art.

Interesting discussion on the Radio 4 Andrew Marr slot (19 November 2012) all about arts, arts funding, art in schools, and the new National Curriculum, which doesn’t include art and design as a compulsory subject.

The artist Antony Gormley and others sang the praises, quite rightly, of all the craftspersons and technical experts who make artists’ work possible, but the bit which stuck with me was that fact above about the National Curriculum.

I know a bit about art education in secondary schools, having been a teacher in the past. Its standards and performance nationally are much like that of maths or biology. i.e. good, bad and indifferent.

However, it always struck me that decisions about what subjects should be taught were never the remit of art teachers. It was fine for a head teacher, or a head of curriculum as they became known (usually a deputy head) whose specialist subject was English or physics, to decide how many periods of maths, geography, history, science, languages, PE, RE and art etc, should be taught.

It was always taken as read that maths and English were the most important and I’ve no argument with that. What does make me wonder is the grasp, or lack of it, that these decision-makers have of good art teaching. My experience is: not a lot. When I was teaching art, there was still a deeply irritating belief, from those who didn’t teach it, that being good at and enjoying art was a “gift”– the stamping ground of the very few. Which is nonsense. Just as having a “gift” for geography is nonsense.

OK, some kids are naturally able. But some kids are naturally able at PE, that doesn’t mean that all kids don’t get the opportunity.

So, given the new non-compulsory nature of art in schools, and the fact that curriculum decision-makers in schools were rubbish at art when they were at school, I fear that art may soon be relegated to after-school clubs. A pastime. How sad.

If you have something to say about BIll’s opinion please jump into the comments below.

Tags: art, art and design, best British cartoonists, Bill Stott, education, Procartoonists.org, Professional Cartoonists Organisation, teaching 5 Comments »

by Royston

Heritage exhibition: Just like that!

October 31, 2012 in Events, General, News

Tommy Cooper © John Roberts

An exhibition of cartoons and caricatures by Procartoonists.org members Bill Stott, Noel Ford, Roger Penwill and John Roberts is being held at the Heritage Centre in Knutsford, Cheshire, from 6 November until 22 December.

The Cartoon Collective show is very loosely based on the theme of “heritage” and will include a collection of cartoons on imaginary old motorcycles by Roger and a series of caricatures of British comedians by John, such as Charlie Chaplin and Tommy Cooper, right.

Noel is selling some of his Punch original cartoons while displaying a couple of original full-colour Punch covers and the first two gags he sold to the magazine.

A preview evening will be held on 6 November, at which John will be drawing some live caricatures and Bill will be doing a “stand-up cartoonist” routine. For details, visit knutsfordheritage.co.uk, email info@knutsfordheritage.co.uk or call 01565-652 854.

Tags: Bill Stott, heritage cartoons, John Roberts, Knutsford Heritage Centre, Noel Ford, Roger Penwill 3 Comments »

by Blog Team

Free will and cartooning

October 30, 2012 in Comment, General

An opinion piece by Bill Stott

Free will and cartooning: is this a no-brainer? Or will I realise hitherto unseen and earth-shattering truths whilst typing? A eureka moment like finally figuring out what the symbol on your car’s dashboard resembling a tap-dancing flukeworm represents.

In some countries, drawing cartoons, usually political ones, which laud the state and lampoon the running dogs of whatever the state doesn’t much like (this will inevitably involve Obama’s ears) is a pretty safe bet.

Veer towards graphic criticism of the home side though, and you’re in deep doo-doo. Persist in veering and big blokes appear in the night and break your hands. No free will there then.

Cartoon © Bill Stott @ Procartoonists.org

And the hand-breakers don’t just practice their painful ways within the borders of their own country either. They internationalise their state’s repression by blowing you up in the comfort of your own home (given half a chance) thousands of miles away because you disrespected their religion, which IS their state. This is a fairly effective way of severely curtailing the free will of say, a cartoonist in Berkhamstead who comes up with a goodie involving Mohammed and brainwashed bombers.

Of course, we in the developed, civilised world, when not busy invading places a long way away, of which we know little, or selling them arms so that the pro-USA side wins, luxuriate in free will – cartooning and otherwise.

It tends to be the political cartoonists who come to mind if we think about free will, and they do a great job, pushing it to the wire in some eyes, especially if those eyes belong to somebody with broken hands in Longwayawayistan.

Thing is, ours is an old country. Our government rolls with the blows, safe in the knowledge that having the doughty Steve Bell draw you as a shiny condom probably won’t force a general election. And yet that resilience, confidence and apparent belief in the freedom of the press – excepting naughty phone-hacking types – is probably not underpinned by a simple, ingrained sense of fair play.

No, it is maintained by a secret service – a very necessary part of our free world, we are told (often by the secret service), who spook about the place causing things to happen, like one of their own turning up inexplicably dead in a gym bag and now conveniently forgotten by the free press. I don’t recall seeing too many cartoons about that.

Tags: Ali Ferzat, Aseem Trivedi, Bill Stott, free will, political cartooning 4 Comments »

by Blog Team

Beauty or bunk? The art of creativity

September 19, 2012 in Comment

Cartoonist and Procartoonists.org member Bill Stott talks creativity while trying to avoid the usual pitfalls

“Creativity is bunk” – I can’t remember where I read that, but it sort of lodged, because its bizarre. Not unlike Big Brother being classed as entertainment.

Maybe its one of the utterings of the great, good, and often dead. Like Henry Ford’s “History is bunk”. Mind you, historians tell us that he never actually said it. That’s a relief then. But somebody who might have said the one may have said the other.

And what’s “bunk” when it’s at home? Cowboys sleep on them, as do sailors, but such are the mysteries of the English language that “bunk” also means “nonsense” and, more recently, “boring”.

“Creativity is nonsense/boring”. Hmm. Should really define “creativity” first, I suppose. But I’ll neatly sidestep that by not doing so. Huge danger there, particularly for an artist, of falling into the head-up-arse artbollocks trap. Let’s leave that to the critics.

If Ford did say it, he was wrong. Without engineering creativity, he’d never have been able to churn out millions of black Model Ts (and they weren’t all black and he never said they had to be. Apparently). He surely didn’t think the millions he made out of bunk were boring.

Let’s face it, I’m avoiding the issue here. “Creativity is bunk” is aimed at we airy-fairy, arty types who dare to put substance to their imaginings. And I’m not at all sure that there are people who cannot appreciate beauty, or at least arresting physical fact. If there were, it wouldn’t have been necessary to invent things like “I don’t know much about Art but I know what I like”.

I have a neighbour who can’t tell a Rembrandt from a Bacon, but who waxes lyrical about the design of his golf clubs. He doesn’t make the link. But he does think they’re beautiful. Maybe the thing is that they are beautiful because they are things of purpose, like a beautiful car (not yours, Henry) or a beautiful greyhound. This last isn’t a good example because when greyhounds stop making money, they stop being desirably beautiful and become pet food.

Creativity, in all its artistic, technological and scientific forms is the antithesis of bunk. Creativity is asking questions about the nature of creation. Better go steady here – artbollocks looms – so let’s use mathematics as an example instead.

Maths is/are beautiful. There’s a logical symmetry there that is unbeatable. And if you’re bright enough to push the maths boat right out, it brushes aside logic, symmetry, and for us artproles, even understanding. No mathsbollocks there, just quantum mechanics.

Our thanks to Bill. You can see lots of examples of creativity in action if you check out his portfolio and many others here

Tags: art, beauty, Bill Stott, creativity No Comments »

by Blog Team

The Rules of Cartooning

August 15, 2012 in Comment, General

Cartoon Rules No1 © Bill Stott @ procartoonists.org

Bill Stott our man with the ~~Gillott 303~~ Leonardt nib reveals the Rules of Cartooning:

Oh yes, there are rules. Hundreds probably, but most of them are best known to students of cartooning rather than cartoonists (well at least, this cartoonist who finds scholarly texts on humour a bit anaesthetic). Below are a few which probably don’t appear in learned treatise on cartooning.

1. Some of them are domestic, heralded by questions like, ‘‘Are you going to be up there ALL night ?’’, or, ‘‘Dear God, look at the state of this place !’’, and, ‘‘How on earth can you work in this MESS?’’

‘‘Up there’’ refers of course to the upstairs bedroom, or ‘‘studio’’ to those who’ve never seen it. This cartoonist lives in awe of colleagues whose working spaces can double as operating theatres. On the other hand, it must be a bit boring not finding the upright piano you thought you’d lost, from time to time.

2. And you musn’t steal others’ jokes, which is an absolute no-no. It doesn’t mean that two cartoonists won’t come up with the same gag at the same time occasionally, but in an age of instant internet access, it’s all too easy to nick ideas.

Cartoon Rule No2 © Bill Stott @ procartoonists.org

That’s not to say that you won’t be influenced by other cartoonists’ humour and that inevitably leads to similar scenarios. During those bleak days when the ideas just won’t come, I often wish I was Bud Grace or Mike Williams. But then I’ve seen Mike’s spotless studio and realise I’m not. On the other hand, can Mike talk to the spiders?

3. Then there’s the thorny business of pricing. Cartooning is a weird business. Much-loved but not generally well-paid. Not as well-paid as the technician who comes to fix the machine which prints the magazine the cartoon appears in.

So pricing can be a lottery.

So really, that’s about it. Ask another cartoonist and you’ll probably get a whole slew of different answers. There is one common factor though, a dreaded and terrible one called Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. Never mess with the pointy-heads. Always remember that going after a sole trader is dead easy for HMRC – far, far easier than nailing big rich tax avoiders.

Cartoon Rules No4 © Bill Stott @ procartoonists.org

I did a couple of cartoons for HMRC ages ago, all about tax evasion. Felt strange. A bit like Joan of Arc reaching for her own Zippo.

Editor adds: There will be more from Bill when we can rescue him from under his own paper mountain – and the Revenue. If you have your own ideas on what the Rules of Cartooning should be please suggest away in the comments below.

Tags: Bill Stott, Inland Revenue, Procartoonists.org, Professional Cartoonists Organisation, The Rules of Cartooning 17 Comments »

by Blog Team

Personal Bests: Prepare the Stadium!

August 3, 2012 in General, News

Personal Bests_Prepare the Olympic Stadium © Bill Stott @ procartoonists.org

Activity at the Olympic Stadium on this, the ~~sixth day~~ seventh day* of competition in the London 2012 Olympic Games. Try weaving back through a few Personal Bests here.

* Scribe to be struck down by the god(s) – Ed

Tags: best British cartoonists, Bill Stott, London 2012, Olympic Games, Olympics, Personal Bests, Procartoonists.org No Comments »

by Matt Buck

The cartoonist and the twits

July 17, 2012 in Comment, General

Our man Bill Stott reports:

Well, I tried. Caved in to peer pressure and signed up to Twitter. Did the same with Facebook years ago. Finally managed to un-Facebook myself a while back. At least, I think I did. You can never tell with these things. Joining’s easy. Leaving’s a lot more complicated. A bit like marriage.

So I’m not about to find out how to LEAVE Twitter. I’m just not going to tweet and watch it wither on the vine. Better still, I’m not even going to watch it. Yes, yes, I know that this might be dangerous and that when the revolution explodes I’ll be the only one in our street wondering whose tanks are rolling across next door’s lawn and why my hair is on fire.

No Facebook? No Twitter? How can this be? Am I a monk of austere order? Am I a berk with nothing to say? No, and most of the latter appear to be on Facebook or Twitter anyway. And austere monks? I have no idea what they do with their thumbs.

Let me explain: I have a mobile phone, a humble little grey thing – almost a collector’s item now. Only three people know my number. Why have I got it? It’s in case my car breaks down or some other emergency. What it’s NOT for is “chat”. I do not check it every five minutes to see if anybody’s tried to tell me something underwhelming. I do not feel the need to blunder through shopping malls, head down, thumbs blurring, texting somebody about being in a shopping mall.

And so it was with Twitter. I did actually tweet three or four times. Admittedly, the first one was to say that I thought Twitter was crap and what a pain it was going to be – checking to see if anybody had tweeted back. They didn’t. People like me are beyond the social-network pale. We (I really hope there are others out there) hate the idea of being instantly accessible. We are irritated by tweeters who call themselves “Red Necco” or “Juli”. Its JulIE, OK? Not Judi, or Nikki, or Debbi. And its “gossip”, not “goss”, right?

Come the day my PC can accurately classify incoming tweets as Important, Moderately Important, Mildly Interesting or Vapid, I might take part again (the world will be relieved to know). Until then I shall remain mildly interested in the extreme level of banality achieved in 140 characters.

I like emails. They’re like writing letters. Remember them? When you had to actually WRITE? When you used at least three digits to hold the pen, and a whole handful more to keep the paper from sliding about? OK, my emailing’s of the one finger variety, but I’m not limited to the silly 140-character tweet rule. I can rant on and on, despite knowing full well that the recipient will immediately identify the sender, think, “Oh, its him!” and press “DELETE”