Personal Bests: Legacy of the games
August 9, 2012 in General, News
It is time to consider the legacy of the original Much Wenlock Olympian Games. Personal Bests from the UK Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation.
August 9, 2012 in General, News
It is time to consider the legacy of the original Much Wenlock Olympian Games. Personal Bests from the UK Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation.
June 7, 2011 in News
Cartoons are inextricably linked to the seaside, so it was no surprise that when the new series of BBC Two’s Coast headed to Margate for a piece on the heyday of seaside landladies, they chose to illustrate that with a cartoon postcard.
Being very well looked after, detail above, by Rupert Besley, a member of the PCO, which runs the Bloghorn, was featured to illustrate the stereotype “battleaxe” and her endless lists of rules.
For Rupert, who has drawn hundreds of postcards, almost all for the holiday trade, national TV exposure was a mixed blessing, as the cartoon they chose was drawn more than 30 years ago. Rupert told the Bloghorn:
“If you’re lucky enough to get a cartoon taken up for use in a television programme, it does seem a bit mealy-mouthed then to start complaining about the one selected, given the choice available. But which would you rather have fill the screen, a recent cartoon that you were secretly quite pleased with or something done more than 30 years back, an early hamfisted attempt at a cartoon? Well, they said they’d pay me, so I won’t go on about it.”
Bloghorn will gloss over Rupert’s comments – the typical insecurity of the cartoonist! – and say it’s a great cartoon, perfectly illustrating the subject matter at hand.
You can see more seaside postcards in Margate in July, when a selection those digitised by the British Cartoon Archive goes on show. Bloghorn will have more on this nearer the time.
March 21, 2011 in Events

A cartoon exhibition looking at all aspects of married life – for better, for worse – opens at the Cartoon Museum in London this Wednesday (March 23). Cartoon above by Pak
As Prince William and Kate Middleton prepare to tie the knot on April 29, Marriage à la Mode: Royals and Commoners In and Out of Love promises “a bouquet of barbed wit” on the subject of marriage.
It will feature musings on matrimony from cartoonists past and present, including William Hogarth, who created a series of works that give the show its name, James Gillray, H.M. Bateman, Donald McGill, Carl Giles, Mel Calman, Ralph Steadman and Posy Simmonds.
The Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation, which runs the Bloghorn, is represented with cartoons by Steve Bell, Rupert Besley, Noel Ford, Martin Honeysett, Ken Pyne, below, Royston Robertson, and Bill Stott.

Despite being its inspiration, the royal couple are unlikely to give the show their seal of approval. As well as looking at some of the less successful aspects of marriage, some cartoons remind us of a certain royal wedding from 30 years ago that did not go too well, as seen in this 1995 Time magazine cartoon by Arnold Roth, right.
William and Kate may also not want to be associated with the work of Reg Smythe, who features in the exhibition and is famous for creating the less-than-idyllic marriage of Andy Capp and Flo.
Other cartoonists featured include Ros Asquith, Ian Baker, Biff, Nicholas Garland, Grizelda, Peter “Pak” King, David Langdon, Peter Schrank, Geoff Thompson, and Robert Thompson.
For more details visit the museum website. Marriage à la Mode runs until May 22, by which time those commemorative royal wedding tea towels may well be frayed at the edges.
June 27, 2008 in Events

Cartoonist Rupert Besley is the PCO artist for June. Click the image to enlarge. You can see Rupert’s other Artist of the Month images by clicking his name, under “Labels” below. And don’t forget to click B for Besley.
June 20, 2008 in Events

Cartoonist Rupert Besley, the PCO artist for June has a history of producing large colourful cartoons on travel and tourism. Bloghorn says click B for Besley. Click to enlarge the image.
Get away and find British cartoon talent
June 13, 2008 in Events

Our second offering from the PCO Artist of the month for June, PCOer Rupert Besley.
It’s British cartoon talent
June 6, 2008 in Events

PCOer Rupert Besley is our artist of the month for June 2008.
Besley has been widely published for over 20 years. Most of his detailed watercolour work has been in providing illustrations for schoolbooks, educational publishers and business presentations in need of charm and direct communication. But he has also supplied gag cartoons for many books of cartoon jokes, often focusing on travel and holidays inside Britain.
His postcard art is notorious, especially if you’ve had an experience of the weather in Wales, or the midges in Scotland. He has also been published in a large number of magazines including Country Talk, The Oldie and Country Life. Resident on the Isle of Wight, he is, naturally, a chronicler of all life there and had a one-man exhibition – Island Fling – recently.
Bloghorn says click B for Besley.
British cartoon talent
by Royston
Foghorn magazine – Issue 51
June 28, 2011 in Comment, News
Summer is here and our thoughts turn to holidays, so the latest issue of Foghorn, the magazine of the Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation, looks at the behaviour of the British abroad. The cover is by the PCO’s Robert Duncan. The magazine is available to subscribers for the annual price of £20 for six full colour issues.
What’s inside?
Roger Penwill on on a travel adventure worthy of Samuel Beckett.
Rupert Besley on the holidays of his youth, when anything foreign was the subject of deep mistrust.
Clive Goddard on America, and how it is really rather big.
Clive Collins on the freelancer’s fear of taking time off.
And you’ll find a full page of cartoons by Andrew Birch.
Plus lots more: the Critic, the Foghorn Guide, the Potting Shed … and several straining suitcases packed with funny cartoons about what we did on our holidays.
You can read older issues of Foghorn online here, right up to our most recent issue.
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Tags: Andrew Birch, Clive Collins, Clive Goddard, Foghorn cartoon magazine, Professional Cartoonists Organisation, Robert Duncan, Roger Penwill, Rupert Besley, the British abroad No Comments »