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The Round-up

February 8, 2013 in General, Links, News

Kevin Siers, editorial cartoonist for The Charlotte Observer, has found his name on a list of hostiles kept by the National Rifle Association. Read Siers’ response here.

Mike Lynch tells an amusing story – through the medium of cartoons, naturally – about his early attempts to sell gags to that most notoriously esoteric of markets, The New Yorker. Read The Petty Indignities That Ruin My Life here.

Elsewhere, New Yorker cartoonists have been trying out an Etch A Sketch app – with decidedly mixed results. The experiment was so disastrous for Mick Stevens that it resulted in him speaking out against all forms of digital drawing. Read more, and see their attempts, here.

Lafayette, Louisiana newspaper The Advertiser provides a full and comprehensive answer to a reader’s question about how political cartoons are selected (be sure to click through to page 2 for the full response).

And finally, for those with an interest in animation, Complex.com has compiled a list of 25 cartoons that aren’t for children.

Tags: Kevin Siers, Mick Stevens, Mike Lynch, NRA, PCO, political cartoons, Procartoonists.org, The New Yorker 2 Comments »

by Rob Murray

The Round-up

January 28, 2013 in General, Links, News

Procartoonists.org member Graeme Bandeira is one of a group of artists who will feature in the Fantasista 2013 Exhibition of football illustration this spring. Alongside Graeme’s caricature of Ryan Giggs (above), you can also find his depiction of José Mourinho at the Telegraph site.

Libby Purves, Procartoonists.org patron and cartoon fanatic, will be interviewing Private Eye editor Ian Hislop at a special event for the Royal Geographical Society on 27 February. Read more and book tickets here.

Bob Mankoff, the cartoon editor at The New Yorker, shows us how his own health fears have found their way into his gag cartoons.

The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists has issued a statement condemning plagiarism and supporting originality. Meanwhile, US cartoonist Bill Day has been accused of self-plagiarism.

And finally, two editorial cartoonists – Matt Wuerker and Scott Stantis – speak to NPR about their depictions of Barack Obama as he starts his second presidential term. Listen to the interview here.

Tags: AAEC, Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, Barack Obama, Bob Mankoff, Fantasista, Graeme Bandeira, Ian Hislop, Jose Mourinho, Libby Purves, Matt Wuerker, PCO, Private Eye, Procartoonists.org, Ryan Giggs, Scott Stantis, The New Yorker 1 Comment »

by Rob Murray

The Round-up

November 24, 2012 in General, Links, News

Dave Walker, regular contributor to Church Times and a member of Procartoonists.org, produced the cartoon above for The Guardian this week, following the Church of England’s decision to reject the ordination of women bishops. Dave’s cartoon has attracted more than 100 comments, and counting.

Having moved into greeting card designs, Matthew Inman – the cartoonist behind US website The Oatmeal – is being sued for trademark infringement. Inman was involved in another legal rights battle earlier in the year, against online content aggregator FunnyJunk. In that instance, FunnyJunk had been using Oatmeal material without permission – but bizarrely issued a lawsuit against Inman. Refresh your memory by reading our coverage of the case.

Darren Davis, the man behind independent comics publisher Bluewater Productions, is embracing a move into digital publishing, but is finding another side of the internet – online criticism – hard to take.

The New Yorker has published its third annual ‘bookazine’ cartoon compilation. The New Yorker Cartoons of the Year 2012 features more than 250 of the best gags that have run in the magazine this year, along with new material. No word yet on whether it will be distributed outside the US, but previous editions have made their way to the UK courtesy of discerning stockists including the London Review Bookshop.

Tags: BlueWater Productions, cartoons, Church Times, comic books, Darren Davis, Dave Walker, FunnyJunk, Matthew Inman, Procartoonists.org, The Guardian, The New Yorker, The Oatmeal 1 Comment »

by Alex Hughes

After Gin Lane: Giving it all away

September 6, 2012 in Comment, General

Following From Gin Lane to the Information Superhighway we see that there are cartoonists who are positively embracing this new era of social media and sharing.

Hairy Steve © Steve Bright @ Procartoonists.org

Webcomics and viral cartoons are a couple of the ways that you can effectively give your work away to the web but get paid back by other means. Successful webcomics work on a business model based on the idea that you give away a regularly updated cartoon on your website and build a following of readers who come back day after day. British examples include John Allison‘s Bad Machinery or Jamie Smart‘s Corporate Skull.

The profit comes from selling merchandise to the more loyal fans – bound compilations, prints, sketches, T-shirts, toys and so forth. Similarly, viral cartoons can drive lots of new readers to your website. How much money can be directly attributed to virals is arguable, although, for example, the well-known New Yorker cartoon “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog” is said to have earned its creator, Peter Steiner, more than $50,000.

The website Kickstarter has recently become one of the biggest publishers of comic books in the USA, from independent cartoonists using the crowd-funding model to raise money directly from their fan-base. Here in the UK, Procartoonists.org‘s very own Adrian Teal (The Gin Lane Gazette) and Steve Bright (Hairy Steve – in collaboration with Jamie Smart) have developed their own crowd-funded projects.

We’ll be considering another aspect of the communication change – After Gin Lane – and what it means for cartoonists next week

Tags: Adrian Teal, Bad Machinery, Corporate Skull, crowd-funding, dog, Gin Lane, Hairy Steve, Jamie Smart, John Allison, Kickstarter, Peter Steiner, social media, Steve Bright, The Gin Lane Gazette, The New Yorker, viral, webcomics No Comments »

by Royston

Remember the first time?

March 6, 2012 in General, News

Bob Mankoff illustration

Bob Mankoff, cartoon editor at The New Yorker, has invited several established cartoonists to talk about their first gags that hit the mark at the magazine.

First up was Mick Stevens, followed by Jack Ziegler. Both are now considered to be part of the “old or at least oldish guard now”, says Mankoff on his New Yorker blog, but they were new once. First-time memories from the cartoonists Roz Chast and Michael Maslin will follow.

Mankoff himself told the story of how he broke through as a cartoonist at the magazine in three parts here, here, and here in 2010.

Cartoon by Bob Mankoff

Tags: Bob Mankoff, Jack Ziegler, Michael Maslin, Mick Stevens, Procartoonists.org, Roz Chast, The New Yorker, UK Professional Cartoonists' Organisation Portfolios No Comments »

by Royston

How to not get into The New Yorker

September 7, 2011 in Comment

Cartoon © James Sturm

If you don’t follow the Bloghorn on Twitter (you should: @bloghorn) you may have missed this article that we highlighted recently.

James Sturm, an artist better known for graphic novels, decided to try his hand at gag cartooning for the most competitive, exclusive market there is. He writes about his exploits for Slate magazine here: How hard is it to get a cartoon into The New Yorker?

He tells of how he enjoyed the freedom of gag cartooning, how his meeting went with the magazine’s cartoon editor Bob Mankoff, and how he ultimately didn’t get into The New Yorker. But he did have lunch with lots of cartoonists, so it’s not all bad news.

Tags: gag cartoons, James Sturm, magazine cartoons, rejection, The New Yorker 1 Comment »

by Royston

Osama jokes: The laughter of being alive

May 3, 2011 in Comment

Cartoon by Mick Stevens © The New Yorker

Over at the New Yorker blog, cartoon editor Bob Mankoff notes that Osama bin Laden had disappeared off their humour radar for a while, the 2007 cartoon above being his last appearance.

He takes a look at Bin Laden cartoons down the years and notes that in the age of terrorism – and this is no doubt acutely true in the city that suffered the worst al-Qaida attack – “the unspoken point was that laughter was part of being alive”. Read the article here.

Meanwhile, the PCO’s own Bill Stott looks here at how caricaturists can deflate the fear of tyrants and terrorists, even if their shadowy nature can make it difficult:

As “the world’s most wanted man”, Osama bin Laden had also been among the most caricatured. His very distinctive features were a gift to satirical artists, as was his dress code, alternating as it did between Arabic tradition and military camouflage.

I wonder if our doughty band of caricaturists has already perfected their versions of his successor. Who he? Well, he is an Egyptian academic, a surgeon no less, called Ayman al-Zawahiri.

He will now, in Western eyes at least, don the leader’s mantle. But al-Zawahiri, at first glance, does not have the strong facial characteristics of Bin Laden. He looks like a bespectacled 60-something scholar.

How things have changed. Despite leaps in communication technology, we don’t really know what al-Qaida’s movers and shakers look like. During the Second World War, our caricaturists had all the Nazi hierarchy off to a tee. From Hitler himself down through Goering, Himmler, Ribbentrop and Goebbels, caricaturists had a field day. Humour proved to be a very effective deflater.

The difference now is that al-Qaida supremos are mostly very secretive, and are visual mysteries. They don’t strut about the place like the Nazis did. So it’s harder for our caricaturists to diminish them through humour as effectively.

Fear of terrorism, of this facelessness, gives it the weapon of sinister mystery. And I’m not talking about religious differences here and the questionable decisions of Danish publishers, but wondering, just wondering, if the al-Qaida bogeyman couldn’t be cut down to size – just a little – by our excellent caricaturists.

Got any thoughts on the humour used to attack tyrants and terrorists? Comments welcome below, as ever.

Tags: Ayman al-Zawahiri, Bill Stott, Bob Mankoff, Hitler, Mick Stevens, Nazis, Osama bin Laden, political caricature, political cartoons, satirical caricature, Second World war cartoons, The New Yorker, World War Two cartoons 3 Comments »

by Royston

How one woman was saved by cartoons

February 1, 2011 in Comment

Here’s a great video from the New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly that shows how cartoons can make serious points and provide hearty laughs at the same time.

In an illustrated lecture for Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED), a non-profit organisation dedicated to “Ideas worth spreading”, which it makes available through talks posted on its website, Donnelly talks about how she found her identity as a woman using the medium of cartoons, while growing up in turbulent times.

“I can’t decide what I’m going to be when I grow up — a good girl or a slut.”

You can read more here: Cartooning has been my saviour.

“I have lived the privileged life of an American, but nonetheless have felt great difficulty in figuring out who I am and why I am here. It may sound funny, but cartooning has been my saviour. And I believe that the art form is unique in its ability to open people’s eyes – and not just those of us who practise it.”

Donnelly certainly seems to have succeeded making people laugh as well as opening their eyes, check out the video for the response to her Sarah Palin cartoon, in particular.

Tags: cartoon presentations, cartoon talks, Entertainment and Design, feminist cartoons, Liza Donnelly, technology, TED, The New Yorker, women and cartoons 6 Comments »

by Royston

Performance cartooning in New York

December 6, 2010 in Comment

We have told you many times about the Battle of the Cartoonists, part of the Big Draw and have reported on performance cartooning at the Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival.

Now, news reaches us of a performance event in New York, above, featuring three teams of cartoonists from The New Yorker coming up with improvised drawings based on a selection of words.

The New York Observer has the story: Battle of the Sharpies: Cartoonists square off with their pens. The author of the piece, Alice Gregory, explains the appeal of this kind of live cartooning event:

There’s nothing more impressive than good improv. To see spontaneous wit at work may be the most humbling form of entertainment. What, no Google to confirm spelling? No coffee to spur that sparkle? On-the-spot illustration is fun to witness.

The voting system sounds familiar to any cartoonist who has taken part in the Big Draw’s Battle of the Cartoonists:

In lieu of a scientific system—tallied points, say—the victors were determined by subjective shouts. The decibel levels were ambiguous, but an executive decision was made for the sake of efficiency.

We feel the losers’ pain! But, it’s all just for fun, of course, and the greater goal is achieved: reminding people how much fun cartoons can be.

Thanks to The Surreal McCoy for the link.

Footnote: The Big Draw 2011 is looking for help with funding.
Go here: The Big Give

Tags: Battle of the Cartoonists, cartoon events, live cartooning, live cartoons, performance cartooning, The Big Draw, The New Yorker 3 Comments »

by Royston

Copyright concerns as cartoons go West

August 5, 2010 in Comment

“Hangover’s ain’t good man… hangover’s ain’t good”

The re-captioning of existing New Yorker cartoons, using verbatim ramblings from the Twitter feed of Kanye West, have been raising laughs on various websites.

The trend was started by a pair of US comedians and has been taken up by others. From a cartoonist’s point of view there are clearly issues with copyright, but the New Yorker appears fairly relaxed about it.

This may be because the results, despite West’s dodgy grammar and spelling, are surprisingly effective. The Mick Stevens cartoon above has a certain bizarre charm to it, and this writer’s particular favourite is the Alex Gregory cartoon of two Viking invaders on a beach where one is now saying, “This is gonna be a dope ass day.”

But you wonder what the reaction will be if the trend continues and quality dips. And, of course, it’s unlikely the cartoonists will be seeing further remuneration as their cartoons fly around the world.

The Huffington Post has more on the copyright implications and you can see the cartoons here.

Tags: Alex Gregory, Huffington Post, Kanye West, Mick Stevens, The New Yorker 1 Comment »