© The Estate of Martin Honeysett
The Hastings Cartoon Festival couldn’t wish for a better kick start than tonight’s A Taste of Honeysett exhibition at Hastings Museum. Be warned, however: this is not a gentle introduction to the cartooning art! The late and much lamented man dipped his pen into a bottle containing the darkest inky black humour, producing work of acerbic wit conveyed by grotesques. “Moth-eaten grannies in wrinkled stockings, slippers and curlers, to slobbish youths with multiple piercings, baseball caps askew and falling-down jeans” is fellow cartoonist Ken Pyne’s description. Above all, though, Martin Honeysett’s cartoons are very, very funny and the locals will be delighted to see one of our most revered cartoonists’ work being displayed in the town he made his home.
© Clive Goddard
Other highlights of the Festival will be Hastings Bonfire Weekend; on Saturday 15th October there will be a special event at Hastings Museum with a panel of PCO members led by Royston Robertson, and on Sunday 16 October there will be a whole day of free cartooning events in Stade Hall and on The Stade. There will also be an exhibition of 1066 related originals and prints by some of our finest cartoonists, all of which are for sale so you can buy your own little slice of history!
© Rupert Besley
The Festival has been made possible by the support of Hastings Borough Council, the Foreshore Trust, Heritage Lottery Fund, Awards for All and Sussex Community Foundation.
To learn more about the event you can read Erica Smith’s Hastings Online Times article and visit the website, Facebook page and Twitter.
You might also like to read the PCO’s very own Cathy Simpson’s wonderful tribute to Martin Honeysett, also from the Hastings Online Times.