The commercial art

A collector of cartoons spoke some home truths at the recent private view of Bring Me Laughter. Kasia Kowalska writes. In his speech opening the show, George Walker implored all those present to remember that he’s “not a Rothschild”. He was, undoubtedly, being modest as, together with his wife, Pat, he has dedicated more than 60 […]

The Round Up

Kasia Kowalska writes: Fancy a spot of 18th century roistering? The caricaturist Adrian Teal can invite you to club nights with a difference with his Historic Punch. He has also revealed the story behind the Georgian John Bull, in History Today. John Bull was actually invented by a Scot but he proved a much loved […]

How ya doin’?

Hey. How ya doin’? can be offensive. Find out how and why might this might be so. Readers will be unsurprised that we have been around such subjects before and won’t be surprised that the matter is also conflated with the local politics of the UK. If you wish to offer a view please do, in […]

Tuning up for cartoon festival

Planning is under way for the 2014 Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival, the eleventh time the event has taken place in the Shropshire market town. The main cartooning day of the festival, known as Cartoonists Live, will be Saturday 26 April. The festival exhibition of original artwork and prints, all for sale, on this year’s theme of […]

The Round-up

Kasia Kowalska writes: The death of the former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon inspired cartoonists on all sides of the political debate. Sharon was famously the subject of a highly controversial award winning cartoon, above, which was based on Goya’s Saturn Devouring his Son. This image sparked a complaint from the Israeli Embassy, but not […]

The Round-up

Kasia Kowalska writes: It’s clearly not an impossible task to pick your all-time favourite cartoons but Bob Mankoff of The New Yorker has had a go at the advanced level of difficulty. You can see some of our members tried it once too with Ten Great Cartoonists. Elsewhere, the admirable Joe Gordon takes on the might of […]

Everyone’s a cartoonist nowadays

Regular readers of this blog will be unsurprised to learn that automation has struck once more with Google receiving a patent for the ‘‘self-creation of comic strips in social networks and other communications’’. The advertising giant is following in the footsteps of other digital toolmakers such as Bitstrips. Digital automation of cartoon formats for display is inevitable in […]