Joking for Gold an exhibition of cartoons about the Olympics from Carl Giles is one of the key events at this year’s cartoon festival.
The special one-off exhibit of work from to 1948 to 1998 is made possible by the support of the national Cartoon Archive at the University of Kent and following tradition, the museum worked with an individual cartoonist to develop the show.
Cartoonist Noel Ford, who had the honour, said;
This exhibition provides that very special experience of being able to see the hand-drawn work of a master cartoonist, which is a revelation especially when you have only previously seen the work in the smaller scale of newspaper reproduction.
Giles used his loveable, if dysfunctional family as a cartoon vehicle for his insightful and sometimes acidic wit. I’m sure it was this along with his sublime skills which helped people identify more closely with the events on which he was commenting.
There will be a chance to catch up with characters like Grandma at the Shrewsbury Museum until May 15th and you can read more about Carl Giles here and here.