Can cartoons be both funny – and diverse?
Cartoon © Nick Newman By Nick Newman and courtesy of The Spectator. Of the many challenges cartoonists face — rejection, money, drink, or lack of — one of the trickiest is the growing pressure to depict diversity. Nowadays readers often write to publications complaining about the dearth of ethnic minorities in our drawings and demand […]
A Peer at Herne Bay Cartoon Festival 2021
A carousel of cartoonists. Photo by © Ray Covey Apologies for the late running of our usual photo gallery of the Herne Bay Cartoon Festival but pictures were delayed by the HGV lorry driver shortage…so blame Brexit/Covid. Join me now as we take a not-so virtual tour up the pier… Photo by © Jason Hollingsworth The […]
#threefingers for Myanmar campaign
The Surreal McCoy writes: In collaboration with artists and creatives in Myanmar (formerly Burma), PCO are running #threefingers a social campaign in support of local cartoonists and artists, and in recognition of the deteriorating situation there. A landslide election for the National League for Democracy party was overthrown by a brutal military coup on February […]
The PCO Cartoon Review of the Year 2020
Cartoon by © Andy Davey. Glenn Marshall wrote: Once more my friends it’s time for the PCO Cartoon Review of the Year, featuring work from members of the PCO (speech) bubble. It’s been a difficult year to find humour in, although it would be a nightmare for cartoonists if any year was filled with just […]
Draw The Coronavirus – The eBook!
The ‘Great’ Glenn Marshall (WINNER of Draw The Coronavirus competition) writes: Many cartoonists, illustrators, artists and fly-by-nights have been taking refuge from the cruel world by joining in Martin Rowson’s regular cartoon challenges. He sets a subject and we all vent spleen (most of us were in lock down and online twiddling our thumbs-up emojis anyway so […]
Cartoonists Rally Round Birthday Boy Carson
Cartoon by © Martin Rowson Dean Patterson writes: Recently a lot of the best cartoonists in the UK, including many PCO members, went out of their way to draw a birthday wish for Carson, who is a very sick little boy with a brain tumour and had to spend his birthday in hospital getting chemotherapy… […]
Oh We Did Like To Be Beside The Seaside!
In the ‘old normal’ this weekend would have seen cartoonists flocking like seagulls to the wonderful Herne Bay Cartoon Festival. With this year’s event c19ncelled here’s a trip down memory lane with the fabulous posters from previous years and links to the festival holiday snaps. 2013 Poster by © Hunt Emerson The Herne Bay event started […]
Why does no one want to be a cartoonist any more? The lack of new blood doesn’t bode well for the industry’s future
Written by Nick Newman for (and courtesy of) The Spectator with bonus cartoon content. ‘Nightmare!’ is how The Spectator’s cartoon editor Michael Heath has been describing cartooning for at least 30 years, but it’s truer now than ever. Eighty years ago, cartoonists were so celebrated that waxworks of Low, Strube and Poy were displayed in […]
How to draw a virus: spare a thought for the Covid-19 cartoonists
Written by Guy Venables originally for The Spectator (with a smattering of bonus content cartoons): While stumbling the 30 yards from bed to work, the freelance gag cartoonist is usually trying to decide which of the hundreds of news stories to draw a hilarious cartoon about that day. It used to be one of the […]