Fun in the sunshine at Herne Bay
August 10, 2015 in Events, General, News
The sun shone on the Herne Bay Cartoon Festival yet again this year. Here’s a selection of photos of the live-drawing day, 2 August, by Kasia Kowalski and Gerard Wyman.

Several flags by Jeremy Banx, all with different seaside designs, were flown from the turrets of the Bandstand. Pic © Jeremy Banx

Here’s another of the flags from a few days earlier, the festival launch, with Royston Robertson, Nathan Ariss and Bea Francis, 6. Photo © Brian Green for the Herne Bay Times

Simon Ellinas draws caricatures. Alex Hughes also tirelessly drew festival-goers throughout the day. Photo © Gerard Whyman

The weather allowed cartoonists to display a range of silly hats. Left to right: Gerard Wyman, Royston Robertson, Matt Buck. Photo © Kasia Kowalska

The illustrated man: Glen Marshall’s board was more performance art than cartoon. Photo © Kasia Kowalska

Bill Stott’s board tackled a favourite current obsession of the media: seagulls. Click to enlarge and read. Perfect for Herne Bay! Photo © Gerard Whyman
by Blog Team
We say gags, they say single-panel
July 2, 2013 in Comment, General
Pete Dredge offers a British perspective in reaction to an American cartoonist’s views on the cartooning game
“Single-panel” or “gag” cartoonist? The former is the default description from over the pond and is infinitely preferable to the UK’s more downmarket “gag” label for those of us who create the stand-alone joke.
Single-panel or gag? Cartoon © Pete Dredge
Apart from that, there appears to be little difference in attitudes to gag cartoonists on either side of the Atlantic, if the video talks by the New Yorker cartoonist Matthew Diffee – as recently featured on this blog – are anything to go by. (Well, apart from the fact that most US cartoonists seem to be equally as eloquent with a microphone as they are with a pen, something that the reserved UK cartoonist can find difficult to master.)
It was comforting to know that our US counterparts are bombarded with the same probing questioning from inquisitive admirers. “Where do you get your ideas?” appears to top both the UK and US list. Diffee perceptively regards this as “a good question, it is the only question because without an idea there is no cartoon”. He then offers up the disarmingly honest answer “We think of ’em!”
Brilliant!
Why haven’t we ever thought of that? UK gagsmiths start to ramble on about lateral thinking, brainstorming and word association whilst our inquisitor’s eyes start to glaze over.
“I wish I could do that” and “I could never do that” are supplementary statements thrown up by the misguided onlooker. Diffee believes that these admissions underline the misconception that cartoonists draw “for fun”, something that can be churned out at the drop of a hat. “How long have you tried?” he asks. He points out that it takes several hours and a pot of coffee to come up with ideas.
Another characteristic shared by both US and UK cartoonists is the requirement to develop stoicism when confronted by other media types. One video featured Diffee being interviewed after his talk by a hack from Forbes magazine.
Trying hard to describe the idea-creating process, he says: “It’s about concepts, like comedy writing, it’s about language, not drawing, at this stage.” The journalist seemed to struggle with this abstract notion.
But Diffee soon has the measure of his inquisitor and describes how he is trying to keep up with the latest hi-tech devices. “Have you seen them? They’re amazing. You click on the end and it comes out here,” he says, describing a propelling pencil to his bemused interrogator.
Many thanks, Pete. Do you have any views on cartooning US and UK style? Let us know in the comments below.
Tags: gag cartoons, Matthew Diffee, Pete Dredge, Procartoonists.org, single-panel cartoons, Uk cartoonists, US cartoonists 14 Comments »