Rejection dejection

Photo ©  Mika Schick The Surreal McCoy writes: When you give a talk on rejection the main worry of course is that no one will turn up. Thankfully quite a few people did attend a recent evening entitled The Art Of Rejection hosted by three members of the PCO at Westminster Reference Library in central […]

Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival photo album

The ‘Plan B’ Shrewsbury Square. Photo © Tat Effby. Glenn Marshall & Jonathan Cusick write: With Storm Hannah due to roll in threatening rain and high winds the marquee company wouldn’t put up the festival’s gazebo roofing. Fear of airborne ‘para-boarding’ cartoonists made the festival organisers hastily arrange a Plan B for Saturday, which involved […]

Eaten Fish landed for UK talk

  Ali with his alter ego Eaten Fish. Photomontage © Eaten Fish The Surreal McCoy writes: Join broadcaster, journalist and PCO patron Libby Purves for an illustrated conversation with Ali Dorani, aka Iranian cartoonist Eaten Fish. This promises to be a fascinating evening with Ali on his first ever visit to the UK. It will […]

What’s your favourite cartoon book?

We’ve been talking in the inner sanctums of the PCO forum about favourite books on cartoons/cartoonists. Here I share some of our choices: Steve Jones (Jonesy) I could easily have gone with Sempe, Stauber or Ungerer – Steadman, in particular, was a really close call – but Matt Jones’ mighty labour of love blew me […]

‘Women In History’ Cartoon Exhibition

Poster cartoon by © The Surreal MCoy The PCO is putting on an exhibition in collaboration with Idea Store at Canary Wharf to tie in with Women’s History Month. ‘Women In History’ is an exhibition of cartoons and caricatures based loosely around the theme and also looking more widely at issues affecting women. Our patron Sandi […]

Laughter as a Political Tool

The excellent and courageous Malaysian cartoonist Zunar (Zulkiflee Ulhaque) recently gave a talk entitled ‘Laughter as a Political Tool’ at the Institute of Advanced Studies, University College London. There was also an accompanying exhibition of his campaigning cartoon work. Zunar speaking at the event (pictures of him in handcuffs featured heavily as he’s frequently been arrested) […]

Portrait of the Not The National Portrait Gallery exhibition

Photo © Glenn Marshall Clive Goddard writes: I’m not sure how you measure these things in any meaningful way but I’m going to confidently declare that the PCO’s #NotTheNPG caricature exhibition at Charing Cross library was a complete triumph. For a start, the location was excellent, being in an area of central London visited by art […]

Contains Male Nudity – The Privates View

Away from the Herne Bay Cartoon Festival proper was the exhibition improper ‘Contains Male Nudity’ which is still running at One New Street Gallery. PCO’s intrepid senior staff photographer Kasia Kowalska was at the ‘Privates View’ to cover events as they unfolded. Readers are warned that some of the following content may be of an adult nature. […]

Feeling the heat at yet another sunny Herne Bay Cartoon Festival

You might argue that in this record summer the sun was always going to shine on the 2018 Herne Bay Cartoon Festival. But at the time of writing it is chucking it down with rain, so the festival still seems to be somewhat blessed. Perhaps the gods of weather are all fans of funny and clever […]