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) […]

PCO Cartoon Review of 2018

  Cartoon © Steve Bright As is tradition, here is our review of the year featuring cartoons by PCO members and when I say tradition I mean we did it for the first time last year. The Brighty cartoon above was done to introduce last year but is sadly still very true for the end […]

Who pocketed the cartoon awards?

Clive Goddard writes: The Political Cartoon Awards have been running for 18 years now, but this year there was something new. The event takes place in a large, swanky hall in central London with subdued coloured lighting, tasty little unidentified canapes being offered by attractive young people and more free booze than anyone has time […]

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 […]

NOT the National Portrait Gallery

Poster cartoon by kind permission of © Richard Jolley/ Private Eye magazine. PCO Chair human Clive Goddard writes: “No, its ‘Not the National Portrait Gallery’ but it is right on its doorstep in a brand new gallery space at Charing Cross Library. It is an exhibition full of irreverent, funny and, in some cases, downright disrespectful caricatures and […]

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 […]

Sixth Herne Bay Cartoon Festival begins

[Poster by The Surreal McCoy] Exhibitions are now open at the sixth Herne Bay Cartoon Festival and more than 20 of the UK’s top cartoonists will descend on the Kent seaside town next weekend for three days of talks, workshops and live drawing. The first event is a discussion featuring The Surreal McCoy and Rachael Ball. They will […]

Gagged Ungagged Talk

Andy Davey writes: I was honoured to be asked by those nice people at Procartoonists to “host” an evening of interviews and talks to accompany the “Gagged” exhibition of cartoons at Westminster Reference Library on the subject of the oppression, censorship and gagging of political cartoonists around the world. My experience of hosting is limited to […]