by Royston
April 13, 2010 in General
BLOGHORN scrivener Mr Matthew BUCK is far too retiring to promote his new endeavour via this organ, lest he appear like Mr Jonathan WOSS endlessly plugging his good lady wife’s new MOTION PICTURE.
Hence, ’tis left to another to tell you about The Opinions of Tobias GRUBBE, by Mr Buck and one Mr Michael CROSS, which you can find on-the-line, as ’twere, at The Guardian news sheet.
‘Tis amusing and not a little TOPICKAL.
by Royston
November 30, 2009 in General
An informal cartoon caption competition, which began as a one-off on the Cartoonists’ Club public forum in the summer, is now into its 20th week. Matt Buck spoke to Noel Ford, moderator of the forum along with Nigel Sutherland and Ian Ellery, and asked how this is different to any other caption contest.
The competition is similar to the readers’ caption competitions that were once so popular in Punch magazine, but with one major difference: instead of competitors being provided with a cartoon to which they have to think of a caption, it’s the caption that is provided and they must draw a cartoon to suit.
Noel’s entry from week three of the competition – “Honestly, I can’t take you anywhere” – was voted the winner
How did it start?
It was the brainchild of part-time cartoonist Chris Cooper (CLIB) and PCO member Ian Ellery. Chris originally wondered, in July this year, how different cartoonists would interpret a single cartoon scenario, and Ian suggested that, rather than a scenario, we should give the same caption to a group of cartoonists and see what they came up with. The idea was quickly taken up and what was at first intended as a one-off experiment, quickly became the popular competition that it now is.
Who can take part?
Anyone registered on the forum can have a go: full time pros, part-timers and people who aren’t cartoonists at all. We have had cartoons from people whose entry was the first cartoon they had ever drawn. The winners, so far, have come from a wide spectrum of full-time and part-time cartoonists. Apart from the fame and the kudos, the winner has to provide the caption for the next competition.
Tim Harries’ take on “Honestly, I can’t take you anywhere”
When does it take place?
Entries are posted on the forum between 12 noon on Saturday and 12 noon on Sunday. Voting takes place, using a points system, between 1pm Sunday and 6pm Monday. All entrants can vote and non-entrants can vote, too, subject to certain conditions.
How did you end up managing it?
Cynics might say it was the only way I can guarantee winning (twice!), but the truth is that, as a moderator on the forum, it was a natural progression. And, I’m also a control freak – so my wife tells me!
Why do you think it started?
Cartoonists are natural show-offs. We love drawing cartoons but we crave an audience. For the the new kids on the block it provides an opportunity to have their work viewed by a niche audience and to elicit comments from the more experienced contributors. For all of us it is an opportunity to draw whatever we like without editorial considerations. And, it’s great fun!
by Matthew Buck
by Matthew Buck
March 15, 2009 in General
Following some recent evidence for the power of a very traditional visual art, PCOer Patrick Blower writes with details of his recent adventures with BBC News:
The news at ten called me up, knowing that a cartoon was the perfect medium to explain quantitative easing – the driest and most arcane of subjects. I knocked it out at speed, missed it on the 10 o’ clock news but learnt the next day that it formed part of the lead story. They also put it online and they told me it was the 7th most-viewed item on the BBC site that day. Needless to say, I wasn’t on a Jonathan Ross pay rate, but I’m not complaining, and nor are the BBC who got a lot of mileage out of my cartoons. A reminder that our chosen medium is often the perfect communication tool.
You can see Blower’s work for the BBC here.
by Royston
March 6, 2009 in General
It seems the government is set on printing more money to get us out of
the current economic crisis, so journalists and cartoonists everywhere
are having to learn how to spell quantitative easing.
But when you need funny money in a hurry, who better to call on than a
cartoonist? That’s what Channel 4 News did yesterday, summoning
Bloghorn’s own Matt Buck, aka Hack, into the studio to design Brown’s
new notes. Click the video above to see the C4 report.
Matt said: “It was fun to make visual and verbal work, instead of illustrating written reports.”
Cartoons don’t appear on news and current affairs programmes as much as they used to, though recently other cartoonists, including PCOers Patrick Blower, Martin Rowson and Andy Davey, have all helped illustrate stories on the box. Hopefully editors are remembering that this oldest of visual mediums can work on TV very well.
by Royston
January 19, 2009 in General
Gordon Brown cartoon by Morten Morland
The Political Cartoon Gallery’s Tory Blues exhibition has now closed so, in the interests of balance, attention is turned to the Labour Party.
Browned Off! A cartoon exhibition on the first 18 months of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister, opens at the gallery on Wednesday (January 21) and runs until March 14.
The show will feature Britain’s top political cartoonists, such as Peter Brookes, Steve Bell, Dave Brown, Nicholas Garland and Christian Adams, and include PCOers Martin Rowson, Morten Morland, Andy Davey and Matt Buck.
Gordon Brown cartoon by Andy Davey
The Political Cartoon Gallery, at 32 Store Street, London, is open Monday to Friday 9.30am – 5.30pm and on Saturdays between 11.30am – 5.30pm.
The PCO: Great British cartoon talent
Subscribe to The Foghorn – our print cartoon magazine
by Royston
December 12, 2008 in Links, News
Bloghorn spotted this great work this week …
One: Nicholas Garland in the Daily Telegraph on Robert Mugabe
Two: Matt Buck (aka Hack) at Channel 4 News on the ailing Pound
Two: Patrick Blower at Livedraw (note: video file) on Brown saving the world
The PCO: Great British cartoon talent
Subscribe to The Foghorn – our print cartoon magazine
by Royston
November 6, 2008 in General
The time difference between the UK and the USA meant that newspapers here were unable to report the victory of Barack Obama the day after the election. So British cartoonists had another day to gather their thoughts, and we saw the results yesterday.
Two cartoonists noted a certain messianic quality in the President Elect. Peter Brookes in The Times came up with a saintly Obama and Matt in the Daily Telegraph wondered if he could work miracles.
Andy Davey in The Sun saw the election as a new dawn and Paul Thomas in the Daily Express also looked at the notion of new hope for America.
A celebratory tone was notable. Steve Bell in The Guardian depicted a slam-dunking Obama and Dave Brown in The Independent showed his ballooning popularity.
Mac in the Daily Mail had Obama beating racism, to make it to the White House while Matt Buck at Channel 4 News noted how that famous address is changed for ever. Nicholas Garland in The Telegraph took an interesting sideways slant, with a quote from Martin Luther King.
Alex Hughes in Tribune looked ahead to the huge challenges faced by the new President and Patrick Blower, on his Livedraw site, had an animated take on this weight of expectation.
It will be fascinating, of course, to see how cartoonists will react once Obama is doing the job of President, when the news stories are not all positive.
Have you seen any other great Obama cartoons in the UK media? Let us know via Comments below
by Royston
October 16, 2008 in General
The PCO is running workshops for all ages at the Big Draw event at St Pancras International Station in London on Saturday (October 18). If you’re interested in cartooning and fancy having a go, come along and get involved.
PCO cartoon workshops at the 2007 Big Draw
The workshop timetable is as follows: Paul Hardman – Who Do You Think You Are? 10am-11.25am; Chichi Parish – Time Travel, 11.30am-12.55pm; Robert Duncan – Drawing Near the Station, 1pm-1.55pm; Tim Harries – Creating First Class Comic Strips, 2pm-3.25pm; Terry Christien – On Track for Drawing Cartoon Characters, 3.30pm-5pm.
The PCO is strongly represented in the Battle of the Cartoonists (3-5pm) where four teams slug it out to produce the best cartoon banner, because not only does it have its own team but there are PCO members on each of the other three teams.
They are: Martin Rowson and Andy Davey (Guardian team), Ken Pyne (Private Eye) and Matt Buck (the Independent).
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by Matthew Buck
The future of the newspaper editorial cartoon
August 30, 2009 in Comment
Former editor of The Guardian, Peter Preston has written a piece in The Observer newspaper bemoaning the decline in numbers of editorial or political cartoonists being used in newspapers. You can read it here.
Preston focuses on recent job losses in the United States, which mirror the speedy decline of the print media there, but this trend has been long established. The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists made an awareness campaign – Black Ink Monday – back in 2005 in which all the practising professionals in US newspapers devoted a day’s work to highlighting a decline in the published drawn art form.
So, Bloghorn thinks Preston’s observations are a simple statement of fact. There are many fewer cartoonists employed by both UK and US newspapers than there were in the heyday of the print media before the advent of the 24 hour digital publication tools.
The decline in the use of print cartoon content comes as the media companies who own the print products reduce their costs to try and maintain their profits in competition with the digital media.
Preston also argues the digital media doesn’t suit the traditional drawn forms of communication, Bloghorn doesn’t agree on this point, but thinks the old print and emerging digital media industry is yet to find right method of presentation for the future of drawing about life.
If you know better please tell us why in the comments below.
Tags: best British cartoonists, Bloghorn, digital image-making, Matt Buck (Hack), Peter Preston, professional cartoonists, The Guardian, The Observer 2 Comments »