Things That Go Bump In The Night exhibition
Intro by Sarah Boyce: Have you noticed it’s getting darker in the evenings and things are getting spookier? The owl hooting a bit too loudly, the werewolf howling far off in the distance, the gate weirdly clanking when there’s no wind? To celebrate the spooky, spirit season West End Arts Library at 35 St Martins […]
Colin Whittock: an appreciation
© Colin Whittock, Private Eye. Rupert Besley writes: A ‘Midlands legend’, in the words of the Birmingham Mail, Colin Whittock was the professional cartoonist par excellence. He began on the city’s Evening Mail in 1969. One Friday, the paper’s longstanding cartoonist left almost without notice, having decided to cash in his pension pot for a […]
Bill Stott 1944-2024
Bill in action at Herne Bay Cartoon Festival. Photo © Karole Steele Pete Dredge writes: Although I had long admired the work of Bill Stott in Punch I only met Bill for the first time, I think, at the Birkenhead Cartoon Festival in 1998. I say “think” because it was very much a case of […]
ffolkes art
Dean Patterson writes: Why I’m championing the genius of Michael ffolkes. Although probably not entirely forgotten, Michael ffolkes (purposely lowercase) will always it seems have the epitaph that reads, ‘Martin Honeysett threw a cake over his head.’ This story stems from a Private Eye 21st birthday bash, where before it got a chance to be […]
Bill Tidy (1933-2023) – A Tribute
Drawing of ‘The Cloggies’ from Bill’s long running Private Eye strip. Rupert Besley writes: It’s funny what sticks in the memory. First kiss, first day at new school, first pint, first dive into a pool… To which I’d add, first sight of a Bill Tidy cartoon. 1965. We’d just moved house and my brother came […]
Wally Fawkes: an appreciation
Flook illustration Rupert Besley writes: Few people rise to the top of their profession. Very few are still in that position half a century on. And fewer still accomplish that in two careers at once. But this was the achievement of Wally Fawkes, loved and admired equally as jazz clarinettist and as the cartoonist […]
Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival Exhibitions 2022
Roger Penwill reports from Shropshire’s medieval county town: For its 19th year the Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival is represented by a collection of three exhibitions. At the Bear Steps Gallery, the festival’s spiritual home since the inaugural festival in 2004, are the Festival themed exhibition “Look and Learn” and an exhibition of work by the popular cartoonist Noel […]
Still Splitting Fog
Pandemic cartoon from Nebelspalter (1918) by Fritz Boscovitz. (The crowd is gathered round a sign saying, Flu – no assembly…’) Rupert Besley writes: As a student I had the good fortune several times to work abroad on holiday jobs in the north-east of Switzerland. Happy days. Swiss newspapers then were hard work to get through […]
Spectator Article: the future of cartooning
A rare mass-gathering of Private Eye cartoonists in 2013 (Rob Murray standing, 9th from right) Rob Murray writes in response to Nick Newman’s Spectator piece (see previous post): Nick Newman, one of the UK’s best and most prolific gag cartoonists, has written an article for this week’s Spectator about the challenges facing our art form. […]