Jonathan Cusick, Pete Dredge, John Roberts and Helen Pointer ‘drawing the crowds’.
Rupert Besley writes:
The sun shone on the righteous – and on the cartoonists in Shrewsbury. It was a bumper gathering in the town this last weekend, with visitors and participants drawn from far and wide. Few more so than festival regular Dean Alston from Down Under, whose ace Big Board, along with a Noel Ford classic, was among the first things to greet arrivals in The Square. Close by worked guest cartoonists from the States, Maria Scrivan and Ken Krimstein, while further input to the international flavour of the day came from the strong deputation of Belgians, all involved in the European Cartoon Centre at Kruishoutem near Ghent.
Big boards by Australia’s Dean Alston and the UK’s Noel Ford.
US cartoonists Maria Scrivan and Ken Krimstein with their big boards.
Cartoon by Nikola Hendrickx from Belgium and Nikola in action.
The private view of the ‘Are we nearly there yet?’ exhibition at The Bear Steps Gallery.
This was the 15th Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival and the theme of Transport was a fertile and perfect choice. The galleries (Bear Steps, Theatre Severn & V.A.N, plus Wendy Shea exhibition at Participate) gave proof, if ever needed, of what can be done from kicking around a good subject and, back in The Square, heads spun towards the reassuring sight of Air Flight Marshall at the check-in desk for budget airline Icarus Air.
The GORGEOUS Glenn Marshall at the Icarus Air check-in desk.
Roger Penwill fronts the Drawma while Noel Ford, Wilbur Dawbarn and Royston Robertson take to the boards accompanied by The Surreal Accordionist.
You can count on Shrews for good live music from beneath the Market Hall and so it proved throughout. Mid-afternoon came the Drawma, with mellow accordion softening the oohs and aarrghs of those there for quick-drawn gags and terrible puns.
Caricaturists Alex Hughes suitably in tropical attire for the unseasonal heatwave.
Elsewhere in The Square, the line-up of top caricaturists was kept hard at it all day (Hughes, Roberts, Pointer, Cusick, Leatherbarrow, Dredge & Ryder, with Christelle Jones at Bear Steps). Meanwhile, other Big Boards got filled by the likes of (with apologies to anyone inadvertently missed) Clive & Amy Goddard, Steve Best, Royston Robertson, Wil Dawbarn, Ross Thomson, Ger Whyman, Hunt Emerson, Rich Skipworth, John Landers, The Surreal McCoy, Jeremy Banx, Roger Penwill, Nikola Hendrickx & present writer, not forgetting fine graphic contributions too from Zoom Rockman and Patrick Holden.
PCO Chair-human Clive Goddard with PCO’s Treasurer-human Amy Amani-Goddard.
Steve Best applying blue.
Maria Scrivan ‘likes’ Royston Robertson’s twitter cartoon.
Gerard Whyman hogs some limelight.
The top of Rich Skipworth.
The Surreal McCoy and her surreal cartoon.
Jeremy Banx creates Noah’s limo.
Semi-big boards by John Landers and Roger Penwill.
Ross Thomson & Hunt Emerson drawing and colouring in.
Dean Alston and Wilbur Dawbarn doing some more drawing and colouring in.
Rupert Besley on a familiar scene from a cartoonists daily life.
Zoom of Crouch End draws Clive of India.
Helen Pointer’s ‘Introduction to Caricature’ workshop.
The cartoon workshops are an important part of the festival – this year tackling caricature, movement in drawings, an automobile barn dance plus Stop Motion animation (Barry the Shrew) and some fun paper planes (from Biggles Rudling). Festival patrons Alex Lester and Martin Wainwright came up trumps in their support of the Festival, the former using his radio interview skills to host the panel of cartoonists in conversation at the Wightman Theatre on the Friday evening. The latter was able to apply some of his editing experience to the list of rules drawn up for the Air Cartooning contest that rounded off the following evening. And, on the Sunday morning, while bikers gathered in their droves on the outskirts of the town, festival participants were treated to a fascinating tour of Historic Shrewsbury.
Rupert Besley wins the inaugural ‘Air Cartooning’ Cartoon Off ® Noel Ford
Thanks and full credit to all responsible, beginning with organisers Sarah Knapp, Bill McCabe, Tim King, Roger Penwill, Noel Ford, and Jonathan Cusick, along with all the volunteer helpers, and not forgetting the many participants (including visitors) who made the whole thing so successful.
Thanks also to Mika Schick for the excellent photographs.
More detail on the festival: Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival
Latest Blog
by Glenn Marshall
Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival – The Exhibitions!
October 20, 2020 in Comment, Events, General
Exhibition poster cartoon by festival organiser © Roger Penwill.
Lovely to see a REAL cartoon exhibition on REAL walls! Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival may have been cancelled earlier in the year but the accompanying ’20-20 Vision’ show lives on at the wonderful Bear Steps Gallery in Shrewsbury. It opened this week and features 70 cartoons by 43 cartoonists including Steve Bell, The Surreal McCoy, Pete Dredge, Jonathan Cusick, Tat Effby, Wilbur Dawbarn, Ralph Steadman, Royston Robertson, John Landers, Steve Best, Jeremy Banx, Kathryn Lamb, Sarah Boyce, Tim Harries, Glenn Marshall, Andy Davey, Clive Goddard & Zoom Rockman.
The Bear Steps Gallery, a fifteenth century restored building. Photo © Glenn Marshall.
There is also a bonus exhibition in the upstairs gallery of cartoons responding to the coronavirus pandemic.
Photo of the team hanging the artwork last Sunday © Tony Clarkson.
The PCO blog featured some of the cartoons selected for the ‘Vision’ exhibition earlier in the year and you can see them here.
Another photo of the hang © Tony Clarkson.
Here is a selection from the ‘No One Saw It Coming’ coronavirus cartoons display.
Ralph Steadman did a HUGE painting. A video of him in action as he creates it is displayed next a much smaller print of the work.
Cartoon © Ralph Steadman.
Cartoon © Peter Schrank
Poignant cartoon by Peter Schrank about isolation, particularly for the elderly and vulnerable during lock down.
Cartoon © Steve Bell.
Unsurprisingly Boris featured heavily in the exhibition. This by The Guardian’s Steve Bell…
Cartoon © Andy Davey.
…and another from Andy Davey.
Cartoon © Chris Williams
…and yet another. This by ‘Dink’
Cartoon © Grizelda.
Over-indulgence cartoon from Grizelda…although some of us didn’t drink sensibly even before the pandemic.
Caricature © Jonathan Cusik.
Fine caricature of Chris ‘Now Go Wash Your Hands’ Whitty by Jonathan Cusick.
Cartoon © Pete Dredge.
Back to school with Dredge.
Cartoon © Ken Pyne.
Ken Pyne takes us on holiday….remember those?
Cartoon © Royston Robertston…and Phil.
Pirate material by Rrrrroyston Rrrrrobertson.
Cartoon © Henny Beaumont.
No exhibition on this theme would be complete without a wave to the super-spreader himself. Henny here channeling Hokasai.
Cartoon © The Surreal McCoy.
Finally as we head into the second wave this cartoon by the Surreal McCoy seems perfectly timed.
Through the exhibition run we’ll be publishing more of the ‘No One Saw it Coming’ exhibits across the vast PCO media empire so keep an eye on our Facebook (@UKProfessionalCartoonists), Twitter (@procartoonists) and Instagram (@procartoonists) feeds.
For more Covid ‘fun’ we published a selection of infectious laughter earlier in the year here.
The exhibition at Bear Steps runs until 31st October and the gallery is open 10.00am – 4.0pm daily. (Covid measures at the gallery: hand sanitiser at the door, 6 visitors at a time with an eye kept on flow, in one door out through another. Face coverings to be worn)
Puppet caricature © Jonathan Cusik.
Here’s a fine video of the cartoon-form Mayor of Shrewsbury Philip Gillam introducing the show.
Congrats to all those involved from Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival and Bear Steps Gallery for putting the shows together in tricky times. Fingers tentatively crossed that the festival can return in all its glory next Spring!
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