Above: with the Duchamp in Herne Bay festivities now behind us, there’s just room for this cartoon by Kipper Williams – featuring the names of participating cartoonists, many of whom are among our membership. The original is hanging in a gallery space in the Kent seaside town, as part of an exhibition of art cartoons to tie in with the celebrations.
Alexander Matthews, a cartoonist for The Beano and member of Procartoonists.org, has started a campaign to improve the quality of children’s comics by making them more reliant on great content and less on cover-mounted freebies. He is suggesting a change to the way in which free gifts are treated under VAT rules, and is seeking support for the campaign – which he believes would benefit comic fans and cash-strapped parents alike. Read more on Alex’s blog.
Another PCO member, Tony Husband, has had cartoons about his father’s dementia tweeted to millions, courtesy of Stephen Fry. See the cartoons here, here and here. Fry also wrote the introduction for I Nearly Died Laughing, a collection of Tony’s gag cartoons that was published last year.
Looking ahead to October, Sue Grayson Ford of The Campaign for Drawing writes about what to expect from this year’s Big Draw, and how to take part.
In an interview for Truthout, political cartoonist Matt Bors discusses his influences, the dangers of on-spec work, and the value of comics journalism. Read it here.
And finally, The New Yorker’s Bob Mankoff looks at what is often considered to be one of the hardest forms of cartoon to master: the captionless gag.