Cartoonist and Illustrator Chris Burke gets down to some painting beside the seaside Photograph © Kasia Kowalska

I was delighted to be asked back to draw at the wonderful and fast-growing Herne Bay Cartoon Festival this year.

I hope you enjoy the following photographs from event photographer Kasia Kowalska which are the better ones in comparison with mine.

Eight feet high is a struggle for tiny tot like me Photograph © Kasia Kowalska

That’s me starting work on a big upright board! It’s all very REACH FOR THE SKIES!

The event theme was Postcards from the Beach following the genereally inspiring example of Donald McGill – don’t miss Saucyseasidepostcards.com to find out more about him.

McGill’s postcards were famously a target of the UK censors back in the 1950s probably because of their MASSIVE (geddit?) public popularity. There’s a great link to some of the censored pieces at the McGill Museum (which actually lives on the Isle of Wight – not so far from me in Hampshire.

Inside the Herne Bay town bandstand. Photograph © Kasia Kowalska

Livingcartoon. Photograph: © Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons

The town of Herne Bay benefits from a fantastic venue for the event – the Bandstand – as the picture above shows. Every year the promenade gets busier and busier and the crowds in this year, the event’s fourth, were as big as they have ever been. There’s easy access to ice cream, chips and beer and all the other necessities of seaside life so nearly everyone is happy – even when they are being caricatured.

That’s my colleague Rob Murray to the right, enduring the addition of a Glenn Marshall nose at one of the many exhibition opening shows scattered around the town.

Below, you can se the finished Herne Bay board from the first picture in this blog post – and being used by myself and The Surreal McCoy.

Sorry about the hat.

Journey’s end. Photograph: © Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons

I’ll draw up another post with what I drew and why on another day.