A subject closer to the heart of professional mickey takers could hardly be found. the laughing, the exhibitions and the live drawing should be spectacular altogether.
You can download the full guide to the weekend long live event from here (PDF). or, if you cannot get there do follow the event in real–time using Twitter and the @ShrewstoonFest account – https://twitter.com/ShrewsToonFest.
If you would like to reuse this drawing please ask me here. Thank you!
Sometimes in this age of real-time social media I get asked for opinions about controversial cartoons which have been published. Today, I am too busy to offer a long one.
Often, after considering the rights and wrongs of the act of publication, the subject, the level of social media outrage and the likely intent of the cartoonist who put his or her name to the image*, I come back to this statement.
A cartoon cannot say ‘on the other hand,’ and it cannot be defended with logic. It is a frontal assault, a slam dunk, a cluster bomb. Journalism is about fairness, objectivity, factuality; cartoons use unfairness, subjectivity and the distortion of facts to get at truths that are greater than the sum of the facts.
This quotation belongs to the late, lamented American cartoonist Doug Marlette who, for what it is worth, has been a significant influence upon me. Here’s another one from my colleague, Dave Brown.
If you would like to add your wisdom, please do in the comments. I should also say that comments are moderated, at need.
A tip: If a cartoonist hasn’t done this, the image isn’t worth its name as a cartoon because the opinion within it isn’t owned.
If you would like to reuse this drawing please ask me here. Thank you!
This cartoon is posted with sympathy to the people who have suffered directly in #ParisAttacks of 13th November 2015 and more widely across the world.
The cartoon was drawn following The Charlie Hebdo murders early in 2015. It appears in Draw the Line Here – a fundraising book for the families of the bereaved, organised by the UK Professional Cartoonists Organisation, Crowdshed and The English PEN for Writers in Public.
The sentiments at both times are well expressed here.
Any errors or incautious recordings in the drawing are my own and were made as the conversation happened. There’s a report from the media team at the Guardian here which focuses on Tony Gallagher, who was making his first public appearance as the new Editor-in-Chief of The Sun.
I note there’s also a write up of the event over at The Steeple Times as well.
If you would like to reuse this drawing please ask me here. Thank you!
The power struggles for the top of the governing party seem to have started with a, er, bang (er) or something.
The story about the severed pig’s head is, um, eyecatching and damaging to the PM on a global scale. But the issue is about a embittered old donor to a political party, Lord Ashcroft, throwing his toys out-of-his-pram for revenge at the start of a Conservative party leadership contest. Perhaps the most interesting question is on whose behalf is he doing it #kremlinology.
Lord Ashcroft, former treasurer of the Conservative Party has had his revenge upon the Prime Minister long after their well-publicised falling out. The Daily Mail has the details. Oink!
