From the Desktop

From the Desktop

I think I’ll mix-and-match posts, from here on my desktop (great innovation the Blogger macro); from which I can’t post images, and online, from where I can add the odd illustration. It’s too convenient to pass on the opportunity.

Britain now has a concrete Cartoon Museum. I think it’s in London. From what I could gather from the news and the teeny article in the Gruniad, the usual suspects were there: Martin Rowlson (is that right?) and Steve Bell. I mean, am I the only one who thinks editorial cartoonists are all overrated? It has to be the easiest job in cartooning, you know, someone dies and they all draw the same cartoon about the person standing talking to St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, it’s a very cliché-ridden job. Also, they always try to tie-in two events, so it’d be something to do with whatever, plus the Winter Olympics. Hack-work really. Lord knows knocking out 5 to 10 good gag cartoons every day, that have to work 6 months down the line, is a hell of a lot harder than that.

It’s hard to believe, but we do have some really important cartoonists in this country, like Dave McKean, for instance, or Raymond Briggs, or the guy who draws Where’s Wally (Waldo), cartoonists who draw work that is appreciated all over the world, not just by the tiny readership of our local rags.