The Joys of Sax, and other UK Cartoonists

Weekend Magazine and Titbits Magazine were a lot like America's National Enquirer, but with a lot more cartoons - when the Enquirer did carry cartoons, that is. Alone amongst the two, Weekend sometimes compiled a lot of cartoons into The Weekend Book of Jokes, which was about 70 pages thick and carried 3 or 4 cartoons per page. Of course Weekend didn't pay any of us for second use of the cartoons, or even ask permission to use them, and they kept the original artwork; but nonetheless, the publication was a great market for British cartoonists, a good window for work, and a great place to experiment. That is if you could muscle the great SAX out of the way.

This is a bunch of pages from Weekend No.22 which features a range of great cartoonists, a surprising amount of whom are still with us and still producing great cartoons.

The opening cartoon is by Noel Ford. Noel is a bit of a hero of mine. I wanted to become as good as Noel, but I didn't realise he would spend the decades getting even better. It's sickening really because as you can see from the cartoon above, he never had that awkward development stage, he was always a great cartoonist. What can you do?

I like Roger's cartoon here, but it's next to a SAX. I think SAX influenced more British gag cartoonists than any anyone else, during the 60s the 70s and the 80s. His cartoons were all over all the British papers and Titbits and, of course, Weekend.

Sax again, but the bottom cartoon is nice, it's a Roland Fiddy, who was better known for his Tramps comic strip.

Again Sax, alongside the Sax though is a Paul White cartoon. Paul White drew nice cartoons.

Another brilliant Noel Ford cartoon, and up there beside the SAX cartoon is one by Jim Watson. I really, really, liked Jim Watson's work. I'm pretty certain Jim was/is an American cartoonist who sent a lot of work over here and many of his cartoons appeared in my local paper, the Edinburgh Evening News.
The Doctor Who comic readers will recognise Dicky Howett's work. Dicky, like Jones and David Myers created really original looking cartoons. I think I have a sort of Wabi Sabi liking for that kind of drawing; it's pleasingly wrong - if you get my drift.

Two nice drawings here by Ivor and Frank (Quanda) Holmes. I like Frank, I have one of his original drawings.

These two, alongside the ubiquitous SAX, are by Colin Earl, who seems always to have had those nice fluid lines, and an early Mike Turner (you can tell by the noses).

The top cartoon is by Jones. Suddenly, out of the blue, I got Jones. I got his drawings and his humour.

The top right cartoon is by Jim Crocker, who was also a comics artist. His signature is a "crockerdile"; geddit?
Another really original cartoonist up top there, the great Ray Lowry, no stranger to fans of The Clash and readers of The New Musical Express.

Another Lowry, and top right there, an ALB. ALB's cartoons looked great to me, his lines varied thick and then thin, as though that Crow Quill or Gillot (I'm guessing Crow Quill) nib was being pushed in any direction he chose (not as easy as it sounds). He really seemed to attack the paper and the drawings always looked more substantial as a result.

ALB and SAX, of course, but at the top a nice big Keith Reynolds; again a cartoonist better known for his comic work.

The big ALB cartoon of Noah's Ark takes up most of this page. It's excellent, of course. I tried to get a cartoon by him or at least a print of one of his cartoons from the Daily Mirror. They sent me a bromide, exactly the same size as the cartoon in the paper, about 1.5"x1".

Hah, I didn't like Rali's comic strip "Hamish", in fact I rate it about the worst strip of all time - but I like his cartoon here.


Fiddy and SAX again, but the top cartoon here is one of Kevin Woodcock's wordless specialities. A Woodcock classic is usually wordless, and features trees.

Alongside SAX here are Dish and Barry Knowles. Back then Dish seemed to be inspired by Willie Rushton.

An oldie here by Kim. It's good. The yob looks great.

Another nice Lowry. Couldn't resist this one.

Lowry again, and SAX, but it's the Pete Williams I like here. I always liked Pete's cartoons. Mike Williams is great too, but has a much more controlled line than Pete's.

A brilliant slapstick cartoon here by SAX and another great example of Noel Ford's brilliance.

I think the top one here is a Mike Aitkinson, again, a cartoonist better known for his comic strips and also these days his card lines.

This is a great Ray Lowry and above it a Colin Whittock cartoon. I bought a Colin Whittock original for my cousin Alan (his money).

Another great gag/single-column cartoonist, REX and below I think is a cartoon by Sally Artz.

A nice gag by Acken and another great visual gag by SAX.

This has three great drawings, once again the cartoonist at the top right, Brian Platt, is better known as a comic strip artist and Roy Nixon always created perfect looking cartoons.

Hah, the cartoon on the bottom left is by Gerald Lip, who went on to become the Cartoon Editor for the Daily Express and the Daily Star. Nice guy.

Roy Nixon again and Fiddy and the great Dick Bogie. I have an original by Bogie, from Weekend Magazine, as it happens.

The top one here is by Clew. Clew did a lot of Spot the Difference cartoons. Very funny cartoonist.


The Walker cartoon on the top right here stuck with me. I thought it was very funny and it made me rethink my own writing.

Another great; Dave Parker, bottom left.

I think the top cartoon here is an early Anthony Hutchins. I worked with Anthony on the Buster Comic. His drawings are very bold, very powerful but fluid.

The cartoon on the bottom left is by Nigel Edwards, I think. I also like the top one, it's still funny.

The cartoon above these two is by Nick. I'm not sure when he left these shores so I don't know if he was based in the US or the UK when he sold this one. Nick is a great cartoonist, I think he created Alan Coren's favourite cartoon for Punch back in the 1980s.

The Rees cartoon is still very funny. Rees was a big influence on a lot of cartoonists who read Punch in the 80s.

You know, you tend to overlook the fact that Weekend was a great training ground for cartoonists. I suppose it's because we think of the humour as "general", in perjorative way, but it was a good magazine for cartoonists and it is missed.

Gerard Whyman, Oddly, not, Distracted, at all.

Cartoons by Gerard Whyman

I'm putting the finishing touches to a post that I'm hoping Forbidden Planet International will run, it is about getting your cartoons, illustrations and books out there on new media. I mean, I don't know if you've noticed but newspapers are closing left right and centre, and some big titles have limited cash, and rely on firms that are going bust to fund their print editions through advertising. Many of these titles, some through choice and some through necessity, with publications like the Christian Science Monitor lighting the way, are going to appear only online. They can, of course appear on other media, and it might be a good idea if you know how to deliver your work on the same devices.

A Ger Whyman cartoon, from Oddly Distracted, on the iPhone

A Ger Whyman cartoon, from Oddly Distracted, being formatted for the PSP.

At the same time I'll be looking at Gerard Whyman's excellent book of cartoons, Oddly Distracted, so I'll be trying to illustrate why the Whyman way, is the best way to go, in the current economic climate, as it were, and we'll be looking at the best way to get Whyman's cartoons out to the modern reader..

Meanwhile, I'd recommend a good hard-copy of the book (click here to go to LULU) because it has nearly 200 cartoons and it represents excellent value for laughs delivered - click here to see a chart I made of the laughs per page ratio - kidding; but go buy it.

Mike Lynch interviewed by Mister Media

My friend and fellow cartoonist, Mike Lynch was interviewed by Mister Media (click this link to hear the Podcast) on Friday. I was impressed by Mike's memory for the things he said earlier in the interview and how he managed to relate later questions and answers back to what he had said before; because it was live and because when these things are live, like lectures, it can be a little like being dragged in many directions by a team of wild horses. Any beginning-cartoonists would be wise to listen to the Podcast and if possible, to download it and listen to it more than once.

I've been a fan of Mike's cartoons from the moment I saw them. When he draws domestic situations they seem very contemporary to me, very now, and that is something that a lot of cartoonists can't capture. But he also has a bizarre, surreal, twist to his humour that allows him to tap into recognised cartoon tropes and add a new twist to them; as this mixture of whimsical fairytale and modern political practices illustrates so well.

Copyright, Mike Lynch, 2008. Visit Mike's Blog to see more cartoons.

I do like lots of cartoonists, but I have a special affection for just a few, as cartooning is a business full of people who are simply either 'space-fillers' (they produce the sort of unremarkable cartoons that editors use to fill white gaps in the text) or insiders who, frankly, will never sell a cartoon outside a publication staffed by the people they went to school with.

As for entering cartooning as a profession, well, to paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, I would caution you about one or two unknowns that "you don't know, that you don't know". For instance, this can be a problematic profession and the lie that humour is "subjective" (so there's no such thing as universal humour or worldwide releases for comedy movies then?) is often used as an excuse for the continued publication of work that is demonstrably sub-standard, and the rejection of cartoons that subsequently sell elsewhere and meet with acclaim. The phrase "it wasn't right for us" is of course a hollow-sounding, transparently dishonest declaimer that allows certain individuals a get-out clause and that allows them to exploit educational affiliations, social affiliations, sharing the same agent, and much, much more insidious relationships, determine whether or not work is accepted. It is an unacceptable state of affairs that would be outlawed by a variety of anti-discrimination laws that would almost certainly apply were all cartoonists not work-for-hire and/or freelancers who dare not upset the applecart.

One of the World's Greatest Living Artists

Damien Hirst. Don't be stupid! (Be warned, this is a post of absolutes.)

Damien Hirst is not an artist, Damien Hirst makes antiques for super-rich people. The notion that people of limited artistic ability who learn a little about technique, and a little about Art History, at Art College, suddenly become gifted artists is absolute crap; and the art-world that perpetuated that notion has now had the rug pulled from under its feet by one of the people it inflated. Good! The recent hugely financially successful auction of Hirst's "art works" illustrates that Hirst is no artist, but is a gifted antique designer with a string of Russian Oligarchs and Saudi Sheiks willing to buy what he makes.

If artists were judged on the fortunes they make, Vincent Van Gough would have been piss-poor because he was piss-poor. The only person who ever bought one of Vincent's paintings was his brother Theo. Art is about so much more than money, and Damien Hirst is about so much less than art. If you want an antique, have him make one for you, or get one from Tarcey Emin. No, the world's greatest figurative artist is Lucien Freud, and one of the world's greatest "artists" is Robert Crumb. Now you can call him a "graphic artist" or a "comic artist" (not sure about that one), or put him into any other pigeon-hole you want, but whatever you want to call him, Crumb is one the world's greatest living artists.

Copyright Robert Crumb

The World's greatest living magazine or "gag"cartoonist, on the other hand, is Gahan Wilson. For decades Gahan Wilson has honed his craft and his cartoons, particularly his macabre Playboy cartoons, are works of art. Is this in any doubt in your mind? If there is then you should buy the new 3-volume collection of Gahan's Playboy cartoons to be published by Fantagraphics in time for Halloween 2009, and all such doubts will be dispelled. I am so looking forward to having this. I might have wangled a review copy if I wasn't such an obvious fanboy and it wasn't already guaranteed to be such a huge success.

I actually got a package of artwork back from Playboy yesterday, by FedEx (I had my nose pressed against the window, like a demented puppy-dog as the van swung into the driveway), thank you J - so the magazine was on my mind, and that coincided with the news that Fantagraphics and Playboy are to publish a large collection of Gahan's work, and suddenly the dreach Scottish weather - that kills us, apparently, broke and a little MS destroying sunshine flooded into my life.

Copyright Playboy Publications, from the Playboy Gallery of some of Gahan's cartoons.

Tidbits

Yeah, 'Tidbits', now you can see why I'm not covering the problems below in this post.

I'm been writing a 3-part piece on The Changing Face of Minicomics on The Forbidden Planet International Blog. The first part is in relation to some discussions we have had on The Comics Journal Forum about minicomics and the second part features comic work by Gerry (Sister Mary Dracula) Mooney* and Bill 'Stik' Greenhead's World of Cow cartoons. The third part will have details about price of producing your own comic, or making use of POD.

Go to Gerry's Mooneyart site for details. The 'sistermarydracula.com' site is not there yet, and it's a really irritating add that traps you on the site and won't let you back-button out (I hate that!).
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I was talking with Playboy cartoonist Mike Lynch about roughs. I send roughs to publications and Mike sends finished cartoons, you can do either, as long as the Cartoon Department you're sending to doesn't insist on one or the other.

Just to clear things up, because 'Literally Hundreds of People'* have emailed me about how 'rough' my roughs are ( those of you familiar with the code here know that probably means I've had one email). Of course I'm tempted to say my 'roughs' are 'dead hard; really, really, rough', but they are pretty close to being the finished article - it's just that because they are still pencil drawings, and not yet inked, I can change the parts the Editor might want changed, more easily.

If no changes are required, I don't actually have to ink the thing, I can adjust the drawing on the computer to darken the pencil lines to very black and the grey pencil-smudged ares to white. But I really like inking.

Of course some publications can, and do, publish the pencil drawing, and I think, at times, that it looks better than the inked one because the pencil work really is a sketch of the idea as it happens, rather than a cold-blooded execution of a commercial idea; if you get my drift. Put it this way, it's more spontaneous.

Old Coren is dead.

I wonder sometimes if manufacturers of foolproof items keep a fool or two on their payroll to test things.

The thing about working for Punch during 'Old Coren's' reign, from around 1978 - 1987, was that as a cartoonist one had achieved two things; you had made it as a cartoonist because it was the satirical magazine that gave birth to the cartoon, the pinnacle of cartooning; Punch was, after all, the magazine on which The New Yorker was based, but it also meant something else, something equally important, that one had met with Alan Coren's approval. Perhaps, even, that one had made Alan Coren laugh, and that was really, really some achievement.

I don't know how you might compare this to another profession, perhaps if you were a painter and you visited Picasso and found he had a painting of yours on the wall, or you were a singer and maybe heard Sinatra say in an interview that he listened to your songs. I think that's the sort of yardstick it was, to many of us cartoonists. It really meant more than any payment or associated fame or contracts that might result from appearing in the famous tome. Now, how often can you say that, nowadays?

I have to say I always enjoyed reading Punch. Of course, nowadays, give me an issue from that period and I'll read it from cover to cover, but even back then I enjoyed Coren's piece, it was effortlessly clever, and always fiercely funny, and I loved the fact that this clever, funny, man enjoyed cartoons so much, and enjoyed some of my cartoons. I suppose, like many of my peers, sending cartoons to Punch was as much about seeking approval from Alan Coren as if was about getting into that magazine.

In more than one interview his love of the cartoons came over and that is unusual even in a humour magazine where the editors like you to think they are doing you an enormous favour by publishing your work - Coren was the exact opposite. He said, '...the writers like me, knew it was the cartoons that sold the magazines'.

Alan Coren (1938 - 2007) will be missed. I wish I could think of something funny to say, I can't.