Arachnid chuckles and comics festival fun

I've never really been one for Halloween or cartoons about it, so please accept this cartoon about spiders instead. They're a bit scary, aren't they? This can be seen in the current issue of Private Eye.

Here's a massive one I spotted in the house we stayed in when I visited the Lakes Comic Art Festival with the Cartoonists' Club a couple of weeks ago.

I probably should have blogged about the event really and posted photos other than one of a spider, but never mind. It was very good and I sold lots of cartoon books, cards and prints. And I chucked the spider out of the window.

Here's me, left, drawing with Tim Harries on the Cartoonists' Club stall (from this LICAF page).

And here's a cartoon I drew there, which you'll probably only get it you go to these sort of events, to be honest.

New cartoon book in aid of Comic Relief

I've got two cartoons in The Little Red Nose-E-Book of Cartoons, which is published by the Cartoonists' Club and is available now.

In total there are 101 cartoons by dozens of cartoonists and it costs just £1.59. How could you resist?

Buy the book here.

Every penny raised will go to help the Comic Relief projects transforming the lives of countless people, in the UK and across Africa. Please tell others about the book too.

Out and about with the Cartoonists' Club

Last weekend I went on a trip to Somerset with the Cartoonists' Club of Great Britain, for the 2011 AGM/jolly. This, I should point out, was immediately prior to the Private Eye opening, so I had an heroic four days in a row of drinking and socialising. First time I've done that since I was a student, I think.

There were 20-odd of us on the trip, a few of whom are pictured above, at Cheddar Gorge. Left to right: Nikki and Tim Harries, Simon Chadwick, me, Rich Skipworth, and Hugh "Shug" Raine. The photo is by Ger Whyman.

The weekend is best summed-up in a letter I sent to The Jester, the club newsletter:

I just wanted to send my thanks to the committee for organising such a brilliant weekend in Clevedon. I've been on a few of these trips now (Masham, Witney, Skegness etc) but I think this may have been the most fun yet.

The weekend was filled with big laughs, good food and possibly a little too much drinking. And the vintage bus trip, to Clevedon Pier, Thatchers for the cider tasting, and on to Cheddar Gorge, was just a perfect day.

A team of us winning at the pub quiz on the Sunday night (commiserations to the other cartoonists' team!) was just the icing on the cake. We didn't even know there was a quiz on, but as Tim Harries had been posing quiz questions from his iPad all weekend, at every available opportunity, it was as if we'd been warming up!

So thanks again to the committee and to everyone who turned up and helped make it a great weekend.

A shopping joke and some crazy cartoonists

This cartoon is on the front of the latest issue of The Jester, the Cartoonists' Club newsletter. The theme was shopping and I was amazed, and amused, that the Ed picked this cheerful cartoon.

Also in the issue is this photo from the recent club convention at Butlins. It's the obligatory "Cartoonists: we're a wacky bunch" pic.

Yes, that's right, we're holding our cartoons upside down! Will the craziness never end?!

These are the winners in the Great British Holiday cartoon competition. Pictured, left to right, are Pete Dredge, Rich Skipworth, me, and Tim Harries. Rich, Tim and Pete won first, second and third, respectively, and I won the public vote (for this cartoon). Thanks to Steve Willis for the photo.

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Drawing a line in the sand with the CCGB

"Life's a beach."

This is a cartoon drawn in the sand on the beach at Skegness, where the Cartoonists' Club of Great Britain held its 2010 Convention and AGM last weekend.

As mentioned here before, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little wary about this three-day event: the combination of Skegness, Butlins and October seemed like some kind of elaborate joke!

But as I have been complaining for some time that the club has had few family-friendly events for several years (brewery tours are fine but not ideal with an 8-year-old and a 5-year-old in tow) I decided to take the plunge. It proved to be the right move as I, my wife, and our two children had a great time.

Cartoon by Noel Ford, after the famous poster by John Hassall

I didn't win the Cartoons in the Sand competition – there were too many desert island gags, I think! – but I did win in the Great British Holiday cartoon competition. There were three winners picked by the judges plus one voted by the public – "The What Do the Judges Know? Prize", as it was described – and I won that one, for this cartoon.

"This is rubbish, can we please do Ibiza next year?"

The highlight of the weekend was the excellent Saturday night gala meal, which included the prize-giving, a humour-based quiz, hosted by me, which went down well, and the always enjoyable informal sing-song led by Tim "The Ukulele" Harries.

As a bonus to all this, the kids got to enjoy swimming, play parks, and all the usual Butlins stuff. A note to regular Butlins-goers though: "All you can eat" is just an offer, not a strict instruction.

So, many thanks to the Cartoonists' Club for organising such a fun event. Hi-de-Hi, campers!

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Fairytale cartoon: Health & Safety gone mad

It's inevitable, with the amount of cartoons you produce working for magazines, that you like some more than others. This one I thought was just OK, a solid enough joke but generally I'd call it a batch-filler.

So, of course, it was the only one that sold in a recent batch sent to The Spectator, and can be seen in this week's issue.

Originally, I drew it for the CCGB online cartoon contest, in one of the weeks where you have to come up with a captionless cartoon. The theme was "Hot". However, completely "silent" cartoons, i.e. with no wording in them at all, are preferred, so it didn't do very well!

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Owl and Pussycat cartoon: The British holiday

"This is rubbish, can we please do Ibiza next year?"

This cartoon is one of three I have submitted for a competition on the theme of "The Great British Holiday", which is being run by the Cartoonists' Club of Great Britain.

Entries will be judged at the club's convention and AGM which is being held at Butlins, in Skegness, in October ... proving that the club certainly has a sense of humour!

We'll be going along as a family. I've been saying for years that the Cartoonists' Club should do some family friendly events, as it used to in its heyday, but I must admit to being initially a little wary of the combination of Butlins, Skegness and, er, October. Still, even if the weather is appalling, it's all about camaraderie and laughs really, so I'm sure a good time will be had by all.

The cartoon is from a short Owl and the Pussycat phase I went through last year ... here's another one.

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A very cartoony weekend

The Cartoonists' Club of Great Britain is 50 years old on Thursday. We celebrated at the weekend with a party, lots of food and drink, and a very big cake.

It took place in the pub off London's Fleet Street where it all began (well, actually a pub which stands on the site of the pub where it all began, but that doesn't sound quite as good!) on April Fool’s Day, appropriately for cartoonists, 1960.

I made a cartoony weekend of it, meeting up with fellow cartoonists to attend the UK Web and Mini Comix Thing, above, where I spent much more money than planned, as well as the brilliant Ronald Searle at 90 exhibition at the Cartoon Museum.

On Friday I also checked out the smaller Searle show at the Chris Beetles Gallery and went to see Exit Through the Gift Shop, the excellent film by Banksy, the street artist and, some would say, a cartoonist writ large (see above example from the Banksy website).

All-in-all, a fun and inspiring weekend. And now, it's back to work ...

UPDATE: There's a fuller report on the Comix Thing over at
Tim Harries' blog

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Caption contest cartoon: Moon crash

Once again, this week I have taken part in the "reverse caption" competition at the Cartoonists' Club public forum . The caption was "Sorry, no thanks" and I found it a bit tricky. But I've only myself to blame as I set the caption, having won last week.

This one is a bit different to the usual gag cartoons I do, but it was fun to draw. And it was another chance to do a topical one. It just occurred to me, when the story about crashing spacecraft into the moon broke yesterday, that it's all a bit reminiscent of the famous Georges Méliès silent film Voyage to the Moon.

"Sorry, no thanks" is a phrase familiar to all cartoonists, by the way, as it is often what is written on rejection slips!

Here's the cartoon I won with last week, the caption was "Right, any more of that and you'll be sitting on the naughty step." Click to enlarge.


To me, the word "step" instantly meant Dalek joke opportunity! I'm always a sucker for a Dalek cartoon.

This next one, from a few weeks earlier, was less successful in the voting. I was surprised as I quite liked it. It was drawn for the caption "This is the best I could come up with" and I include it here as Antony Gormley's living artwork One and Another, which it spoofs, finishes next Wednesday (October 14).

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Press cartoon: Reverse caption competition

I took part in the "reverse caption" competition at the Cartoonists' Club public forum again this week. The caption was "I've just realised where we went wrong" and this was my entry.

I was pleased, and not a little surprised, to be able to get a topical joke in there. Didn't win though, I came fourth. So much for satire.

Fact: the shorthand on his notebook is genuine Teeline shorthand, dimly remembered from my days as a news reporter. It says,"We're totally f-----!" Maybe I'd have got more votes if I'd flagged that up. Or perhaps not.

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Music cartoon: In with the IT Crowd

"Have you tried turning it on, turning it on and turning it on again?"

I drew this cartoon for a "just for fun" competition over at the public forum on the Cartoonists' Club website. Well, I say that I drew it for the competition, in fact it was immediately ineligible (or illegible if you don't know the Genesis song that it refers to!)

The idea behind the weekly competition is that everyone draws a cartoon to go with a caption, without changing the wording at all. The caption was "Have you tried switching it off and on?" but my mind went off at a tangent and came up with this one.

The competition has been running for a few weeks and I've entered a couple of times. It's a fun exercise, but it's pretty far from how I would normally create cartoons. Usually I do have a clear joke in mind when I sit down to draw the cartoon but often it gets tweaked or changed completely, which is what happened here. As the competition was just for fun, I posted it anyway.

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Heaven Knows I'm Mozzerable Now

Last night I attended the AGM of the Cartoonists' Club in London. It was not the most fun meeting ever, as major changes are afoot at the club, so there was much raising of voices and pointing of fingers. (Not from me I might add!) However, I did come away with a couple of fun caricatures by Simon Ellinas, left, and Paul Baker.

I am of course, not the most difficult of people to caricature. Once you've got the qiuff, the glasses and the eyebows you've more or less captured me. Well, me or Morrissey.

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Book review: Oddly Distracted

Here is a review of my cartooning colleague Gerard Whyman's new book Oddly Distracted which I wrote for The Jester, the newsletter of the Cartoonists' Club of Great Britain. Click the image to enlarge it and read the review.

You can see a preview of Ger’s book and order copies online at Lulu.com

Royston's portfolio website