Another year over: 2015 in topical cartoons

It's almost the end of 2015, must be time for the traditional look back at the past 12 months via the medium of topical cartoons.

The year was just a few days old when the first major tragic story of 2015 happened. One that had particular resonance for cartoonists ...



Free speech became a thorny issue, particularly at universities, where some student unions appeared to have a problem with it ...




Here in the UK, we had a general election ...





We saw the return of some old knitted friends ...



The demonisation of certain elements of, er, society ...



It seems we are now in an age where social-media sites introducing new buttons is news ...



... and tech company bosses are the subjects of movies.



Gadgets continued to rule our lives, of course ...



There were the usual health scares (delicious processed meats this time ...)



And -- seismic change alert -- a 5p tax on carrier bags was introduced in England ...



More tragic news from Paris almost bookended 2015 ...



But, here in the UK at least, we had some positive news as the year drew to a close ...



Have a happy 2016, all!

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Social-networking cartoon: Like or dislike?

Here's a gag about Facebook's recent experiments to introduce emoticons to express sadness, sympathy etc., rather than just providing the usual Like button.

I'm not sounding the death-knell of this blog with this cartoon but I think we have to accept that since the rise of the likes of Twitter and Facebook, there is more "conversation" happening on social-media than on blogs these days ... hence this is my first post of the month!

I will continue to post stuff here, seems a shame to stop after more than ten years, but you can also find me on Twitter and Facebook ...

Royston Cartoons on Facebook

Last week I set up a Facebook page that is just about cartoons, so that anyone interested in seeing my work on that platform doesn't have to look at all the other stuff (dimly remembered nights in the pub, embarrassing childhood photos etc).

The address, logically enough is facebook.com/roystoncartoons and it's a public site, so you don't need to be my "friend" to view it. So in the needy way that Facebook makes us behave, I'll say please visit and LIKE it!

Click here to visit facebook.com/roystoncartoons

Newspaper cartoon: Court out

This was drawn for an article about a court replacing stenographers with a system where proceedings are digitally recorded and transcribed on computer later.

I liked the "Facebeak" joke, but I was concerned that some might not be familiar with the slang term "the beak" for a magistrate or judge (as in "up before the beak"). But I took a "you can't please all of the people" approach, and went with it.

The rush towards doing everything digitally does seem crazy. Just because we have the technology, does everything have to be digital? This move, inevitably, involved laying people off, and the paper couldn't find one person who thought it was a good idea, or that it would be a better way of doing things. It's "progress" for the sake of it. Add your "Luddite" and "old fart" comments below.

History cartoon: Scott of the Antarctic

"I'm just going outside ... you can follow me on Twitter."

It's exactly 100 years since Robert Falcon Scott led his men on their ill-fated expedition to the South Pole. It's a story of British heroism and bravery in the face of terrible odds, and subject matter for many flippant and disrespectful jokes ever since.

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Humorous illustration: Social not working

As well as joke cartoons, I draw humorous illustrations to accompany magazine articles. Here's a social-networking cartoon which I was commissioned to draw for a business magazine. Or perhaps it's a social not working cartoon, the idea being that they're communicating online but not so well in the "offline" world.

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Social-networking cartoon: Pub name fun

"Must dash ... I want to spend some time on my social-networking websites."

Here's a cartoon from the archives, it seemed like a suitable one to illustrate a piece about Twitter and pubs.

I took part in an ultimately pointless but rather fun Twitter exercise yesterday. Someone started a topic called "Crap names for pubs", or rather #crapnamesforpubs in Twitterspeak, and it snowballed. Thousands of people contributed and at one point it was the number one "trending topic" globally! Pretty bizarre.

I submitted more than I'd care to admit to. Here are some of the Crap Names for Pubs I came up with: The Hair of the Dog and Duck, Bar Humbug, The Elephant and Another Elephant, The Red Dragon's Den, On The Waggon and Horses, The Hole in the Wallet, The Three Crap Lagers, The King's Headache, The Sticky Carpet, The Last Orders, The Rat in Me Kitchen, The Anne Boleyn's Head ... you get the idea!

Incidentally, this cartoon appeared in Private Eye in November 2007. I don't think I had even heard of Twitter then, but I was on MySpace (I have a page there but I no longer use it) and Facebook. Where will it all end?

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Private Eye cartoon: Facebook schmacebook

This cartoon is in the current Private Eye. Like many magazines they carry a lot of cartoons that are sceptical about new technology. But despite the view taken in this cartoon, I'm no luddite. I do have both a Facebook and MySpace profile ... it's just that often I'm not sure why. I signed up for Facebook because I was invited to, now I keep getting endless emails saying someone wants to discuss favourite movies with me, or has thrown a virtual custard pie at me. I ignore these to such an extent that someone sent me an email saying "You have been invited to join The Group For People Who Join Facebook Then Don't Do Anything". Naturally, I did nothing.

Birthday cartoon: The Big Four Oh-No

This is a cartoon I drew for an invitation to a 40th birthday party. It was easy for me to think of an idea for this as I'm reaching that milestone myself in a few months. I like to think I look better than the guy in the cartoon though ...