Magazine cartoon: Man's best friend

"Yes, we're very dog friendly! Such clever animals ..."

Here's a cartoon from the current issue of Isle Magazine, a local what's on/listings publication. It accompanied an article about dog-friendly restaurants and pubs.

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Cartoon illustration: Tweets beside the seaside

I wrote an article on the Twitter scene here in the Thanet area for the local Isle magazine. It's quite a vibrant scene and a great way to keep up with what's happening. I drew the above illustration to go with it.

Should you wish to, you can read the article online here. It's on page 83.

Magazine cartoon: Things to do

"Busy weekend ahead?"

I drew this cartoon for the listings section of Isle, a local magazine. The idea is to show the wealth of outdoor activities available, or at least will be if the winter ever ends.

The background is based on the seafront here in Broadstairs, which some say is the best place to live by the sea in Britain.

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Cinema cartoon: Film fun

"Wow! That's probably the best Kyrgyzstani neo-realist horror-comedy crossover I've seen so far this year."

The job of a cartoonist is to poke fun, and that can apply even when the subject is something you actually like.

This accompanies an article in Isle magazine about two local film clubs. I'm a fully paid-up member of one, the Thanet Film Society, and regularly attend its screenings at the Palace cinema here in Broadstairs.

They actually did show a Kyrgyzstani film recently. It wasn't a horror-comedy crossover though. I'm eternally grateful to them for bringing films that barely get shown anywhere to our corner of Kent, and I hope they'll forgive this spot of piss-taking. Just doin' my job.

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Ghosts cartoon: Fade to grey

"If another barman cracks the joke about not serving spirits, I'm leaving ..."

This cartoon is from Isle, a magazine for the Thanet area, where I live. It accompanied a feature about a team of "ghostbusters" who seek out supernatural goings on in supposedly haunted old pubs.

As an experiment, I drew the characters on a separate layer to the background and used a filter in Photoshop to give them a ghostly look. Can't remember what the filter was. Ghostify, probably. I was pleased with the result, but sadly it didn't come out quite as well in print! You can see the ghosts but they are a bit more faded than they appear here. Ah well, at least it means you have to search for them, a bit like "real" ghosts.

The caption here is a case of having your cake and eating it i.e. using a corny old joke while commenting on it being a corny old joke.

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Morris dancing cartoon: For Broadstairs Folk Week

"It's important to keep up English traditions." – "Hic! I agree. The morris dancing is fun, too."

I drew this cartoon a while back, as I've always found it funny that hobbies such as morris dancing, bell-ringing, and the like, are usually just a cover for serious drinking, which is fair enough.

The cartoon is posted here to mark Broadstairs Folk Week, which begins tomorrow (August 6). It can also be seen over at the local Thanet website Isle One, along with a short interview with me, plugging my aforementioned talk on cartooning.

Folk Week means that the town will be overrun with morris dancers, musicians and lots of people with beards for the next seven days. It's always good fun and there's lots to see and do. I'm even planning a bit of time away from the drawing board myself.

Now, where did I leave that tambourine?

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Swimming cartoon: A New Year tradition

As is the case with many UK seaside towns, there is a tradition here in Broadstairs which involves brave/foolish people swimming in the sea on New Year's Day.

Needless to say, I do not take part, the English Channel in January does not appeal, but I do tend to go along to watch/laugh. This cartoon was drawn to illustrate an article on the topic which appears in the current edition of Isle, a local listings magazine.

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Turner skies and seagull cries

I work in a converted attic room. I'm not quite up to posting "the artist's studio" type pictures at the moment, too much mess and general chaos. And not in an interesting way. Instead I offer this view from the window at 7am this morning.

I'm not much into photography but I was quite taken by this sky. Sometimes you can see why Turner used to regularly come down to this part of the world to paint the skies.

The birds are seagulls, of course, and do not fly south for the winter as they're hard as nails. So we get to hear their shrieks all year round! People who don't live in seaside towns love the sound of seagulls. Quite often I'll be on the phone to clients, who are usually based in London, and they'll hear the seagulls, which results in them breaking off and saying, with a wistful note in their voices, "Oooh wow, I can hear seagulls ..."

UPDATE 29/11/08: Just had another one. "Ooh, are you by the sea? What a lovely sound!" I always agree politely, of course, rather than saying, "Not when you're working all day right underneath the bloody roof they are perched on ..."

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