Topical cartoons: A look back at 2012

I don't know about you, but I'm a little "review of the year" fatigued, so I'll spare you a look back at my cartooning highlights of 2012 and offer instead some topical gags from the past 12 months.

We had the usual winter weather ...

Followed, of course, by a hosepipe ban ...

Britain celebrated the Queen's Diamond Jubilee ...

... amid more extreme weather events in the summer ...
 

But the Olympics was the story of the year ...

There was a new addition to the London skyline ...

 

A government minister prompted a fuel panic ...

There were teething problems with technology ...

A new Archbishop of Canterbury was chosen, via a long and drawn-out process ...

We said farewell to The Dandy comic in printed form after 75 years ...

 

And, as ever, there was some very strange stuff that came out of nowhere ...

Have a happy 2013, everyone!

Cartoon advent calendar:Day 24. Built to last

"Have you given any thought to legacy and sustainability?"

This is a full-colour version of a cartoon that was used as one of the 12 Private Eye Christmas cards this year.

They decided to go with my original version, which had a small amount of spot colour, applied with brush pens, and I must admit it fits more with the Eye's famed "low-fi" look. So I used this one as my Christmas e-card instead.

And on that note, have a very merry Christmas folks!

Cartoon advent calendar:Day 17. Glory days

Here's another oldie that still feels quite topical, as there is a fair bit of looking back to the glory days of the summer as we approach the end of the year (and the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, announced last night, was dominated by Olympics athletes). This was in the Christmas issue of Reader's Digest last year.

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Olympics cartoon: Step away from the TV

It's all over. And yes, like most cynics, I watched it and enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. But now it's time to switch the telly off and get some fresh air.

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Olympics cartoon: Flame on

"This is the 'Mother Flame' – three for a pound down the market."

This is a rejected Olympic Torch cartoon. Too cynical? Maybe, but cartoons don't really work when they celebrate something. Or they are not funny, at least. Cynicism is kind of the default position for cartoonists.

The Torch came down our way this week, just a couple of streets away, so I popped out to see it and posted a rubbish photo of it on Twitter.

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Topical cartoons for newspapers

Here are some recent topical "pocket" cartoons drawn for local newspapers here in Kent. They are about the hosepipe ban in the South East ...

... the announcement of the route of the Olympic torch ...

... and the Government's controversial "workfare" scheme. In this case the cartoon was for a column, and it illustrated both a piece about workfare and a rant about being put on hold! All part of the cartooning service ...

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Cartoon advent calendar: Day 24.It's the taking part

Here's the final advent calendar cartoon. This was my Christmas card this year, and like the drawing from day one, the gag was in the Christmas issue of Reader's Digest.

I picked this as the final one as it looks forward to 2012. Thanks for reading and a merry Christmas and a happy new year to you all!

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Cycling cartoon: An Olympian effort

Here's a sneak peek at one of the cartoons I have submitted for exhibition at the Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival 2011, which takes place in April.

The theme is Olympian Sports, and this is a new version of a cartoon I drew for the Kent Messenger when the Tour de France came through the county in 2007. This version is coloured using Faber-Castell Pitt brush pens, for those that care about that sort of thing.

It was a bit of an Olympian effort coming up with four cartoons on a sporting theme, as it's not a subject I turn to a lot, to say the least. This year I'll also be drawing a Big Board cartoon in Shrewsbury market square, so I need to think of another gag too. That one won't have bicycles in it though. I hate drawing bicycles.

The theme may appear to be a year early, as the London Olympics are in 2012, but it is in fact a tie-in with the Shropshire Olympian Festival, which takes place in June, and the Wenlock Olympian Games, also in Shropshire, in July.

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From the archives: Olympics cartoon

"Behind schedule? Not at all. Over here we have the sandpit, the high-jump, hurdles ..."

This was drawn for a business magazine in 2004, shortly before the Athens Games, when the media was going crazy about how the building work was behind schedule etc. No doubt I'll get to recycle this joke for the London 2012 Games!

This six-year-old cartoon looks a little stiff and clunky to me now. It was drawn before I started using brush pens, but I can see the beginnings of my current style coming through. It was also one of the first cartoons I coloured using Adobe Photoshop, although by the look of it I was mainly just using the "fill" tool at this point.

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