Cartoon advent calendar:Day 20. Scrooged

"You can't have more coal for the fire, Mr Cratchit -- this firm is committed to reducing its carbon emissions."

Ebenezer Scrooge would do well if he was around today. He's committed to austerity measures, keeping costs low and running his business on as few staff as possible, and his "make do and mend" approach is also good for the planet.

This cartoon appears in the current edition of The Jester, newsletter of the Cartoonists' Club, which has a Dickens theme to tie in with the Dickens at 200 celebrations.

Banish the Hard Times blues with Royston's cartoon book ...

Cartoon advent calendar:Day 2. Taking stock at Christmas

"These gentlemen are here to discuss mistakes we may have made, where we are now, and what the future holds ..."

Here's today's advent cartoon. This was drawn for a trade publication, to be sent out as part of an e-card, and is one of my regular boardroom series of cartoons.

It's fun sometimes to drop new characters into the regular scenario, and often the jokes almost write themselves. For the current economic climate, the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future seemed appropriate, particularly as Future, with his scythe, gives us an indication of what's to come: i.e. more cuts. Merry Christmas, indeed.

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Debt cartoon: Plus some cartooning links

Here's a cartoon published recently in a law magazine I work for, drawn to accompany an article about insolvency.

There's not much to say about this one, but if you are craving lots of words on the subject of cartooning from me -- and why wouldn't you be! -- check out the Bloghorn, online diary of the Professional Cartoonists Organisation, which I write for regularly.

Subjects I've written about recently include a time when cartoons played the role of Twitter, an art exhibition that saw cartoons sneak in the back door, and a 30-year-old postcard cartoon revived on TV. There's also a review of Steve Bell at the Cartoon Museum, a piece on the process of cartoonists covering for other cartoonists, and an article singing the virtues of the humble gag cartoon, which is in no way just a plug for my book. Cough.

Plus, there are lots of other cartooning articles, links and opinion pieces by my colleagues Matt Buck, Alex Hughes and Rob Murray. Go and read it all now!

Financial cartoon: More caption fun

One of my clients, the financial website This is Money, asked me to provide a cartoon from my files, with wording removed, for an online caption competition. Previously they had used a stock photo.

This is different in format to the Reader's Digest caption contest (which I am in this month) as readers simply add their captions to the comments underneath the cartoon, then the site picks the best one. The prize is a copy of Avatar and a Sony Blu-ray DVD player.

It's interesting to see the captions come in (they're just over 300 at the time of writing) though it's fair to say they're a mixed bag. Also, This is Money is a Daily Mail website so many are from, er, a certain political perspective.

Click here to see the competition

Business magazine cartoon: Bank on it

"I'm sensing that there's a lack of trust here, Mr Trubshaw."

Here's a cartoon drawn for an international business magazine to accompany an article about how difficult it is to know what to do with one's money these days (I wish I had that dilemma!) what with the lack of faith in banking after the financial meltdown, the Bernard Madoff scandal and so on.

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Recession cartoon from the Foghorn

"Sorry lads, but times are tough – I'm going to have to let one of you go."

Is it too late for a recession cartoon? I keep hearing on the news that we're coming out of it, the crunch is over. Doesn't feel like it from where I'm standing, so here's the cartoon anyway.

This is featured on a page of gags by me which you can see in the latest edition of the Foghorn, the magazine of the Professional Cartoonists' Organisation. You can read an archive of the Foghorn online, just click the button on the right-hand column of this blog (scroll down).

To buy a print subscription to the mag, which comes out six times a year, go here.

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Tweeting and warbling at Shrewsbury

Well, Shewsbury 2009 has been and gone, or #shrews09 as us cutting-edge Twits call it. Yes, this years Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival, the sixth, was the first to be covered live online, by Matt Buck, Alex Hughes, and myself, for Bloghorn.

Alex and Matt did most of the really technical stuff, uploading video and audio clips, while I wrote some words, took quite a few photos (such as the one of the rather impressive queue for caricatures, above, which remained constant throughout the festival) and asked silly questions like, "What the Tweet is the difference between using the hashtag and the at-symbol?" It was a steep learning curve, luckily I managed to cling on.



It wasn't all new media though. Here's me doing some old-style drawing, roughing out a contribution for the Humurals. These large cartoons decorated the Darwin Shopping Centre (the great man was born in Shrewsbury, hence the enthusiasm for marking his bicentenary at this year's festival). Thanks to Duncan Bourne for taking this photo ... I'm glad I haven't evolved a bald spot yet.

I drew a cartoon involving a couple of Galapagos Island tortoises in a credit crunch scenario. Here's the cartoon on display, bottom left, followed by a close-up.



"Times are hard, I've had to take in a lodger."

No Shrewsbury Festival would be complete without a bite to eat and a few drinkies for the cartoonists, followed by some raucous singing and the obligatory drawing on tablecloths.


Here I am trying not to get stuck in "Stuck in the Middle With You", helped considerably by Noel Ford on guitar. Tim Harries, out of shot, also provided acoustic guitar and reminded me when to come in and what notes to sing.


And that's me fourth from the left, immortalised by the genius that is Martin Honeysett. He's famed for drawing highly unattractive types for the likes of Private Eye and Punch, so he had plenty to work from with us lot. Thanks to Gerard Whyman for these last two pics.

The icing on the cake for me was that my sperm and egg cartoon, which I've never managed to get published anywhere (I blogged about that here) was bought by a festival-goer who saw it in the Boffination exhibition. See, I knew it was a good 'un! I've got three cartoons in the show, which can be seen at the Bear Steps Gallery until May 9.

As well as being a chance for us all to meet up and have a laugh, there was something of a support group feeling at this year's Shrewsbury. Few industries are immune from the recession, and many cartoonists are feeling the pinch, with a drop in offers of work. Most people remained upbeat though, and we hope we can do it all again next year in a better economic climate.

In the meantime, we'll do our best to promote the noble and ancient art of cartooning online, as long as I can tell my at-symbol from my hashtag.

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Cartoons appreciated by their subjects

"It may surprise you to hear that, actually, morphine is the best medicine."

This old cartoon is to be reprinted to accompany an article written by, wait for it, a clown who works in hospitals, voluntarily giving his time to cheer up patients.

It's not often that someone who is effectively the subject of a cartoon gets in touch to say how much they appreciated it, but it's great when it happens.

Here's another example: This Reader's Digest cartoon was used in a lecture on black holes by a professor who is an expert in that field.


"I'm afraid there's a black hole in our finance department."

And here's my favourite example. Unlikely though it sounds, the original of this cartoon, which appeared in The Spectator, was bought by someone whose work involves Health and Safety regulations pertaining to fairground rides.
"Damn those Health & Safety guys."

If only this kind of thing happened with every cartoon, we cartoonists would be a lot richer!

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Credit crunch cartoon: The car-boot sale

As a result of the credit crunch/economic downturn/recession, whatever you want to call it, there has been a boom in car-boot sales, apparently. This cartoon accompanies a local newspaper article on that very topic this week.

When you do on-spec cartoons for magazines, you find that you have certain favourites that you're sure will sell, but never seem to. This cartoon, which I originally drew 14 months ago (though it was redrawn for the paper, mainly to make the signs bigger and clearer) was one of those. It did the rounds.

I suppose the problem for the magazine market was that it is not a "boom boom" joke, as such, more a humorous aside about the kind of tat that people try to get rid of at boot sales. So it works better in an illustrative capacity, accompanying an article on the same subject.

The "three-sign" joke is one I've used several times. Here are two examples, from Private Eye and Reader's Digest.



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Credit crunch/recession cartoon

Here's a cartoon for these lean times, drawn recently for a regular business client. Sometimes you can just about get away with the wordy caption.

So how's your recession going? I've noticed a drop in enquiries regarding cartoon jobs lately, which I assume must be down to people feeling the pinch. I've certainly done fewer company Christmas cards than usual, with some clients saying they're not bothering this year.

Still, as Mervyn King, the Bank of England boss is fond of saying, we'll get through it! As though we have any other option. Well, I suppose we could go for the whole jumping off a tall building thing. But for cartoonists, who have depicted that scenario many times, that would be too much of a cliche.

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