Another sequel to "Life imitating cartoons"

I have written many posts here about life imitating cartoons, where things I have drawn happen in real life. (See them all by clicking here.)

This cartoon (rejected) was drawn last week ... before the same gag was used by the host at the #Oscars last night. Note to Jimmy Kimmel: I am available for next year's ceremony.

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Film cartoon: Oompa Loompa do-ba-dee-do

This is one for fans of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the original (and best) version of Roald Dahl's much-loved story.

It was fun to draw, and the famous Oompa-Loompa song ran through my head as I did so. The cartoon appears in the current issue of Saga magazine.

I considered writing "Royston tan cartoon" as the headline for this post, because whenever I Google myself (we've all done it) I get some results for the Singaporean film-maker Royston Tan, and I thought it would be funny if people searching for him find me instead. It may happen anyway now ... so hello Royston Tan fans!

In other news, a local paper, the Isle of Thanet Gazette, wrote a profile about me this week. Here's the picture they took. As you can see, I can draw three cartoons at the same time while balancing a bookshelf on my head. Read the interview here.

In case you're wondering what that small white thing is in the top right, it's a key from an old computer keyboard. Sometimes I press it.

Click here to buy Royston's cartoon book

Life imitating cartoons

Here is a case of life imitating cartoons. Exhibit A: a gag published in Private Eye in 1998 ...


Exhibit B: A kids' animated film from 2008 which is about to hit a multiplex near you ...


OK, it's not a Disney film, and the focus is on Frankenstein's assistant, rather than the evil genius himself ... but still, it's a cuddly kids' comedy about creating a monster. I came up with the idea for the cartoon because I couldn't believe that they'd done a "Disneyfied" version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and I just thought, What will they do next? But even at the time I remember thinking that the idea of doing a kids' version of Frankenstein was probably not that far fetched. Turns out, I was right.

Here's another case of life imitating cartoons. I saw this on a cartoonists' internet forum this week (thanks to Simon Lake). Click the image to read it:


I was compelled to point out that I was killing much-loved cartoon characters 20 years ago! Along with a group of friends I used to run a self-published "adult" comic called DoodleBug in the late 1980s. With scant regard for the copyright laws, we had a regular feature called "Kill the Cartoon Character of Your Choice", which involved readers suggesting characters that they'd like to see dispatched. We would then oblige.

As a result, we had Garfield shot, Scooby Doo beheaded, Snoopy hanged, and Popeye beaten to a bloody pulp (after someone swapped his spinach for a tin of spaghetti hoops). It was all very juvenile, of course, but then we were juveniles. Well, almost. I was 19 when we started the comic. Here's one of the strips, which sees everyone's favourite cute canary meet his maker ...


Again you'll need to click the above image to read it. The similarity between the image of Sylvester the cat in my cartoon and in the Jimmy Cauty painting is incredible ... though I'm not alleging anything other than coincidence I should add.

Of course, the moral here is that if I had thought "art gallery" for these cartoons, rather than self-published comic, and if I'd written the script for a kids version of Frankenstein rather than doing that one-off gag, I'd probably be a lot richer than I am now.

Royston's portfolio website

Movie cartoon: One from the archives

Here's my very first Private Eye cartoon, which appeared ten years ago this week. I know that because I remember that it was the week of my 30th birthday, and I've just celebrated my 40th*

Normally I cringe at the artwork when I see my older cartoons, but I think this one stands up OK. Probably because I was aping the Disney style. The idea for the cartoon came from the fact that there had recently been a Disneyfied version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, though the character designs here were based on Hercules (our hero and his sidekick, voiced by Danny DeVito, of course) which was the big Disney film of 1997.

*Here's a cartoon I drew for a 40th birthday party invite last year.



Cartoons by Royston

Homer Simpson: King of the hill

I think, generally speaking, you have to do quite a lot to upset pagans. But the people behind the Simpsons movie seem to have managed it with this. I suppose that as far as concerns about the Americanisation of British culture goes, this just about takes the doughnut, sorry, donut. Still, apparently it's drawn with paint that doesn't harm the environment and will wash off with the next significant rainfall. So, judging by the summer we're having I'll give it five minutes.

Star Wars cartoon: A correction of sorts

OK, I just looked at my files after my earlier post (maybe I should've done it before ...) and found that I actually sold another gag to Maxim from that same batch, ten years ago. I can't believe I forgot that with my first-ever magazine cartoon sale they took TWO gags ... I still get overjoyed when that happens! Anyway, this was the other one and of the two cartoons it appeared first, in the May 1997 issue of Maxim.

Actually, this is a re-draw. I gave the original away to one of my Star Wars fan friends. I've done a number of Star Wars gags over the years, look.

Back then Maxim paid £60 per gag, by the way. Believe it or not, there are some magazines publishing cartoons in 2007 that don't pay that much.

Film cartoon: Dum-diddy-dum-dum ...

James Bond fever/hype seems to be everywhere you look right now, so I may as well keep up. The local paper story I was asked to illustrate this week was about the South East charity premiere of Casino Royale, which took place just down the road in Canterbury. Naturally, many of those attending went dressed as 007 ...

Spot the Difference

Oh, OK, there isn't one, they're all the same. And the kids are noticing. When my four-year-old saw a poster for Open Season the other day, he said, "Daddy that looks a bit like Over The Hedge". But he still wants to see it. And I just read that there's a new film out this week called Barnyard, which features ... a bunch of wacky CGI animals. Joy.