Cartoon drawn for fun

I was approached to draw a cartoon recently for an event called the Whitstable Museum of Fun. They put out a call on Twitter asking for suggested themes for the cartoon.

Many, as you might expect, were about local issues relevant to Whitstable residents, but someone, apparently in New Zealand, said "How about a penguin sword fighting a unicorn?" Well, how could I say no?

The result is above. Click the image to enlarge. It was pinned up at the event and kids, who hopefully weren't too traumatised by the impaled penguin, use it as a jumping off point for their own "random" cartoons, drawn on Post-it notes (see below, click to enlarge). All good fun!

Click here to buy Royston's cartoon book, one of which has a penguin on the cover!

The cartoon that keeps on giving

I've got three cartoons in the exhibition Animal Crackers, which opens at the Cartoon Museum in London today. Go see it if you're in the city this summer, it's funnier than the Olympic Games.

I was chuffed that my penguin and polar bear cartoon was used on the invitation to the private view, above, which I attended last night. For a cartoon that I had zero expectation for when I drew it in 2006, it seems to have taken on a life of its own.

It was originally in Reader's Digest, then it went on an expedition to the Antarctic, and later was used on a fundraising T-shirt for a bipolar disorder charity. I've also used it myself as a business card, a Christmas card and it gave me the idea to do a Pengiun Books spoof for the cover of my book of cartoons.

And throughout its many incarnations, I continue to hear of some people saying they don't get it. Which is fine, you can't please all the people all the time. I myself don't know the answer to one question: which one is in the wrong cartoon?

Footnote: The Animal Crackers exhibition is divided into themed sections. This one is in the Polar Opposites section where I was pleased, and a little humbled, to see it alongside this masterful piece by Mike Williams.

Art for Saatchi's sake

Having just watched School of Saatchi, a reality-TV show about wannabe artists, I think the one thing it proved is that with contemporary art it's not what you create that matters it's how you explain it.

The contestants appeared to be judged on their ability to waffle on about their work, rather than on the artworks themselves. So, in a bid to get my cartoons accepted by the Art Establishment, I thought it would be fun to take one of my old gags and give it the contemporary art treatment. Here we go ...


"Well, one of us is in the wrong cartoon" (2006)
Ink on paper, digital colour added

This piece is, at its heart, an indignant expression of the alienation of the modern condition. The Arctic, or indeed Antarctic, wasteland depicted here can be seen as a metaphor for the cold, lifeless expanse of our technological age.

A palpable air of mystery drives the work: Which of these animals, both in their way cultural icons, is out of its natural habitat, perhaps cast adrift by the vicissitudes of global warming? Penguin or bear? Or is it, in a very real sense, both? Or perhaps neither?

Or is it, in fact, us, the viewer?

What do you reckon? Can I get away with it? Anyone got Charles Saatchi's mobile number?

More art. Explanations available on request

Return of the penguin and polar bear cartoon

I have blogged here before about my cartoon that went to the South Pole with South African National Antarctic Expedition. Well now the penguin and polar bear cartoon is being used on a T-shirt by the Bipolar Expedition, above, an Australian project which raises funds to find better ways to manage and diagnose bipolar disorder.


As the cartoon, which was first published in Reader's Digest two Christmases ago, has proved to be one of my most popular, I also used it when I got some business cards made last year.


Inevitably, though, it's one of those cartoons that some people just don't get. I used it on some Christmas cards two years ago and a friend told me that the conversation with his wife went something like this:

Friend: Ha, check out Royston's card!
Wife: Oh, yeah. A-ha-ha-ha.
Friend: You don't get it, do you?
Wife: No.

Well, you can't win 'em all.

Royston's portfolio website

T-shirt cartoon: Polar opposites attract

My cartoons have appeared in many places throughout the world, but I must admit I never expected that they would ever be seen in the Antarctic.

The South African National Antarctic Expedition asked if they could use a cartoon of mine, which appeared in Reader’s Digest, on their team T-shirt for this year’s trip to Antarctica.

As a result, the shirt looks like this on the front ...



(Here’s a close-up of that badge)




... and this on the back!



Here’s a close-up of the cartoon:



The original wording was “Well, one of us is in the wrong cartoon.” That was fine for a magazine cartoon, as it was really a cartoon about cartoons, which often feature polar bears and penguins in the same place. But the SANAE wanted it changed simply to “place”, because they’re often asked by people if they will encounter polar bears during their expeditions.

That’s me modelling the shirt in the pics by the way. I’ve not worn a long-sleeved T-shirt (well you wouldn’t want a short-sleeved one at the Antarctic, would you ...) since the early 1990s. With the lettering down the sleeve I reckon I could pass for a member of EMF.

Cartoons by Royston

Can't go wrong with a penguin cartoon

Here's a Christmas cartoon for you. Except, well, it wasn't really intended as a Christmas cartoon at all. It was sold to Reader's Digest back in June and they held on to it for the current issue because, I suppose, snow=Christmas. I remember colouring this at the height of the summer heatwave and I swear it made me feel cooler in my stuffy attic room.

Last week I attended a Christmas bash held by Reader's Digest in London. I was a bit under the weather and tragically I had to forego the free booze and canapes in favour of mineral water! But it was great to catch up with some cartooning pals, and chat to a few I hadn't met before. It is written that when two or three are gathered in the name of cartooning, they shall moan and complain about the business. So there was a fair bit of that, but in a good natured way. Probably because of the free booze.