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!

Weather cartoon: Line and washout

Traders in the seaside towns here in East Kent are being hit hard by this summer's terrible weather. Recently I was asked to do a cartoon to accompany a newspaper article on that subject, above.

Another rain cartoon of mine (I seem to do a lot this days!) was lifted by Time magazine for this blog post. This shows that it's not just small sites that use cartoons without asking. Obviously I'm glad that they have credited me and written about the cartoon, but I prefer it if people ask first before reusing cartoons, as clearly stated under Cartoons for You in the right-hand column, as there may in some cases be a fee involved.

Sunny weather cartoon: A word of warning

Protect your eyes: Never look directly at pale legs

We British love to talk about the weather, so here's a joke about the lovely sunny spell we've been having lately. This cartoon appears in the new issue of Private Eye.

They say we're in for a "barbecue summer", so get out and enjoy it. By way of a reminder, here's a weather cartoon from last summer.

"Why are we British so obsessed ... with talking about the weather?"

Royston's portfolio website

Stock cartoons: Using the backlog

Inevitably, with on-spec gag cartooning, you end up with lots of cartoons that have been sent to several magazines but remain unpublished. Occasionally, just occasionally, you'll get a commission where these gags can be used. Most commissions are on a very specific subject, they're often illustrating an article, for example. But if it's a more general subject, it's time to dig out those unpublished gags.

Over the past few weeks this has happened a couple of times with the cartoons I draw for a local newspaper group. The subjects were rotten weather (a perennial British favourite) and CCTV security cameras. The cartoons were re-drawn to fit the newspapers, but it was nice that the hard work, ie. coming up with the idea, was already done.