Another First World War cartoon

"Due to the inclement weather conditions, you are reminded to please take extra care ..."

Here's another cartoon about the First World War. It can be seen in the current issue of Prospect magazine. Unlike my recent war silhouette cartoon, this was not inspired by the centenary coverage of the war in the media, but by something far more mundane.

I was walking through a London Tube station after we had had what can only be described as a spot of light rain. The floor was slightly damp so they played the standard health and safety recorded message about "inclement weather conditions".

Like the middle-aged person I am, I thought, "And to think we won two world wars ..." From such nonsense are cartoon ideas spun ...

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Weather cartoon: The prediction game

"We'll be seeing appalling shorts throughout the country and scattered outbreaks of ill-advised vests ..."

Deadlines on monthly magazines are so far in advance of publication that it can be tricky to reflect events accurately. Sometimes you get it right though. When this cartoon was drawn the idea of a very sunny summer seemed somewhat unlikely. But we're all still wearing those dodgy shorts as it appears in the current issue of Saga.

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Weather cartoon: You give me fever

"You're going to beat the hayfever but it may affect your all-over tan."

Unlikely though it sounds, we're having a heatwave in the UK. Hope you're enjoying it.

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The art of the snowman

"That Gormley kid is such a show-off"

Here's a snow cartoon. Because it's been snowing. Do you see? I don't just throw this stuff together, you know. This is from Saga magazine.

I'm no Antony Gormley when it comes to snowmen. I built one at the weekend with my kids, and this is how he looked this morning. Remarkably relaxed for someone whose face has fallen off and is about to collapse (he did, a couple of hours later).

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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 18. Cold stare

Here's today's advent calendar cartoon. Only seven more sleeps and six more cartoons until Christmas!

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Cartoon advent calendar:Day 16. Freeze a jolly good fellow

"My lawyer negotiated this."

Today's advent calendar cartoon, drawn for a law firm's Christmas card.

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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.

Cartoon advent calendar:Day 18. Food for thought

"Apparently, it's organic"

Day 18 of the cartoon advent calendar and this is the fourth snowman joke, and there may well be more to come. This was in Prospect magazine at Christmas two years ago.

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Cartoon advent calendar:Day 3. Meet and Magritte

Today's advent cartoon is an oldie. This was in a Private Eye Christmas issue in 2008. Day three and I'm already revisiting past glories! Mind you, I don't think I've posted this here before, though there are other Magritte cartons.

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Weather cartoon: Forever autumn

Here's a cartoon I drew for a newspaper article about the unseasonably hot autumn weather we had recently. Normally these cartoons are black and white but sometimes it's nice to add  some colour, and those autumnal shades are rather nice, I think.

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Cartoon for "Post Nude" exhibition

I drew a version of this recent Private Eye cartoon -- yes, now he's totally naked! -- on a postcard for an exhibition called Post Nude, to be held at the Horsebridge Arts and Community Centre, just up the road in Whitstable.

It's open to anyone and the idea is that you create on a postcard an original nude in any medium (photograph, pencil, paint, collage etc -- they didn't actually say cartoon ...) and send it in by post. Seemed like a crazy enough idea, so I decided to have a go.

I'm hoping mine makes it in time for the deadline. I was a bit late getting around to it, being very busy lately, but I actually knew about it weeks ago as a Whistable newspaper commissioned me to do a cartoon to go with an article about the launch of the Post Nude project. I put the two topics of postcards and nudes together and naturally came up with a tribute to the late, great, Donald McGill, right.

Weather cartoon: Letting it all hang out

"Tut! Some people! First bit of warm weather ..."
Apologies for the full-frontal nudity, there's no watershed on the internet! This cartoon is in the new issue of Private Eye. It was inspired by the warm weather we had last week. The first sings of spring, we all cried! As I write, it is grey and overcast.

This gag is kind of "sequel" to this one from summer 2009.

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Conditions right at last for cloudspotting cartoon

"Hey, that one looks just like a visible mass of condensed water vapour floating in the atmosphere."

I got such a positive reaction to this cloudspotting cartoon which appeared in print a year ago, that I immediately tried to come up with more cartoons on the subject. The cartoon above is one of them and can be seen in this week's Private Eye.

As I've mentioned here before, there can be a large gap between a magazine taking a cartoon and it appearing in print. This one was taken in early March 2010, so it has been almost a year. That's nothing though, I think my personal record is still two years, as mentioned here, and I've heard of even longer waits from other cartoonists.

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Cartoon about woman who dialled 999 over snowman theft

You may have heard or read about the woman who called the emergency services over the theft of a snowman. It has provoked quite a few chuckles on Twitter and Facebook.

It happened here in Kent – in Chatham, innit? – so one of the newspapers for the area asked me to do a cartoon. As a subject for humour, it was a bit of a gift.

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Holiday cartoon: Farewell to summer

As the memory of a few bonus days of sunny weather fades, here's another cartoon I submitted for the Great British Holiday competition, which is part of the forthcoming Cartoonists' Club convention.

This is a coloured version of a Private Eye cartoon from summer 2009.

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Cloudspotters cartoon: A little background

"Ha ha, that cloud looks just like Frederick Pethick-Lawrence, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, 1929-1931."

This is one of two cartoons I've got in the new issue of Prospect magazine, and has to be among the more off-the-wall gags that I've had published.

I had the set-up rattling around in my head for a while i.e. someone saying a cloud looks like something, or someone, impossibly obscure, with another person looking on in bemusement. But I couldn't think of a suitable subject.

Then, and I'm not sure how this happened, I hit on the idea of pre-war cabinet ministers. As you do. A spot of Googling later and I found Frederick Pethick-Lawrence, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, 1929-1931. The name somehow just seemed to fit the bill. So, thanks Fred (he was a Labour man, he wouldn't mind that.)


Frederick Pethick-Lawrence

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Weather cartoon: No November

I was asked to do a cartoon to accompany an article about unseasonably warm November weather, with trees in full blossom and roses in bloom in some areas. This put me in mind of the Thomas Hood poem November, because I'm such a cultured kinda guy ...

OK, I admit that I only know the poem because it was in a pop song years ago (Opus 4 by the Art of Noise). Anyway, it was a chance to do something a little different from the usual gag cartoon and I was quite pleased with the way it turned out.

Having said that, I may have made a mistake, as looking online now I'm not 100 per cent sure the poem is called November. I've also found references to it as simply "No!". That would make sense, as the word November is really a punchline. Either way, this is of course just an excerpt from the poem. You can read the full text here.

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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?"

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From the archives: A Spring cartoon

Tomorrow is the first day of Spring, so here's a colourful cartoon from the archives featuring some cute bunnies!

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