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.

Christmas cartoons: It gets earlier every year

Christmas starts early for cartoonists. I have been doing festive cartoons and company Christmas cards (excerpts below) for some time now. Not complaining, keeps me busy. But I reckon I can now draw Father Christmas, Rudolph and the elves in my sleep.

Art vs Blogs

I'm a fan of Eddie Campbell, the comic-book artist best known for illustrating the graphic novel From Hell. His autobiographical comics are great, particularly How to Be An Artist (which features the priceless opening line "How to sucessfully be an artist - not to be confused with becoming a successful artist ...)

Anyway, he has now joined the "blogosphere", as people insist on calling it, with The Fate of the Artist. A blog in which the author appears as himself. His only concern is that he will now put into his blog what he once put into one-page diary strips. Let's hope that doesn't happen. Thanks to Linkmachinego, as ever.

Newspaper cartoon: Smashing fun

This week's local paper story was about a school holding a competition to build robots out of Lego. An innocuous enough story, but one that allowed me to have some fun. There's more than a little Simpsons and Futurama influence at work here!

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 ...

Moore please

Here's one to look forward to: British comic book legend Alan Moore is to appear in The Simpsons, according to his local paper. The plot involves the great Comic Book Guy character, of course. Thanks to Linkmachinego.

Cartoon world

Has anyone else noticed that many major world leaders and events seem to be getting the comic book/cartoon treatment these days?

Nelson Mandela
The 9/11 Report
The Pope
And now, er, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy

Coming soon: Andy Capp runs for leader of the Labour party.

Cartoon in Oldie book

An old cartoon of mine from The Oldie has been republished in the magazine's Christmas stocking filler book Bling, Blogs and Bluetooth, which was released recently.

It's one that I dashed out in a bit of a hurry to make up a batch. So it sold, of course. I was a bit embarrassed by its slapdash look when I first saw it in print. But it's an OK gag, so I suppose I just about got away with it.

Get one for the Oldie in your life ...

Mystery cartoon

I recently found this cartoon illustration in an old newspaper from 1996. I have no recollection of drawing it. I worked as a journalist for ten years, as a reporter and later a sub-editor, and when I was working for my then local paper, in Walthamstow, East London, they would sometimes ask me to draw cartoons to go with articles ... for nothing of course, but I was happy then just to see my stuff in print, so I can't complain.

This one was for the music column, which was always a bit anarchic so there is nothing to indicate why the cartoon is there! It's not even Valentine's Day. Anyway, I include it here because unlike most cartoons from this period (I was 27 when I drew this and had not yet started submitting gags to magazines regularly) it doesn't make me cringe too much. It took me ages to figure out what's written on that guitar ("* Play at eleven", obligatory Spinal Tap quote).

Magritte cartoon: But is it art?

I had to explore a few new Photoshop techniques to colour this cartoon, which is in the new issue of Prospect magazine, in an attempt to make it look something like the Rene Magritte original.


For any international readers who don't get the joke, five portions of fresh fruit and veg daily is the official recommendation from the UK government's health experts. I believe it varies in other countries. I heard it was 15 in Japan. I can't even name that many ;- )

This cartoon is in the same issue.

Art exhibition shows bare gallery

This is definitely one of those "it's not April the 1st is it?" moments.

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.

Cartoons drawn on-Spec

I've got two cartoons in the current issue of The Spectator.


I was very pleased as it's the first time I've appeared in this magazine. I've tried many times, as you can see here ...

Cartoon book: International lampooning

Three of my cartoons feature in the new book Favorite Cartoons of the 21st Century, published by National Lampoon in the US. Here's one of them ...

Most of the cartoons in the book are of the "sick humour" school of cartooning. I had quite a few on file to choose from.

An ideal stocking filler! Amazon.co.uk has it

Down to Margate

In the corner of Kent in which I live there is not an overabundance of arts and culture. Galleries are thin on the ground, most of the cinemas show rubbish films and decent bands seldom play here. So it was refreshing when one of the UK's foremost artists, the sculptor Antony Gormley, creator of the Angel of the North, came to the area and built a colossal effigy of a man out of old junk ...


then set fire to it ...




It was quite a spectacle. The Waste Man, as it was called, was part of a film being made with local people called The Margate Exodus. More here.

The Big Draw

I attended the launch of The Big Draw, the annual campaign to get the nation, young and old, drawing. Myself and fellow Cartoonists' Club members spent part of Sunday in a marquee, encouraging kids to draw funny faces and offering tips and advice ... though to be honest, few of them seemed to need any, as they were very keen.

Here is some of their handiwork:



The Battle of the Cartoonists was fun too. Teams representing Private Eye, The Guardian, The Independent and that laugh-a-minute publication the Financial Times, each produced a banner on the day's theme of "Amazing Space", as the event was held in the marvellous Somerset House. These were then put to the public vote, with The Guardian emerging victorious.


It was a very well-attended, well-organised day, with beautiful sunny weather (the kids were playing in the fountains!) There are Big Draw events throughout the UK in October. See their website for details.

Hey Joe

Underground comics artist Joe Matt has gone and got himself a Myspace page, which is pretty surprising if you've read his work as he portrays himself as something of a technophobe. The profile in itself is very entertaining, a cut above the usual Myspace stuff. Matt draws the aptly named Peepshow autobiographical comic, which is so revealing in terms of detailing his personal obsessions that he makes Robert Crumb look like he's withholding. And the good news is that the ludicrously over-due issue 14 is out soon. The last one was 2002!

Rejected cartoon: Not this time, thanks.

Here's a rejected gag for you ...

Surely you jest?

Purely for fun, I’ve had a section on my cartoon website for some years now called Other Roystons, with links to other people with my less-than-common firstname and to websites for towns and villages called Royston – of which there are many, mainly in the UK and North America.

As a result I get occasional emails from Roystons from all over the world, and from people who live in Roystons! One said, tongue firmly in cheek (I hope) “I wept with joy to find others with this fine name ... you have given my life new meaning.” Another person sent me a photo of a puppy called Royston, and then another one when it grew up.

But this month I got the best one yet: a gentleman from Lynchburg, Virginia, called Royston Jester. What a great name that would be for a cartoonist. And it's Royston Jester IV, in fact. It's also ironic because I am editor of the monthly newsletter of the Cartoonists' Club which is called ... The Jester.

Don't know anything about this Royston, but I want that record ...

Cartoon markets: Writing the right gag

Like any job, you have to wear different "hats" as a cartoonist. Ordinarily, if asked to to a cartoon about Damien Hirst I would probably come up with something a bit sarcastic (as many cartoonists have done!). But when it's for a profile of said artist on the Artyfacts section of the Children's BBC website, something just plain silly is the order of the day.