Original cartoons

I recently sold the original of this early cartoon of mine which was published in Punch in 1998. If I was to compile a top ten of my most popular cartoons, based on comments I've received about them over the years, this one would certainly be in there. I still think Intense Patio would be a good band name.

Selling original artwork is always satisfying because it's nice to know that someone liked a cartoon enough to consider putting it on their wall, or giving it as a gift. Plus it reminds me that all those drawings taking up space on my shelves are potentially worth something! So it's important for cartoonists to hang on to their originals.

I'm told that people who buy originals like to see all the smudges, Tipp-ex, pencil marks, creases in the paper etc. I'm relying on that fact! If you're interested in buying original artwork, email me for prices: roystonrobertson at gmail dot com ... excuse the written out address but I'm trying to prevent any more penis enlargement emails.

Reader's Digest cartoon: The family way

I find my best cartoons are the ones inspired by real-life events. I recently met a married couple who had a young child plus a boy and a girl who were from each of their previous marriages. I was finding it hard to remember which kid was the offspring of which parent when it occurred to me ... what if the parents couldn't keep track? Hey, cartoon idea! This gag is in the August issue of Reader's Digest. By the way, no comment is intended on what the media has taken to calling "blended" families. It's just a joke.

Birthday cartoon: The Big Four Oh-No

This is a cartoon I drew for an invitation to a 40th birthday party. It was easy for me to think of an idea for this as I'm reaching that milestone myself in a few months. I like to think I look better than the guy in the cartoon though ...

Private Eye cartoon: Summer at last!

Private Eye magazine took this cartoon some months ago. I assume that the reason it only appeared this week is that it kind of depends on fine weather! It would have looked a bit silly if they had run the cartoon amid all the gags about rain and floods. Obviously I knew it was a non-topical joke when I sent it, therefore it would have a longer shelf-life, but for a while it became kind of anti-topical. Anyway, we've had some fine weather for a short while at least – been out enjoying it myself today – so finally it gets its, er, moment in the sun.

I regularly draw cartoons for the Law Society's Gazette, so I can draw barristers, judges etc with my eyes closed.

Website cartoons: Pop Idol for cartoonists

The cartoon section of the Reader's Digest (US) website appears to have been revamped, with lots of great cartoons added and even biographies of some of the regular contributors. It's good too see a magazine that values cartoons in this way.

One of my cartoons is on there, in the "Surprise Me!" category, and I was a bit taken aback to see that the gags are rated by the public. It's like a cartoon version of Pop Idol or The X-Factor! Still, four out of five ain't too shabby (click image to enlarge) ...

Farewell to the father of the Grim Reaper cartoon

The Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman passed away this week. He's recognised as a genius of cinema but I thought we should also recognise him as the father of that staple of cartoonists: the Grim Reaper gag.

Yes, I know he didn't invent the image of the Grim Reaper, it's been around for centuries, but by showing Ol' Hoodie playing chess in The Seventh Seal, above, he put him in the mundane world of us mortals. And countless cartoonists picked up this idea and ran with it. Well, that's my theory, and I like it.

I've done plenty of Grim Reaper cartoons myself. Here are two, from The Oldie and The Spectator respectively. The original of the latter sold to a newspaper obituaries editor who collects Grim Reaper cartoons.

Prospect magazine music cartoon is silenced

This HMV dog cartoon is in the new issue of Prospect magazine, accompanying the lead feature by Robert Sandall on the rise and fall of the record industry. (It's fascinating reading for anyone interested in music. Read it here.)


The fact that it does accompany the feature is just luck though, really. I sent the cartoon in as part of my usual batch, with no idea they were planning such a piece. The cartoon had already been declined by a few magazines. Originally it looked like this.

It stems from my annoyance at the fact that we're all supposed to jump unquestioningly on to the latest technological bandwagon. And anyone who chooses to use older technology is treated with contempt. Yes, that's right ... I'm the dog on the left. I'm no Luddite though. I did have an iPod but it packed up. My record player, on the other hand, has been going strong for 15 years. I listened to a 7-inch single of Jonathan Richman's Roadrunner on it the other day. Very loud. Wow, it sounded good. All MP3s in the immediate vicinity were quaking in their tinny boots.

Anyway, Prospect asked to run it without the caption. I wasn't too sure at first but once I'd closed the dogs mouth and made our elegant chum on the left a tad more contented looking, I felt the meaning was still clear. It's more an illustration than a cartoon really, there's no belly laugh there, but that's effectively how they used it anyway.

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.

Spectator magazine cartoon: All change

When this cartoon was first sent out the caption was "Bloody Health and Safety". The cartoon was rejected and when I sent it out again I thought that maybe it didn't need the swearing, even though it's not exactly offensive, so I changed it to "Curse those Health and Safety guys". The cartoon is in The Spectator this week, and clearly the cartoon editor did think it needed swearing as he changed "curse" to "damn"! Of course, I don't mind if such changes are made (the cartoon editor also changed "and" to an ampersand and added an exclamation mark) as long as the meaning of the joke isn't changed.

Some years ago though, a magazine did make a change that I felt was not needed. It was a cartoon with a leopard on a psychiatrist's couch. The psychiatrist was saying, "You have got to want to change." When it appeared in the magazine it had been changed to: "You have got to want to change your spots." I felt that this was really spelling the joke out, and denying the reader that "penny drops" moment. A couple of years later a re-drawn version of the cartoon appeared in the Metro, the now-defunct listings mag that came with the Saturday Times, with the caption in its intended form.

Cycling cartoon: Les Anglais adore Le Tour

A stage of the Tour de France went through the villages and towns of Kent at the weekend, ending in Canterbury. It was a good story for the local paper, of course, but not such good news for me as I hate having to draw bicycles!

Smoking cartoon: Last gasp

Smoking is banned in public places in England from July 1, so obviously there are a lot of smoking cartoons in British magazines these days (notably more than when it was banned in Wales and Scotland, of course!) I was pleased, therefore, to get one in The Spectator. I'm also glad that I gave up a few years ago ...

Planning cartoon

The government says it plans more public consultation and greater openness on planning matters, while at the same time promising to speed up the whole process. How can this possibly be done, you may well ask. Here's my take on it, in a cartoon drawn for a property law magazine:


I draw cartoons regularly for several business and trade magazines. And I find that the often dry, serious subject matter usually lends itself quite well to cartoons. Whereas if someone asks you to come up with a cartoon for a story that is already funny or bizarre in some way, that's a far greater challenge.

By the way, I know there's only three legs on that chair. There were four, but it looked cluttered and distracting so I took the fourth one out! The perspective is out of whack too. But it matters not a jot, because it's a cartoon. That's the beauty of the artform. If anyone questions it you say, "Tut, That's my style..."

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.

Reader's Digest cartoon: The long journey

Got one in the current UK edition of Reader's Digest.

Sometimes the journey from sketchbook to publication can take quite a while. I first drew this as a rough (below) in July of last year. It stayed in my sketchbook for a while as I wasn't sure about it – probably because the iPod had "iBusk" on it, and musical notes were coming out of it.


Eventually, I went back to it, and once I dumped that unnecessary stuff I could see it was a better gag. It was drawn up mid-September. But even then, for reasons that now completely escape me, I didn't think it was really a Reader's Digest gag, so it was sent to several other magazines first. Add to that the fact that the Digest works a few months in advance and turned out to be a bit of a trip for the poor young thing!

Star Wars cartoons: May the gags be with you

You can't fail to have noticed that this month it's 30 years since the first Star Wars film came out. Star Wars is a significant part of the culture, no matter what you think of it. I'm in the "original trilogy good, new trilogy bad camp", as you can tell from this cartoon ...


It was in Private Eye in 2005 when the film came out. Cheekily, I drew it before I saw the film! This next one was one of my first published cartoons, it appeared in Maxim ten years ago.


And this is probably my favourite of my Star Wars cartoons. It was sold to The Publican magazine.


Then there's this one, the only topical one of the lot. This was in Private Eye in 1999 and was about the Millennium Bug, and the fact that we were apparently ill-prepared for the inevitable disaster. Oddly, that now seems like a science-fiction story far more dated than Star Wars.

Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival: Shady character

There's a photo gallery from the Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival over at a website called Virtual Shropshire.

One of the pics features yours truly, on the left, and Matt Buck.

I'm wearing sunglasses because the sun is behind me and that is one big old blank white board. It was giving off quite a glare. It's not some misguided attempt to look cool. That would certainly be offset by the paunch and the dodgy haircut. (Don't worry, I'm OK with my appearance, this is not going to be one of those Lily Allen-style angst blogs!)

I've written on this blog earlier about my board cartoon and the festival exhibition.

There's also a short video on the festival here.

Political cartoons: Bye bye Blair

With the departure of the Prime Minister imminent – Tony Blair is set to announce his resignation tomorrow – the Channel 4 News website commissioned a few cartoonists and illustrators to create a gallery on ten years of Blair.

Here are my two contributions.



You can see the full gallery, featuring Matt Buck, Morten Morland, Beau Bo D’Or and The Spine, here: The Blair Years

Hey Joe

There's a short interview with me, largely on the subject of blogging, over at the Joe Blogs site.

It's a sign

Those websites where you can make "signs" with your name on are clearly designed to appeal to the worst kind of egomaniac.

Newspaper cartoon: Aftershock

You may have heard in the national news that we recently had an EARTHQUAKE!!! here in Kent. (Actually, it was about 30 miles away, in Folkestone, and we never felt any tremors in Broadstairs.) One of the newspapers I draw for had a story about a school science class that only a week earlier had made a model of a building designed to withstand an earthquake. The model, built out of spaghetti (no, really) was, er, destroyed in the earthquake. Here's the cartoon: