Drugs cartoon: Keeping it simple

"Mother, are you sure your marijuana use is purely medicinal?"

This cartoon appears in the current Private Eye. Often, with gag cartoons, when you first come up with the idea you want to throw everything including the kitchen sink into the joke, and then you find you have to simplify it.

With this one, the old lady was originally going to be holding a Bob Marley LP, and I even considered putting her in a "Legalise it" T-shirt, complete with cannabis leaf logo! In the end the Rasta hat and slightly stoned expression seemed to be enough.

There was a time, I think, when I think a cartoon like this would have been considered racist, as it plays on black stereotypes. Thankfully, we've moved on. The fact is that a lot of humour, particularly cartoons, plays on clichés and stereotypes, and as long as they're not used to incite hatred, I don't think it's a problem. This TV sketch, for example, may not have been aired a few year ago. But it's not racist, it's just funny.



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Staff handbook cartoon: Computer trouble

"I told you not to open that attachment."

I was recently commissioned to draw a series of cartoons to illustrate an organisation's staff handbook. Here's one of them, it accompanies the section on computers.

The joke here was originally used in a gag cartoon which I sent out as part of an on-spec batch to all the usual magazines. It did not sell, but I always thought it was a fun joke, so I was glad to give it an airing (and get paid for it, of course) in a different context.

Rejected cartoons, or the jokes within them, will often get used somewhere other than the newsstand magazines, so the time spent on them is rarely wasted.

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Elections cartoon: Don't forget to vote

"Something tells me they're expecting a low voter turnout."

Here's a local paper cartoon on today's Euro and council elections. Like many people who are more than a bit disillusioned with politics, I'll be going along to vote out of a sense of duty to the process itself, rather than dedication to any particular candidate or party.

This is nothing to do with the recent MPs' expenses scandal, by the way, I was disillusioned way before that! I do know I won't be transferring my vote to the British National Party, and I find it bizarre that anyone would vote in such a way to "punish" the main parties over expenses. Maybe I should spoil my ballot paper by drawing a cartoon on it. It might at least cheer up one of the people who have the thankless task of counting all the votes.

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Heaven Knows I'm Mozzerable Now

Last night I attended the AGM of the Cartoonists' Club in London. It was not the most fun meeting ever, as major changes are afoot at the club, so there was much raising of voices and pointing of fingers. (Not from me I might add!) However, I did come away with a couple of fun caricatures by Simon Ellinas, left, and Paul Baker.

I am of course, not the most difficult of people to caricature. Once you've got the qiuff, the glasses and the eyebows you've more or less captured me. Well, me or Morrissey.

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Environmental cartoon: No glow area

Seems like a while since we've had any colour on this blog, so here's one of the two cartoons by me that you can see in the June issue of Reader's Digest.

I'm not against low-energy lightbulbs in any Jeremy Clarkson kind of way, we have them throughout our house, it's just that, well, they're a bit crap aren't they? When I sit reading a book I try to console myself with the fact that I'm helping to save the planet as I tilt the page towards the light.

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Cartoons that keep on going

Article from The Weekly News, click to enlarge

It's always amazing to me how some cartoons seem to take on a life of their own. My leopard on a psychiatrist's couch cartoon, which was first published 11 years ago (albeit as a different, black and white version) is a case in point.

Thanks to The Jester, newsletter of the Cartoonists' Club, I've just found out that it was picked for a preview of the Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival in Scotland's Weekly News (above, click to enlarge). That's it in the bottom, left. Shame they cropped the signature. The BBC also used it in a Shrewsbury piece.

I don't get paid for these PR uses, but the cartoon has already been published, I sold the original, and I've sold it for re-use many times, so that's OK. I'm happy to help promote the festival and it's good to know that the cartoon is still out there, hopefully making people laugh.

Incidentally, I normally cringe a bit at the attitude shown in this article i.e. "We're all wacky, zany cartoonists here to cheer you all up with a chuckle!" but at the moment it feels quite appropriate, like a genuine public service.

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Return of the scary clown cartoon

Regular readers to this blog will know that when I doodle I often seem to end up drawing sinister and/or sleazy looking clowns. Some people have even been helpful enough to suggest that this indicates some deep-seated psychological problem and I should probably seek help.

I'm starting to think they may be right, as even by my standards the guy above, who emerged yesterday when I was supposed to be thinking of a cartoon for a client, is pretty disturbing.

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Journalism cartoon: It's about multi-tasking

Here's a cartoon which accompanied a newspaper article about how journalists are embracing the multimedia world.

It's almost five years since I left newspaper journalism, where I was a reporter on local papers and later a sub-editor on the nationals. There was a degree of multitasking involved back then but I know from friends in the industry that it has rocketed over the past few years.

Clearly this cartoon, like the article it accompanied, which was about last week's Local Newspaper Week, is a positive look at the subject, which is fair enough. It's only right that journalists learn new skills in order to get their stories seen and heard across different media. But there is often a danger that they can spread themselves too thinly, and I know that they can be pretty stressed and overworked in the new media world.

Anyway, I'll be watching developments in journalism closely, as these are certainly changing times for the industry. Let's hope that, however the stories are delivered, quality journalism survives.

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Legal cartoon: Fun with mortgage fraud

"I got into mortgage fraud just as the market started to fall."

Here's a cartoon I drew for a business magazine to accompany a piece on mortgage fraud. Given recent events in the news, you may like to imagine that the guy on the right is a Member of Parliament, but I couldn't possibly comment.

This is not the first time I've done a cartoon playing on the "convict's arrows" motif, which is so beloved of cartoonists. And it probably won't be the last

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Business cartoon: Out in the open

"As part of the company's spirit of openness, I've decided to tell you all a little about the real me."

There's a new Star Trek movie out today, so I dug out this business magazine cartoon from 2003. It was this or the inevitable Captain's Blog gag.

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Social-networking cartoon: Pub name fun

"Must dash ... I want to spend some time on my social-networking websites."

Here's a cartoon from the archives, it seemed like a suitable one to illustrate a piece about Twitter and pubs.

I took part in an ultimately pointless but rather fun Twitter exercise yesterday. Someone started a topic called "Crap names for pubs", or rather #crapnamesforpubs in Twitterspeak, and it snowballed. Thousands of people contributed and at one point it was the number one "trending topic" globally! Pretty bizarre.

I submitted more than I'd care to admit to. Here are some of the Crap Names for Pubs I came up with: The Hair of the Dog and Duck, Bar Humbug, The Elephant and Another Elephant, The Red Dragon's Den, On The Waggon and Horses, The Hole in the Wallet, The Three Crap Lagers, The King's Headache, The Sticky Carpet, The Last Orders, The Rat in Me Kitchen, The Anne Boleyn's Head ... you get the idea!

Incidentally, this cartoon appeared in Private Eye in November 2007. I don't think I had even heard of Twitter then, but I was on MySpace (I have a page there but I no longer use it) and Facebook. Where will it all end?

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Write your name with zombies

Yes, at last you can write words with a font made from zombies. I mean, really, what took them so long to provide this vital service? Thank you The Internet.

Here's the site: Spelling with Zombies

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Evolution cartoon: The missing link

"Let's all do the Conga, let's all do the Conga, la-la-la-la ..."

Three out of the four cartoons I submitted for exhibition at the Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival can be seen in the Boffination show (which is at the Bear Steps Gallery until May 9) but this is the one that got away.

I always knew this one would have an outside chance, because with the theme being Darwin-inspired they were bound to get lots of "Ascent of Man" cartoons. And they did. But once I had the idea of them do-do-doing the Conga, I just had to draw it up. Makes me chuckle, anyway.

Talking of Shrewsbury (as have been doing quite a lot on this blog lately, don't worry it'll stop soon) I was alerted today to the fact that the BBC picked one of my Boffination cartoons to illustrate an article on the festival. Excerpt below.


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Life imitating cartoons. Part 2

"You're listening to Browse FM! Broadcasting to libraries across the UK!"

Unwanted piped music seems to be wherever you go these days. So when trying to come up with a cartoon on that theme, in February of 2008, I decided to think of what would be the most outrageous place you could have piped music. The library was the answer I came up with, and the cartoon above was the result.

Now, you may have seen this news story last week: Libraries criticised for playing music. Yes, it's another case of life imitating cartoons! And as the gag did not sell, it proves that punctuality is crucially important with topical cartoons i.e. just as a cartoon that is created too long after the event is useless, so is one that arrives too early!

Oh, and in case you missed it, here's my first Life imitating cartoons post, from last October.

Tweeting and warbling at Shrewsbury

Well, Shewsbury 2009 has been and gone, or #shrews09 as us cutting-edge Twits call it. Yes, this years Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival, the sixth, was the first to be covered live online, by Matt Buck, Alex Hughes, and myself, for Bloghorn.

Alex and Matt did most of the really technical stuff, uploading video and audio clips, while I wrote some words, took quite a few photos (such as the one of the rather impressive queue for caricatures, above, which remained constant throughout the festival) and asked silly questions like, "What the Tweet is the difference between using the hashtag and the at-symbol?" It was a steep learning curve, luckily I managed to cling on.



It wasn't all new media though. Here's me doing some old-style drawing, roughing out a contribution for the Humurals. These large cartoons decorated the Darwin Shopping Centre (the great man was born in Shrewsbury, hence the enthusiasm for marking his bicentenary at this year's festival). Thanks to Duncan Bourne for taking this photo ... I'm glad I haven't evolved a bald spot yet.

I drew a cartoon involving a couple of Galapagos Island tortoises in a credit crunch scenario. Here's the cartoon on display, bottom left, followed by a close-up.



"Times are hard, I've had to take in a lodger."

No Shrewsbury Festival would be complete without a bite to eat and a few drinkies for the cartoonists, followed by some raucous singing and the obligatory drawing on tablecloths.


Here I am trying not to get stuck in "Stuck in the Middle With You", helped considerably by Noel Ford on guitar. Tim Harries, out of shot, also provided acoustic guitar and reminded me when to come in and what notes to sing.


And that's me fourth from the left, immortalised by the genius that is Martin Honeysett. He's famed for drawing highly unattractive types for the likes of Private Eye and Punch, so he had plenty to work from with us lot. Thanks to Gerard Whyman for these last two pics.

The icing on the cake for me was that my sperm and egg cartoon, which I've never managed to get published anywhere (I blogged about that here) was bought by a festival-goer who saw it in the Boffination exhibition. See, I knew it was a good 'un! I've got three cartoons in the show, which can be seen at the Bear Steps Gallery until May 9.

As well as being a chance for us all to meet up and have a laugh, there was something of a support group feeling at this year's Shrewsbury. Few industries are immune from the recession, and many cartoonists are feeling the pinch, with a drop in offers of work. Most people remained upbeat though, and we hope we can do it all again next year in a better economic climate.

In the meantime, we'll do our best to promote the noble and ancient art of cartooning online, as long as I can tell my at-symbol from my hashtag.

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Preparing for the Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival

"You have got to WANT to change."

Getting my stuff together for the Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival, which I'll be heading off to later this week.

Here is another of the cartoons I submitted for the exhibition "Boffination", which can be seen at the town's Bear Steps Gallery. It runs until May 9.

This cartoon is a new version of one of my earliest published gags. The original appeared in the fondly remembered Journal of Silly in 1998 and a slightly different version in the similarly defunct Times Metro supplement in 1999. It seemed an appropriate one to revive as an exhibition watercolour, as it fits in with the evolution/Darwin theme. And, of course, recycling cartoons is good for the environment.

I'm not doing a Big Board at the festival like last year and the year before but I will probaby get involved in other stuff such as the "Humurals", a mural of cartoons on the festival theme, and I will be reporting on the festival for the PCO's Bloghorn along with Matt Buck and Alex Hughes.

I don't know if I'll get the chance to put anything on this blog, but I'll aim to do a few Twitter updates from my phone (as I learned how to do that a few days ago!) so they will appear in the column on the right.

I was delighted to find out today that one of my exhibition cartoons has sold already. No idea which one yet, but I'm chuffed as that will pay for travel and a few beers at least. Cheers!

Twitter cartoon

"This is progress for you, social-networking that does not involve lamp-posts."

Here's a cartoon about Twitter, which was drawn to accompany an article about a dog that has its own Twitter feed. No, really! OK, maybe the owner had something to do with it.

I set up a Twitter account recently. I was very sceptical about it at first, as I couldn't see the point of it. But as with all these sites, you really have to try them out to see what it's all about. I can use it in a social-networking way or to point people in the direction of this blog and my portfolio site.

I find that it's a lot more instant than Facebook and it's also good fun. There are a lot of very funny people on there, such as ace comedian Peter Serafinowicz and the comedy writer Graham Linehan, sharing thoughts and links.

My Twitter updates now appear on the right of this blog (though obviously some of the links would just send you back here!) or you can follow me at twitter.com/roystoncartoons.

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Political cartoon: Fat cat takes us for a ride

This cartoon appears in the Kent Messenger newspaper this week. Apparently, the number of Kent County Council staff earning more than £100,000 has nearly doubled in a year, and chief executive Peter Gilroy earned £255,000 last year, making him one of the wealthiest council bosses in the country.

I usually draw pocket cartoons for this newspaper group, i.e. straightforward gags accompanying a story, but this was a chance to do something a little different for me, and I joined the ranks of cartoonists currently employing the "fat cat" motif! The steed being flattened by this moggy of mammon is the Invicta horse, usually seen in a more proud position on the KCC logo, thus:

Animal cartoon for Shrewsbury festival

"It's not as if that's all I do. I write poetry. I'm very much involved in charity work ... why single out that one thing?"

Here is another of the four cartoons I submitted for exhibition at the 2009 Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival. The festival takes place from April 23-26, though the exhibitions will open before that.

The original version of this cartoon appeared in Private Eye in February 2005. As the Shrewsbury organisers were looking for cartoons on the subject of science and nature, to tie in with this year's Charles Darwin theme, it seemed like an appropriate one to submit.

As the original artwork sold shortly after it was published, I drew a new version and added watercolours. Usually I colour on-screen with Photoshop, so previous colour cartoons that I've exhibited at Shrewsbury have been signed prints, but I thought it'd be fun this year to break out the paints and submit only original artwork. Here's another one, which I put on the blog back in February.


My cartoons were submitted for an exhibition now titled Boffination which is at the Bear Steps Gallery from Tuesday (April 14) and runs until after the festival has finished.


The anteater cartoon also appears in the new edition of Foghorn, above, the magazine that showcases the best of British cartoon talent and is published by the Professional Cartoonists' Association. You can read more about the new issue here.

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Cartoons appreciated by their subjects

"It may surprise you to hear that, actually, morphine is the best medicine."

This old cartoon is to be reprinted to accompany an article written by, wait for it, a clown who works in hospitals, voluntarily giving his time to cheer up patients.

It's not often that someone who is effectively the subject of a cartoon gets in touch to say how much they appreciated it, but it's great when it happens.

Here's another example: This Reader's Digest cartoon was used in a lecture on black holes by a professor who is an expert in that field.


"I'm afraid there's a black hole in our finance department."

And here's my favourite example. Unlikely though it sounds, the original of this cartoon, which appeared in The Spectator, was bought by someone whose work involves Health and Safety regulations pertaining to fairground rides.
"Damn those Health & Safety guys."

If only this kind of thing happened with every cartoon, we cartoonists would be a lot richer!

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