The Foghorn - No. 30

Issue 30The magazine of the Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation (FECO UK)

The

FOGHORN

THE FOGHORN2 WWW.PROCARTOONISTS.ORG

NEWS

THE FOGHORNIssue 30

Published in Great Britain by theProfessional Cartoonists’Organisation (FECO UK)

PCO PatronsLibby PurvesAndrew Marr

CONTACTS & COMMITTEE:

Chairman Andy Davey

tel: +44 (0) 1223 517737email: [email protected]

Vice-Chairman Alex Noel Watson

tel: +44 (0) 20 8668 1134Secretary

John Robertstel: +44 (0) 1565 633995

email: [email protected]

Alex Hughesemail: alex.hughes

@alexhughescartoons.co.ukFoghorn Editor

Bill Stotttel: +44 (0) 160 646002

email: [email protected] Sub-Editor

International Liaison OfficerRoger Penwill

tel: +44 (0) 1584 711854email: [email protected] Layout/Design

Tim Harriestel: + 44 (0) 1633 780293

email: [email protected] Co-ordinator

Noel Fordtel: +44 (0) 7041 310211

email: [email protected] EditorMatt Buck

tel: +44 (0) 1962 840216email: [email protected]

Web infoPCO (FECO UK) website:

www.procartoonists.orgFECO Worldwide:

http://feco.info

Front Cover: Andy DaveyBack Cover: Bill Stott

Well, here’s your Not Actually Christmas Foghorn, despite it bracketing neatly the Season to be jolly/broke/hungover. Of course there will be Yule referenc-es, unavoidable when Messrs Wood and Holder have been let out of their respec-tive cages again, and when Ant and Dec will be voted The Universe’s Best Christ-mas Entertainers Ever by thousands of tasteless people in Glossop. However, Foghorn is not an organ to rely on festive frippery alone. Indeed not. Here you will find non- specific frippery by the

yard, plus revealing insights into cartoon-ists’ past lives, apart from those already on the Witness Pro-tection Programme, and opinion, opinion, opinion, leavened thoughtfully with a pinch of Scrooge-moan grumbling. Happy New Year!

Bill Stott, Foghorn Editor.

The magazine of the Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation (FECO UK)

The

FOGHORN

Alan CorenAll hands in PCO were stunned to learn of Alan Coren’s passing. We’ve looked in our cliche box, found lots he would have taken the proverbial out of, but absolutely nothing which comes close to marking our regard for him. The understatement department has been ransacked, too, unsuccessful-ly, save one. There won’t be another big time editor, humourist, and consis-tently funny bloke quite like him. Hats off. We’ll miss him. For years, as editor of Punch, via discrete rejection slips, he broke the hearts of many scribblers, but was usu-ally right. Punch was the humour pub-lication, and getting a drawing in there was a vindication of something or oth-er. The fees weren’t bad either. Alan’s reputation and - unusually these days - his ability as a consistently effective humourist in most media arenas was huge, and the PCO is well chuffed to have had him on board. Comments on the PCO’s online fo-rum echoed this. Pete Dredge wrote of Alan as “a great editor of Punch and one of the funniest broadcast-ers and writers of recent times. Fond memories of Punch Toby Club dinners in which Alan used to hold court. “Of course,the writers like me, knew it was the cartoons that sold the maga-zine.” Well said,Alan.” Similar comments came from fel-low PCO member Colin Whittock: “He was a great editor of Punch and an extremely funny author. Like Pete,

I remember happy dinners and the al-ways encouraging greetings when he met us. In the foreword to one of Lar-ry’s books he gave cartoonists, what I think, was a lovely back-handed com-pliment... it went like this ‘The truth of the matter is that writers and cartoon-ists hate one another’s guts. Cartoon-ists feel that writers spend a thousand words and take up invaluable space on an idea that can be put across in a ten-word caption under a drawing, and writers grind their teeth at the fact that a cartoonist who knows nothing about words has squandered an idea that could run for profitable pages on a one-line caption.’ He respected cartoons and cartoon-ists and was a fine figurehead for our Organisation.”

THE FOGHORN 3WWW.PROCARTOONISTS.ORG

BLOGHORN

The Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation - What we doThe profession and craft of cartooning (from gag drawings and pocket-sized newspaper jokes to comics strips and magazines, from editorial drawings and commercial advertising to digital monitors and billboards) has suffered some economic blows over the past decade. These have often been con-nected to the decline in the fortunes of the print industry. But, despite this, the PCO is sure that - though undervalued by some in the UK - intelligent drawing remains an art-form which people continue to love to see and read. We want to put our art in front of those people in a more direct way than we have previously done and we are, as an organisation, set up to promote and advertise the best of the active UK cartoon art world. We seek to reach the three major con-stituencies which support our art form - editors of media outlets, both tradition-al and digital, art buyers in commercial companies and the reading public. We are doing this through three channels - the internet, our own printed maga-

zine, The Foghorn, and at large public events like the Shrewsbury Interna-tional Cartoon Festival and The Big Draw. We also help to make and run bespoke, or single-issue, cartoon exhi-bitions like this one, which are often on tour and shown in major cities in the UK and Europe. As you’d expect, we have excellent connections in the world of art and business and work closely with the na-tional Cartoon Museum, the Cartoon Hub at the University of Kent, the Political Cartoon Gallery and other interested galleries and arts bodies, including the cartoonists’ social clubs, the British Cartoonists’ Association and the Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain. We,in our own way, cover the UK. We also have excellent links abroad through our collaboration with European cartooning organisations in-side Feco. If you are curious about our work and what it can do for you, you can contact us from our main portfolio site which lives at http://www.procar-toonists.org

Andy Davey, PCO Chairman

Colin Whittock was the PCO Artist of the Month for October 2007. Colin is an editorial and gag cartoonist, comic artist, illustrator and writer (including radio comedy scriptwriting) Since 1969, Colin has been daily topical cartoonist for the Bir-mingham Evening Mail, getting his start there after his prede-cessor suddenly sold up and moved to Australia. This happened on a Friday, so the following Monday Colin sent three fi nished topical cartoons and a letter to the editor saying, ‘I am going to send you cartoons every day, use them if you like them or spike them if you don’t.’ It obviously worked, with the cartoons be-ing published that day, leading to his fi rst regular job. Colin’s also a regular contributor to the likes of Private Eye, The Oldie, The Spectator and Punch when it was still with us. Varied advertising clients include Jaguar, Powergen, British Telecom. An excellent interview with Colin where he discusses his career, in particular his comic strip work, can be found athttp://www.toonhound.com/atozzzz.htm“He adored Blue Peter ...”

PCO member Graham Fowell informed Bloghorn about a new book launch;Vince Eager, the 1950’s Rock and Roller, launched ‘The Rock ‘n Roll Files’ on Oc-tober 12th. Graham made the cartoons and caricatures for the book and accompanied Vince at a signing at ‘Buy The Book’ in Nottingham, this, in between caricaturing every buyer, on the inside front cover of every sold copy. The book is a anecdotal collection of mem-ories from Vince’s long career in music, which spans six decades.

The book is published by VIPRO and is also available direct from Vince Eager’s website at: http://www.vinceeager.co.uk/

Graham Fowell book launch

which spans six decades.


BLOGHORN

Our Blogmeister, Matt Buck needs you. Yes, YOU! Apparently, the sepia-tinted days when all you needed for internet suc-cess was a back catalogue of cartoons and a ftp package are as old-hat as an 8-track cartridge of ‘Manuel and the Music of the Mountains’. We need to convey the sense that the PCO is a hothouse of frenetic car-toon activity (it says here). Matt assures us that this is the way to unfettered media supremacy. Apparently, if we all trample about mak-ing a lot of hoo-ha, those clever little spi-ders that Mr Gates keeps in his big lair in Redmond will have us down as Busy People. And Busy means Prizes. Or some-thing. Anyway, what we need you to do is volunteer the odd blog piece on things cartoony. Anything really, as long as it’s half way interesting and has the merit of brevity. I know, I know…I have written some blogs the size of Brooklyn - but I have learnt my ways. I take out my verbal diarrhoea on you lot in the PCO News-letters now, where Matt can’t get at me. (Fetch me the scissors - Ed) Filling these pesky blog fellows with content is a constant battle – and one man cannot sustain this. Now, Matt is made of stern stuff and wouldn’t thank me for letting you into this secret, but despite his fancy act at appearing calm, he is in fact is drowning, not waving. So please – when you hear something of interest, write a few lines on it and send it to Matt at [email protected]. While we’re on the subject, did I tell you (snip - Ed)

Andy Davey, PCO Chairman

Blog needs YOU!

Chris Madden was the PCO Artist of the Month for November 2007. Chris has been drawing cartoons and illustrations since around 1980, before which he worked for the scientific civil service on the development stage of the Thames Barrier. During the 1980s he worked extensively for the Guard-ian newspaper, as an in-house illustrator, cartoonist and graphic artist. Now, freelance, his work includes greetings cards (one series of which won the trade’s award as best new card series in the year of their launch), newspaper and magazine cartoons, and illustrations and cartoons for educa-tional and corporate clients. While his cartoons cover any issue that’s called for, his specialist subjects include: the environment (cartoons from his book, The Beast That Ate The Earth, are reproduced regularly by environmental organisations around the world); gardening (including a weekly cartoon in the Irish Sunday Independent newspaper); the sciences (including a monthly cartoon in the BBC’s Focus magazine); philosophy (regular cartoons and cover designs for Philosophy Now magazine); the art world (about which he’s currently producing a book of cartoons).

Matt Buck, Bloghorn Editor

How long has it taken to write and collate the Cartoon Century? I asked the publishers for three years, but I was given just over a year. It’s amazing what you can do when push comes to shove!

Why did you want to define a car-toon century in the first place? And how did you go about this? The publishers originally wanted a complete history of Britain but I thought that ridiculous. It would offer no more than a snapshot and would have to miss a great deal. How can one cover a thousand years of history in just one book? This one covers 100 years of history and has 650 cartoons in it. Now that’s comprehen-sive and thus, I hope, meaningful. The 20th century was the age of the editorial cartoon. Today, Newspapers are in the decline due to fierce competition from the internet and 24-hour TV. Therefore, I argue, in the 21st century the politi-cal cartoon will never reach the heights they did during the last one. Fifty or sixty years ago, cartoonists were ma-

jor celebrities. They were the highest paid men in Fleet Street. Sidney Strube and David Low even made it into Ma-dame Tussards! Has anyone seen Steve Bell, Peter Brookes or Gerald Scarfe in there?

Do you have any particular favou-rites - or high and low points in what you found while you researched? I tried to include as many cartoons as possible that had not been republished

in other anthologies. I love the prophetic ones where the cartoonist seems to have a crystal ball in front of him, such as one about mobile phones in 1922, and another from 1966 suggesting it was time for the Tories to have a wom-an as leader of the Party. I also enjoyed rediscover-ing cartoonists from pro-vincial newspapers. Some

of them were just as good, if not better, than many working as national news-paper cartoonists.

To read the full interview, head to http://procartoonists.blogspot.com/2007/10/pco-procartoonists-cartoon-century.html

The Cartoon CenturyMatt Buck talks to Tim Benson, owner of London’s Political Cartoon Gallery, all about his new book, The Cartoon Century.

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FEATURE ROGER PENWILL

He’s behind you!Panto fan Roger Penwill confesses all.

Personal inclinations should be just that, personal. But for many people there comes a time in life when there is a need for these to be expressed openly. It’s healthier that way. Better out than in. You should not be ashamed of what you are. That moment has now come for me. Deep breath, then. I am outing myself as a pantomime fan. There, I’ve done it. First indications were at a holiday camp near Lowestoft in the early 50’s. I watched a flickering projection of Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and was spellbound. (I recall the film was in colour but the holiday camp was in black and white.) Back at infants school the class teacher indulged me as I or-ganised six hapless classmates as dwarfs to re-enact the film (I must have dispensed with a Snow White). We marched down the room and back again sort of singing “Hey-ho, hey-ho, it’s off to work we go” at least three times. “Is there any more?” asked the teacher, encouragingly. “No” I replied. My first attempt at writ-ing and directing a panto was brief. My parents took me each year to the big London pantos. As for many kids, it was my first experience of live theatre. Soon I had made a cardboard theatre of my own, cast with green plastic Robin Hoods and brown Friar Tucks from cereal packets with fine supporting acting by several headless lead soldiers in cameo

roles. I was fascinated with scenery; the magic of transporting the audience to another part of world in moments. There was a super little rep theatre where I lived as a spotty teenager in the wild west of Essex (Hornchurch), whose panto I saw each year. I remember their Mother Goose was particu-larly poignant. Then street cred kicked in and I stopped going. Around that time the major pantos became very blue, scaring off the family audience. The traditional panto was back in vogue when I next started going to them, this time as a dad. Although they were often star-ring performers at the tail end of their careers, it was a joy to watch masters of the craft. People like Dickie Henderson, Nor-man Wisdom (actually he was a bit too past it and was upstaged by Linda Lusardi... I doubt many had come along to see his But-tons) and even Spike Milligan. Fast forward now to 1999 when we moved to the village we now live in Shropshire. A new village hall had recently been built with a decent stage and a drama group was soon in be-ing. By their second panto was Aladdin I was involved, painting some scenery. Since then I have shamelessly indulged in the panto experience, on stage, behind the scenes and writing the last couple of them.


FEATURE ROGER PENWILL

The cast are restricted to residents of our village, which, as we only have a population of 400, does limit the talent available to some extent. We have more than enough slightly eccentric local characters who are happy to make fools of themselves. Some of the principal characters may not be in their first flush of youth, but that adds to the quirkiness of it all. People in their twenties and thirties don’t tend to be available so you have to do your best with younger ones and the considerably older ones. The four performances mid-January sell out shortly after book-ing opens. With nearly 600 people seeing the show it is by far the main social event of the village. The Christmas Bazaar and the Safari Supper don’t come close. For our sixth extravaganza, Jack and the Beanstalk, there are twice-weekly rehearsals and a weekly scenery painting ses-sions plus singing practices thrown in. When you add to that props, costumes, stage alterations, publicity, ticket sales and pro-grammes it’s a busy time. The commitment, enthusiasm and dedication of the sixty or so villagers involved is amazing. You can’t have a conversation in the village without the panto being mentioned. This year we were staggered to get a £10,000 grant from the Lottery to enhance our lighting (you can hold a cartoon festi-val for that). Our sound effects are now computer controlled so they can be accurately cued. It’s getting pretty hi-tech. If only we could get projected scenery. I feel another grant application coming on. I’ve come to realise that pantomime offers almost limitless scope for creativity. You are aiming to give the audience the best entertainment you can in a couple of hours. The aim is to keep it fresh with new ideas whilst still keeping it routed in the tradi-tions of the format. My very new neighbour is my age, a writer and a fellow Goon/Python fan who has been on a pukka comedy script-writing course, so possibilities there for next year. And yes, on a professional note, I plan to sell the scripts and scenery designs on my website. Co-incidentally our neighbouring village is also doing Jack and the Beanstalk, so there’s a certain challenge there. It’s on before ours so we’ll go along and heckle. That’ll be another outing.

Random acts of festive humour


FEATURE PAUL HARDMAN

So, why ‘the Clangers’ I hear you scream? Well, if I’m going to be anec-dotal I have to drop a few names… but I’ll let you know with a suitable sound effect when it happens! My interest in radio and T.V. started at college. I spent so much time in the studio that my fiancé was always complaining! To stop the nagging I decided to drag her into the studios to show her exactly what it was that really gripped my attention! Needless to say, I never got into television full-time…but..my ex-fiancé, Pat Morde-cai, took the course and now directs ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’ (CLANG!) Unable to face the immediate prospect of married life and a dreary teaching job, I decided to sow some wild oats and disappeared to the other side of the World for the next two years! I left college and arrived at Radio Fiji in the South Pa-cific in the autumn of ’68 as a raw VSO recruit. I was immediately set to work producing dramatised plays of old Fijian folk tales. Before I knew it I was writing, acting and directing at break-neck

speed to feed the insatiable behemoth that was a twice-weekly three-hour education slot of radio airtime! Thank goodness I didn’t have to present the blessed pro-grammes!I was wrong! I spent the next few weeks with a tape recorder trying, hopelessly, to pronounce my own freekin’ name!! Apparently the mono-tonal, scouse accent was a bit too narcoleptic for the Pacific audience.But, before I knew it…I was on! This was the only time in my life I could say I had any sense of ‘celebrity’. There was only radio in the islands and only one

channel, everybody listened to ‘da radio teecha’. The great bonus was that my face was unknown However, my reputation wasn’t and not all was good. This came to a climax when I opened the paper one morning to read ‘Government Opposi-tion Party Walk Out In Protest Over Radio Teacher!‘ Apparently I’d managed to empty the opposition seats in Parliament because my teaching was ‘Perverting the minds of the innocent youth of Fiji!’ Blimey! All I was doing was reading through a few es-tablished English lessons! That’s extreme lefties for you! Thankfully it all blew over

pretty quickly. In a couple of days they had all walked back in– much to the disappoint-ment of most of the country! Once I’d settled in Fiji I real-ly enjoyed the tour and made many true friends but I soon had to return.. minus my inno-cence and my fiancé! There was no avoiding it now – I had to get a teaching job. I found one pretty quickly in London but.. where to stay? A college mate told me there was a room going in a house

The ClangersPaul Hardman drops a few names from the days when he had “a proper job”


LETTERS

For eleven months of the year, Santa wasn’t averse to a bit of moonlighting

behind the college. It was full of old friends. We had a riotous time that year. Three of them were auditioning for plac-es in Bristol Young Vic and were going to make their fortunes in acting – (they didn’t want to teach either!) I went to Manchester Royal Exchange to see two of them in ‘The Tempest’ last month... their names?.. Eamon Boland and Peter Postlethwaite! (CLANG!) After a couple of years in a Merseyside School and a brief secondment to Radio Merseyside’s Education department I went back to London,promoted to Head of Year and during the early 70s I managed to get part-time work with BBC Radio London’s educational section. This led to me joining a successful ‘crew’ producing a children’s Saturday morning magazine programme called SHINDIG. And what a crew! We were the first radio programme to experiment with multi-presenter dia-logue. Virtually every populist radio show uses this format now. The main pre-senter was a guy called Nick Hughes and I played his faithful (90 yr. Old) retainer, Lurch! We had a live audience of kids and a phone-in section with a star guest each week. Because we wrote all our own material, Equity couldn’t touch us and we worked with many of the great comedi-ans, writers and actors of the time such as, John Pertwee, (CLANG!) Charlie Drake, (CLANG!) Ron Moody, (CLANG!) Kenneth Williams, (CLANG!) Galton & Simpson, (CLANG!) and many more. (There.. that’s the end of the clangers, well nearly) Post-programme drink time in the pub around the corner was wonderful. It was amazing what transpired… like Kenneth Williams begging us to put a good word in for him with Galton and Simpson as his work had dried up. After he left we huddled round a table with G&S trying to scribble ideas down on the insides of torn fag packets for the final Christmas special of Steptoe & Son … or the several times Ron Moody ordered ‘just ONE G&T dear boy!’ then proceeded to take his battered old specs case out of his pocket. This con-tained the teeth overlays he’d had made for some of his most famous parts. You can’t believe how embarrassing it can be trying to have a quiet drink in a pub with Fagin dancing around your table singing ‘You got t’pick a pocket or two!’ with a gob-full of rotten teeth, knocking people, tables, chairs and drinks everywhere!Last CLANG coming up…Once, and unforgettably, Nick and I walked into the bar with all Pan’s People on our arms. (CLANG!)

Letters to theEditor

Snail Mail: The Editor, Foghorn Magazine, 7 Birch Grove, Lostock Green, Northwich. CW9 7SS E-mail: [email protected]

New TalentDear Sir, Recently, a very talented friend of mine applied to join the PCO, only to be told by your organisation’s secretary that his work was not up to PCO stan-dards. This is elitism in its most hurtful form. My friend may not be the best cartoon-ist in the world, although he does one concerning a chap walking along read-ing a newspaper whilst approaching an uncovered manhole which must rank amongst the funniest things my hus-band and I have ever seen, I think that it is quite wrong to so casually cast aside one who’s work has appeared more than once in Donkey Sanctuary News. Another acquaintance, a pokerwork and raffia sculptor tells me with some authority that art, including cartoons – which are “art” of a sort, I suppose, cannot be judged in the cavalier way the PCO behaves. I shall endeavour to persuade my friend to resubmit his work shortly in the hope that your apparently Welsh secretary will look beyond the fact that my friend is heavily influenced by “Love Is…….” and see his true potential.

Yours truly, Constance Twatty [Mrs]

Room for ImprovementDear Mr Stoat, I am in receipt of your magazine, “Foghorn”, which was presumably sent to me in the hope that my gigantic com-pany might buy it for a similarly huge fee. I have had it examined thoroughly by our in – house humour expert and he doesn’t understand it either. In his opin-ion Foghorn contains too much humour, much of it assuming a certain level of intelligence. He further suggests that features about obesity, gardening, skin care, and what to do with elderly rela-tives would better recommend it to peo-ple generally, who, as we at Globespan know, are stupid. Free cds of popular singers help sales, too. I hope this has been of assistance.Yours etc

Errol d’ArgonautPp

Sir Perry PrattCEO Globespan Publishing

Several FloorsVery Tall Building

Canary Wharf.


FEATURE BIG DRAW

Big Draw 2007

I’d seriously underprepared for this year’s Big Draw. The marquee where our workshops were taking place displayed admirable tardis-like properties, with seating for what appeared to be about 60 people, but actually managing to contain around twelve thousand scribbling children and parents at any given moment. I’d optimistically brought along 50 work-sheets which were used in the first thirty sec-onds. I briefly contemplated hiding behind the flipchart, but luckily someone somewhere found a photocopier, which I suspect had a nervous breakdown before the weekend was over, such was the sheer amount of paper we went through.

The workshops went brilliantly for all in-volved, including members of the PCO and CCGB, and tended to run over into each other, with several things going on at the same time. It felt organised and at the same time wonder-fully chaotic. At any given time I could see caricatures being drawn, the huge chalkboard being used for a spot of reverse caricaturing, and comic strips, cartoons and funny faces be-ing produced on any available workspace. As the day went on, the whole marquee became a gallery with the finished art hang-ing from the walls and frame. It just needed the music from Vision On to make it perfect. Thanks to all the cartoonists, helpers, and of course enthusiastic public who attended the cartooning marquee. Same time next year!

Tents and nervous It was all hands on deck at the Cartooning Marquee, reports Tim Harries

Well, this momentous day has come and gone – a grand day out indeed. Matt Buck has reported thoroughly on the whole thing in the blog pages (http://procartoonists.blogspot.com) which include some excellent shot from Welsh lens wizard Ger Whyman (also used in this issue). As you recall, we were asked to provide pretty well all the cartooning activity for this event – the mainstay of which was the full timetable of workshops in the Cartoon Marquee. Several of our finest responded to the call of the Foghorn and made their way from the regions by way of carriage, pack horse and stick-and-hoop to provide this exciting timetable. Special mentions must go to Tim & Nikki Harries, Andy and Anne Gilbert, Terry Chris-tien, Helen Martin, Royston Rob-ertson, John Roberts, Matt Buck, Chichi Parish and her chums Lou McKeever and Tanya Tier. Work-shops are hard work to run. It’s tes-tament to their abilities that the mar-quee was full throughout both days. It’s a weird and fascinating thing to

watch a marquee full of people of all ages drawing furiously; some fol-lowing exactly what the facilitator is showing them, others attempting to record on paper their own – obvious-ly troubled, and no doubt medicated – interior world. The hard-nosed, competitive part of the day was the ‘battle of the car-toonists’. We’re saddened to report that the PCO team, though led with selfless bravery by Captain William Stott (plus Neil Dishington, Alex Hughes and Roger Penwill) – and producing a quality banner fulfilling the brief to overflowing - was over-powered by the shameless populism of The Guardian’s entry. Their team included “galacticos” Bell and Rowson, whose popular-ity amid the “liberati” of the Cov-ent Garden crowd ensured the spoils went to Farringdon Road. As glori-ous in defeat as a band of blue-faced Picts, the PCO team knew they had won a moral victory…and would be back. Even compère Andrew Marr felt compelled to say that he thought our banner should have won.

Chairman seeks cartoonists, GSOH requiredAndy Davey reviews this year’s event at Covent Garden

Cartooning is art. It says so right there, so it’s true.

That fella off the telly leads the world karaoke attempt.


FEATURE BIG DRAW

The PCO Big Draw banner team, Pen-will, Hughes, Dishington and Stott, arrived on time, splendidly turned out in new PCO T shirts [and trousers of their own choice], at Covent Gar-den on the 14th inst. The place was awash with sophisticates, and, in the Private Eye area at least, best bitter. The Big Draw event fairly hummed in full scribble; cartoonists everywhere, helping and hinting, and the public generally proving yet again that they love cartoons. Do editors not consider themselves “public”? Discuss. With military precision and forty seven swear words, your team dealt swiftly with the first problem – that be-ing the banner’s actual length – NOT 12 metres, as we’d been told, but 12 FEET. That meant the jettisoning of several good gags including Dish’s one which features the entire cast of Wagner’s Ring cycle. Undeterred, and calling on all their Shrewsbury Big Board experience, Team PCO produced a cracker. Com-pere for the event, Andrew Marr, con-fided that he liked ours the best. So there! Sadly we’d reckoned without lo-calised skullduggery. The Grauniad and Private Eye teams had brought with them hordes of rowdy troops, doubtless bribed with free tube tickets

and promises of double helpings of tiny post- drawing canapés, and as the banners were judged on volume of ap-plause,… erm… PCO didn’t win. But then, moral victories are sweeter. The whole Big Draw event was a vibrant advert for our job, and a sar-torial triumph for Matt Buck, T shirt logo designer to the stars and PCO, the ingenuity and skill of the Independent, Grauniad and PCO teams [but not the P. Eye team who cheated and had FIVE drawing on their banner and not four – you know who you are, Steve Way], and not least for the organisers who all did very well, but who should perhaps take an Imperial/Metric con-version course. So – bring it on for 2008! – when Team PCO will be supported by 250 recently ASBOed Tranmere Rovers football fans.

A fix too far Bill Stott looks back on a banner day for the PCO

Top of theworld, Marr!

The Snaring of Marr By Brian Sewell

Much has been said in the national press and around the world of Team PCO’s exploits during the Big Draw’s Battle of the Cartoonists, but little is known about how An-drew Marr [for it is he] came to be a PCO Patron, on that sultry after-noon in Covent Garden. Below is a graphic account of that momentous encounter, drawn on the spot by Some Bloke who was there. PCO welcomes Andrew Marr and promises not to bother him overmuch with requests for prime time cartoon slots on the Beeb, or by wondering if he might flog the odd copy of Foghorn in or around Broadcasting House.

Bill Stott, Foghorn EdTeam PCO in matching attire.


FEATURE CLIVE COLLINS

Last year I received an e-mail from Jean-Louis Perrier, a jazz musician and cartoon buff in Paris who asked me if I’d like to draw 15 mono cartoons, in company with two French cartoonists, for a book to be called ‘Le Rugby et sa Music’. It was intended to coincide with the start of the World Rugby Tour 2007. Since I knew nothing at all about either subject I naturally agreed, and set to working out 15 ideas. The two French guys were Bridenne and Jy, both of whom I’d met; Bridenne, along with four of his comrades in Japan, and Jy in St. Just on various occasions. I duly e-mailed my drawings to my host and there was a l-o-o-o-ng silence. The silence lasted almost three months, and despite regular e-mailing and phoning, I heard nothing. By this time I’d become quite downhearted about the whole project, and after sending a final e-mail to Jean-Louis expressing my disappointment at the way his business methods seemed to be aping British cartoon buyers, I gave up on it. I laid the draw-ings aside for some future book that might come my way involv-ing…er…rugby and music. Lo and whatever, a month or so later I received an apologetic e-mail from him, explaining that he hadn’t realised I would be quite so quick off the mark, and the French guys were still work-ing on some early roughs. The project, however, was now up and panting. And that was where I left it. He liked the drawings, and was happy. My two companion cartoonists were also happy. On Monday 3rd September, Lynne and I set off via Eurostar from Waterloo to play my part in the launch with a book-signing in Paris. Ever the cautious one, and realising that we had to leave Paris early on Tuesday morning, due to pressing cartoon matters, she booked us into the Mercure Hotel, bang opposite Gare du Nord. It’s not at all bad, clean but in need of a bit of restoration but then, aren’t we all. The launch and signing was to be in a tiny café-bar in an even

tinier Parisian street – La Rue du Main d’Or - where Bridenne, Jy and I signed books for four hours, fortified by plates of highly aromatic meats, patés and copious bottles of wine. On a health note here; France goes totally non-smoking in Janu-ary, and we got the distinct impression that the occupants of the bar were doing their damnedest to get in their quota of nicotine before the hoses were played on them. A grey fug rose to the ceiling like clouds over washing, as we hunched over our signing, while Bridenne and Jy attempted to get themselves into the Guinness Book of Records for the Filling of Ashtrays with a Vast Range of Dog Ends. Old chums turned up, some of whom I’d known from my two Japan trips in ‘89 and ‘91, and others again from St. Just – Avoine, Barbe, Blachon, and Laville, still lasciviously chatting up women (my wife included) while not actually being able to focus enough to see them. (Are you saying that only blind old farts chat me up these days? - Lynne) Despite their presence on the invitations, there were no members of the All Blacks in attendance, but if you think about it, why would extremely fit rugby players submit themselves to a tiny smoke-filled café for an evening, when they could be out training elsewhere? Le Figaro, l’Express and Jazzman are run-ning individual cartoons throughout the run-up to the World Cup opening, and afterwards. I felt thrilled and honoured to have been a part of this and al-though it was a tiring trip, really enjoyed the friendly atmosphere and the good humoured interest in the book and in the art of the cartoonist. Vive la France and all that!

The book is published by La Boutique Editions, 14, Rue Jean Macé, 75011, PARIS. www.laboutiqueproductions.com. E-mail: [email protected]

French without Tears

Clive Collins

This article first appeared in the Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain’s magazine, The Jester.


CURMUDGEON

Sofa, so good...

There comes a time in the affairs of men/women/not sure when, short of being found out, you become immune to things which once had the nerve endings a-twitch, raised an eyebrow, or indeed, hauled the whole body up-right. There are still happenings and head-lines which stir the heart and set the pulse going again... “Liberal Demo-crat Candidate has nothing to hide says Vice Squad”, or “Prince Charles gives away all the money he hasn’t earned” ; better still, “UKIP backs flat earth claim” Other events have lost their squeak-ers though. Christmas is one, and not because of Scroogy old age – dear me no – I like getting and giving presents, and even belting out Hark the Herald wossnames – but because Crimbo’s

image - how it OUGHT to be- is pre-formed for me by TV. How on earth can I get by, festive bonce held high, without cashing in on DFL’s FANTASTIC Christmas sale. I ask you – how do you gift wrap a sofa?

And my house is going to be sadly

lacking Warnock’s Perfumed Christ-mas Candles… “Gently ease your-self into the Festive season with our luxury scented candles... awaken your yuletide senses with those never to be forgotten aromas of years gone by… fir trees… steaming Christmas pud-ding… brandysnaps… slight flatu-lence… sofas?” Before wraparound taste guidance via the media [and certain parts of the Daily Mail], wirelesses across the land were tuned in and Alva Liddell said, “This is the BBC Home Service. It is now Christmas and you may all behave festively, should you so wish.” Even HM the Queen’s Christmas mes-sage has been sexed up in recent times. Once, everyone went quiet at 3pm to listen to stuff which, acceptably, be-cause Royals aren’t real people, had no relevance at all, concerning “May hesbend end Ay”, the far flung reach-es of the Empah, and Gawd blessing everyone. Now, Her Maj. manages to get in loads of topical references about terrorism, badger culls, and this year for sure, a charitable thought for Steve McClaren [who he ? ed]So I for one won’t be taking a blind bit of notice of Trinny and Susannah’s ESSENTIAL Guide to Christmas. No Radio Times here, that week. That way, I won’t know if I’ve missed Ant and Dec’s unmissable two hour Christmas Bore… sitting there… on my OLD sofa.

Keith’s never been one to give up on an old sofa...

Her Majesty manages to get in loads of topical referenc-es about terrorism, bad-ger culls, and this year for sure, a charitable thought for Steve McClaren


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The Foghorn - No. 30