The Jester - The Cartoonists` Club of Great Britain

Transcription

!
ISSUE 394 – FEBRUARY 2007
!
AUTUMN 2005
The
Jester
The
Jester
ALL YOU NEED
ST. VALENTINE’S
DAY MOCKERY
YOUR LOVE GAGS INSIDE
TRIBUTES TO
GREN JONES
BAKER’S DOZEN:
FINAL CHOICE
TECH TIPS FROM
CHRIS KELLY
BILL RITCHIE ON
TRAMCAR-TOONS
CLIVE COLLINS’
CARICATURE HELL
“Oh no – a rejection
Valentine card!”
ALEX HALLATT
INTERVIEWED
DESIGN A COVER
AND WIN £50
Newsletter
of the
Cartoonists’
Britain
The Newsletter
of the
Cartoonists’Club
Clubof
ofGreat
Great Britain
THE JESTER ISSUE 394 – FEBRUARY 2007
The Jester
Issue 394 - February 2007
Published 11 times a year
CCGB ONLINE: WWW.CCGB.ORG.UK
The Chair
by The Cartoonists’ Club
of Great Britain
The CCGB Committee
Chairman: Terry Christien
020–8892 3621
[email protected]
Secretary: Jed Stone
020–7720 1884
[email protected]
Treasurer: Anne Boyd
020–7720 1884
[email protected]
Membership Secretary:
Jed Pascoe: 01767–682 882
[email protected]
Les Barton: 01895–236 732
[email protected]
Clive Collins: 01702–557 205
[email protected]
Neil Dishington: 020–8505 0134
[email protected]
Ian Ellery: 01424–718 209
[email protected]
Graham Fowell: 0115–933 4186
[email protected]
Pete Jacob: 01732 845 079
Jill Kearney: 0115–933 4186
[email protected]
Helen Martin: 01883–625 600
[email protected]
Roy Nixon: 01245–256 814
Derek Quint: 01984–632 592
Richard Tomes: 0121–706 7652
[email protected]
Mike Turner: 01206–798 283
[email protected]
Jock Williams-Davies:
01473–422 917
[email protected]
Dear Members, I know I’m being irritatingly late but I do wish you all a
successful New Year anyway.
Hope you had a jolly festive time. It
was great to swap cards with so many
of you. My family was impressed with
the need to string up extra card lines.
But, enough of this boasting …
Well, we’ve got the Masham weekend
on March 9, 10 and 11, the Club AGM
on April 3 and the chance to join the
Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival April 20-22. There’s also Ip-art,
the Ipswich Arts festival, in July, in
which us cartoonists are taking an increasing part. And we’re just working
through the Weston-super-Mare arts
festival – watch this space. I’m sure
you’ll agree those are cartoon happenings on a varied and interesting scale,
not to mention ongoing events that
evolve throughout the year.
The April AGM will start at 2pm,
after the committee meeting at 1pm.
The early start time is in response to
suggestions in the recent questionnaire,
and is designed to help some members
with their return journey. Refreshments
will also be laid on. Woo-hoo!
Now’s the time to consider nominations for new committee members,
either for yourself or another member
you wish to put forward. Just let any
committee member know, contact details are to your left.
Talking of contact details, this really
is a final reminder for the Members’
Directory which must close now if
Jester Editor:
Royston Robertson
01843–871 241
jester_magazine @yahoo.co.uk
Front cover: Alex Noel Watson
Back cover: Tim Harries
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we’re to publish it and be damned. But
if you’ve not yet sent details, then mail
or post them to Royston along with a
B&W square of your own representative artwork, OK?
Allow a not-terribly-old-git-of-acartoonist a random rambling: just after
Christmas I needed to rake a complete
carpet of dropped oak leaves up off the
garden lawn and you wouldn’t believe
the hundreds of faces staring back at
me. You’d give anything to quickly
rough them out there and then. Well, I
would anyway! How to make your pile
from a pile of old oak leaves. Thanks
for allowing me that … I can dream.
As a stimulus for contributing to The
Jester, feel free to take any comments
of interest from the questionnaire feedback [see last issue] to enlarge a point
of interest – controversial or not. Our
shoulders are broad.
Until next time,
Terry Christien
News
AGM to be held
during the day
In response to comments from
many members on the recent
questionnaire, about the difficulty
of getting home after a CCGB
meeting, a daytime meet has been
arranged.
This year’s AGM, on April 3, is to
be held at 2pm, after a committee
meeting at 1pm. It is hoped that this
will encourage more members to
attend, safe in the knowledge that
they’ll be able to get home OK.
A buffet will be provided.
 As the AGM looms, we are
putting out the traditional appeal
for new candidates for the
committee to step forward. If you
are interested, please let Secretary
Jed Stone know. Any applicants
should make themselves known
before the deadline of the April
Jester (March 12). You can call
Jed on 020-7720 1884 or email
him at jedstone@tunamoon.
demon.co.uk
From Major to Minor! – a look at the past five Tory leaders through
political cartoons – is at the Political Cartoon Gallery from January 31 to
March 17. It charts the (mis)fortunes of Tory leaders since November
1990 when John Major took over from Margaret Thatcher. The exhibition
features work by cartoonists such as Peter Brookes, Steve Bell, Andy
Davey (above), Dave Brown, Martin Rowson, and many others. The
gallery is at 32 Store Street, London, and is open Monday to Friday
9.30am-5.30pm and Saturday 11.30am-5.30pm.
Alex chosen
Saying goodbye
Four cartoons by Alex Noel Watson
will be among the first to be housed
in the new world centre of cartoons
to be built at Saint-Just-le-Martel,
near Limoges, France. The cartoons
were in the 25th anniversary exhibition last October, and Alex received
a letter soon after asking if the
Salon could retain them. He already
has cartoons in permanent collections around the world, including
Canada, the US and Poland.
This month we say farewell to:
Tough to Follows
Roger Penwill has announced that
the exhibition of work by late
CCGB member Dave Follows will
appear at the Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival in April.
In addition to Creature Feature
and May Un Mar Lady strips, it will
be a retrospective of his gag work.
The other featured cartoonist at
Shrewsbury 2007 will be Albert
Rusling (“Albert”), whose work
will be on show at the Bear Steps
Gallery throughout most of April.
For more information, visit
www.cartoonshrewsbury.com
Gren Jones: Wales’ best-known
newspaper cartoonist died on
January 4, aged 72. Gren, organised
many CCGB events in Wales. See
pages 4 and 5 for tributes.
Bill Thacker: Bill died on November 28, aged 91. His widow Barbara
told The Jester that Bill, of Pontypool, South Wales, had been ill for
18 months after suffering a fall. “It
was a very dignified, quiet funeral,
as he would have wanted,” she said.
Tugg Willson: News of Tugg’s
death reaches the club belatedly, as
he died in October. See page 5 and
also page 17.
Harry Horse: Scottish cartoonist,
real name Richard Horne, died aged
46, on January 10. See page 17.
Willie Gall: The Glasgow Evening
Times cartoonist died in December.
He created between 12,000 and
14,000 drawings for the paper
during his 48 years there.
3
So, farewell Gren
Gren Jones was a bloody good
cartoonist and a chum to the CCGB.
It was Gren who organised away
weekends for club members to
Cardiff for many years, where we
were treated right royally at the
offices of the South Wales Echo, in
association with the splendid Brains
Brewery. Gren’s passing came as a
shock, following on so soon after
the death of his wife Ann.
Gren was the undisputed
Godfather of the Taffia, just as our
other (late) colleague John Paice
headed the Bristol chapter. On
various trips, as I recall, we’d arrive
in the afternoon and pour from the
train at Cardiff Station, straight into
the pub opposite, and exchange
pleasantries with far-flung
colleagues and chums until it was
time to book into Churchill’s or The
Swan – or somewhere very much
like it – for the weekend. There
we’d meet up with more old pals –
even encountering one chap who,
for some reason connected with
local fashion, wore a white suit with
three inch vertical strips, prompting
a certain Bill Tidy to suggest that
he’d bought the suit from “Man at
Belsen”. An evening at the Echo
offices would follow, then a
reception hosted by Brains. Ah, the
blurred memories…
Gren’s last cartoon appeared on
the day he died, thus enabling him
to fulfil a lifelong ambition – “to die
in harness”.
He was voted Provincial
Cartoonist of the Year by the CCGB
in 1983, 1985, 1986 and 1987 and
awarded an MBE in the New Year’s
Honours List in 1989. His strip Big
Deal was also syndicated for 35
years.
Clive Collins
Postal address:
The Jester,
c/o Royston Robertson,
20 Upton Road,
Broadstairs,
Kent CT10 2AS
Email: jester_magazine
@yahoo.co.uk
Dear
Jester
“Lovely view
isn’t it ?
– considering
it’s England.”
Here are a few words from Gren’s
son Darryl. He and his brother,
Chris, were with their father
when he died, together with
Gren’s life-long friend Mike
Macgraine.
Gren’s passing was unexpected but
he died peacefully. There has been a
huge response to his death with
more than 100,000 tributes to him,
trough various forms of media. The
First Minister for Wales, Rhodri
Morgan, said: “You know you’ve
made it when you are in a Gren.”
My father enjoyed the CCGB
immensely. As a child I remember
the conventions, which always had
various parties and all the cartoonists always filled a huge white
board, 10ft across and 5ft high with
their cartoons. I remember George
Radcliffe, Micky Durling, Manny
Curtis, Jack Kirkbride, Bill Tidy,
Stan MacMurtry, Colin Whittock
… and many others.
Gren was born on 13 June 1934 at
Brynavon Terrace, Hengoed,
Rhymeny Valley. The architecture
where he lived was depicted in his
cartoons together with the characters and humour of the Welsh
people, who are always ready to
laugh at themselves. He had various
4
jobs: sales, draughtsman, engineer,
whilst still doing his favourite
hobby – drawing cartoons of people
in the baptist chapel bibles and
hymn books and his beloved
sketchbooks. He always carried a
pencil or pen, ready to doodle. In
1955 he was doing his national
service in the RAF at Penang
Airbase, Malaya, where he was a
guitarist in a skiffle group with his
friend Ozzy. He was also successful
in securing a freelance job as a
cartoonist for the Penang Gazette.
He later returned to the UK where
he continued to play in a band with
Ozzy. But he eventually left and
Ozzy carried on – the band
became the Barron Knights.
Gren had a normal job once again
and was working as a draughtsman
for Welsh Metals, Cardiff. He was
constantly sending cartoons to
various newspapers and got several
freelance jobs which eventually
ended up with a full time contract
with the South Wales Echo in 1968.
Gren became famous over the years
for his drawings of his imaginary
vilage called Aberflyarff where the
rugby club was called the Royal
Aberflyarff RFC and the head
Groundsman was Nigel the Sheep.
The other main characters were:
being developed, at www.gren-art.
co.uk It is our intention to carry on
what we started, as this has been
requested time after time since
announcing his departure from this
world.
Darryl Jones
Comments from the Website Forum
Noel Ford: We have lost another of
our cartooning stalwarts. Such a sad
way to start the New Year. He’ll be
sorely missed, and by no means just
in Wales.
Front-page news: the South Wales
Echo marks Gren’s passing
Ponty and Pop and Bleddyn their
dog who always had a fag in his
mouth; the barmaid Bromide Lil
who was also a part time model for
oven gloves; Myrtle Lustworthy
who did physio at the rugby club
and specialised in groin injuries; the
club official streaker, Dai the Dap,
(Welsh for training shoes or
pumps); and there were many other
characters, as you can imagine.
Gren was awarded the MBE and
recieved a number of Provincial
Cartoonist of the Year awards. He
also received a gold disc from EMI
for his work on the cover of Max
Boyce’s record We All Had Doctors
Papers. Gren also appeared across
the centre pages of The Times with a
strip cartoon of Ponty and Pop
going to the France v Wales game.
He retired towards the end of the
1990s but continued as a freelance,
as the Echo didn’t want to lose him.
In 2005 I started a business
making limited prints of his work
and released his 40 favourite to
commemorate his 40 years in the
business. There is a small outlet at
the Celtic Manor Hotel, Newport.
He also has a website, which is still
Mike Turner: Very sad news about
Gren, a first-class cartoonist who
leaves us with happy memories of
Cardiff “cultural” visits and tours of
Brains Brewery, and a great body of
cartoon work.
Arthur Middleton: I remember
Gren well, I met up with him at
several of our Butlin’s conventions,
a more congenial, humorous and
witty gentleman one couldn’t wish
to meet. We sometimes had a wee
bit of Scottish v Welsh banter going
between us, all good fun. Like
many of the oldies I shall miss him.
He was an excellent cartoonist and
a tremendous ambassador for his
beloved Wales.
Tim Harries: Very sad to hear of
Gren’s death. His cartoons were a
part of my childhood and he was the
greatest influence in my becoming a
cartoonist. Unfortunately I never
got to meet him (although I think I
would have been too nervous to
form a coherent sentence ... ) but
along with the rest of Wales, I’ll
certainly treasure the work he’s left
for us all to enjoy. Diolch yn fawr
Gren.
Pete Dredge: Tim’s understandable
trepidation of meeting Gren would
have made the great man wilt with
End of an era: Tim Harries pays tribute in his South Wales Argus strip
5
embarrassment. You could not have
met a more modest and welcoming
guy. My first ever club appearance
was at a Cardiff do that Gren had
organised in the late 1970s, and I
was greeted like a long-lost friend. I
seem to recall tasting my first
experience of Brains SA bitter and
experiencing a cabaret performance
from the Wurzles at the Double
Diamond club (I think). Heady
days! Many fond memories of the
warm Welsh hospitality provided by
Gren and his colleagues at the South
Wales Echo.
Anthony Hutchings: Such sad
news to hear about Gren. He was
one of the few cartoonists whose
work I truly admired, not just for
the gag but also the superb
draughtsmanship. I was lucky
enough to meet Gren on several
occasions over the years, and he
was quite simply, a lovely bloke.
Tribute to Tugg
I only discovered that Tugg Willson
had gone (he died in October) when
Elizabeth, his widow, sent me the
usual Christmas card, this time with
a letter inside.
Of course, all of us gag cartoonists
remembered his work in the Mirror
and The Sun when, along with Sax,
he almost dominated the cartoon
columns. He was a very funny ideas
man with a beautifully sharp drawing style (see over) that was perfect
for the small spaces we were allocated. He was also self-taught,
having spent most of his cartooning
years as a part-timer, his main job
being with the Royal Navy. He
joined as an Able-Seaman, and
worked his way up the gangplank to
Chief Petty Officer, before gaining
a commission as a Sub-Lieutenant,
then Lieutenant Commander.
A lot of CCGB members recall
Tugg with great affection for
another reason: for the Naval trips
he organised for the members
between 1970 and 1983. I missed
out on, among others, the Ark Royal
(1971) and Invincible (1981) trips,
but managed to get on board the
aircraft-carrier HMS Hermes in
1983, when we flew out en masse to
the ship by Sea-King helicopter
before cruising round from the Norfolk coast to Weymouth, and I recall
contact with someone else who
would be interested and deals with
originals, I would be pleased to hear
from you. Email: mikeorourke888
@eircom.net
Mike O’Rourke
Celebrity big bother
I sympathised with Simon Ellinas’s
comments in the last issue of The
Jester, writing about his recent
experiences at the Private Eye
preview. When I come across
celebrities, my instincts push me to
the other side of the room to avoid
them. Many of them are not people
you’d want as neighbours.
us all being shown over the ship
after its recent return from the
Falklands. We drew for the crew,
ate enormous breakfasts and stood
listening, in chilled silence, as we
had explained to us the medical
leaps forward that had taken place
in the burns unit during the recent
hostilities. After our departure from
the ship at Weymouth, we watched
as the Harrier jump jets returned to
base, before the carrier was
mothballed, prior to its sale to the
Indian navy.
He slowly withdrew from the
newspaper markets, and became
much sought-after by private
clients, and among many commissions in his latter years following
his retirement from the Navy, he
drew intricately and beautifully
executed calendars for the Fleet Air
Arm, and Pilot magazine. Many of
the tourist parks around Devon and
Cornwall have sets of his colour
cartoons on display showing “what
can go wrong on board a ship”.
Clive Collins
See Navy News obituary, page 16
Boer war,
what is it good for?
Calling all cartoon historians:
Can anyone give me some
information about Mr F. M.
Williamson from the Leeds area?
He produced political cartoons on
the Boer War 1890-1910. I have a
contact in South Africa who has
some of his original Boer War
cartoons. This person wishes to
know what kind of value these
cartoons would fetch. If anyone is
interested or can help or put me in
I remember being part of the Big
Draw event at the V&A waiting for
my turn on that long roll of paper.
Gerald Scarfe came in very early
and completed his section, out of
sequence, and left. I asked him, “Is
that it, you’re leaving now?”
“Yes”, he replied, “I’ve some
shopping to do.”
A lot of people were disappointed
that morning, not to see him
working at the published time of
10.15am.
The event had a magical feel, the
air seemed to crackle with
creativity. Parents drawing
alongside their children – and not a
single mobile or laptop in sight.
William Rudling
Memories of Michelle
In the last issue of The Jester I was
very saddened to read of the death
of Michelle Urry, for many years
Cartoon Editor of Playboy. I have
my own happy memories of her.
After my first New Yorker
6
cartoons had appeared, I decided to
have a crack at Playboy also. I took
my roughs to Michelle at the New
York office, and she invariably
picked out a dozen or so to send on
for approval by Hugh Hefner in
Chicago. Hefner equally invariably
turned them down, no doubt thinking that, unlike Michelle, I wasn’t
“blessed with a dirty mind”.
Michelle usually came to the
Cartoonists’ Guild cocktail parties.
We had a rapport because she came
from Toronto where I had many
relatives. I always stayed in Toronto
for several days during the 30 years
I was going to North America twice
a year. (My cartoons were appearing regularly in the Toronto Star.)
I remember going out to dinner in
New York one night, to an open-air
restaurant, with Michelle, Arnold
Roth and others. I sat between
Michelle and Arnie, who kept us all
in stitches. Michelle, I recall,
insisted on paying for my dinner as
well as her own – a generous and
gracious act of hospitality.
Ron Walin, at that time director of
the Cartoonists’ Guild, told me a
nice story about Michelle. With
others on the board of the guild, he
had to meet her to discuss an important matter (probably about money
– it usually was!) Michelle was very
attractive with undoubted sex
appeal, and when she turned up to
face them across the table, she had
unbuttoned the top few buttons of
her blouse, no doubt to give her
some feminine advantage in the
negotiations, or to disconcert the
guys during the deliberations!
The other old friend, as it were,
from across the Atlantic whom I
spotted in the same Jester, was
David Levine, the subject of Paul
Baker’s penultimate article on
caricaturists. This has been a superb
series – informed pieces on famous
practitioners of the art by a master
caricaturist himself. Paul did
admirable justice to David Levine,
as to the others.
The last time I saw David was at a
party in New York, and he told me
that he had just come back from a
trip to Scotland (“I love your country,” he said) where he had done a
number of watercolour landscapes,
watercolour painting being one of
his passions.
Alex Noel Watson
PAUL KELLY
“Whoa! Whoa! What’s all this
‘poorer’ cobblers?”
“Remember that tree where you carved our initials and you
said that you’d love me forever?”
Love and
Laughter
Thanks to all who sent in “Love” cartoons. Next month’s theme, it being March, is THE JOYS OF SPRING ...
7
Notes from the North
LIKE most Glasweigans of a certain
vintage, I have a great love of trams,
or caurs, as they were called in Glasgow. In their heyday the trams were a
great inspiration to cartoonists.
The Evening Citizen cartoonist Bill
Tait is credited with the ultimate tram
cartoon up north. The cartoon shows
a frustrated conductress holding back
a passenger who is about to alight.
The cartoon reads “Come on, get
aff!” Tait drew many cartoons of the
trams. They were used by the Transport Department on posters, with his
character Mungo (Glasgow’s good
citizen) advising on how to behave on
the trams.
Bud Neill was another great cartoonist who had some gems of humour inspired by the trams, mostly in
the Glasgow dialect. Bud, himself
once a bus driver, knew the transport
scene well. One cartoon shows a
conductress at the terminus about to
board a tram, shouting to the driver:
“Okey-dokey, Toamy. Aff we go intae
the wild blue yonder!” – no doubt
thinking she’s an air hostess about to
board a jet.
Probably the most famous tram (and
trains) cartoonist was Rowland Emett
(1906-90) who made his reputation at
Punch (1939-51) and is particularly
famed for his railway cartoons featuring the “Far Twittering to Oyster
Creek Branch Line Railway.”
Emett drew his cartoons in a decorative, spindly line, in an age when
Punch gave him space and time to
create his unique, inventive drawings.
Many collections of his work have
been published, including The Forgotten Tramcar. This book contains
many exquisite drawings, showing
what a fine (and knowledgeable)
draughtsman he was. The final cartoon in the book shows the last tram,
sadly heading for the depot, with the
conductor rolling up the track behind.
A sobbing spectator comments:
“Well, I should say most definitely
that really is the last tram.”
At the Festival of Britain in 1951
Emett saw some of his creations
come to life, in the form of a miniature railway carrying passengers
around the festival. This led to him
giving up drawing and concentrating
on 3D inventions. He designed machines for the film Chitty Chitty Bang
Bill Tait’s famous tram cartoon,
captioned: “Come on, get aff!”
Bang (1968). and went on to create
many wonderful cartoon constructions for prestigious companies in
Britain and the USA.
A drawing in Dundee Library, in an
exhibition at the end of last year
commemorating the journey of Dundee’s last tram (unbelievably 50 years
ago) has a similar theme to Emett’s
“Last tram”. This time it is by People’s Journal cartoonist John R. Mason. The caption is “The final winding up” – a sad crowd watches as the
“Wullie really loved the trams”
8
last tram is followed by a lorry, reeling in the overhead wire and the rails.
But it’s not all nostalgia with tramcar cartooning. A book published in
2001 by Allan Morrison uses a version of the famous Bill Tait cartoon in
its title. It is called Cummoangetaff!
The Adventures of Big Aggie Macdonald the Glasgow Tramcar Clippie. More of interest to us is that it
was illustrated by the CCGB’s Rupert
“Familiar Lines” Besley. Rupert has
done a great job with the Glasgow
tram scene, considering he’s probably
never run along Govan Road trying
to catch a tram that has just moved
off! (I’m only jealous, Rupert.)
A children’s book featuring a tram
came out at Christmas – Time Tram
Dundee by Matthew Fitt and illustrated by my friend Keith Robson. It
features a tram that can travel through
time, and through its driver, Mr
Scrymgeour, it takes us through the
history of Dundee. Keith has a cartoon illustration on each of the 200
pages, so it makes history interesting
for children. As a master of drawing
buses, traction engines and buildings,
he was the man for the job.
You never know, I might yet get the
chance to cartoon a tram. In the
meantime, I’m off to Glasgow’s
magnificent Transport Museum to
look at one and bring back memories
of the old caurs.
Bill Ritchie
Hurrah for the Web
Lawrence Goldsmith talks to British cartoonist Alex Hallatt
who works from New Zealand, relying on the internet
Which cartoonists influenced you
and which current cartoonists do
you admire?
Bill Watterson, Berkeley Breathed,
Schulz, Larson. I enjoy the writing of
Pearls Before Swine and the whimsical art of Mutts. Get Fuzzy is great
when there’s a good storyline going.
More
Love Laffs
How did you get started as a
cartoonist?
I got given an old Peanuts book when
I was six and loved cartoons and
comics from then on. Doodling at
school progressed to university comic
strips and I finally became a full-time
cartoonist when I got a job at Brighton’s newspaper The Argus, just before
the new millennium.
What projects are you currently
working on?
I’m just emerging from a mad few
weeks doing illustration for a flash
game for ScreamOutLoud in Brighton
and developing a comic strip with
King Features in the US.
What materials/computer
programs do you use? Dip pen,
Indian ink, Photoshop and Flash.
How do you see the future of
cartooning in the digital age?
Limitless in possibilities, as now you
can self-publish cheaper than ever
before. More importantly, you don’t
need a publisher or newspaper to distribute your cartoons. If you can write
funny stuff, you can generate traffic.
Working out how to turn that traffic
into income is going to be the challenge for independent cartoonists and
the syndicates (who are trying various
subscription models).
How does the cartoon market in
New Zealand compare to the UK?
“Darling, you shouldn’t have
– diesel AND super unleaded!”
9
Alex Hallatt at work in NZ. Note
map of Blighty in the background
Ha ha ha. The editorial market is tiny
and they use mostly syndicated work.
Where there is work, the budgets are
limited. Thank goodness for the internet. I am still getting new clients from
the UK via my website.
What work do you enjoy doing most
and what are your ambitions?
Cartoon strips. I’d like to be a syndicated daily cartoonist.
Why do think there are so few
female cartoonists?
Maybe the question should be why are
there so many male cartoonists? Men
tend to be the joke tellers in society. Is
it showing off? Is it a way to be accepted by your peers? If so, most
women achieve this by buying a lot of
fancy shoes.
Advice for aspiring cartoonists?
Draw and write what you enjoy and
persevere for years through the torrent
of rejection.
Baker’s Dozen
In the 13th and final part of his series of caricaturist profiles, Paul Baker,
looks at Sebastian Kruger, who is much admired by fellow artists
THE internet has been a great invention for caricaturists. We can at last
see each others work without the
need for it being published in a
newspaper or magazine.
On his website, the MAD artist Tom
Richmond refers to The Big Three –
two of these we have already looked
at, Al Hirschfeld and Mort Drucker.
The third, Sebastian Kruger, appears
to be widely regarded by many
fellow caricaturists as the foremost
exponent of the art working today.
And when you look at Kruger’s
work, you can see caricature pushing
just about as close to portraiture as it
can possibly get.
Kruger was born in Hamlyn, Germany, in 1963 and studied painting
and illustration at art school. He left
before completing the course in 1986
– probably not much more he could
teach them! His work as a freelance
caricaturist, illustrator and painter has
appeared in Der Spiegel and Stern in
Germany, L’Express in Italy, Playboy,
Penthouse, Rolling Stone and many
other music magazines. He has also
produced CD and LP covers, adver-
tisements, promotional artworks and
satirical caricatures for several international publications.
In the mid-1990s he was taken on
and promoted worldwide by the
Morpheus Gallery in Beverly Hills,
where several Hollywood names
became collectors of their “Krugerised” (his word) portraits. In 1997 the
gallery published the best selling
Stars, a collection of his movie, rock,
art and literary caricatures. In 2000 he
set up KrugerDirekt with his wife
Andrea Faustmann and friend Bernd
Schoenbaum as a sort of online fan
club/marketing company producing
prints, books, calendars, cards, etc. A
few years ago the Kruger Museum
was set up to exhibit his work as well
as being a platform for other aspiring
artists. He has also exhibited across
Europe and the States. All this by his
late thirties!
As a teenager Kruger heard the
Rolling Stones album Exile on Main
Street and was hooked. The Stones
got into his bloodstream and he
eventually got into theirs. I don’t
know what percentage of Kruger’s
output over the past 15 to 20 years
has been of Messrs Jagger, Richards,
Wood and Watts, but I wouldn’t be
surprised if it was close to the 50 per
cent mark. Any caricaturist would
have a field day with their granitelike “boat races”, but Kruger has the
ability to crack the hard men of rock
like no other. The four of them stand
as a sort of Mount Rushmore monument to the excessive rock ‘n’ roll
lifestyle. Look at a photo of them
against some of Kruger’s artworks
and it’s difficult to know where portraiture ends and caricature begins.
In 1994 he published Rolling Stones,
a collection of his work on the band,
and this was followed by Stones,
published by Morpheus in 1996. Both
have become firm favourites with
fans and band members alike. Ronnie
Wood, also an accomplished painter,
has become a friend and the two have
frequently exhibited together.
Kruger’s style is more diverse than
anyone I’ve covered in this series.
His pencil work can be both as rough
sketches (rough for him that is, a
masterpiece for the rest of us) and
American
idols: Bill
Clinton and
John Wayne,
as seen by
Kruger
10
detailed finished colour pencil studies. But it’s his work in acrylic paint
that really sets him aside from other
caricaturists. These are usually big
and range from simple 2D abstract
paintings, all rough brushstrokes and
bold splatterings; to highly intricate
photorealistic portraits rendered with
meticulous attention to detail.
It is with the more detailed works
that Kruger’s style can really impress.
He, like his hero Jean Mulatier, must
have some kind of physiognomical
knowledge of the face. The strong
sense of solidity, structure and texture
are all enhanced by the incredible
detail. Hair, hairs – moustache, beard,
eyebrow and nasal – pock marks,
glints in the eye and even strands of
drool and spit on the lips give the
impression of a moment captured.
Again like Mulatier, he seems as
much influenced by photography as
he is by the traditions of caricature.
Although he is frequently accused of
using an airbrush to achieve these
effects, the most advanced technique
he actually uses is an old toothbrush!
The distortions in Kruger’s caricature paintings can be both subtle –
barely straying from an illustrated
portrait, and extreme – where the
features are pulled to great lengths.
The fleshtones also come in various
shades of pinks, siennas, sepias, purples, grays, and browns. His black
and white works are particularly effective as he adds a hint of colour in
tiny details – the yellowing eyes of
Humphrey Bogart are matched by the
yellowing glow of the end of his cigarette. For me it’s his realistic flesh
tones that make the biggest impact. I
used to wonder how he gets a certain
“glowing” reddish tone to the flesh,
making it seem as if there is blood
flowing beneath the acrylic paint. The
answer is that his base colour is always orange. The light and dark
fleshtones are then laid on top, and
where he wants the flesh to have this
“glow” he applies the paint more
thinly to allow the base colour to
come through. Simple but effective!
Kruger’s work has proved to be an
inspiration to both professional and
aspiring caricaturists. However, it has
also bred some blatant imitators who
give themselves away by completely
missing the whole point. Most of
these are very good illustrators and
produce a good likeness; but to do an
illustration of a person and simply
stick a big nose on it does not constitute “caricature”. Simplify any of
Kruger’s complex and detailed works
and you’ll find the basic caricature
form there in all its glory.
I once watched him draw Ringo
Starr on a paper tablecloth – simple,
beautifully accurate and unmistakable. Fellow cartoonists gathered like
circling sharks, penknives at the
ready. When Sebastian went to the
bog they attacked the tablecloth like
ravenous piranhas. I think Hunt Emerson was the lucky recipient. For
those of us who marvel at how he
does it, perhaps “Keef” Richards offers a crumb of comfort. When he
first saw Sebastian’s studies of the
Stones he sent him a message: “Nice
work. Must have been a good pencil.”
SO, who is the best caricaturist? Well,
who knows – it’s all subjective. The
individuals I’ve covered in these profiles are in no particular order, I’ve
just done them randomly, sometimes
excluding ones I was going to look at
(such as Jan Op De Beeck and Trog)
and including others I initially didn’t
think of. It’s been a purely personal
choice.
That’s it – I’ll shut up now.
Rock of ages: the granite-like
features of Mick ‘n’ Keef, below.
Right: a slightly looser, but no less
craggy, study of Walter Matthau
11
The Full Dozen
1. Philip Burke
2. Honore Daumier
3. Mort Drucker
4. Jean Mulatier
5. Valott
6. Fluck and Law
7. David Stoten, Tim Watts
and Pablo Bach of
Spitting Image
8. Steve Brodner
9. Al Hirschfeld
10. Ralph Sallon
11. John Ireland
12. David Levine
13. Sebastian Kruger
Clive Collins
FUNNY old time, Christmas. I spent
three nights over that period doing
caricature gigs, one of which I wish
I’d declined. It was a candlelit dinner,
and for those I’ve bored before with
my previous experience, I had sworn
not to take on another one.
But no, I forgot to ask when the call
came through in September, and once
again the “candlelit” part was not
made known to me until they’d all sat
down to eat and the lights suddenly
went out. The last face I saw before
darkness fell was that of my hostess,
smiling and waving towards the gathered bodies in a “they’re all yours
now” sort of way. The candlelit
gloom then made for an interesting
evening for the Health and Safety
department, the floor having been
strewn with Christmas cracker débris,
spilt sausage rolls and mince pies etc.
Most of the people I was drawing
showed a sense of humour and a
willingness to go along with the process of being drawn while they ate,
albeit by a tall, overweight chap,
bending at an unnatural angle as he
peered through the gloom, but then I
came across The A***hole. This is
someone I’m sure has been experi-
enced by others at various gigs who,
although he’s been told that a caricaturist will be present to draw the
assembled guests, insists that his
presence remain unknown and undrawn, like a celebrity grandly warding off the paparazzi. I took great
pleasure in drawing him surreptitiously by the glow of the flickering
candle as it dripped wax on to the
tablecloth in front of him, and after
I’d presented it to him with a flourish,
it was almost a pleasure when the git
realised he’d been done, saying, in
some sort of defence, “Is this supposed to be me?” This was when his
chums at the table snorted and chortled as if they’d just been switched
on. All I could reply was, “Don’t
worry – I shan’t tell anybody you
look like that, if you don’t tell them.”
Then he looked at me, slightly puzzled, like a drunk doing a crossword,
while his chums turned to him for
guidance as to what they should say,
seeing as they were on the timeshare
brain cell. By which time of course
I’d slithered away to another table in
the darkness, where wonderful old
ladies wanted to adopt me, and loved
the fact that I was putting more wrin-
12
kles onto the paper than they possessed. Meanwhile I looked back and
the guy was still unhappily studying
his likeness and occasionally glancing
over to where he could just about see
me, like a native who believes I really
might have stolen his soul.
Anyway, after the agreed 90 minutes
I was paid and headed for home, and
the other two jobs passed like a pleasant dream, with happy, contented
people, the memory of which reminds
me of why I still glean some jagged
shards of enjoyment from this area of
the profession.
“Anything from Indian ink to coffee,
cold tea, car oil, human blood (mine)
wood varnish, acrylic paints, soaked
wood chippings, oil paint, red wine,
rust water, boiled cabbage water,
sprayed colored inks that I apply
using a right-angled spray tube
available from most art shops – and
spit.” – Ralph Steadman on the
tools of his trade, from the NCS
magazine The Cartoon!st
CORPORATE Christmas cards
loomed large again in the run-up to
the Festive Season, with potential
clients who’ve still not got the hang
of the fact that Christmas isn’t like
Easter, and thus isn’t a moveable
feast. It’ll always be December 25, so
why are they phoning to ask me in the
first week of December? No kidding.
I really hate turning work down but
what planet are these people on?
Anyway, the year staggered on, like
me looking for a seat in a pub, and
after a drink-fuelled New Year’s Eve
and the usual pathetic promises to cut
down in 2007, plus the resolutions –
five of which I’d broken before New
Year’s Day was out – I faced the year
with a plea for it to go slower this
time, so I’ll have time to breathe, and
that I won’t wake up next morning
and discover that it’s August again. So
here we are in February already, and
the state pension kicks in this month –
that’s when I’ll really start to get
crabby. Take it easy out there, and
don’t go using up all the ideas, there’s
us old folk to consider too, y’know.
A series of tech-tip columns begins in The Jester this month (see overleaf). Here, author Chris Kelly says hello ...
13
This series of tech-tip columns is to be reprinted here in The Jester, thanks to our friends at the ACA mag Inkspot
14
Thanks to CCGB member Gary Smith for suggesting, on the Website Forum, that this column is reprinted here.
15
Top: from the Daily Record, December 23 and 20. Spotted by John “Speedy”
Harrison. Above: from London Lite, spotted by Craig Buck
16
Above, from the Law Society’s Gazette, November 2,
spotted by the Ed. Plus two cuttings from Navy News,
December issue, spotted by John “Speedy” Harrison
Cartoonist and wife found dead
The Scottish cartoonist Harry Horse
(real name Richard Horne) and his
seriously ill wife were found dead at
their Shetland home on January 10.
Horse, 46, was a political cartoonist
who also wrote and illustrated
children’s books. He and his wife
Mandy, 39, who had multiple sclerosis, were found on January 10.
Police were not believed to be
looking for anyone else in
connection with the deaths. Horse
had worked for many newspapers,
including The Guardian, Sunday
Herald, and Scotland on Sunday. His
agent, Caroline Sheldon, said: “His
partnership with his wonderful wife
Mandy was extraordinary. She was
his most solid support for years but
when she contracted chronic and
terminal MS he cared for her.”
Source: BBC News website
17
Harry Horse:
found dead
with wife
Mandy
New members
Potted Minutes from
CCGB committee meeting
of January 9, 2007
Present: Jed Pascoe, Royston Robertson, Richard Tomes, Mike Turner,
Jock Williams-Davies, Terry Christien, Jed Stone.
Peter Bartlam (“PB”)
28 Hillside Drive
Little Haywood
Staffs ST18 0NN
T: 01889-881577
E: [email protected]
Published: cards, magazines,
trade press, posters
Steffanie Blake (“Pitt”)
68 Brunswick Road
Ealing, London
W5 1AF
T: 020-8991 2166
F: 020-8991 9399
E: [email protected]
W: www.steffaniepitt.co.uk
Published: own range of cards,
corporate Christmas cards,
BFI magazine, cartoons for
weddings, birthdays, etc
Apologies: Graham Fowell, Jill
Kearney, Clive Collins, Anne Boyd,
Ian Ellery, Helen Martin, Les Barton,
Neil Dishington.
Using Adobe Photoshop, Noel Ford
imagines what the planned Andy
Capp statue (see previous Jesters)
would have looked like had it been
created by the sculptor Barbara
Hepworth.
(As posted on the cartoonists.co.uk
website forum)
Correspondence: Committee informed of the death of Welsh cartoonist Gren Jones, a major figure in
CCGB history. Terry to send
contribution to charity of family’s
choice; Sadly also informed of
deaths of former members Tugg
Willson and Bill Thacker.
Jester: Response to competition for
Member’s Directory covers slow.
Another reminder for Jester.
From Jazz UK, Jan/Feb edition,
spotted by William Rudling
Lookalike: I wonder how many readers have noticed the similarity
between The Beano’s “The Iron Fish”, from the 1950s, and the new Sea
Breacher submersible boat-type-thing, as seen on the news recently. Are
they perhaps related etc etc? (Thanks to John “Speedy” Harrison and
Steve Bright for drawing this to our attention.)
Technological breakthrough
Matters arising: Committee lunch at
Joe Allen’s earlier in the afternoon
saw an almost 100 per cent
committee turnout. It was agreed
that more club meetings could take
place there e.g. the 50th Anniversary
Bash; In response to views from
questionnaires, 2007 AGM will be in
the daytime: 1pm for the committee,
2pm for members. Announcement to
go in Jester. Budget for the AGM
spread will be limited £100; Terry
Christien still to liaise with John
Featherstone re. Weston Arts
Festival 2007.
The stuff of fantasy
18
New members: Peter Bartlam.
Any other business: Jock will be
involved in Ipswich arts festival again
this year, on behalf of CCGB. It was
suggested that more members might
like to participate this year, running
workshops, caricaturing etc. Jed
Pascoe suggested asking Kathleen
Lewis of Revenues Unlimited to look
into booking accommodation; Jed
also mentioned that 24 places have
so far been booked for the Masham
jolly. Reminder to go in Jester; It was
decided to abandon the title “Probationary Member”; 80 club members
benefited from DACS in 2006. The
committee thanked Terry for putting
the club in touch with DACS.
Meeting closed 7.29pm.
A word from the Editor
This month’s word from the Editor is:
Masham. And how to pronounce it.
Many southerners don’t seem to
believe me when I tell them I’m from
North Yorkshire, presumably because
I don’t own a flat cap or a whippet.
But in fact I was born and brought up
in Catterick, just 12 miles or so up the
road from Masham.
Anyway, since Jed Pascoe
announced the club jolly in March,
I’ve heard a few bizarre pronunciations bandied about. First of all, you
definitely don’t employ the southern,
long-vowel sound. So Marsh-am, it
ain’t. Secondly, it’s nothing to do with
potatoes, so Mash-am leaves a poor
taste. And to the member that claimed
it is pronounced MATH-am, all I can
say is, Don’t be tho thilly.
The trick is to ignore the “h”. It’s
Mass’m. Mass rhymes with gas and
the second part is an abrupt “um”, not
em or am.
Try it, it feels good. Put on a flat cap
if it helps.
Email your entry to
jester_magazine@yahoo.
co.uk or post to ...
IS THE 12th OF
EVERY MONTH
Royston Robertson
DON’T FORGET: Next month’s
cartoon theme is the Joys of Spring,
Spring is Sprung, that kind of thing.
Something to ponder on in these
dark winter days.
DESIGN A COVER CARTOON
AND WIN £50!!!!
YES folks, remember that you
can win £50 by coming up with
a cover cartoon for the
forthcoming CCGB Members’
Directory. All you have to do is
submit a rough cartoon before
February 5 (slight deadline
extension ...) The roughs will be
put to the committee at the
February 6 meeting and a
winner picked. The winner will
then be asked to submit the
finished full-colour artwork
before the end of February. The
dimensions for the cartoon are
17cm wide by 19cm high.
THE DEADLINE
YOUR
CARTOON
HERE!
The Jester, c/o Royston
Robertson, 20 Upton Road,
Broadstairs, Kent CT10 2AS
Membership enquiries to: Jed Pascoe (Membership Secretary),
4 Osprey Close, Sandy, Bedfordshire, SG19 1TW.
Tel: 01767-682 882. Email: [email protected]
Subscription enquiries to: Anne Boyd (Treasurer), 7 Gambetta
Street, Battersea, London, SW8 3TS. Tel: 020-7720 1884.
Email [email protected]
Website enquiries to: Ian Ellery, 25 Nelson Road, Hastings TN34
BRX. Tel: 01424-718 209. Email: [email protected]
19
Contributions via email:
[email protected]
Contributions via post:
The Jester
c/o Royston Robertson
20 Upton Road
Broadstairs
Kent CT10 2AS
Tel: 01843-871 241
By the way, there’s no need
to put things like “Letters
Section” on your envelopes.
I’m the only member of Jester
“staff” here!
All articles and cartoons
welcomed (especially for the
front and back covers)
Email submissions are
preferred, as then images
and text do not need to be
scanned – but snail mail is
still acceptable. Images sent
by email must be a resolution
of 300dpi, and in the JPEG
format – no Tiffs, Gifs, Cifs,
Spiffs or Pifs please!
REMINDER: the next two
club meetings are
February 6, and March 6
at The Cartoonist pub,
Shoe Lane, London.
Committee: 5.30pm
Members: 7pm
“Got any comic relief?”
20

The Jester - The Cartoonists` Club of Great Britain

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