Lost virginity...

Considering I've been a professional cartoonist for nigh on 28 years, to only just have drawn my very first desert island gag is faintly ludicrous. However, that's what happened last week when the theme of 'Desert Island' was chosen by previous week's winner, Roger Kettle, to be the subject for the Caption Competition over on the Cartoonists' Forum.

For those who are not avid gag cartoon fans (how very dare you?!!), I should explain that the desert island gag has become one of the major cartoon clichés over the years, so it was quite a challenge to try to come up with anything remotely original. Thankfully, it was a challenge that the forum appeared to relish, with one of the biggest turnouts in recent months, and a wonderful diversity of gags ensued. Truly impressive for such a restricted setting.

I chose to go down the 'in-joke' route, making the cartoon cliché itself the object of the gag. The sense of release after 28 years is hard to describe...

Had Blair been Long John Silver...

...who would have been his parrot?

According to Northern Ireland's First Minister and DUP Leader, the Reverend and Right Honourable Ian Paisley, that dubious privilege fell to Her Majesty, The Queen, when she endorsed (as was her duty) the Belfast Agreement of 1998. Paisley was not a happy bunny, resulting in the uncharacteristic outburst against the Monarch he normally professed great loyalty to.

This in turn resulted in the following cartoon; not exactly biting political satirical commentary, but it was fun to draw none the less...

My Royal Debut...

Forgive the pixelated look of this one - it's rather old, and I found the jpeg lurking at the bottom of my sock drawer, not having seen daylight for many a year. I reckon it was drawn around 1995, and it is almost certainly the first cartoon I ever made involving our beloved Royal Family.

I've heard that Prince Philip is a keen collector of Royal cartoons. He's never been in touch...

Right Royal capers - part 1...

Well, well - my Prince William drawing very narrowly won this month's Caricature Competition, and so in jubilation and celebration, here, as promised, is the first of a select few of my editorial cartoons from the past, featuring our beloved Royal Family.

This is one I really enjoyed drawing, having been given the editorial all-clear to draw it unusually early in the day, thereby giving me loads of time (perhaps too much) to pencil and ink it to completion before the 6pm deadline. As you can see, in the absence of Photoshop back then, I over-indulged in plenty of cross-hatching.

This was drawn in 1998, after Princess Margaret suffered a mild stroke. The caption appears mildly prophetic now, with both Princess Margaret and her mother passing away less than four years later, within seven weeks of each other, the former departing first, aged 71, followed by the Queen Mum, after a cracking innings of 101.

As a Scot, I have never felt any great affinity with Royalty. Indeed, quite the opposite through much of my young life. These days, with age, I have warmed a little more to them, and for all the material they provide for editorial cartoonists, I'm even grateful, even if none of it is intentional.

Ring In The New...

Happy New Year to one and all!

Yes, I know it's already nearly a week old, and I've broken Resolution No. 27 by not posting a new bloggage every third day, minimum (at least that one lasted a couple of days longer than all the others), but sometimes things don't quite go to plan, "sometimes" being at least 50% these days. I hope you've all resolved to comment more on my blog - good luck with that one!

So, here I am, and there you are (hopefully) - let's kick off 2011 (how are you going to pronounce that by the way? Two thousand and eleven, or twenty eleven?) with my latest offering to the Cartoonists' Forum Caricature Competition, currently under way over here.

I blew any minute chance of ever getting a knighthood many years ago, whilst working for the Daily Record in Scotland as their editorial cartoonist. Scotland is not renowned for its Royalists, so I had a fair bit of fun at the Windsors' expense back then. That's a bit like shooting fish in a barrel, I have to say, but it was all done with a degree of affection, and never the tiniest bit of envy. And certainly at the time, the tricky part was trying to make one's (how regal!) cartoons more outrageous than the real life exploits of the Royals themselves.

I'll dig out and post a few of my attempts from the late 90's over the next week or two, but meanwhile, here is the very latest nail in the coffin of my knighthood, as we were challenged this month to draw the heir to the heir to the throne (deliberate repetition there - or was it?), Prince Wills...