“The star of this movie is the staircase”

In my illustration/ cartoon career I only ever did one movie poster that was used. I did one or two others that did not get beyond the rough stage. I had the call from a large ad agency to go in and see an art director and writer to discuss the brief. There was none. I’d been invited to see the film in a viewing theatre belonging to the large film company that had made the film and spent a vary enjoyable afternoon laughing a lot at the tale of a house purchase by a young couple, in the States, … Continue reading “The star of this movie is the staircase”

Graham Thompson : the Master.

We all take influences in our work, even if you are a cartoonist. I loved the work and easy line of the late Bill Tidy and he also told brilliant jokes. But the person who I think of as the master of his craft, and he tells no jokes, is Graham Thompson. Never heard of him? Well you should have and anyone reading this will now have heard of him. If you are a jig saw fanatic then you may well have done one of his puzzles as he did loads of these later in his career. I came across … Continue reading Graham Thompson : the Master.

Embellishment, or advertising as it was called in those days.

“Did you really earn a living from that? Someone once asked me that, and there were many times when I thought someone else might, by the look on their face, ask me the same question again.What the questioners had in common was a look of utter disbelief that I did in fact make a living from drawing cartoons. I made a very good living from my so called skills, especially in the late 70s and 80s. “Will I have heard of you?” was another regular question and after I’d said “No” they would generally follow up with the name of … Continue reading Embellishment, or advertising as it was called in those days.

I blame Winston Churchill

Apparently he regularly used a shorthand way of writing notes and messages. This has transmogrified into the now dreadful way that companies or organisations rename themselves. For many years now the local mental health division of the NHS has rebranded itself as “2gether” if you can believe that! For crying out loud, both parts of that are wrong, there’s no such word as gether and 2 is a sodding numeral. I suppose someone at the head of this division had already spent too much on the branding that there was no way of going back. I suppose the thing that … Continue reading I blame Winston Churchill