Thursday 12 July 2012

Feeling blue

This week at the cutting edge of the cartoon news front, a bewildering array of stories presented themselves.

Firstly, the Kendal Torchlight Procession, a much-loved tradition which has taken place for thousands of years, has been cancelled for 2012. No one know why. Even Woodward and Bernstein, the Gazette's farming correspondents, can't get to the bottom of it.

Secondly, there has been more rain. In fact, more rain than you can shake an umbrella at. So much that a local caravan park has offered a day's free holiday for anyone on holiday who suffers an above-average day of rain.

Finally, in the brave-new Camoron-ruled Britain, Cumbria Constabulary are forced to sell off one of their police stations. (It comes complete with matching pairs of handcuffs, for all you 50 Shades of Grey readers.) The local community were hoping to buy it for affordable housing. However the police decided to sell it at auction and got less than Ambleside community were offering.

Here are the sketches presented to my steamed editor. To find out which one graces the front page, you will have to visit my website.





Monday 9 July 2012

50 Sheep of Grey

50 Shades of Grey is the big publishing hit of 2012. Time to write a version with a more rural flavour …



Thursday 5 July 2012

Flood warning

The north of England and Scotland had a spot of weather this week. 

In the Lake District, 29mm of rain fell in one hour. As a result, Kendal high street was flooded and the drains backed up. The situation was made worse by cars driving through the flood and sending miniature tsunamis into adjacent shops.

Unsurprisingly, the topic dominates the front of this week's Westmorland Gazette and is the target for my editorial cartoon. Below are the five ideas I submitted to my steamed editor.

This week, I've also included the cartoon which made it to the front page - at least, in its first artwork form. It was one of those weeks when the drawing fought back and refused to go as planned. All illustrators have these (I hope). The final art changed somewhat from the original sketch. I'm not sure if it was for the better or not and I've included a couple of intermediate sketches.


Do you prefer the final version or the rough sketch? Let me know in the comments box.