Borderline

The Westmorland Gazette hits the news stands on Thursday morning. And as I haven’t been out to buy my copy yet, that means some of you may have a better idea of what is on the front page than I do. Which may sound unusual, given that I draw the front page cartoon.

Truth is, when I go into the newsroom on Wednesday at 2pm, the main stories are still slugging it out to see which of them is going to be the lead story. It’s not a pretty sight. There are vowels and apostrophes everywhere.

I take a peek, then sometimes duck behind the news desk and see what’s occurring in the calmer, more rarified environs of pages 3 and 5.

So this week, I had a choice of three stories to consider. The wackiest was a move by the Get A Life, sorry, County Watch, which has gone around putting up Welcome to Lancashire and Welcome to Westmorland signs. In Cumbria. Which took over from those counties (in South Lakes) in 1974. (We have no hope of ever going metric.)

In other news, Cumbria County Council has had its budget cut by more than was feared, thanks to the LibCon settlement. And a group of nine illegal immigrants were caught, heading for Cumbria. (I should point out that these were illegal immigrants from outside the UK, not from Yorkshire or somewhere.)

The four cartoon sketches are below. One of them manages to combine two of the stories (smug mode). If you’ve already bought the Gazette, you’ll know which one the editor chose. The rest of you, mosey on over to my website.

Gritty Stuff

As Cumbria continues to shiver in the icy grip of the coldest winter since the last one. And as the snow lies all about, deep and crisp and lumpy and bumpy and not particularly even … a cartoonist’s thoughts turn to this week’s Westmorland Gazette front page stories.

And the lead is … taraa, the snow. This is fine. I like drawing snow. Or rather, I like not drawing it. The master of snow cartoons is Carl Giles and I learnt from him that the best way to draw it is to leave it out. Swathes of blank. Works every time.

So what seasonal cheer did this week’s lead story have to offer?

Grit. Fearless grit and pluck. (James Naughtie take note.) Lake District residents have been out in force, battling the elements, clearing paths and looking after their neighbours. Meanwhile, a few are taking David Cameron’s Big Society idea the wrong way and deciding that Society is there to provide purely for them. And they’re nicking the grit. Reports are coming in of furtive 4x4 grit nickers roaming the district. The police have been alerted and will be in hot pursuit, just as soon as they’ve taken delivery of the huskies.

So, an ideal story for a snow-loving cartoonist and, as usual, I fired four ideas down the interweb to the esteemed Editor. You can see them below and the Ed’s Fave will be appearing tomorrow on the front of the Westmorland Gazette. And in full, 3D technocolour on my website.

Snow Joke

A couple of stories in tomorrow’s Westmorland Gazette caught my beady, cartoonist’s eye. The first is the front page lead (you read it here first) and t’other is buried inside somewhere.

The problem with stories that appear inside the paper is I feel impelled to explain them in the caption. And I only have a tiddly space on the front of the new, compact (not tabloid) Gazette. The way to get over this is to encourage the clever, hard-working subs (hello Phil) to put a one-line link above the cartoon - see story page 47 or whatever. But it’s hardly ideal as the reader still sees the joke before having any idea what it is about. (With a few of my cartoons, it doesn’t help.)

However … given that there is another, country-wide story featured in the paper, I thought it a risk worth taking.

The main story is about South Lakeland District Council and it’s development plan for the area. It includes affordable housing for locals, not before time. The second story is about some rather special chilli, made locally. This is so hot that it is set to get into the Guiness Book of Records.

And the other story? It’s been snowing …

As ever, the final cartoon will be in Thursday’s Gazette and on my website tomorrow morning. 

And if you want to read more about drawing cartoons for newspapers, well, there is only one thing I can possibly recommend.

The Unkindest Cut

The ramifications of the LibCon government’s brave new world are beginning to seep north.

Cumbria County Council have announced that they expect their finances to be in an even bigger mess than usual (I’m paraphrasing here) and they are going to have to make cuts of … lots. The cuts will apply across all services although they will try and protect the most vulnerable, in particular making sure that the elderly can remain independent.

So this is the front page of today’s Westmorland Gazette. In fact, it is a mega story researched and written by some of the finest journalists in the land and runs onto several inside pages. Although a serious story, it has lots of potential for cartoons, especially if the cartoonist fancies airing some opinions on the matter.

Here are the sketches I pitched at the editor yesterday. The first four were my initial pitch. Everyone liked number three the best but my esteemed editor’s face went a bit white in case the leader of the council (a) objected or (b) looked like that (he doesn’t). “It’s my job to think through the implications,” said Editor, as I hopped about and said, “Oh just go for it.”

Fair enough. With a bit of tweaking, we got rid of Editor’s misgivings and kept the impact of the joke. See what you think and comment below.

The finished artwork appears in glorious black and white on the front of today’s Gazette or you can see it in colour on my site.

A Royal Do

This week's Westmorland Gazette stories included the announcement of the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Thingy. Obviously everyone else had covered it but the Gazette has hit on a rather good local angle.

The other two stories which caught my cartoonist's eye (as opposed to the other one which roams uselessly and stares out of the window) were: A traditional Christmas walk along Arnside railway viaduct has been declared illegal because of the danger of trains and Kendal's festive Xmas tree is looking a bit moth-eaten despite only having been erected this week.

As usual, four ideas were submitted to the editor. Which one did he choose? The tension can be broken by visiting my website or buying the newspaper on Thursday morning.

White riot

Ah, the good old days. I remember them well. The heady excitement of the coach trip to London, milling about with masses of other students, the carefully prepared placards with dodgy spelling, the sense of unity and purpose as you were surrounded by police … you can’t beat a good student protest.

And they’re at it again. They’ve been protesting today against the rises in tuition fees, bless them. Bringing central London to a standstill, smashing up Tory HQ, bringing civilisation to its knees (if you watch Sky News) or a small minority causing a bit of a fuss (BBC News).

What we didn’t have in the 1970s, of course, was the benefit of Twitter. With this, you can see live comments streaming across your computer screen - some from people at the protest itself - and get the thrill of being part of a live event, albeit vicariously.

This is quite handy if you’re in Cumbria and working on the day’s newspaper cartoon for The Westmorland Gazette. Of the stories on offer this week (the model Jordan doing a book signing, South Lakeland Council putting up parking charges), the presence of local students at the riot protest was by far the most interesting.

As ever, I submitted four sketches to the Gazette’s esteemed editor. After much reasoned debate, I persuaded him to go for the one I liked. You can see which one that was by purchasing a copy of the Gazette on Thursday morning, or popping along to my website.

Flushed away

I don’t know what it is about cartoons and toilets. There’s a preconception that the two should always go together. Whenever I give someone a cartoon original, the next time I visit I find it hanging in the loo.

It’s the same with topics in the Westmorland Gazette newsroom. Toilet story? Save that one for Colin. And the weird thing is, they’re usually good stories to do - and not for reasons of scatological humour. One of the best in recent years has been the local council’s decision to close public toilets. A stroke of genius for a tourist area, where coach loads of straining bladders arrive on an hourly basis.

Yesterday’s hot toilet topic was a little different, however. United Utilities has announced that Cumbria is one of the worst places in the country for inappropriate items flushed down the toilet. These include such delights as mobile phones, traffic cones, television sets, false teeth, cuddly toys, artificial limbs and goldfish. * 

I did once drop a USB pen down the toilet but it was just a flash in the pan.

Ahem. The water company has started a What Not To Flush campaign. I look forward to the TV adverts and hope they come up with a catchy jingle. A Miller & Armstrong style musical number would be good.

Whilst we’re all sitting around waiting for that, here are my cartoon sketches on the story. As ever, the editor’s choice appears on the front page of today’s Westmorland Gazette and on my website.

* I may have added a couple.