Alison Brown Young Comics Maestro Award 2022 Winners!

We are delighted to announce the winners of the inaugural Alison Brown Young Comics Maestro Award 2022!

We received 60 wonderful 3-page comic strips from budding comic creators under 18 years old. A winner and two runners-up was chosen by a panel of expert judges including Laura Howell and Mike Stirling from The Beano, Tom Fickling from The Phoenix, cartoonists Hannah Berry, Martin Rowson and Mark Stafford, and Steve Marchant, Kate Owens and Joe Sullivan from The Cartoon Museum.

Your 2022 winner is Damian Arriola, aged 10!

Damian’s comic about a bear protecting a group of bears from hunters was extraordinary, with wonderful art complimented by a fantastic storytelling ability. The panel loved the different abilities Damian showcased, including a lack of dialogue, varied panel shapes, and an impressive understanding of visual space. Mike Stirling, the Head of Beano Studios, is convinced that Beano readers would ‘lap it up’!

Bear, by Damian Arriola

Your 2022 Runners-Up are Lila Shaw-Mitchell, aged 14, and Gene Hobday, aged 8!

Lila’s comic strip, ‘Did you sleep well?’ was about annoying siblings and a sleepless night. The story was well told with excellent pacing and was very relatable to people of all ages, with a simple art style and subtle, effective colouring.

Gene’s strip ‘The Glowing Frog’, was very funny, charming and full of character. It was very cinematic, with different views and angles of the characters, and showed really impressive technical skills with lots of visual tricks crammed in.

The Glowing Frog by Gene Hobday

You can read the three winning stories in this downloadable comic, along with entries that were highly commended by the judges.

The Comics Maestro Award celebrates Cartoon Museum staff member Alison Brown, who passed away from Covid in 2021 at the age of just 39. Alison loved comics and championed young comic artists, including selling their work in the museum shop.

Did You Sleep Well? by Lila Shaw-Mitchell

The full list of winners, runners-up, and judge’s commendations is below. Congratulations to all – and keep your eye on these names in future!

Winner: Damian Arriola (10)

Runner Up: Gene Hobday (8) and Lila Shaw-Mitchell (14)

Highly Commended: Amelie Xenakis (15), Sylvie Sekar (11), Shaayth Ahmed (9), Annie Fentum (10), Ewan Rushin (14)

0

Director’s Blog, June 2022

It’s starting to feel summery! By which I mean its rained several days this week while the sun has attempted to have a look in, but I’ve gone ahead and worn shorts at the weekends anyway.

I want to start this blog by paying tribute to our colleague Eduardo Camaré. As you may have heard, Eduardo, our Marketing and Communications Officer, passed away on 10 May after an illness. It was really hard for the team to deal with, and we have had some time contemplating the loss and remembering him as a friend. Eduardo was responsible for much of our online presence, including managing our blog, website and social media channels, as well as designing and making our members newsletter, our e-bulletins and all of the graphic design for our exhibitions. His passing has been keenly felt.

Drawing of Eduardo Camaré by Bryan Talbot

A commemorative image of Eduardo, drawn by Bryan Talbot (above), adorns the introduction to our fantastic new exhibition. The last project Eduardo worked on before he passed was Bryan Talbot’s Luther Arkwright: 50 years of a British comics legend. ‘The Adventures of Luther Arkwright’, released in 1981, is often considered the first British graphic novel. Arkwright is attempting to save the world from the threat of the Disruptors, travelling across multiverses (‘parallels’) in an attempt to lure them into the open. It was followed by a sequel, ‘Heart of Empire’, in 1999 and a third (and final book) ‘The Legend of Luther Arkwright’, which is released in July – and you can buy it exclusively in the museum or via our webshop now ahead of the 14 July release date. Over this summer we will be delving the multiverse through art from the three books, as well as behind-the-scenes material showing how Bryan creates his stories and pages, and I hope you join us to see the exhibition for yourself.

A view of the finished Arkwright exhibition

The process of finishing and installing the exhibition was very challenging given the circumstances, but the team of staff and volunteers pulled together and produced something fantastic. We are incredibly lucky to have the support of a skilled and passionate volunteer team, and Chris, June, Dick, Clem, Helen, Charlie, Stan, Nikita, and Ester helped build every part of the exhibition from painting walls to framing artworks. The exhibition was developed buy our Curator, Emma, who wanted to explore three stories: The story of Luther Arkwright saving the world; the story of Bryan Talbot developing his art and practice over the course of an inspirational 50-year career; and the story of the British comic industry and how it changed from underground comics to the vast expanse of major and independent publishers we see today. We were aided hugely in this by Bryan himself, who led all of the artwork and ephemera and worked closely with Emma to discuss his process and ideas. Bryan is a lovely, very humble man who is full of ideas, and it was a pleasure to work alongside him on the exhibition.

The museum team of staff and volunteers creating the exhibition

Another exciting development at the museum over the past few months has been the development of activities for visitors with autism. We are now running monthly relaxed events for families to visit the museum, giving them the opportunity to visit the museum together without any external pressure or distractions. Our Young Cartoonist In Residence, Jadore, has led some workshops of his own at the events, and as a young artist with autism he has become a wonderful role model for the young people attending the events to meet and learn from. We have also been selling (and sold out of) his postcards in our shop, and he has created a window display in our entrance way. Its been brilliant having Jadore on board over the last few months, and he and Amba, our Community Engagement Officer, were invited to speak about our work together work at the launch of the Cultural Inclusion Manifesto at the Royal Albert Hall last month. It was a pleasure to share our own work and hear about the exciting developments made by colleagues at other places such as the National Trust.

Jadore, our Young Cartoonist-in-Residence, creating a window display

In other news, we have some exciting activities planned for the summer, including the return of our kids workshops. We will also be taking stands to the London Film & Comic Con in a few weeks, and several community festivals across Westminster. If you are nearby come and say hi! We will continue to roll out our successful Life Under Lockdown project in local youth clubs and continue creating opportunities for visitors excited to pick up an pencil and draw a cartoon of their own. If you want to keep up to date with all our news and events throughout the year, make sure you sign up to our mailing list!

0

Young Cartoonist of the Year 2020 and 2021

On 30 May we celebrated the winners and runners-up of the Young Cartoonist of the Year 2020 and 2021 competitions. Over 150 entries were received from all over the UK, with winners decided by a panel of judges comprised of luminaries of British newspaper and comic cartooning, including Martin Rowson (BCA Chairman and The Guardian cartoonist), Christian Adams (The Evening Standard), Banx (The Financial Times), Ella Barron (The Sunday Times), Steve Bell (The Guardian), Grizelda (The Spectator), Matt (The Daily Telegraph), Nick Newman (Private Eye), and Oliver Preston (Chairman of The Cartoon Museum).

The winners and runners-up, and their families, joined the judges and guests from the world of cartooning for drinks and to see the artworks displayed in the Clore room, and received their certificates from Chair of Judges Martin Rowson.

Family looking at Live Gwinner’s entry (U18 runner-up)
Guests looking at the display of the winning cartoons

The Young Cartoonist of the Year competition was originally set up as the ‘Mel Calman Young Cartoonist Competition’, in memory of the great Times cartoonist and Cartoon Arts Trust founder. In 2001 the competition morphed into its current form, led by Martin Rowson who recruited judges from each national newspaper, leading to wide publicity for the competition. The competition, now in its 26th year, has produced winners including Nick Edwards (2009) who went on to win an Emmy for his work on Uncle Grandpa in the US, New Yorker cartoonist Will McPhail, and political cartoonist Matt Buck. 

Winners and guests mingling in the museum

Chair of the British Cartoonists Association, Martin Rowson said:

“For the last 21 years I’ve always joked that the real purpose of the annual Young Cartoonist Competition, awarded by the British Cartoonists’ Association, is to remind everyone that ours is a crowded and frequently beleaguered profession and that the last thing we need is competition from the whippersnappers. So this way we can identify the best ones and break their fingers. And if it’s the kind of gag which causes offence to the winners, that sort of suggests they’ve chosen the wrong path in life. But to be serious for a fleeting second, the wealth of talent which we see coming up each and every year shows Cartooning is alive, kicking and screaming, just like it should be.”

2020 U18s winner Daniel Meikle receiving his award
2021 Woodcock Prize winner Bianca Hsu receiving her award

2021

The full list of winners and runners-up is below, and the top six entries for 2021 (the three winners, and the second place U18 runner up, and the second and third place U30 runners-up) will be on display at The Cartoon Museum in the Clore room during 2022. Congratulations to all – and keep your eye on these names in future!

Winners: Cara Grainger (U30 category), Rohan Rooney (U18 category), Bianca Hsu (Woodcock prize for the most surreal cartoon)

Runner Up (Under 30s): Lara Evans (2nd place, U30 category), Jo Sarginson (3rd place, U30 category), Zoom Rockman, Hannah Rohin

Runner Up (Under 18s): Emily Young (2nd place, U18 category), Reyansh Avihash, Holly Chadwick, Jack Cherry, Liv Gwinner, Hayden Hewathantri, Trix Latimer,

2020     

Winners: Fergus Boylan (U30 category), Daniel Meikle (U18 category)    

Runner Up (Under 30s): Sid Yates, Ruth Adams

Runner Up (Under 18s): Erica Potter, Rohan Rooney

0

Inspired by: Nick Newman on why comics and cartoons can be a refuge from the real world.

Our third ‘Inspired by’ blog is with cartoonist Nick Newman and features an artist whose work is currently up on the walls in the Cartoon Museum’s latest exhibition ‘Laughter Lab’.

Nick’s career began in 1976 and he has worked regularly for Private Eye, Punch and The Spectator as well as being pocket cartoonist at the Sunday Times since 1989.

In this blog, Nick shares his earliest cartoon memories, gives a shout out to the genius of Tintin and also gives budding cartoonists a little bit of advice about getting started in cartooning.

You can follow Nick on Twitter @NckNwmn and Instagram @NickNewmanCartoons

Nick Newman, after 1980.

 
When did you discover cartoons and comics?
My earliest memory is my brother introducing me to Tintin, but I was also a big Batman fan. The arrival in the UK of Asterix was another important moment – and I collected Peanuts books and War Picture Library comics when I should have been reading ‘The Famous Five’.
 
Who were your favourite artists, characters or strips?
Hergé and Goscinny & Uderzo were my heroes, for creating Tintin and Asterix respectively. Hergé transported you to other worlds – and the verisimilitude of the bande dessiné style made it all the more believable. Goscinny & Uderzo, on the other hand, were more overtly cartoony – while being discreetly subversive and satirical in a historical context. As I got older I came to appreciate stand-alone gags more, gleaned from the pages of Private Eye and Punch. I admired (and still do) all the greats – Pont, Fougasse, Searle, Heath, Larry, Rushton, Honeysett, Mclachlan, Pyne, Posy Simmonds, Austin, Robert Thompson, Dredge, Kipper Williams… the list is endless!
 
What do cartoons and comics mean to you?
Refuge from the real world…children’s comics were always an escape to another reality, whether it was the Numskulls or Dan Dare. Stand-alone gags can transport you to a surreal mental landscape of desert islands, lemmings jumping over cliffs and alien invasions…the possibilities are endless. The best cartoons can give you a warm glow every time you think of them. Few art forms do that.

Nick Newman, 2000. Ink on paper

How have you managed to take your love of cartoons and comics and turn that into a career? 
There is only one way – to draw stuff and send it in to magazines! It takes a lot of nerve and resilience – even early success can be followed by years of rejection. I’ve also been lucky to use my skills as a parodist to use my love of cartoon strips professionally – I’ve drawn and written satires based on War Comics and Dan Dare for Private Eye, as well as parodies of the Beano, Dennis The Menace and the Numskulls. I knew I wanted to be a cartoonist when I sold my first nautically-themed gag to Yachting Monthly in 1976 – for £10…a fortune to a student back then! It took me another 7 years to fulfil my ambition and go freelance.
 
What cartoons and comics are you currently reading? Who are your favourite artists that the reader should check out?
The comics I read these days are called newspapers. For the more frivolous, Private Eye publishes more cartoons of all kinds – stand-alones, strips and topicals – than any other publication, so it is obligatory reading for any would-be cartoonist. The Spectator and the Oldie also publish great work by all the top gagsters. I have recently started a Twitter feed celebrating the work of the great Punch cartoonist Pont – who died in 1940 aged just 32. It’s called World Of Pont @PontWorld and is gaining some traction in cyberspace – and there are many other cartoon Twitter feeds out there, promoting the work of my great colleagues in ink.

By our blogger in residence Claire Madge

0

Dredd @ 45

The Cartoon Museum is currently celebrating the 45th anniversary of the first appearance of Judge Dredd, the futuristic lawman (created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra) who made his debut in issue two of 2000 AD, ‘the galaxy’s greatest comic’, in February 1977. Our ‘In Focus’ display concentrates on some of the different artistic methods utilised by Dredd illustrators, from simple pen and ink through to the digital techniques employed by many today.

Carlos Ezquerra – I Hate Christmas (1993)


In the mid-22nd century, Dredd is a law enforcement officer on the streets of Mega-City One, a gigantic urban conurbation that takes up most of the eastern coast of the USA. The Judges are at once judge, jury and occasionally executioner, and Dredd is the most implacable of them all; “I am the law”, as he is fond of telling the latest ‘perp’ (perpetrator) he is sending for an extended spell in ‘The Cubes’.
Whilst Dennis the Menace and Minnie the Minx might vie for being Britain’s most iconic humour comic characters, Judge Dredd is undeniably the icon of our sci-fi adventure comics. Some have cited Dan Dare in this regard but whilst certainly a notable character, he lacked the longevity and enduring appeal that Dredd has enjoyed.

Henry Flint – The Pack (1996)


When we read our favourite superhero comics from across the pond, we feel we get to know the characters, we are privy to their inner thoughts and emotions. Spider-Man worries about his Aunt May and how he’ll pay next month’s bills; Batman’s war on crime is spurred by the devastating murder of his parents. Dredd is simply Dredd. Thought-balloons never inform the reader what he is thinking or feeling, he is simply a monolithic figure of justice. In Mega-City 1 the law is truly faceless – in forty-five years, Dredd has never been shown without his helmet and he has never softened his hard-line approach to lawbreakers. The appeal for readers – many of whom have stayed with the strip since its inception – lies in Dredd’s stoic reaction to the chaotic characters he defeats every week, such as the psychopathic cyborg Mean Machine, sky-surfing graffiti artist Chopper, martial arts assassin Stan Lee(!), the fearsome Judge Death – an extra-dimensional entity that considers life itself to be a crime, and literally hundreds of others.

Tom Foster. 1986 cover


Of course, Judge Dredd’s 45th anniversary also represents four and a half decades of 2000 AD, which still appears on newsagents’ shelves every week and still enjoys strong sales at a time when most other fondly-remembered British comics have disappeared. 2000 AD joins Commando and Beano as one of the three longest-lasting comics in the UK, and long may it continue.

Steve Marchant
Learning Officer / Comic Art Curator at The Cartoon Museum

0

Stephen College – A Cartoonist Executed

British politicians today like to be seen to have a sense of humour and they find that laughter is the best reaction to the ridicule and insults dished out by cartoonists like The Cartoon Museum trustees Steve Bell and Martin Rowson. But it wasn’t always like that. Steve and Martin’s predecessors had to be careful not to end up in gaol. One man was actually hung, drawn and quartered for treasonous acts including making prints that attacked the ruling elite.

Stephen College was a talented carpenter whose work can still be seen in the elaborate panelling at Stationers’ Hall in the City of London. He was a radical supporter of the Protestant cause in the late 1600s when the whole of Europe was divided between powerful Protestant and Roman Catholic states. England was Protestant, but the next in line to the throne was the Catholic Duke of York. Would he bring the country into an alliance with the powerful Louis XIV of France? The fear was that the hard-fought rights of the people in religion and much else would be crushed.

College was active in the campaign to exclude the Duke from the throne. He made models to be burned in violent anti-Catholic demonstrations, wrote satirical ballads that he performed in pubs and coffee houses and made prints that attacked the Duke and his supporters. By 1681 matters had come to a head and College was arrested. He was found guilty of treason in a highly political trial and on 31 August he was executed.

According to Dorothy George, the great 20th-century historian of satirical prints and cartoons, College’s prints ‘have the distinction of being the only ones to figure in an English trial for treason’. Like any political print the details are hard to interpret even a short time after the event – let alone 340 years later – and it may be easier to look at details separately, like a comic strip. One print that caused a stir was entitled A Prospect of a Popish Successor Displayed by Hell-bred Cruelty, Popish Villainy, Strange Divinity, intended Slavery, Old England’s Misery &c.

The Duke (nick-named ‘Mack’ because he was High Commissioner of Scotland) is shown as half-devil.

This is how he will ‘govern’ Protestants – burn them alive.

Another half-and-half figure – Pope and Archbishop – will pardon ‘Plotters, Traitors, Murderers …’ and push good Protestant clergy out of the Church of England.

Other priests will ride off to Rome.

Meanwhile London burns (Roman Catholics were blamed for the Great Fire of 1666) and the ‘Provost House’ at Edinburgh will be next.

Looking on with pleasure is a Jesuit priest petting a spotted dog called Touzer – this was the royalist journalist and press censor Roger L’Estrange, known as the ‘Devil’s Bloodhound’.

But an angel flies down with a sword of vengeance and a crown of victory for a devout puritanical clergyman who prays for deliverance ‘from a Popish Successor’. He is ‘shaken but not removed’

In 1685 the Duke succeeded to the throne as King James II. His reign lasted for less than four years. In 1689 his Protestant daughter, Mary, and her husband, the Dutch prince William, were offered the throne as joint monarchs. A Bill of Rights was passed that gave parliament control of legislation.

Post written by Sheila O’Connell – The Cartoon Museum Trustee

0

‘A little spit and polish’ – Conservation of the Roy Hattersley Spitting Image puppet

One of the most popular objects in the Cartoon Museum’s collection is a Spitting Image puppet of Roy Hattersley, complete with spit pipe!

Spitting Image, was a satirical puppet show which ran from 1984 to 1996, at its peak it was watched by 15 million people. Roy proved a popular character, in 2007 Hattersley even praised the puppet for putting the ‘spit’ in ‘Spitting Image’. The show returned in 2020 with new puppets including Donald Trump and Greta Thunberg on subscription service BritBox.

Although many museums have been closed over the pandemic, collections still need to be cared for as they can deteriorate over time. With thanks to a conservation grant, Roy has been off for a little ‘tlc’. In this blog, we find out more about the work involved in conserving this complex object.

Answers by Janie Lightfoot Textiles Conservation Team

How is the puppet constructed?
The Spitting Image caricature of Roy Hattersley is a life-size puppet made of a polyurethane foam main structure and painted latex foam for the figurative features, such as the face and the hands.

The puppet is completed with clothing, hair, glass or plastic eyes, plastic tubes and metal wires to perform the spitting and blinking features of the caricature. The various components head, torso, arms and hands are joined together by the means of metal rods bolted together and mounted on and a stainless-steel mannequin stand.


How do you approach the conservation of foam? Is it a difficult material to work with?

The best conservation treatment for synthetic foams is always preventive conservation.
Foams differ from each other in their care needs. The exact recipe of each, including its range of additives, influences how it will age, even the pigment used to colour an otherwise identical object can cause objects to age differently.

There are no standard interventive processes for foams. Interventive treatments present risks of further damage to objects due to potential reaction between treatment and object.
We base our approach on sound research in the field and thorough testing before carrying out any treatments. It’s also important sourcing materials that are conservation grade and have proofed aging qualities.

Have you ever conserved a puppet-like this before?

Yes, we have been fortunate enough to work on three other Spitting Image puppets – Margaret Thatcher, David Steel and Charles Kennedy for The Palace of Westminster

Could you explain some of the ethical decisions around conservation – Why stabilisation and prevention is favoured over replacing parts of a museum object?

Conservation seeks to avoid causing further harm, and stabilising and preventing further loss of significance, including that which is historic, cultural or artistic. Any actions should allow for future re-treatment and remain as reversible as possible.

Restoration is bringing back an object to a former position, which removes any trace of the passage of change and the elimination often of the social history of the object.

What was the most difficult part of the conservation process of this object?

The research on conservation of plastic is relatively new and on-going. Coming up with the right approach and materials to stabilise the degraded and powdering foam was quite challenging. Due to the crumbling nature of the foam, it was important to attempt to consolidate as deeply as possible, preferably throughout the entire thickness of the foam. The adhesive needed to be strong enough to withstand minimal handling while retaining the original flexibility, there were many aspects to consider.

How many hours have you spent working on the object?

The actual treatment of the puppet took around 36 hours on the bench plus the conservation of the clothing. This was preceded by hours of thorough analysis of the condition to narrow down the treatment options, testing of selected approach and materials, and preparation work, before starting the actual treatment.

What part of the process did you enjoy most when working on this puppet?

Observing the original material responding positively to the treatment, especially during the consolidation of the highly degraded foam, was the most fascinating part of the project and the one I found the most enjoyable. As there isn’t a foam equal to another, the reaction to a conservation treatment always retains a certain degree of unpredictability…and mystery.

By Claire Madge
The Cartoon Museum blogger in residence

With thanks to Janie Lightfoot Textiles.
Conservation generously facilitated by ICON’s Collections Care Stimulus Fund, made possible through the generous support of the Radcliffe Trust and others.

0

February Director’s blog

Welcome back! This blog has been absent for a few months but having returned after our Christmas break with a fantastic new Dredd @ 45 In Focus exhibition, this is the perfect time to get back to blogging!


Dredd @ 45 is a capsule exhibition in our In Focus space and celebrates the 45th anniversary of Judge Dredd – one of the most iconic comic book characters in the world. Dredd first appeared in 1977 in the pages of Prog 2 of 2000 AD and was created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra. Since his creation, Dredd’s design has remained pretty much the same – but the way he has been drawn has evolved, as artistic techniques have improved. In fact, some of the digital skills and tools used by comic book artists today could easily have featured in the pages of 2000 AD as futuristic sci-fi tech! From the physical, cut-and-stick techniques utilized in the 1970s, to the crisp lines of the 1980s and the acetate overlays and detailed inking of the 1990s, to the introduction of digital techniques in the 2000s, Judge Dredd has stood steadfast as the world of comic creation has changed around him. Dredd is always different, but always the same. I spoke about the exhibition and the story behind it on the 2000 AD Thrillcast with my colleagues Steve Marchant, so find that at your favourite podcast dispenser!


In other news, we held Cartoon Conference 2022 in early February. Cartoonists and comic artists joined us for a day of talks from experts in the field, including Martin Rowson of the Guardian, Nicola Solomon of the Society of Authors, and comics laureate Stephen L Holland. Attendees also had time to chat and network, meeting colleagues to discuss ideas. In a profession that can often be isolating and lonely, I feel it is important that the museum creates a space for creators to meet and learn, and leave with new information and ideas that help them to boost their careers and art. For those who were unable to attend, our team live-tweeted throughout the day. We are already in the process of planning next year’s event – so watch this space!


After the dark winter of omicron, things are looking brighter as 2022 starts to get going. It has been lovely to see people through the door each day, enjoying the galleries and getting involved in the Laughter Lab exhibition. We have been gearing up for some exciting activities 2022, including rolling out our successful Life Under Lockdown project once again in local youth clubs, and developing exciting new offers for our neurodiverse visitors including relaxed opening events starting in March. We were very grateful to the Foyle Foundation and Young Westminster Foundation for their support in delivering this work, and look forward to creating new ways to make our visitors excited to pick up a pencil and draw a cartoon. If you want to keep up to date with all our news and events throughout the year, make sure you sign up for our mailing list!

0

A-Z of LGBTQ Comics / Jack Shoulder

Jack Shoulder is a museum professional who began volunteering at the Cartoon Museum at the beginning of his career about 10 years ago and he has a passion for all things comic-related. This February for LGBT History Month he has been sharing on Twitter his A-Z of LGBTQ Comics.

Jack’s museum work has focussed on LGBTQ history and heritage including being part of the team at the V&A who run award-winning LGBTQ tours. He has recently completed a masters in Queer History at Goldsmith’s University looking at the way museums interact with queer history and heritage and how those histories are presented to school groups.

Why did you decide to do an A-Z of LGBTQ Comics?

“I have been a massive comic book nerd since I was very little, I picked up my first comic which was a Beano or Dandy when I was 8 or 9 years old but it was superhero comics that really grabbed my attention.

I always enjoyed the X-Men more than other superheroes and as I got older I figured out why. The X-Men are mutants who are born with powers that set them aside from the rest of humanity, this kind of otherness has meant they have become key metaphors for various marginalised communities.

One lens that is really easy to explore with the X-Men is looking at them as a metaphor for the LGBTQ community – it is something we are born with, a queen identity is intersectional – you can be all sorts of things and fit under the ‘queer umbrella’. Growing up this really spoke to me as I felt like an outsider, trying to figure myself out.

It is LGBT+ History Month but LGBT+ history doesn’t just pop up for one month. The focus this year is ‘politics in art’- comics and superheroes can definitely be political. In the 1930s covers of Captain America comics had him punching Hitler in the face. There are lots of critiques of conflict like the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 70s and in the 90s there were one or two comics that explicitly explored the AIDS crisis.

I decided to do an A-Z format because it is an interesting way to look at comic history you are not bound by chronologies. Some letters are harder than others which really encourages deeper research.”

Was it difficult to get together the whole A-Z?

“I am mostly a Marvel fan-boy, I dip in and out of DC Comics but I wanted to focus mostly on those two publishing houses, they are the most well-known it is then easier to explain who the characters are as there is usually a basic understanding from the general reader.

It was difficult pulling out some characters because there is a lot of queer coding going on. They might not have officially come out as an LGBTQ character but there is usually some sub-text or queer vibes. There is also what the writers are trying to do with a character- were the writers or artists themselves LGBTQ? – the identities of the writers and artists widens the pool I have drawn from.

Within that there is also the question of what they are allowed to show on panel. For a long time the Comics Code Authority policed what was on display in comics so you couldn’t show any homosexuality and that is where the coding comes in. You can see this with a character introduced in the 70s called Mystique, and Destiny– her ‘very close friend’. They raise a character called Rogue and she refers to them as her ‘Mums’. So we can see a same-sex parental unit, we can see a queer family but they don’t necessarily call it that. They have been part of the Marvel Universe since the 1970s but it was only in 2019 that we got to see an actual kiss on the page.

Trying to unpick all of those details, who is canonically queer, who has queer vibes and express that in a tweet took a bit of time.”

It was also important for me to think about representation with the A-Z, comics are often seen as monolithically white, I wanted to show how diverse the cast and creative teams are to disrupt that stereotypical image of who we think consumes comic book superhero culture. The success of the Blank Panther movie shows there is a real thirst for diverse storytelling.”

Have you got a favourite in your A-Z?

“I have a couple of characters I have real soft spots for – that would be Wiccan and Hulkling who were initially part of the Young Avengers. They have been an established couple even since their first appearance, it wasn’t explicitly said in the early appearances but you could see it in the narrative. I was reading those in my late teens at the same age that they were and there was a lot that resonated with my life. I have grown up with them and seen those big emotional moments with them and they have always felt very fleshed out to me.”

Did you find anything surprising when doing your research for the A-Z?

“There were some surprises and that was often with what was going on with the writers. There were some connections that I had forgotten about. The letter ‘C’ is represented by Christian Cooper, he worked with Marvel as a writer and an associate editor in the 90s and he spear headed North Star’s coming out which was a big thing back in 1992 (Alpha Flight issue 106). He has been really involved in some of the LGBTQ milestones in Marvel’s history. In 2020 there was a story that went viral after a white woman in Central Park accused a black man who was bird watching of being aggressive and falsely called the police on him, that guy happened to be Christian Cooper. In the A-Z I am talking about these people as creatives and what they have done for LGBTQ representation comics, but these people have impacted real life in multiple ways, in this case in particular, around the conversations we are having about ‘Black Lives Matter’ and he has actually produced a graphic novel about that experience.

How did you feel the LGBTQ language has evolved over time in comic culture?

It was important to me to include Grant Morrison’s quote in the A-Z. Here is a writer who specialises in Sci-Fi and non-normative bodies, someone who is used to going out there with their writing, it struck me that they didn’t feel they had access to words to describe themself. They live in this world where people can shape-shift but they didn’t feel they had the words. It made me reflect on how we describe identities, how we describe ourselves, all of the nuance that we are. Seeing the vocabulary around LGBTQ developing means that people are able to describe themselves and really finding those words and there is a real power in doing that.

Claire Madge
The Cartoon Museum blogger

You can follow Jack’s A-Z of LGBTQ Comics across February 2022 on Twitter @JackShoulder by following the hashtag #AtoZofLGBTQComics with one letter released each day.

0

Fougasse – notes by Richard Pope

Kenneth Bird was an engineer who was severely wounded in the Great War and took up drawing cartoons for a living. In the 1920s it wasn’t quite respectable to be a cartoonist, so – like many of his fellows at the time – he took a pen name. “Fougasse” is the French word for the huge mines that were used in the Great War to destroy the underground tunnels and galleries that the other side was constructing. Bird said that the French version was unreliable; you never knew whether or not it was going to go off. He likened this “hit-or-miss” approach to his cartoons, which he thought didn’t always work.

Fougasse’s early work was quite detailed but as time went on, he refined his drawing style to achieve the maximum effect from a few simple lines. Despite their simplicity, his cartoons were excellent at conveying movement, like the example of his later work below. Many of his cartoons were related to cars, and the notice in this cartoon reflects the time before standardised road signs were introduced in the 1930s, when most road signs were provided by motoring organisations or local authorities. There was no overall design or pattern to them, and the wording varied widely.

Fougasse is best known for the series of poster cartoons that he drew for the Ministry of Information during the Second World War, all of which carried the catchy slogan “Careless talk costs lives”. He did this entirely free of charge. Fougasse was an intellectual and thought deeply about the best way to influence people. It’s not clear whether he actually came up with the slogan, but it was a wonderful contrast to the very stuffy “Keep calm and carry on” wartime poster that the government printed in the millions, but never distributed because it was too impersonal and authoritarian. Fougasse used handwriting, not capitals, for characters’ words; this brought a personal touch to his work and helped the public to identify with it. If you study the capitals of “CARELESS TALK COSTS LIVES”, you can see that they too are hand-written, not printed. His red border was hand-drawn rather than done with a ruler, so the whole thing had an informal and welcoming air. Above all, humour works where straight instruction or preaching doesn’t.

Fougasse did a lot of work for Punch magazine – more than 1,800 cartoons in all. From 1937-1949 he was art editor of the magazine, then became the overall editor until he retired in 1953. In 1956 he published The Good Tempered Pencil, a thorough review of the development of cartoons from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century.

Richard Pope
January 2022

Book references: Careless talk costs lives – Fougasse and the art of public information by James Taylor, published by Conway 2010, ISBN 978 1 8448 6129 3

You have been warned!- a complete guide to the road by Fougasse & McCullough, first published in 1935 by Methuen, available in facsimile from the British Library, ISBN 978 0 7123 5899 6

0

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com

Up ↑