ISSUE 413 – SEPTEMBER 2008 TheThe Jester Jester LATE SUMMER BRRR! BIT NIPPY TIME FOR A BARBECUE ISSUE Bill Ritchie CUTTINGS DACS SAY DRAW EVENTS DIARY GALORE YOUR RIGHTS UPDATE SIZZLING BBQ IN PRAISE OF CLIVE COLLINS CARTOONS GILES COUNCIL OF WAR! TheNewsletter Newsletter of of the the Cartoonists’ Cartoonists’ Club Club of Greatof Great Britain Britain THE JESTER ISSUE 413 – SEPTEMBER 2008 CCGB ONLINE: WWW.CCGB.ORG.UK The Jester The CCGB Committee The Chair Issue 413 - September 2008 Published 11 times a year by The Cartoonists! Club Dear Members, of Great Britain Please can you do a swift car- Chairman: Terry Christien Well what about the Olympics? I toon depicting what these rights 020-8892 3621 and 'er indoors have been com- pletely absorbed not only by the mean to you and send it/them to [email protected] sheer brilliance of the competi- Artist's Resale Right as per the Secretary: Jed Stone tors but the excellence of the write up on page ....BY 22nd 01173 169 277 glossy TV coverage. I know it's SEPTEMBER - a big big thank [email protected] easy to be cynical about the you! Treasurer: Anne Boyd whole thing but if you've done Meanwhile, Pete Dredge is get- 01173 169 277 some sport in your own modest ting as many of you together as [email protected] way over the years, you've got to poss for a regional meeting on Membership Secretary: appreciate the whole mighty the 13th September in Notting- Jed Pascoe: 01767-682 882 individual effort. ham - join him why don't you. [email protected] I have observed over the years And meanwhile there's still the that sport is not the preserve of usual committee meeting on the first Tuesday 2nd Sept. Clive Collins: 01702-557 205 cartoonists who seem to prefer a little elbow lifting. Now in that And another one for the diary is [email protected] department, I reckon there the Big Draw this year at St Neil Dishington: 020-8505 0134 would be a few medals! Pancras Station on Saturday [email protected] I'll admit to the opening and October 18th - a chance to join Ian Ellery: 01424-718 209 closing ceremonies being a little the cartoonists' contribution. It [email protected] tedious - when you've seen one was excellent last year. And as it Graham Fowell: 0115-933 4186 firework, you've seen 'em all happens Pete Dredge is our [email protected] haven't you! contact man for this too. Helen Pointer: 01883-373 202 And the jury's out regarding the [email protected] 2012 games logo - but hey, it's Terry Christien Roy Nixon: 01245-256 814 different and it's not a fluffy ani- Mike Turner: 01206-798 283 mal! Andy Davey stepped into [email protected] the fray on the BBC's regional news where he was invited Steve Bright: 079 5270 3845 to suggest an alternative logo [email protected] and came up with a non fluffy Pete Dredge: 0115 981 0984 white elephant character - ooh mobile: 0788 421 1322 the satire - clever stuff though [email protected] Andy. Noel Ford: 01974 831468 Can I ask a favour from as [email protected] many of you as possible? As Tim Harries: 01633 780293 always our friends at DACS are [email protected] fighting for the rights of visual creators, this time in particular, Jester Editor they are campaigning on our Steve Willis behalf for our Resale Rights. So like writers of books and com- 01235 833 414 posers of music we are entitled [email protected] to decide who should benefit from our royalties following our death, such as family or a Front Cover: Bill Ritchie charity and it's due to be imple- Back Cover: Alex Noel Watson mented in 2010 but the govern- ment wants to delay things! 2 THE JESTER ISSUE 413 – SEPTEMBER 2008 CCGB ONLINE: WWW.CCGB.ORG.UK LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Dear Jester, We went to the Beano / Dandy bash - inspiring to say the least. These are real artists - true craftsmen, it is so amazing to see the real drawings pencil marks and covered up mistakes and all. These people are so gifted. I would love to buy one of these original page drawings to hang onto my wall to be inspired and encouraged by. I asked some- one if it was possible to buy an original drawing but it seems taboo - what a shame. Does anyone know how to acquire something like that - Desperate John Landers and Steve Bright fail to recognise each other at this Dan - Lord Snooty - Dennis the year!s AGM Menace - Bash Street Kids - Pansy Potter and all the other Dear Jester, family. Mind you, we would have wonderful characters - I used to missed each other had it not be obsessed by them. It was 'Tis a small world these British been for the eagle eyes of my reading them that gave me the Isles. A fact reinforced whilst lovelier and better half, Saman- inspiration and ambition to try to exploring the very nadir of it that tha, who managed to spot what be a cartoonist. is Land's End visitor centre (hav- both John and I had missed in This exhibition is a must for all ing bagged John o' Groats a few the throng that surrounded us. cartoonists, even more so for years back). Whilst enjoying a As John breezed past unnoticed the (not so good but trying) ones break in not-so-sunny Cornwall by me, Sam pulled me aside like me - it makes you want to a couple of weeks back, we and whispered loudly in my try harder. What a wonderful were thrilled and surprised in shell-like. "Look!" said she, experience, I am definitely going equal measure to almost literally "There's Steve Willis...". to see it again. bump into fellow CCGB mem- Bless her! Frank Canning ber, John Landers and his lovely Steve Bright CCGB Online Frank Holmes is out of hospi- to support an exhibition fea- cussion board to make deci- tal following a kidney opera- turing the work of Ern Shaw in sions, thereby minimising the tion. From everyone...all the Hull. If you have any thoughts number of meetings and leav- best for a comfortable and about how we should mark 50 ing more time to be sociable! speedy recovery Frank. years of the CCGB, we would First topic for discussion is love to hear from you. “How many committee meet- Online the CCGB committee ings should there be in a are giving thought to the Finally, the CCGB committee year...2, 4 or 6?” We!ll let you club!s 50th anniversary cele- are now using an online dis- know the result. brations. The club also plan 3 THE JESTER ISSUE 413 – SEPTEMBER 2008 CCGB ONLINE: WWW.CCGB.ORG.UK Come off it Clive! King Arthur Is Also French Interestingly for cartoonists, he spread conquests. A massive I hugely enjoy Clive Collins' was killed while besieging a cas- equestrian statue of this mighty tongue-in-cheek rants, but at tle very near to Saint-Juste-le- warrior stands in Paris, beside times he does love to trail his Martel where the press cartoon the Cathedral of Notre Dame. coat. On account of his wild Salon is held every year. One of Charlemagne's bravest statements about King Arthur in The 12th Century French poet, knights, Roland (Of Roland and the August Jester, his coat, I'm Chretieu de Troyes was the Oliver fame) became a great afraid deserves to be jumped author of several metrical ro- French hero of popular legend. upon. mances based on the Arthurian He and his entire force were fi- The French can't claim "our" legends and one introduced the nally slaughtered by a numeri- King Arthur, because he is al- legend of the Holy Grail. cally superior Moorish army in ready theirs. The Arthurian leg- Geoffrey of Monmouth (12th an ambush in the Pass of Ron- ends have been part of French Century), the British chronicler, cesvalles in the Pyrenees. Ac- literature and folk culture since assembled some of the legends cording to legend, Roland blew the early middle ages. of Arthur, giving them a 12th his famous horn for the last time When Sir Thomas Malory wrote Century setting. And so, like the in a vain attempt to summon his "bloody epic poem" (Clive's ancient legend of Tristan and reinforcements. words!) printed by Caxton in Isolde, the Arthurian legends France has a profusion of popu- 1485, the work consisted of have existed in both countries lar heroes and heroines, includ- Malory's adaptations from for several centuries. ing Joan of Arc, to name but one French 13th Century legends Some years ago in Camarthen, more. Indeed Robin Hood, written to idealize the medieval South Wales, a local worthy I champion of the oppressed code of chivalry. Hence Malory's met in the Blue Boar pub (much Saxons, could well have been French title "Morte d'Arthur". In frequented in his day by Dylan Norman French. One of the any case, French was in com- Thomas) told me that King Ar- strongest theories about his mon usage in England for centu- thur was asleep in the depths of identity says that he was Robert ries after the Norman Conquest, a nearby cave and would Fitzooth, Earl of Huntingdon, a particularly among the higher awaken again when Britain Norman who came to England in levels of society ("Honi soit qui needed him.