Cartoons to the rescue!

Cartoons can be used to lift any subject matter that is complex, serious, dry or any of the above. Here is a selection of recent cartoons from business publications that cover insurance, law, technology, corporate finance, waste management and the health service.

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And here's an excerpt from some live drawing during a talk at a business conference. The subject here was cyber-security, another potentially tricky one ...

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Humorous illustration: No punchline required

Humorous illustration is slightly different to joke, or gag, cartoons: you use a funny or odd scenario, usually to illustrate an article in a magazine, newspaper or website, without necessarily having a punchline, as you would in a joke cartoon.

Sometimes these are wordless or they may have words within them as part of the drawing, but they generally don't have a caption or speech bubble.

Here are some examples from the Law Society Gazette.

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Legal matters: Some law cartoons

Here are some cartoons drawn for the Benchmarks column of the Law Society's Gazette, the trade magazine for solicitors. These always accompany difficult and often very dry subjects, but you can have a bit of fun with them. That's what the cartoon is there for, after all.

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Private Eye cartoon: Retro humour

Sometimes cartoons come in a flash of inspiration. Much of the coverage of the trials of various TV and radio stars has featured multiple photographs of the accused, which led me to think, "It's like a bad episode of Celebrity Squares" ... and then quickly reach for my notebook.

Only after doing a bit of picture research for the cartoon did I discover that Celebrity Squares may indeed be due for a revival.

I can almost draw barristers and judges with my eyes closed, as I have drawn cartoons for the Law Society Gazette for many years.

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Law cartoon: Don't fence me in

This cartoon was commissioned to accompany a law magazine article about boundary disputes. Taking things to a ridiculous degree is always a good way to get a joke out of something.

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New year cartoon: Happy 2012!

I do a lot of Christmas cartoons, as we have seen, but not so many New Year ones. This was drawn for the current issue of a law magazine

Some context: CPD stands for continuing professional development. Lawyers, and other professions, have to do a certain number of CPD hours in a year, and giving lectures counts towards them, as does attending conferences, getting articles published etc.

It was continuing professional development for me too: I don't think I've used Photoshop effects to draw fireworks before, and they came out pretty well, I think.

Happy new year, everyone!

Cartoon advent calendar:Day 7. The accused

"It is alleged that you did pose as a clergyman in order to carry out sham marriage ceremonies ..."

After the punnery of yesterday's advent cartoon, this one is possibly a little more sophisticated -- by which, I mean that some people didn't get it. Private Eye did though, and it was in the magazine last Christmas.

Royston's cartoon book: it's got no Christmas cartoons in it but the one on the cover does have some snow in it

Cartoon advent calendar:Day 6. Clause and effect

"The lawyer was suspicious of all the dodgy Clauses."

This was a cartoon for a law firm's Christmas card from 2006, though it was reused again this year by another law firm that had seen it on my portfolio site. Which was nice.

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Debt cartoon: Plus some cartooning links

Here's a cartoon published recently in a law magazine I work for, drawn to accompany an article about insolvency.

There's not much to say about this one, but if you are craving lots of words on the subject of cartooning from me -- and why wouldn't you be! -- check out the Bloghorn, online diary of the Professional Cartoonists Organisation, which I write for regularly.

Subjects I've written about recently include a time when cartoons played the role of Twitter, an art exhibition that saw cartoons sneak in the back door, and a 30-year-old postcard cartoon revived on TV. There's also a review of Steve Bell at the Cartoon Museum, a piece on the process of cartoonists covering for other cartoonists, and an article singing the virtues of the humble gag cartoon, which is in no way just a plug for my book. Cough.

Plus, there are lots of other cartooning articles, links and opinion pieces by my colleagues Matt Buck, Alex Hughes and Rob Murray. Go and read it all now!

Law cartoon: Rhyme and reason

"I'd say you have a watertight case there, boys"

Here's a cartoon I drew recently for a law magazine. Combining contemporary issues with nursery rhymes, fairly tales etc is a technique much used by cartoonists. This is another example, and another. And so it goes ...

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Family cartoon: Life imitates art

When this Reader's Digest cartoon was published last summer, I showed it to my son as it had been inspired by playing Hangman with him. After I explained the joke (he is only six, after all) he suggested that we play a game of Whole Life Tariff! So we did.

I mention this now as earlier in the week I found the game on a piece of paper, while sorting through a pile of receipts. Here it is:


My son – who is not called Josh, by the way! – did not get the answer (below, upside-down of course) so the prisoner spends his life in jail. Humane, but not quite as much fun as Hangman.

Answer:
(ɥɔɐǝq ǝɥʇ ʇɐ ǝɹǝʍ ǝʍ) ɹıɐɥɔ ʞɔǝp

Royston's portfolio website

Restaurant cartoon: A second helping

Here's a cartoon that was in The Spectator last week and makes a re-appearance this week in the media digest magazine The Week.

I tend to find that, broadly speaking, my cartoons fall into two categories: there are the ones that are based on observations of life, they're usually topical (in the sense that they are about the times we live in, rather than about this week's news) and, at the risk of sounding a little pretentious, there's a kind of "truth" to them. Then there are the ones that are just a bit silly, a throwaway line, sometimes a pun, a play on words, or a visual pun. "Soup of tomorrow" falls into the latter category!

To elaborate further, here's an example of one from the "observation of life" category ...

And here's one from the "throwaway line" category ...


I suppose, on balance, I find it more rewarding when I come up with cartoons in the first category. But I try not to take myself too seriously (a good idea if you're a cartoonist!) so it's always fun to do the "boom-boom" gags too.

Cartoons by Royston

Private Eye cartoon: Summer at last!

Private Eye magazine took this cartoon some months ago. I assume that the reason it only appeared this week is that it kind of depends on fine weather! It would have looked a bit silly if they had run the cartoon amid all the gags about rain and floods. Obviously I knew it was a non-topical joke when I sent it, therefore it would have a longer shelf-life, but for a while it became kind of anti-topical. Anyway, we've had some fine weather for a short while at least – been out enjoying it myself today – so finally it gets its, er, moment in the sun.

I regularly draw cartoons for the Law Society's Gazette, so I can draw barristers, judges etc with my eyes closed.

Planning cartoon

The government says it plans more public consultation and greater openness on planning matters, while at the same time promising to speed up the whole process. How can this possibly be done, you may well ask. Here's my take on it, in a cartoon drawn for a property law magazine:


I draw cartoons regularly for several business and trade magazines. And I find that the often dry, serious subject matter usually lends itself quite well to cartoons. Whereas if someone asks you to come up with a cartoon for a story that is already funny or bizarre in some way, that's a far greater challenge.

By the way, I know there's only three legs on that chair. There were four, but it looked cluttered and distracting so I took the fourth one out! The perspective is out of whack too. But it matters not a jot, because it's a cartoon. That's the beauty of the artform. If anyone questions it you say, "Tut, That's my style..."

Give 'em a cat cartoon

People love cat cartoons. And I find I do more gags about them than any other animal. Maybe it's because cats are a lot like humans: i.e. lazy, selfish and devious. And I say that as a cat person. These were recently in Reader's Digest.