itt: cartoons abt uk politics that are bad cartoons

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I have a theory that the Daily Telegraph catoonist "BLOWER" is in fact BRANCO (see the bad US politics cartoons thread) doubling up on his income by working under a pseudonym

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2017/05/30/cartoon-30052017-large_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqgCXocDQF5kP7s3jSjli3eCH0-jRUT4rHK8EgtaGoQwQ.gif

soref, Sunday, 11 June 2017 16:25 (seven years ago)

is drawing a tortoise really that hard

devvvine, Sunday, 11 June 2017 16:27 (seven years ago)

I'm trying to parse that first cartoon, but no, it's not happening. I assume that it suggests that whatever Brexit happens it's bad for business, but suspect I've got that all wrong.

Dan Worsley, Sunday, 11 June 2017 16:32 (seven years ago)

grudging respect for the shamelessness of not bothering to work out a way to complete his Abbott and Costello pun and just drawing a big picture of Corbyn covering up the rest of the name

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2017/05/09/blower170507-large_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqeo_i_u9APj8RuoebjoAHt0k9u7HhRJvuo-ZLenGRumA.jpg

soref, Sunday, 11 June 2017 16:34 (seven years ago)

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello? More like DUD ABBOTT and LOSER CO(rbyn)STELLO, right? *submits cartoon to Daily Telgraph, slopes off to spend rest of the day in pub*

soref, Sunday, 11 June 2017 16:37 (seven years ago)

haha yes i have a full-size version of the first cartoon open in my tabs, i keep going back to see if the penny's dropped, but no, it is more mysterious than ever

most of his other cartoons are just ugly clumsy and obvious -- he's been getting work for years! -- but there's a sort of wtf poetry to this one

mark s, Sunday, 11 June 2017 16:55 (seven years ago)

wot no Mac?

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/06/08/01/41350AB800000578-0-image-a-34_1496880366602.jpg

Camaraderie at Arms Length, Sunday, 11 June 2017 17:02 (seven years ago)

90% sure he has just recaptioned an old cartoon there

Camaraderie at Arms Length, Sunday, 11 June 2017 17:03 (seven years ago)

ok not to be caot defend-a-mac, but that is a serviceable and well drawn* cartoon making a political point i disagree with

*obviously he's always been a giles knock-off so i hate him for that reason**
**my mum drew my attention to how well mac draws curly telephone flexes, which is an odd thing to notice, but once you do, she was right, he was good at it, and perhaps still could be were there a need

mark s, Sunday, 11 June 2017 17:19 (seven years ago)

How to tell if you've drawn a really good cartoon:

http://i.imgur.com/GkhuTA9.png

pplains, Sunday, 11 June 2017 17:25 (seven years ago)

Blower is esp. terrible.

Punnet of the Grapes (Tom D.), Sunday, 11 June 2017 17:42 (seven years ago)

it's weird, i know people irl whose mental landscape re: politics is accurately illustrated by these guys

and the arguments are near identical to the stuff Tressell mocks in The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists, lickspittles are tenacious

There's got to be a Corbyn after (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 11 June 2017 17:48 (seven years ago)

a year old now yet suddenly relevant AND badly drawn
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DCC-IwAW0AAGPcj.jpg:large

mark s, Sunday, 11 June 2017 19:27 (seven years ago)

Brookes also drew this oddly terrifying Boris/Gove cartoon:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CmQw0nlUsAAOmra.jpg

soref, Sunday, 11 June 2017 20:10 (seven years ago)

Boris bearing uncanny resemblance to Rod Liddle in top panel.

Dan Worsley, Sunday, 11 June 2017 20:13 (seven years ago)

Not enough Martin Rowson on this thread.

Bernie Lugg (Ward Fowler), Monday, 12 June 2017 08:06 (seven years ago)

posting cartoons from low circulation trot newspapers feels a little like breaking a butterfly on a wheel, but I was impressed by the number of captions on this one

http://i.imgur.com/BjRupxd.png

soref, Saturday, 17 June 2017 23:09 (seven years ago)

gerald scarfe is bad not good:
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/media/images/81420000/jpg/_81420916_geraldscarfe.jpg

mark s, Sunday, 18 June 2017 12:38 (seven years ago)

britain's last-ditch stunt: the davis-yeltsin switcheroo

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DCoaEnuXcAAcbe1.jpg:large

mark s, Monday, 19 June 2017 09:37 (seven years ago)

i think that's victor garber at the eu end of the table

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNTQxODYxNzE3NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTM4MTMwMg@@._V1_UY317_CR20,0,214,317_AL_.jpg

cast your vote for fully automated gay space luxury communism (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 19 June 2017 09:39 (seven years ago)

posting cartoons from low circulation trot newspapers feels a little like breaking a butterfly on a wheel, but I was impressed by the number of captions on this one

http://i.imgur.com/BjRupxd.png

― soref, Saturday, June 17, 2017 4:09 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

some fine art brut here

-_- (jim in vancouver), Monday, 19 June 2017 16:55 (seven years ago)

polly toyn

mark s, Monday, 19 June 2017 16:57 (seven years ago)

i like how the cartoonist just went ahead and wrote "shit" on the pile of things he hated

illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Monday, 19 June 2017 16:59 (seven years ago)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DDAKNPxWsAAEKGR.jpg:large

mark s, Friday, 23 June 2017 12:01 (seven years ago)

bit sad abt nosferatu, he did bad things but he doesn't deserve this

mark s, Friday, 23 June 2017 12:02 (seven years ago)

bad cartoon about Europe from 1989

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/2f/6d/49/2f6d49ea9ea51c4bd0ab05b1b7fbea2d.jpg

soref, Thursday, 6 July 2017 15:11 (seven years ago)

Hallmark of bad cartoons = everything has to be labelled. I know this has been said before, but they keep doing it. Are there editors out there encouraging this?

Also, am yet to see a successful rendition of Michael Gove. He is somehow beyond caricature,

mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Thursday, 6 July 2017 15:35 (seven years ago)

did you not see the cartoon above portraying him as a fish eating Boris Jonson's head or

soref, Thursday, 6 July 2017 15:56 (seven years ago)

brookes is just drawing pob

mark s, Thursday, 6 July 2017 15:58 (seven years ago)

drawing him as pob is ok because he does look quite like pob, but it's not enough because he is also much more repulsive than pob. I can see them going for a cross between pob and a human, whereas the real thing looks like a cross between pob and a body from the haunted swamp.

mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Thursday, 6 July 2017 16:42 (seven years ago)

This is surely the canonical Gove?
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oHfzDFoVDvk/UEYRaaaY5EI/AAAAAAAAF9M/afSgSxxnk_0/s1600/Stephen-Collins-17-March--001.jpg

Stevie T, Thursday, 6 July 2017 16:47 (seven years ago)

Basically Pob crossed with Mr Bean.

weird echo of the falsies (Tom D.), Thursday, 6 July 2017 16:53 (seven years ago)

Steve Bell belongs on here, though some will I'm sure defend him on the grounds of perserverence: "They don't get it... It's funny because it's not really a monkey, it's really George W Bush... Oh well, maybe next time."

Andrew Farrell, Friday, 7 July 2017 06:28 (seven years ago)

Hallmark of bad cartoons = everything has to be labelled

It's more that ppl like Cummings were steeped in the history of political cartooning, where labelling was as much a part of the style as thought balloons were in comic books. And as with thought balloons, labelling in political cartoons nowadays is very hard to pull off - it's become an 'ironic' device that yes, signals 'bad' cartooning.

Not to defend Cummings, whose work always lacked Mac's visually pleasing cartooning skills - though I guess the dour ugliness of Cummings' drawing style is editorially appropriate for the Express.

Bernie Lugg (Ward Fowler), Friday, 7 July 2017 07:52 (seven years ago)

I do think Cummings deserves some credit for the look of "never in all my days" indignation on the Sovereignty Dolphin

soref, Friday, 7 July 2017 08:01 (seven years ago)

Thatcher in a swimsuit is really disturbing me

more polls about food and reactionary art (Noodle Vague), Friday, 7 July 2017 08:52 (seven years ago)

cummings has a style, i always liked the thickness of his line (not well shown off in this example)

i will defend bell: he has a highly original symbolist imagination, which i think is a hard thing to retain after decades of turning out cartoons to order several times a week

(if he has flaws they are rarely the flaws of reach-down banality: i wd honestly rather an artist is drifting the outer reaches of his/her unconscious for insight and intuitive connection than hunkering down in the ante-room of cliche) (true he's sometimes very bad on the power dynamics of sex stuff: there be dragons in the outer reaches of yr unconscious)

mark s, Friday, 7 July 2017 09:24 (seven years ago)

i always enjoyed the pleasure cummings took in drawing brezhnev

mark s, Friday, 7 July 2017 09:25 (seven years ago)

I always stand by Steve Bell as an uncompromising angry leftist in a world of scumbags.

I also think that his bigger images often show him painting really well and evocatively. He has a good appreciation of art history and artistic method. And he is also a lucid and intelligent writer, better than many other people who write for the Guardian but can't draw.

the pinefox, Friday, 7 July 2017 09:27 (seven years ago)

he was rubbish on university challenge (alumni edition) though.

still have fond memories of the complete set of the collected 'If...' as a kid, 7 or 8 volumes, probably long term borrowed from my older brother or parents.

The XX pants (ledge), Friday, 7 July 2017 17:46 (seven years ago)

... there was a quotidian, almost cosy quality to its anarchic silliness, not unlike the young ones.

The XX pants (ledge), Friday, 7 July 2017 17:47 (seven years ago)

man at bar: lager lager lager lager lager lager lager 'n' a babycham
penguin: congratulations on your brilliant impression of a bus breaking down!

^ quality original material

The XX pants (ledge), Friday, 7 July 2017 17:51 (seven years ago)

Steve Bell is not bad as an artist, surely. I mean he has his own very distinctive style which works well.
He does keep doing things like this though

https://edinburgheye.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/stevebell_incest.jpg

mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 7 July 2017 20:11 (seven years ago)

I like If and Maggie's Farm

Never changed username before (cardamon), Friday, 7 July 2017 23:33 (seven years ago)

Steve Bell's debt to Robert Crumb + American underground comix seems more or less unique for a UK editorial cartoonist?

soref, Saturday, 8 July 2017 00:11 (seven years ago)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DEIO1g0XYAAJfvk.jpg

terrible + disablist cartoon in Osborne's Evening Standard shocker.

calzino, Saturday, 8 July 2017 13:40 (seven years ago)

three weeks pass...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DGOEdB6W0AAHrQr.jpg:large

mark s, Wednesday, 2 August 2017 18:26 (seven years ago)

quite like adams' angular style, this isn't a bad cartoon in the sense the o/p is a bad cartoon

obviously his politics are as bad as his grasp of what's going on in venezuela or indeed the labour party

mark s, Wednesday, 2 August 2017 18:29 (seven years ago)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EY7HY5oWoAAP_1G?format=jpg&name=medium

from today's Irish Times, oh no the dreaded Boris Dancers.

calzino, Tuesday, 26 May 2020 09:05 (five years ago)

two weeks pass...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EaJDwHeWAAE9B4b?format=jpg&name=900x900

calzino, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 10:54 (four years ago)

theyre giant waves but also they''re giant killer fish its, a metaphor

mark s, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 11:12 (four years ago)

there is probably the germ of a half decent idea for a cartoon there just completely bodged by a total hack!

calzino, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 11:15 (four years ago)

What' going on underneath Parliament there? Motorway junction across ploughed fields? A ribbon tied around the little green lump that Parliament's on?

Tim, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 11:19 (four years ago)

some of these lot do make Steve Bell look very good

calzino, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 11:22 (four years ago)

Marin Rownson in the Guardian just gets worse

fetter, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 14:51 (four years ago)

I demand an update where one of the waves is engulfing a slave trader’s statue

No mean feat. DaBaby (breastcrawl), Wednesday, 10 June 2020 14:56 (four years ago)

no no Ben is actually the name of the flag you see

nashwan, Wednesday, 10 June 2020 15:15 (four years ago)

https://i.imgur.com/7QX6bza.jpg

Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 24 June 2020 13:50 (four years ago)

but that is good!

calzino, Wednesday, 24 June 2020 13:54 (four years ago)

Well I was going to ask, looking at the person speaking on the left there, if the artist had ever seen a human head in profile before, but it now occurs to me that he's a dead ringer for Michael Gove

Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 24 June 2020 14:05 (four years ago)

top-tier acne-work

mark s, Wednesday, 24 June 2020 14:06 (four years ago)

do any living, shitting polypeds on this rock actually lift their left leg when they fart? I think that is hilarious: "I'm going to jolly well fire a gaseous blast of wind out of my rectum straight into tour face you cad, haw haw!" *lifts leg*

calzino, Wednesday, 24 June 2020 15:44 (four years ago)

another thing that is funny as fuck is that the portrait of the prince regent appears to be indignantly smelling the fart!

calzino, Wednesday, 24 June 2020 15:49 (four years ago)

(l-r)

Harvey Keitel, DeNiro, Scorsese. First audition for Mean Streets!

calzino, Wednesday, 24 June 2020 16:08 (four years ago)

two years pass...

not UK cartoon strictly but definitely a bad cartoon

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/c0736da5b611b5725ea7f487c90ef9e8b81e93d8/14_10_3006_1805/master/3006.jpg

Critique of the Goth Programme (Neil S), Tuesday, 1 November 2022 09:37 (two years ago)

wouldn't it make more sense for a bolsonaro saw to have overheated or got stuck or something before it has severed the trunk of a brazil tree? still wouldn't be good but maybe a bit less nonsensical

your original display name is still visible (Left), Tuesday, 1 November 2022 10:02 (two years ago)

has jennings ever done a good one?

your original display name is still visible (Left), Tuesday, 1 November 2022 10:02 (two years ago)

some of the others try and fail for depth but his stuff seems so surface that it actually hurts the point he wants to make if you try to read it as satire or metaphor

your original display name is still visible (Left), Tuesday, 1 November 2022 10:07 (two years ago)

That really really needed the Brazil flag there.

Fronted by a bearded Phil Collins (Tom D.), Tuesday, 1 November 2022 10:40 (two years ago)

it's ironic, because Bolsonaro liked to cut down trees, you see

Critique of the Goth Programme (Neil S), Tuesday, 1 November 2022 11:09 (two years ago)

lol gonna go against the grain (ha!) here and say that one's ok

Led By Honkies (Bananaman Begins), Tuesday, 1 November 2022 11:57 (two years ago)

one month passes...

rip off of an episode of Hancock's Half Hour I just listened to

Camaraderie at Arms Length, Wednesday, 14 December 2022 11:53 (two years ago)

THE RMT DOES NOT REPRESENT TRAIN DRIVERS are you listening Peter Brookes

Critique of the Goth Programme (Neil S), Wednesday, 14 December 2022 13:39 (two years ago)

three months pass...

going by their ages they might be mother and son? if so, they're no Matt and Edith Pritchett

soref, Sunday, 9 April 2023 20:13 (two years ago)

wait, there's another one https://www.theguardian.com/profile/seamus-jennings

(this guy's cartoons don't seem to be quite as bad tbf)

soref, Sunday, 9 April 2023 20:20 (two years ago)

If Ben is Nicola's son then I'm kind of impressed by the audacity of this one

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/04e2386fb0fdb31c80d7fb104a5d7ba5e8caab31/18_9_2998_1800/master/2998.jpg?width=1920&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=828ad5bb95d35b27564f96ed54bdc081

soref, Sunday, 9 April 2023 20:24 (two years ago)

just such ugly drawings, painful to look at

Camaraderie at Arms Length, Sunday, 9 April 2023 20:25 (two years ago)

eleven months pass...

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b663ff82ef304db5840231743aa8322e73e7c071/0_0_5126_3287/master/5126.jpg?width=1300&dpr=2&s=none

could be a whole separate thread for cartoons about UK politics that are weirdly horny

soref, Saturday, 23 March 2024 22:01 (one year ago)

two months pass...

I like it when they do these 'state of the nation' type ones

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2022/11/30/TELEMMGLPICT000318043273_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqnY32puTRmJBD0IQz1kt_ZW6qMEuv0qSVyX1bNcDmagk.jpeg?imwidth=960&imdensity=2

I'm a bit disappointed that so far I haven't seen any cartoons depicting the tories as dinosaurs gazing haplessly at an advancing meteor (labelled GENERAL ELECTION) but maybe there will be some before polling day

Platinum Penguin Pavilion (soref), Wednesday, 29 May 2024 08:58 (one year ago)

Interestingly, in that one dated 30/11/22, Blower seems to be predicting England's world cup exit at the hands of France, ten days before it happened

Ethinically Ambigaus (Bananaman Begins), Wednesday, 29 May 2024 09:08 (one year ago)

"smash the past"

mark s, Wednesday, 29 May 2024 10:06 (one year ago)

That's right

xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 29 May 2024 10:08 (one year ago)

There's a weird innocence to that second street scene cartoon. Though that partly might be because I misread it at first, thinking the people with the "OMG ITS THAT INFLUENCER" were referring to the vicar and/or Jesus and were running away

anvil, Wednesday, 29 May 2024 10:11 (one year ago)

lol CENSUS is IN THE BIN

Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 29 May 2024 10:16 (one year ago)

also what's going on here?

https://i.imgur.com/qV6O1e0.png

(studing this rich text to decode 2022 all over again)

mark s, Wednesday, 29 May 2024 10:24 (one year ago)

society is in the gutter

Critique of the Goth Programme (Neil S), Wednesday, 29 May 2024 10:29 (one year ago)

HARD looking BLOKES with POOFY DOGS

Ethinically Ambigaus (Bananaman Begins), Wednesday, 29 May 2024 10:30 (one year ago)

XL bullies hadn't been invented yet

xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 29 May 2024 10:32 (one year ago)

... EU colours too.

Poets Win Prizes (Tom D.), Wednesday, 29 May 2024 10:33 (one year ago)

(xp)

Poets Win Prizes (Tom D.), Wednesday, 29 May 2024 10:33 (one year ago)

I thought maybe the dog walker was a self-portrait of the artist, and he looks angry because he's appalled by all the tawdriness and vulgarity he sees around him, but I found a photo of Blower and he doesn't look like that

Platinum Penguin Pavilion (soref), Wednesday, 29 May 2024 10:36 (one year ago)

please ma'am crush me under your gigantic shoe

Critique of the Goth Programme (Neil S), Thursday, 30 May 2024 12:31 (eleven months ago)

ten months pass...

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/f53a86ea76bacdda742df8f039b9cd08afb58298/0_0_3035_1819/master/3035.jpg?width=1300&dpr=2&s=none&crop=none

that ship
called
dig
neigh
ty

Platinum Penguin Pavilion (soref), Tuesday, 15 April 2025 17:01 (one month ago)


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