New book!

Quite remarkably Ronald Searle was prolific into his 90s. His final collaboration was with Robert Forbes illustrating his Beastly Feasts and Let's Have a Bite. Mr Forbes said Searle had provided enough drawings for another book and the third volume will be published in December.  More info on the publisher's website here

An Evening at the Larches

Searle produced a ghoulish series of illustrations to accompany Harry Hearson and J. C. Trewin's 'An Evening at the Larches' published in 1951.  As a special Halloween treat here are shots of the original artwork.

Tribute

Cartoonist Nick Galifiniakis is a huge Searle fan and created this fantastic tribute to his friend Richard Thompson and all the great cartoonists who came before him. He explains the piece thus:

Less than a year ago, I created this drawing as a tribute to my now shaved-head, brain-electrodes implanted pal, Richard Thompson, a genius who can now also jump-start my car. 

The piece was for the very worthy book by Chris Sparks, "Team Cul de Sac." Proceeds go to fight Parkinson's.

The concept (abbreviated so I don't bore you) is simple: the greatest cartoonist that ever lived, Ronald Searle, surrounded by a pantheon of great illustrators, is anointing his heir, Richard Thompson.

If you don't see your favorite cartoonist up there, don't worry, he or she is represented by the anonymous cherub touching Searle's shoulder.

(Strange, sad, side note: Ronald Searle passed away a month after I made this picture. My heart is still broken and daily I tell myself that, cosmically, I had nothing to do with accelerating the death my 92 year old hero)

So here is, "The Anointing of the Heir":

A beautiful tribute I'm sure you'll agree. Richard  Thompson is an accomplished cartoonist and creator of the popular Cul de Sac strip-he is bravely battling Parkinson's Disease- see his blog post on drawing while being operated on-you can't keep a good cartoonist down!

PoW Memorial

"A new memorial to PoWs in the Far East has just been unveiled in London, it features a drawing by Searle."  Anita O'Brien of the London Cartoon Museum informs me.

Read about it in the Camden New Journal here
There's also a piece by Valerie Grove who interviewed Searle on his 90th birthday for the Times.