One more book plug!

Helen Walasek has put out another handsome collection of past cartoons from the Punch magazine archives -this time a fine selection of colour work including several Searle covers and his 'Heroes Of Our Time' series.

It also contains glorious reproductions of cartoons by Fougasse, E H Shepard, Rowland Emett, H M Bateman, Arthur Watts, Anton, Russell Brockbank, Quentin Blake, Norman Thelwell, André François, Trog, With  a foreword by Quentin Blake and over 400 cartoons it's available at a very decent price on Amazon uk

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.

Tourtour

Tourtour, the Provençal village where the Searles lived, is currently hosting an exhibition 'La Dolce Vita a Tourtour'.
A collection of the cartoons Ronald made for the village magazine 'Lou Troumpetoun' depicting the bucolic Tourtour way of life . . .

For 12 years Searle contributed a back-page cartoon to the village magazine-I saw copies of the whole lot in the village tourism office but they only had one issue available for me to take away. 

Last year Galerie Vision in the village had a small exhibition of Searle originals, apparently the only exhibition of his work in the village during his lifetime.

An animation friend Mark Stanleigh was in Tourtour last year and saw the exhibition.  He left a message for Ronald at the gallery and received a typically generous response.

'This past summer I went on a trip to France and visited the small and beautiful village where Ronald Searle lived. Although I inevitably did not run in to him, I met a friend of his who was kind enough to agree to pass on a letter I wrote for Mr. Searle. In the letter I thanked him for inspiring me so much and included a sketch that I did for him. A

 mere few weeks later I received this bittersweet postcard in the mail in which he thanked me for my letter and informed me that while I was visiting, sadly his wife had passed away. I am still in disbelief that he took the time to write me despite such horrible circumstances. I feel very lucky to have heard from him and thought that I would share his note to me. Thank you Mr. Searle and Rest in Peace.'

From Mark's photographs it looks like the drawings on display were those made for Le Monde through the nineties.

Exhibition 2013 at the Galerie Municipal

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

'For Reader’s Digest, Searle illustrated an abridged version of Victor Hugo’s Notre Dame de Paris which was first published as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame in the USA in 1966, and then republished by the French branch in 1968'

-ECC