What a lovely day...

... to share a pie with Eric Pickles. The fat headed conservative MP for Brentwood and Ongar was just sitting on a wall minding his own business when he fell victim to a drive by caricaturing.

Chicken...

...Licken. 'Britains favourite satire magazine' asked me if I could put a caricature of Mervyn King onto a chickens body. I think it is to illustrate a nursery rhyme in the forthcoming issue - I am sure it will make more sense when I see it in print.

Like Father...

...Like son. James Murdoch will be making his 2nd appearance at the select committee next week no doubt to make a further "Who me Guv?" soliloquay to the assembled suits. Of course he doesn't know nuffin just like his Dad. Good timing for him as his appearance may well be over shadowed newswise by the Euro armageddon raging around our ears.

Greek...

....Roulette. When Papandreou was pledging a referendum a couple of days back this made perfect sense - but things have moved on plenty since then and now makes little sense if any. Anyway it was kinda experimental - I have a book by Peter Brookes (Times cartoonist - one of the greats) and was trying out his technique of watercolour/ink. Felt great to get an actual brush and inks out for a change as opposed to digital colour. Not really a patch on his work

Posh 'n' Becks

Pushing the boat out on this one with my first double portrait. Spent a while on Davids hair - but probably not as long as he does :-)

Heeeeeeere's...

...Danny. A card for Danny's 60th birthday. A superfit 60 year old with a minor skiing obsession. Didn't want to go too over the top caricature wise - this is a gift after all - I think I got it about right. As usual a digital 'paint' figure but this time with a photoshop background.

Speeeeeeeed...

...Demon Chris Huhne is yet another multimillionaire minister with a 'complex' personal life. Is there any other sort? Currently under the spotlight for driving ticket "issues" he will no doubt be in and out of the headlines until he gets fired at some point before the next election.

No news...

...is good news. At least when it comes to news of the world which has just been axed. Had a laugh yesterday when NI said Rebekah Wade was on holiday when Milly Dowler's voicemail was hacked. Who do they think is going to believe this guff? they're all up to their sorry arses in it. Lovely red hair though, very dramatic, and mad starey eyes.

You too?

Seems that everyone struggles with their tax, though Bono's problem is probably different to most people. Disappearing his income to Holland to avoid tax, makes his saintly position a bit untenable. His green credentials are a bit shaky too if you look closely!

It's NEW...

...kinda. Lots of speculation about what the i phone 5 will look like. My guess is it will look not dissimilar to the other i phones. What if the designers handed Steve something really different - now that would be newsworthy. Retro is good?

It's Super...

...Dad. I was asked to do a caricature for Father's Day. This was an interesting job as the Dad in question had certain "sensitivities" about his looks and this was of course a surprise present. No one wants the "what the hell is that?" reaction. Anyway we needn't have worried it went down well, laughter ensued, buttocks relaxed. I had previously overlooked the sales potential of Father's Day (duh), now, when is Mother's Day?

Buy one rapist...

...one goes free. Something like that. No one really knows what Kenneth Clarke was proposing in the government green paper, as it was sat on so firmly by Cameron. Coming from the team that pilloried Gordon Brown for letting prisoners out early it was never going to play well. After this humiliation I reckon it is only a matter of time before Clarke hangs up his cigar so this is his political obituary image.

"Killer cucumbers...

...on loose in Europe" is definitely my favourite headline for a while. (The Sun yesterday) I guess if it was Brits dropping dead like flies it wouldn't have been considered so funny. Anyways I took a different angle for this gag. A wordless gag no less, I haven't managed many of those.

Crystal...

Balls, balls, balls. Latest rejection off the production line. I had been struggling with the wording for this for a good couple of hours when I decided to "phone a friend". My friend Chris, managed to toss out a line in a matter of minutes - well he is a professional writer after all. So with the pimped up gag, the product of two brains no less, you might hope it was in with a chance of being published. Nope - back to the drawing board. Thanks Chris - no cigar.

Trouble...

...afoot. When I first saw adverts for fish pedicures I was a tad confused. You know why do fish need pedicures that sort of thing. But it turns out it is very popular, at least this month it is. I think the idea is the fish chomp through all the dead skin on your feet which has to be one of the worst jobs even for a fish. I can't believe it works, I mean what kind of fish are they using?

Hatty Town

There is an old childrens tv programme called Hatty Town where the characters are oversized hats with bodies. I think of this every time I see the queen in one of her trademark large hats. Maybe she wears her crown underneath them? That might explain it. Gawd bless her she's in Ireland this week doing whatever it is she does. So to mark the occasion...

Av...

...or not AV that is the question. Very nice of the government to consult my opinion on the subject, but I admit to only having a limited grasp on the issue. Not helped by the incredibly misleading leaflet which was stuffed through my letterbox last week. I retreat to the comparitive safety of Notown where voting is banned and I am the benign dictator.

Keef...

...Richards. No relation unfortunately. Wouldn't everyone like an uncle like Keith? One of the few living legends. My favourite Keith anecdote is when he sustained a bad head injury falling off some steps reaching a book in his library. Which goes to show.... something.

Black...

...wednesday. First day of the new tax year and apparently it's a bad day for all the government pen pushers being given the heave ho. My heart bleeds etc etc. The Notown HQ is no more financially challenged than usual today, but that's not saying much. However, glad to report the cartoon is not autobiographical!

I am not a number...

...I am a free man. Of course while I should be filling in my census form, I have been cartooning.

Mad dogs...

...and Englishmen go out in the Libyan sun. While Britain does it's best to kickstart a civil war, i've been dealing with the serious business of caricaturing again. Bit more ambitious this time, threw a few more ideas into the mix (something will stick surely).

Charlie....?

....Sheen can't stay out of the news this week. If he makes it to next week what madness is he going to talk about then? Anyway, I tried to capture his palour and crazed beady eyes which seem to be his trademarks at the moment.

Record breaking cartoon...

...yep, this latest effort was conceived, drawn, submitted and rejected within 4 hours. By far the fastest rejection I have had, which is some sort of achievement. My efforts to get published by 'Britain's most popular satire magazine' seem as doomed and hapless as the Hague sponsored SAS adventure in Libya. The Mekon featured former leader can't seem to put a foot right at the moment.

New Adventures...

...in colour. Finally got myself a copy of Corel Painter - what a piece of software. Opens up all sorts of possibilities, first up one of my heroes Harry Hill. More to follow I am sure. Hmmm, Charlie Sheen?

Mad Dog's Last Stand

At this stage it looks like anything could happen. A people's revolt or a crushing crackdown? Either way it will probably be ugly. Once you start shooting your own people it's usually a no win situation (unless you are Chinese but we can't talk about that). Can't help but picture Gadaffi as this Dr Strangelove character with an increasingly frail grasp of reality.

Bunga Bunga

Always a controversial character and sometimes a laughing stock Silvio Berlosconi may have finally met his match. Today he has been ordered by an Italian judge to stand trial for paying for underage girls and covering it up. Apparently he was not so successful at covering it up.

The clock ticks...

...and ticks. Mubarak seems to have been clinging on to power by the skin of his teeth for some time now. Well, 17 days anyway. The most interesting fact I discovered about Egypt during these events is that Egypt has been in an official state of crisis for 30 years. So I guess the last 17 days is no big deal. By the sounds of the news this evening he may well be gone by the time I post this, so this image will probably be already out of date!

Recession stupid

So the tories put the recessionary growth figures down to the weather huh? Even the sympathetic media can see through their 'dog ate my homework' excuses. C'mon Dave where's the good news?