Our third ‘Inspired by’ blog is with cartoonist Nick Newman and features an artist whose work is currently up on the walls in the Cartoon Museum’s latest exhibition ‘Laughter Lab’.
Nick’s career began in 1976 and he has worked regularly for Private Eye, Punch and The Spectator as well as being pocket cartoonist at the Sunday Times since 1989.
In this blog, Nick shares his earliest cartoon memories, gives a shout out to the genius of Tintin and also gives budding cartoonists a little bit of advice about getting started in cartooning.
You can follow Nick on Twitter @NckNwmn and Instagram @NickNewmanCartoons
When did you discover cartoons and comics?
My earliest memory is my brother introducing me to Tintin, but I was also a big Batman fan. The arrival in the UK of Asterix was another important moment – and I collected Peanuts books and War Picture Library comics when I should have been reading ‘The Famous Five’.
Who were your favourite artists, characters or strips?
Hergé and Goscinny & Uderzo were my heroes, for creating Tintin and Asterix respectively. Hergé transported you to other worlds – and the verisimilitude of the bande dessiné style made it all the more believable. Goscinny & Uderzo, on the other hand, were more overtly cartoony – while being discreetly subversive and satirical in a historical context. As I got older I came to appreciate stand-alone gags more, gleaned from the pages of Private Eye and Punch. I admired (and still do) all the greats – Pont, Fougasse, Searle, Heath, Larry, Rushton, Honeysett, Mclachlan, Pyne, Posy Simmonds, Austin, Robert Thompson, Dredge, Kipper Williams… the list is endless!
What do cartoons and comics mean to you?
Refuge from the real world…children’s comics were always an escape to another reality, whether it was the Numskulls or Dan Dare. Stand-alone gags can transport you to a surreal mental landscape of desert islands, lemmings jumping over cliffs and alien invasions…the possibilities are endless. The best cartoons can give you a warm glow every time you think of them. Few art forms do that.
How have you managed to take your love of cartoons and comics and turn that into a career?
There is only one way – to draw stuff and send it in to magazines! It takes a lot of nerve and resilience – even early success can be followed by years of rejection. I’ve also been lucky to use my skills as a parodist to use my love of cartoon strips professionally – I’ve drawn and written satires based on War Comics and Dan Dare for Private Eye, as well as parodies of the Beano, Dennis The Menace and the Numskulls. I knew I wanted to be a cartoonist when I sold my first nautically-themed gag to Yachting Monthly in 1976 – for £10…a fortune to a student back then! It took me another 7 years to fulfil my ambition and go freelance.
What cartoons and comics are you currently reading? Who are your favourite artists that the reader should check out?
The comics I read these days are called newspapers. For the more frivolous, Private Eye publishes more cartoons of all kinds – stand-alones, strips and topicals – than any other publication, so it is obligatory reading for any would-be cartoonist. The Spectator and the Oldie also publish great work by all the top gagsters. I have recently started a Twitter feed celebrating the work of the great Punch cartoonist Pont – who died in 1940 aged just 32. It’s called World Of Pont @PontWorld and is gaining some traction in cyberspace – and there are many other cartoon Twitter feeds out there, promoting the work of my great colleagues in ink.
By our blogger in residence Claire Madge
The Cartoon Museum Blog 
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