Magazine cartoons: Delay and defeat

"Health and Safety, mate."

Sometimes cartoons take a while to appear in print, as I've mentioned here before. This was taken by Reader's Digest in April 2010 and appears in the March 2012 issue. Thankfully the waiting period is not usually that long!

Also in the issue is the result of the Beat the Cartoonist contest:

"Accurs'd stag nights!" was my original caption but I was beaten by Malcolm Ainge, a reader who suggested "This is the last time I volunteer to be a designated driver!" ... which I have to admit is pretty good. Curses!

This now brings my personal Beat the Cartoonist score to: Me 3, Readers 2. So, the tide is turning! Click here for all posts on Beat the Cartoonist entries.

Boardroom cartoon: Teamwork

"You're right, there is no 'I' in team. But there is 'tea', so I'm nipping off for a break right now ..."

Everyone hates people who use slogans like "there is no 'I' in team", am I right? See more cartoons in my Boardroom series here.

Music cartoon: Changing the mood

"One of my songs has been used in a major advertising campaign, so I'm afraid I no longer have the blues."

This can be seen in the new issue of the PCO's Foghorn magazine, which features cartoons on the theme of "We're all in this together" (think Tory Party slogan, rather than High School Musical). This will be the final issue of Foghorn -- more on that here.

Restaurant cartoon: Bon appétit

I don't get my cartoons in The Oldie too often, but this small portion of captionless humour is on the menu in the March issue.

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Newspaper cartoon: Court out

This was drawn for an article about a court replacing stenographers with a system where proceedings are digitally recorded and transcribed on computer later.

I liked the "Facebeak" joke, but I was concerned that some might not be familiar with the slang term "the beak" for a magistrate or judge (as in "up before the beak"). But I took a "you can't please all of the people" approach, and went with it.

The rush towards doing everything digitally does seem crazy. Just because we have the technology, does everything have to be digital? This move, inevitably, involved laying people off, and the paper couldn't find one person who thought it was a good idea, or that it would be a better way of doing things. It's "progress" for the sake of it. Add your "Luddite" and "old fart" comments below.

Topical cartoon: The buzz phrase

"How come we never get invited to these extreme weather events?"

Listening out for "buzz" words and phrases is a key part of being a cartoonist -- there are often jokes in them.

"Extreme weather event" is a phrase that seems to have entered the lexicon of forecasters over the past year or so. It just sounds to me like a party I never get to attend. This is one of two cartoons of mine in the current issue of Private Eye.

Here's a photo of the kind of weather event we've been enjoying here in east Kent this week. The same forecasters, with their love of hyperbole, have been calling it "The Big Freeze". We used to call it winter.

Out of office cartoon

When asked to provide cartoons to accompany trade magazine articles, I find it's often the small details I pick up on. This accompanied an article about the new National Civil Business Centre, part of the county court system.

What caught my eye was that the centre is in Northampton in name only, as it's linked to their court, but it is physically located in Salford. It put me in mind of people who are at work but in their minds are somewhere else. We've all been there.

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