In memoriam David Langdon (1914 - 2011)

Pics and info provided byJMB

British cartoonist David Langdon passed away aged 97 on 18 November 2011.
You can read the obituary on the site of The Guardian.

Below you can enjoy some work of the artist.

  "Home Front Lines",published in  1941 by  Methuen & Co.

from "Home Front Lines"

from "Meet Me Inside", published in  1946 by Hutchinson & Co

from"The Way I See It", published in  1947 by  Methuen & Co

from  "Look at You", pubished in 1952 by Methuen

The picture belows comes from a fascicule (Punch, 1991), entitled  "The Best of British Cartoonists. n° 1: David Langdon":

This page comes from "Paris Match" magazine, n°99, published 10 February 1951. Other cartoons by David Langdon, appeared in Paris Match in 1955, 1956 and 1959.

Read more:
David Langdon on Wikipedia
The British cartoon archive

One Night of Queen - Gary Mullen (as Freddy Mercury)

Sunday evening I attended the "One Night of Queen" concert in Ostend, performed by Gary Mullen and his band The Works. Wow! What an experience.

Freddy Mercury by Ben Heine

The public, even those aged over 65 in the hall  rocked and rolled whipped up by the rock music of Queen, one of the greatest rock bands ever. (Yes, I'm a fan)




What has this to do with cartoons? Well, it made me think about caricature.

"A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others. (Wikipedia)"


In the world of cartoons, there are caricaturists. Many caricaturists exaggerate and distort. For that reason I won't link to Freddy Mercury caricatures. You'll find them easily on the web. Only few caricaturists (a bad word, in fact they are artists) , the great ones,  are able the pay a tribute to the persons they draw. Karl Meersman is one of those artists who can draw tribute 'caricatures' as I call some work.Another artist is Sebastian Kruger. Unfortunately I didn't find art of them concerning Queen or Freddy Mercury.
Another artist is Ben Heine. From him I found a Freddy Mercury art work.

Tribute art, I like the word. The show I saw wasn't a caricature at all of the great rock band Queen. No, it was a tribute performed by professionals, sounding professional and they hit the heart of the public. Congratulations to Gary Mullen and The Works!

Learn more:
One Night of Queen official site
Gary Mullen videos on YouTube

One of my favourite Queen songs:

Armistice Day 2011 - De Oorlog in Prent by Jan Feith (The War in cartoons)

Is there a better day and a better place to buy an old book with political cartoons of the years preceding and the first year of World War 1? On 11 November 2011 about 11 o'clock and in Passchendaele I bought "De oorlog in Prent" by Jan Feith.

The book was published in Amsterdam in May 1915 (Scheltens & Giltay). As Holland was a neutral country during WWI, the author's point of view is "neutral" too. The subtitle of the book sounds "caricatures from the different countries". There are nine chapters in the book (190 pages): 1. The allegory of war 2. the history of the war 3. what one reproaches the other 4. ruined cities 5. their armed forces 6. war press in the caricature 7. sport as a motive of war 8. leaders of war 9. about neutrality and neutrals.

The book shows a selection of cartoons and caricatures published in newpapers and magazines in the different countries in Europe and the United States (Punch, Simplicissimus, Jugend, The Bystander, Kladderadatsch, Le Matin, Evening Sun, Avanti, Nebelspalter, etc. ) .
The coloured cover is a colour copy of another version of the book. The cover below, the original cover of this book is in black and white. I think this is the original edition of the book, but I am not sure. The edition with the yellow coloured cover can be a later one. If someone can help me find out, let me know.

Learn more:
Armistice Day 2010 - Brushes and Bayonets

Jan Feith on Wikipedia
Jan Feith on Lambiek.net
De Oorlog in Prent (info on Google Books)

Irish Cartoonist Terry Willers passed away (1935 - 2011)

Tribute by JMB

British-born, Terry Willers lived in Ireland for more than 40 years. He died, aged 76, in his home in Rathdrum, Co Wicklow, on November 8th.
Award-winning cartoonist he worked on RTÉ television’s Hall’s Pictorial Weekly and for numerous Irish publications

As a teenager he got his first job working on the Disney comic in London and later worked for the Dutch Marten Toonder studios in the 1960s. He worked on a number of newspaper strips which appeared in various European countries. He won the Jacob’s Award in 1975 for his work on Hall’s Pictorial Weekly. His cartoons featured on the Mike Murphy Show and he created strips for the Evening Herald in the 1990s. He was chairman of the International Cartoon Festivals in Rathdrum (1992-94)

Irish Times cartoonist Martyn Turner paid tribute to his counterpart and friend.
“He was always very happy and full of jokes and was an incredibly talented artist. Most cartoonists become cartoonists because they have to… but Terry could draw anything and everything. In many ways he was an artist more than he was a cartoonist.”

Terry Willers - At Pub

Terry Willers - Touring in Ireland

Terry Willers - Irish Rugby (scan of the original cartoon)

Read more:
http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1111/willerst.html

See also:
Terry Willers on Lambiek.net
Irish Comic News

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