OK, first things first - but not necessarily in that order!

I have been drawing cartoons since childhood, but all early examples of my work have been lost to posterity because my parents needed to decorate the walls. However, hopefully you will find something here that amuses you because almost every person to whom I paid £10 said this is the funniest cartoon site they would have visited if they’d known it existed! That’s some recommendation, eh?

My early influences were Walt Disney, children’s comics, the brilliant artists of Mad magazine, and the Walter T.Foster series of ”How To Draw…” books which aroused my interests in cartooning in the late Sixties. I have also been inspired by many of the great newspaper cartoonists over the years, none more so than Mac and Mahood of the Daily Mail, who were (and still are) unstintingly generous of  heart and kind enough to encourage my efforts.

As with any art form, cartooning doesn’t come easy, and you must constantly practice to perfect your skills. People often say to me: “Oh, I wish I could do that. I can’t draw a straight line!” Well, here’s a surprise: nor can I - not without a ruler, anyway! Anyone can draw if they are interested enough to apply themselves. It has to be said that some have a better aptitude than others, but anyone can do it if they try hard enough. To obtain a “facility” for drawing, you have to do it on a regular basis so don’t be put off if your early attempts don’t look like anything you’ve seen published - remember, the person who drew those started like you.

As a cartoonist, the question I get asked most is : “Where do you get your ideas from?” and I can only answer that they are out there, somewhere, floating in the ether waiting for a cartoonist’s mind to go off at a tangent and have a Eureka! moment. Controlled mind-wandering I think it’s called. Like other cartoonists, I spend hours gazing into space waiting to be struck by the Muse, but usually it’s just my wife wanting me to do something more useful like mowing the lawn! James Thurber, the famous American humourist/cartoonist, once said that the hardest part of his job was convincing his wife that he was working when he was standing, staring out of the window. I think most cartoonists have been there!

I am very proud to be a member of the Cartoonist’ Club of Great Britain and the British Cartoonists Association, where I rub shoulders with some of the brightest, funniest, and most talented artists in this country.

If you are an aspiring cartoonist yourself, I am happy to chat and pass on the accumulated knowledge of my years in “Fleet Street”.