cartoons
The Simpsons may be genius – but it’s also evil
Marge Simpson is dead. But does anyone care? I’ve written loads of pieces over the years about the genius of…
How Dr Seuss took on American isolationism
A cartoon is doing the rounds online, critiquing American isolationism and the reluctance to engage with the war in Europe.…
The prescient politics of Tintin
Georges Remi, better known as Hergé, the creator of Tintin, was a failed journalist. His first job after leaving school…
Doomed to immortality: The Book of Elsewhere, by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville, reviewed
For the past 80,000 years, our protagonist has been fated to respawn himself. With a similar being now tracking him, he longs for the option of non-existence
How the Georgians invented nightlife
Dan Hitchens on the Georgian obsession with lavish light shows and nocturnal adventures
Battle lines
The art of wartime cartoons
Fine line
Can cartoons be both funny – and diverse?
Why will nobody publish my cartoons?
I am having very little success in getting my collection of cartoons of great religious founders published. Perhaps it is…
Cartoon hero
The timeless brilliance of Pont of Punch
The boys are back in town
There’s a delicious scene in the new season of Amazon’s superheroes-gone-bad series The Boys. The chief superhero Homelander (Antony Starr)…
Luck of the draw
Cartoonists are facing ever-tougher competition
Letters
Corona mysteries Sir: John Lee highlights the issue of dying of seasonal flu vs dying of coronavirus when assessing attributable…
Beyond a joke
The universal cartoon is a rare thing
From cartoons to stage design: the genius of Osbert Lancaster
‘Bigger,’ said Sir Osbert Lancaster when asked the difference between his work for the page and for the stage. ‘Definitely…
The quiet genius of Posy Simmonds, Hogarth’s heir
‘It’s no use at all,’ says Posy Simmonds in mock despair, holding up her hands. ‘I can’t tell my left…
From ancient Egyptian smut to dissent-by-currency: I object at the British Museum reviewed
‘If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear,’…
I averted the wrath of the students by telling them I’d had a sex change
I went to Australia with my constant companion Hilary, the only woman in England I’m not paying alimony to. She…
A chance to see the Moomins’ creator for the genius she really was: Tove Janssons reviewed
Tove Jansson, according to her niece’s husband, was a squirt in size and could rarely be persuaded to eat, preferring…
Picture books for grown-ups
Art Spiegelman, the American cartoonist behind Maus, the celebrated Holocaust cartoon, dreamt up a good definition of graphic novels: comics…
Osbert Lancaster: a national treasure rediscovered
True to his saw that ours is ‘a land of rugged individualists’, Osbert Lancaster, in his self-appointed role of popular…
Escape into Moomin world
Tove Jansson’s father was a sculptor specialising in war memorials to the heroes of the White Guard of the Finnish…
A choice of humorous books
Nancy Mitford would not call them ‘toilet books’, that’s for certain. Loo books? Lavatory books? One or two people I…
Letters
Nothing to fear Sir: So long as we are not breaking any law, we have nothing to fear from the…
