Matt Buck's Hack Cartoons

A reminder that the DACS show about political imagery is still on at their gallery in central London and tonight they are having a late evening viewing until 9pm. There is some terrific stuff in the show and it's well worth a visit if you can get down there. This photograph of Margaret Thatcher by Roger Bamber* is a part of the show. I have some still and animated work exhibited. The Kowalsky gallery is at 33 Great Sutton Street, London and the show is on until the end of January. Full details are on the gallery page at their website.

* Maggie Gets Her Hands Dirty, May 1983 by Roger Bamber.© Roger Bamber 2007.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

The Saudi royal visit to Britain. Art made on 31st October 2007. Traditionally, this is a night for horrors and things people would rather not see. Published, above and here.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

...coming soon...

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Cash for honours - we discover how much co-operation John Yates and the Met Police received from the very prominent people who were under investigation for the sale of national honours and titles. Published above and here. 24th October 2007
Matt Buck’s animated drawings

UPDATE: Tom Bower has a review on The Guardian today which gives an overview of the whole affair and its key players.

This is excellent news. Hello again Ian.
23rd October 2007
Matt Buck’s animated drawings

This is old news, but still good news. A hat-tip to Mr Quittner, wherever you are today...
25th October 2007

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

The problems with making jokes post below, touches on another interesting post from Virtual Economics in which Seamus McCauley talks about the increasing fusion between factual and opinion-based news coverage. This is very interesting to someone like me because essentially it's what visual satirists do; try to reveal truths, or opinions, through analogy, visual symbolism and jokes.

Seamus uses a lovely phrase in his piece - the genuine value of satirical news reporting - and goes on to talk about how one of the major problems that today's conventional journalists are finding, is that the predominant industry business models no longer support what it is, journalists do. In this context he argues, the value of satire, goes up.

'The gap between news and news satire gets ever smaller, and it seems our understanding of current affairs is all the richer for it.'

Sincere hat-tip to Mr McCauley

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

There was a report out on Monday that reconfirmed the problems which many people in many areas of the country have in finding state-sponsored dental care. Published above and here.
Hack animated drawings

Liberal Democrat leader Ming Campbell's has finally discovered the knack of making a speech that other people will listen to - just three weeks too late. Animation made for Channel 4 News
15th October 2007

Hack animated drawings

The Conservative party have lost a battle to keep an £8.3m bequest by a man whose son described him as delusional.
Drugs mogul Branislav Kostic, who died in 2005, wrote his will in the 1980s after saying Margaret Thatcher would save the world from "satanic monsters".
But his only son Zoran, 50, contested the bequest at the High Court, saying his father was "deluded and insane" and he was entitled to the entire estate.
The Conservatives say they have not touched the money.
Handing down his judgement, Mr Justice Henderson, said Mr Kostic would not have left the money to the Tories if he had been "of sound mind".

:-)

Some stories are perfect, even without a drawing

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Al is officially commended for his efforts to help save the planet. He might get an opportunity to finish off Hillary Clinton, as a fringe benefit, too. This would be a result for him, if you believe the stories about their previous relationship when they were last together in the White House...
Drawn 12th October 2007

More Animated Drawings

The government in trouble - and because of Mr Brown.
Animated drawings

It's been an awful week for the Prime Minister, as I hope you can see here.
10th October 2007
Hack animated drawings

This terrific photograph of Margaret Thatcher by Roger Bamber* is a part of an excellent show on political imagery at the Design and Copyright Society in London. I have some still and animated work in the show. The Kowalsky gallery is at 33 Great Sutton Street, London and the show is on until the end of January. Full details are on the gallery page at their website.

* Maggie Gets Her Hands Dirty, May 1983 by Roger Bamber.© Roger Bamber 2007.

Interestingly, the photo never saw the light of day after Roger took it, as Mrs T was running in the 1983 election campaign at the time, and the image of her holding a pile of crap was thought too unfortunate to be publishable. In case anyone was in any doubt, spin, clearly, did not begin in 1997.

While we are talking exhibitions, I'm also going to be at the annual Big Draw in Covent Garden this weekend, on October 13th and 14th. There is a massive amount of drawing and joke related activity going on, over both days, do come along and enjoy yourselves.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

David Cameron's speech to the Conservative Party Conference on 3rd October 2007 - somewhat reduced. Published here and by Channel 4 News. You can watch Gordon Brown's effort in Bournemouth and Ming Campbell in Brighton here.

A short and pithy point on the eternal, will-he-won't-he speculation. And a hat-tip to Paul Linford.

Gordon Brown was long on Britishness and morality and short on the object of everyone's obsession this week - when will he try his luck in an general election. The speech was a bit reminiscent of Margaret Thatcher's attempts to wrap herself in the flag. Published above and here, at Channel 4 News.
You can see Lib Dem leader, Ming Campbell's speech - Reduced, here.

UPDATED:
There's a nice simple piece of interactive reporting here from the Telegraph

Coming soon...

Liberal Democrat leader Ming Campbell made his set piece conference speech today and the Channel 4 News team and I have tried to analyse it. There's also an excellent verbal round-up of what he said in Factcheck. Published above and here.

Who'd be a four-star American general asked to lay the political groundwork for a PR face-saving back on the homefront? Published above and here.

There are some enlightening statistics about the war in Iraq, four years after the invasion and toppling of Saddam Hussein, here.