Matt Buck's Hack Cartoons

Well after all that, nothing is decided at all. It looks to have been a costly night for the Billaries for despite confident and widely publicised expectations, they have not knocked Obama out of the race for the Democratic nomination. They can't be happy about that, and if the stories about the amount of telephone polling Hillary's campaign used in the last few days are true, she must have used a lot of money to try and fight the momentum Obama had clearly developed. For Obama's part, he must be disappointed he didn't do better yet. The Republican race looks clearer and has clarified the split in their ranks, Mike Huckabee, the former preacher did well in the south, where I used to live, and this seems to have hurt the wealthy Mitt Romney's chances. So, John McCain it looks to be. (I wonder how Ming Campbell feels about the apparent attitudes to John McCain's age?) There is an updated Channel 4 News animation here.
UPDATED:
Wonkette has a great description of the night as a pretty much a grim $100-million stalemate.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Published on America's Super Tuesday. Or, click the picture.
UPDATED: All about Hillary and all about Barack.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

From Nick Davies via Lloyd Shepherd and the UKPG. I am indulging in pure churnalism here, but this bit is worth it because the original source, is original.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Published here.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

One of the most difficult things about making things is knowing what your rights are when you try to sell them. I know lots of very experienced professionals who are in ignorance of this basic business issue. This ignorance can lead to a lot of difficult financial and legal problems. The most basic confusion I come across is that between possession of copyright and the licensing of rights.

Briefly, at any time an artist makes a piece of art he has copyright automatically, without doing anything. It is an 'implicit' right earned by the skill and time and labour which the artwork has taken. There's a link explaining more about it here. You can download a pdf factsheet here. Importantly, before any self-employed artist has no legal claim to copyright, they have to have signed it away, in writing. Once this basic legal idea is understood, things can seem a lot clearer.

Essentially, what creative people like me sell are the rights to use our artwork, usually, exclusively. I will write some more about this.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Coming soon...

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Returning visitors may know that from time to time I like to think about changing forms of creativity in drawing, and now is one of them. Some good and interesting things are starting to happen in the UK media which are really encouraging to see. Patrick Blower, who used to work at the Evening Standard when it still believed in publishing print news cartoons, has developed a method for drawing in a video which you can find, weekly, on Friday's, at the Daily Telegraph website. My colleague at Channel 4, Beau Bo D’Or has been branching out from his still photomontage into moving photomontage and is having a good deal of success with it. I have my own explorations in a hybrid form of print and simple animated cartooning and it must be working, as the notorious Guido Fawkes is starting to 'borrow' stuff - see below's screenshot web clipping from his site.

I am absolutely positive we three won't be the last either...on either issue. I note Mr Fawkes's support of the open digital rights group with a sort of smile.
UPDATE: Beau Bo D’Or writes (and comments)It's Guido's second offence. He used my Channel 4 animation without permission from C4 or myself. He ran it directly from my server which nearly crashed my site.

Matt Buck’s animated drawing

From the Toronto Star photographer Lucas Oleniuk. Well worth a watch.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

There's an interesting response to the end of Peter Hain's ministerial career from Mick Fealty at the Telegraph’s Brassneck blog. He praises the work undertaken by Guido Fawkes's diary, which is run by Paul Delaire Staines.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Some excellent reporting, photographs and jokes from Lou McKeever who was at the policeman’s pay protest march in London yesterday.
24th January 2008

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

"The rise of blogging and opinion outside of the mainstream has caused newspapers a problem, because quite often these blogs are more interesting than the editorials in the newspapers."
Former editor of the Sunday Times, Andrew Neill to the House of Lords Communications Committee. Quote via Journalism.co.uk

More cheerfully, The Independent newspaper has relaunched, at long last, its website, In doing so, it has finally recognised the genius of its regular editorial cartoonist, Dave Brown. He has a proper cartoon gallery full of marvellous stuff, right at the top of opinion. The joke for December the 24th is a particular treat.
23rd January 2008

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

22nd January 2008

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

The Northern Rock bank rescue plan is announced to the public by Chancellor of the Exchequer Alastair Darling. Published here and here.
21st January 2008

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Coming soon...

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

What fame will do for weight loss. Cartoon caricature of film star Keira Knightly at the London premiere of the film Atonement.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Published here and here

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

When your boss states that you are responsible for an incompetence, you might be excused feeling for your neck to make sure it hadn't already been cut.
Artwork coming soon...

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

The forgetful Peter Hain featured in this animation about Labour's dubious donations which I made for Channel 4 back in November 2007. Peter is the orange one.
12 January 2008

UPDATED: 15th January 2008
There's a good short analysis of how untransparent Mr Hain's financial arrangements were here



Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Absolutely terrific news from the USA where Ann Telnaes has become the Washington Post's first animated political cartoonist. Well done Ann. They've picked their time well with the primary season in full swing. I'd like to think the UK media will be up to speed with this sort of thing by the time our election comes around. Do you think it will be?
11th January 2007

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Who’d really want to be idolised? Published here and here.
9th January 2008

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Well, the pollsters and the pundits got it all wrong, she won, if rather more closely than she would have imagined a fortnight ago. And that makes the race for the Democratic nomination very interesting and harder to call. McCain won for the Republican ticket. I think there's going to be a game of chicken for each party about guessing who their candidate is going to be fighting against for the actual presidential contest. Artwork coming soon...
9th January 2008

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

I lived in a America for a while when I was younger and I have had a serious interest in how the place is run ever since. My time there coincided with Bill Clinton's attempts to become President of the United States.

It was an real education for me in how elections and the selling of any candidate are undertaken. The positioning of Clinton's campaign about George Bush senior, the incumbent president of the time, was wonderfully accurate, and of course, highly successful. The Clinton campaign successfully negated Bush's trump card of 'experience' and incumbency by pointing up his 'cold' personality and inability to appear to listen to people convincingly. As this famous clip shows, Bush was certainly not naturally chatty or charming in his dealings in the media or people. This clip really highlighted it, as he completely failed to hear or connect with the question the lady asked. Stick with the film and then watch how Clinton deals with it. Particularly watch the body language he deploys as he talks and listens. I imagine Barack Obama's team have been watching a lot of these old clips too because they appear to be pulling off a similar trick in projecting the youthful and people-oriented Obama against against the clever but stumbling and cold Hillary Clinton now.

The great cartoonist Steve Brodner has an interesting interpretation of what is happening to Hillary right now, right here too - all courtesy of The New Yorker.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

It was indeed a bad day for Hillary Clinton. Published above and here.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

A sketchbook pencil and wash cartoon caricature of Hillary, Bill and Chelsea Clinton. I wonder whether it will end up being a happy new year for the first woman of the clan?

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

These images and ideas were originally drawn and published in November 2007. The assassinated former Prime Minister was a US idea of what a democratic Pakistani government should look like.
28th December 2007
UPDATED 31st December 2007
Channel 4 have footage of the assassination here

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

December 2007

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

’Tis the season to draw daft ecards...mind you, I did get to do kazoos...one of which could even be desribed as flirtatious.
19th December 2007

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

...coming soon...

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Quite a bit more of our money appears to be committed to bailing out the shareholders and important parliamentary seats in the North East of England.
18th December 2007

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Sometimes you just hear about something completely cheerful. In this case it's that a friend of mine, Gareth Negus, is now running the oldest, purpose-built and continually running cinema in the world. You can find out about the Curzon cinema in Clevedon, near Bristol, here. The history of the place and the battle to keep it alive is a fantastic story about what groups of people can do when they try. There's also a natty piece of simple and creative interactivity which allows the virtual visitor a sneak look at this marvellous old place of mass entertainment. Have a look! Long may it and Gareth thrive.
17th December 2007

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

For all those desperately seeking stocking fillers, I can heartily recommend Alan Pearce’s marvellous book for Christmas.*
* Caution - advert. I illustrated it and provided the silly drawing for the cover.
17th December 2007

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Back.
16th December 2007

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

I get a lot of letters from younger cartoonists and people who make pictures for a living, asking for advice. Once upon a time I used to write these letters myself. I try to answer them, but to be honest, there isn't a great deal of useful stuff you can say. If the author has desire to draw real-life it will come out anyway, with outside advice or not. We all have a talent for expressing ourselves in varying degrees. However, the one consistent thing I always say, is to learn the economic, legal and financial value of what is made with their skill. This is because, sadly, life and some people being what they are, you will undoubtedly find your work and ideas are, at some point, 'borrowed.' The trick at this point is in being to take the backhanded compliment. This last bit of this process is a bit like a finishing school for makers of creativity. It's happened to me several times in the past decade and will no doubt happen again. There's a good quotation by an Indian gentleman caled Ananda K.Coomaraswamy about it.

It's not a question of an artist being a special kind of person, but of every person, who is not an parasite or an idler, being a special kind of artist.

The cartoon awards season results can be found at my colleague Morten's blog - and congratulations are due him, Dave Brown, Steve Bell and Martin Rowson. The event speech was given by former Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer Ken (Kenneth) Clarke. He made a good speech, as you might expect from a professional speech maker, but he also said at least one incredibly silly thing. I paraphrase him here, but the gist of it was, who'd want to look at cartoons on the internet?

Sketchbook caricature of Ken (Kenneth) Clarke - Conservative MP - and guest at the Political Cartoon Awards

I understand why he did this, to connect precisely with what he judged to be his audience, largely middle class, middle-aged, or, elderly and largely suspicious of technology. It worked for him, he got a laugh.

But this, to me, is a classic piece of ostrich-ism and is pointlessly damaging to those of us who have to go out and make a living as professional commercial artists, today, in the ugly here and now. One of my colleagues told me not to get cross about it, to which I can only say bollocks, if we can't be bothered about how we are going to make a living through our skill at drawing then we won't survive as a form of either art or journalism.

Clarke's joke smacks of 'if I don't look I won't have to see what is changing around me.' This is probably because he (and many others) do not understand the digital world and have no interest in learning about it. I thought this was a sad and silly attitude to perpetuate among other people who love cartoons and drawing as a useful form of human communication.

The digital world may not be easy to understand but it offers opportunity to commercial artists in a way that the old print world, and its surviving fans, would be daft to ignore.


Matt Buck’s animated drawings

’Tis the time of year for the annual political cartoon awards, at which I traditionally win nowt. The idea is to offer an image for the year (2007) and hope it catches the jury's eye as the best single image entered.*

My entry for this year's Political Cartoon of the Year award

There is also the highly desirable cartoonist of the year award. This invariably goes to one of the daily newspaper cartoonists. The event is an excuse for lots of professional cartoonists to get together, smoke, drink and bitch about the lucky winners. It is also, as a result, unmissable and one of the drawing years’ absolutely fixed points. It also, bizarrely, always clashes with other social events you cannot easily avoid. Kudos to Dr Tim Benson of the Political Cartoon Society who organises and promotes the event which this year is being held at The Guardian newspaper's Newsroom. You can see Dave Brown of The Independent and his winning one-off image for last year here - scroll down a bit.

* Cynics say, and there are a few about, the key to victory is to have one's entry stationed strategically close to the drinks.

5th December 2007

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

The dodgy home-grown political donation farce goes on ... and abroad, international observers condemn the legitimacy of the Russian elections. It all reminds me of Florida and the days of the hanging chads and mass disenfranchisement of sections of the population. Although happily, I couldn't find a way to shoe-horn all that into the cartoon. Published above and here

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

...coming soon...

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Absolutely lovely. A wonderful combination of pictures, music, production and design. This was made by somebody called Miralaum. A hat-tip to Wiley Miller for spotting it. the full list of featured commercial artists for 500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art. is;
Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael, Titian, Botticelli , Boltraffio, Albrecht Durer, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Messina, Perugino, Hans Memling, El Greco, Hans Holbein, Rokotov, Peter Paul Rubens, Gobert, Caspar Netscher, Pierre Mignard, Jean-Marc Nattier, Vigee-Le Brun, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Winterhalter, Tyranov, Borovikovsky, Venetsianov, Gros, Kiprensky, Amalie, Corot, Edouard Manet, Flatour, Ingres, Wontner, Bouguereau, Comerre, Leighton, Blaas, Renoir, Millias, Duveneck, Cassatt, Weir, Zorn, Mucha, Paul Gaugan, Henri Matisse, Picabia, Gustav Klimt, Hawkins, Magritte, Salvador Dali, Malevich, Merrild, Modigliani, and Pablo Picasso.
Not bad really.
2nd December 2007

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

After this evening's announcement that the Met Police will get to decide whether they investigate the current Labour party donation row, I wonder if John Yates will fancy another go the sources of party political funding? It is beginning to look as if Harman and Brown are briefing against one another. If the PM has lost her loyalty, he is in a lot of trouble, because hitherto, she has been about as loyal to him as it possible to be in party politics. This image was made for Channel 4 News in October of 2007.
29th November 2007

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

It is always reassuring to read this sort of thing. A hat-tip to David Hughes and also to Iain Martin, who takes a long hard look at Harriet Harman, who's facing some very awkward questions today. She's also married to the Labour party treasurer, Jack Dromey. Yesterday, he claimed he had no knowledge of the dodgy donations to the party. It's the second time he's has to do this in the last two years as he did not know about the cash for honours loans which bedevilled Tony Blair at the end of his time as Prime Minister. Realists might wonder how much shredding of email has been going on in the background during the last week - and this trend applies to all political parties.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

This would be car crash government if it wasn't taking place somewhere else. Published above and here.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Nick Garland in the Telegraph is very good today - simple and on the money. Peter Brookes in the Times goes for a more complex analogy - new film out - and it is, as ever, nicely done. Dave Brown in the Indy goes for a body shot and The Guardian in the absense of Bell and Rowson doesn't do too well at all. My own work for Channel 4 News should be live soon. The iniquities of finding a home in a media outlet means that my colleague, Morland doesn't have a slot this morning (well, that I know about), This should stop immediately, because his work deserves to be measured in the same league as all these fine journalists above.
Matt Buck’s animated drawing

...coming soon...
28th November 2007

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Famous opportunist moves in on the Rock. Why might he do this? Well, you could read this, or, you might prefer to get the fuller tale of hubris that allowed him the opportunity, here. Today's spin is that the crisis is nearly over, I'd bet it isn't and don't bet that Branson and his associates are going to get the former bank either...

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

The following is a long blog for me, but then, I didn't write it. It was published in The Health Service Journal in September of this year. The article is about identity management, and in view of this week's news (see blogs past and drawings above), I would urge anyone who is passing by (hello) to read it. I have an interest to declare at the end too.*

For your information, the information commissioner’s website is at: www.ico.gov.uk

The speed at which businesses, the government and the public sector are developing electronic record systems is starting to gather pace.

The arguments in favour of new systems are, by now, well rehearsed. They include the idea that electronic records will support safer services, increase efficiency, promote team working and deliver more security, accessibility and convenience for end users – patients, in the case of the NHS.

However, the Information Commissioner’s latest Annual Report suggests that many organisations are finding some of these kinds of argument more compelling than others.

Taken as a whole, it suggests that while many bodies are happy to embrace the increased information sharing, surveillance and targeting that new systems make possible, they are less committed to security and positively ambivalent about openness.

Sadly, I fear that the NHS is following the general trend. It is undoubtedly in the vanguard of what an earlier IC report called the Surveillance Society - defined as a world in which technology is routinely used to track and record people’s activities.

This is not only because it is developing its own care records. It is also because its data tends to be drawn into other projects, such as the children’s database, and because it is enthusiastic about using electronic systems to target services on people and monitor their impact (the algorithm to spot patients at ‘high risk’ of hospital admission is a case in point).

The problem is that there are few opportunities to debate what such systems can legitimately be used for - and even fewer checks on function creep. As Richard Thomas, the IC, notes: ‘The benefits of using personal information are undeniable.

‘But so are the risks for individuals and society where use goes beyond reasonable expectations or where things go wrong. [And] the risks - such as mistaken identity, judgemental profiling - magnify as information is shared ever wider.’

Sooner or later, it is certain, the NHS will be caught up in a major scandal involving records, databases or targeting. Some of its data will turn up somewhere it shouldn’t. Supposedly neutral targeting will turn out to be discriminatory. Some deserving soul will not get the treatment they need because ‘the computer says no.’

And when that happens, questions will be asked about how such systems could have been put in place and there will be reviews and resignations… which is why Mr Thomas argues that the best defences we now have against such abuses are data protection and the self interest of organisations with reputations to lose.

Unfortunately, other parts of his Annual Report suggest that these are not much of a defence, since it covers some ‘frankly horrifying’ but very basic security breaches - data being used on unsecured laptops, left open on an applicant website and dumped in bin bags.

Only one of these incidents is related to the NHS (guess which). But since every NHS IT manager has a fund of stories about staff taping passwords to computers or carrying patient notes around on USB sticks and MP3 players, any of them could be.

These kinds of breaches, and the social engineering lapses covered in another report on The Illegal Trade in Personal Information, happen despite the reputational damage that inevitably occurs when news of them gets out.

They also suggest that the potential for electronic records to deliver better security is not being realised in practice, because the introduction of new systems is not being accompanied by a new culture of security and confidentiality in using them.

Nevertheless, organisations are still willing to plead confidentiality when their own interests are at stake. The Annual Report contains the usual list of bodies - including an NHS trust - that were only too willing to hang on to information that should have been released under freedom of information rules.

Unusually, the IC addresses ‘ministers, permanent secretaries, chairs and chief executives’ directly in the year’s report. It is they, he argues, who must ensure that their organisations ‘exercise the necessary self restraint’ as they help to create a surveillance society and who must ‘ensure that their organisations guarantee safeguards.’

This is an important message, but at the moment I’d say we are in for years of stories about database application and security scandals. As a journalist, I suppose I shouldn’t complain, since they’ll keep me in business.

Managers, though, might like to reflect on Mr Thomas’ point that it won’t be much fun to be caught up in them, and take steps that will leave me and my colleagues writing about something else.

These are the reasons I have great caution about the uses of technology, commercially and publically. It is rarely the technology itself which is the issue, the real problem is invariably the people who use it, us.

* The article was written by my partner, Lyn Whitfield.
23rd November 2007


Matt Buck’s animated drawings

When your reputation for economic and security competence goes, you do not have much left as a government. This is worth a read - the journalist is obviously being briefed from a very high-level.
Drawn 21st November 2007

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Published here and above.
20th November 2007

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

The news that HM Revenue and Customs have managed to loose rather a lot of customer details on a pair of computer discs. It doesn't breed great confidence for national ID cards does it? Expect reassurances that the system will be changed to ensure that this sort of thing can never happen again...

20th November 2007

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

...coming soon...

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

In Greek mythology, Prometheus was a Titan who deceived Zeus, King of the Gods, and stole fire for mankind. His punishment was to be chained to a mountain top and have his liver pecked out every day, by a visiting vulture or eagle. Generally, I steer away from classical references like this in my drawing but I felt that the mess that the Prime Minister is in over Northern Rock really deserved an unpleasant image and this is certainly one.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings
A potted history of Prometheus:

Here on Mount Caucasus, Prometheus was tormented day and night by a giant vulture tearing at his liver. By day, the eagle would come down to the cliff and devour Prometheus' liver, and by night the liver would regenerate, only to have it destroyed the following day again.

Will you stand up, not to be counted? No to identity cards. Why are so many people worried about having their name on a list owned by the government? Well, you could read this and then have a think about it. The clause about us being responsible for the accuracy of all the information collected is particularly interesting, because if it isn't correct, and we all know how reliable large databases and call-centres are, we'll be individually liable for £1,000 fines. And get this, we don't even have a choice about signing up, at least, not if we want a working UK passport. A bit further down the road on which the government plans to take us, signing up, will become compulsory for everyone over the age of 16.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Alan Pearce’s marvellous book for this Christmas* made it to the hallowed halls of R4s Today programme yesterday. You can listen again to what he had to say, under fire from Sarah Montague and the nice person from the Health and Safety Executive, here. It's under the 8.30am segment of the programme for Wednesday 14th November.

* Caution - advert. I illustrated it and provided the silly drawing for the cover.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings
15th November 2007

If you read history you'll discover that many of the problems in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the NW borders of British imperial India, are old. The arguments about who holds the power in the relatively new nation of Pakistan, are connected to them and the partition of India after WW2. Published above and here.
UPDATED: 16th November 2007. There's a useful interactive timeline outlining what is going on inside Pakistan here

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

...coming soon...

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

12th November 2007

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

This Remembrance day, please remember what you are not allowed to do in Westminster's Parliament Square, thanks to our government. This is a fine piece of public spirited journalism from Tim Ireland.
UPDATED: And to those who say the internet can't change anything, I say you are right, it can't, but the people who use it can. Read the response that Tim got to his efforts. Little things matter, especially when talking about daft laws.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

You get to meet interesting people who can encourage you to think about things in a way you might not have before, or, remind you of something important that you had forgotten. Mick Fealty who spoke at a Daily Telegraph blogging event last evening, reminded me of the reasons to became a journalist, way back before the idea of blogging had crossed the consciousness of the media business. I'm listing an appropriate quote, paraphrasing Mick's verbals, from one of his online homes.

What would be your main blogging advice to a novice blogger? Listen as much as you write.

The consequences of reckless lending. Thanks to the Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alastair Darling, for such an entertaining and highly public argument. 7th November 2007. Published above and here.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Drawn for Tribune in the UK. 7th November 2007.
Matt Buck’s animated drawings

"Despite this international uncertainty, which started from the problems in the US housing market, there are grounds for believing that we will get through this."
Alastair Darling, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Does anyone else find this a curiously unreassuring choice of words to use at present?

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

To anyone who has run tried to run a marathon, this woman is just plain amazing. Paula Radcliffe, winner of the New York marathon 2007. She is, also, clearly, a bit bonkers.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Foul, but funny.
Lou McKeever

From the BBC
Requires Flash player.

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