Sing it loud on the Great Man’s 70th birthday,, American Gary Larson is the Cartoon King of Kings.
It may be 26 years since Larson put away his pencil but his surreal scribblings, The Far Side, is the standard.
Larson personifies animals in many of his cartoons giving us a window into his world and his influences from back in Tacoma, Washington State.
My own favourite is a human subject which shows Larson the true artist and disciple of surrealist Pablo Picasso.
Art of the matter
Larson’s enduring appeal, reproductions of his work, merchandise and the best calendars focuses the mind on our world.
Which is what we who live and love Travel do.
Cartoonists get under the skin of our foibles and shine a spotlight in our society which is why I seek them out when I’m on the road.
Wrap up with a Scarfe
Scarfe’s Bar, London: Named for the cartoonist and satirist who has spent a lifetime poking fun at politicians and royalists.
The now 85-year-old’s angular style is unmistakable and his cartoons are obviously dotted around the Rosewood Hotel, High Holborn wine bar.
And you’ll get a real slice of high-powered London life.
Gerald Scarfe, you’ll know too from the Pink Floyd’s The Wall and Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister.
And not a word of a lie but I had to do double take at the double bass in the jazz band… a doppelgänger for Boris Johnson!
Spicing up Wicklow
The Cartoon Inn, Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow, Ireland: And the hilltop village of Rathdrum in Ireland’s Garden County hadn’t seen anything like it.
Viva Forever! The Spice Girls were shooting the video for their song Stop and danced into Charles Stuart Parnell’s Rathdrum.
Just up the road from my old stomping ground, Greystones.
They’re celebrated in their nvmt the Cartoon Arms with other wall to wall cartoons.
Wonder Woman
Cartoon Art Museum, San Francisco, USA: And the Wonderest Woman of all Diana Prince originated in DC Comics.
The Cartoon Art Museum has been running The Legend of Wonder Woman since last month and until the end of the year.
Cartoon Bandanaman
The Australian Cartoon Museum, Melbourne: And the Aussies have always been anti-establishment which is rich pickings for cartoons.
You’ll find a tribute on their website to on of their greats Tony Rafty.
All the greats have sat for Tony who visited Aberdeen where I was working at the time.
And where he drew a cartoon of me as I interviewed him for his new book on golfers.
The further adventures…
The Hergé Museum, Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: And more a comic strip but how could we leave out my journalist hero?
Well, you couldn’t encapsulate Tintin’s further adventures in a single frame.
Or the further adventures of Bandanaman without a blog.
Here’s to the cartoons…
But here today Gary Larson is the Cartoon King of Kings.
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