By Patrick Wright (Heinemann)
ISBN: 0-434-87827-8
Patrick Wright is a cartoonist who is inexplicably not a household name. He’s been working for a couple of decades now, producing dark, savage, crushingly funny panels and strips for a variety of magazines such as Private Eye, and unlike most of his peers who fall into either the “good ideas/so-so art†or “great artist in need of a scripter†he can do it all and do it well.
His composition and economy of line, facial expressions, body-language and especially character designs are superb. This guy can really, really draw. And as I’ve said, his incisive observational skills combine with what I can only assume is a deep inner mean-streak to create brilliantly nasty cartoons that are the epitome of shared misery dusted with Schadenfreude. I’m pretty glad he hasn’t met me…
In such collections as Walkies, Worthless Pursuits, 101 Uses For John Major and Not Inconsiderable – The Life and Times of John Major his vented spleen has made me laugh very long and much too loud, and if you can find those, or better yet, this collection of beautifully illustrated thoughts on the “Eternal Struggleâ€, he’ll no doubt do the same for you. This is a chap sorely in need of a bumper 25 year retrospective book…
© 1983 Patrick Wright.