By various edited by William Hewison (Grafton Books)
ISBN: 978-0-24613-400-4
Here’s another little dip into the copious well of cartoon comedy from Britain’s greatest and most prestigious magazine of informed entertainment, this time themed to appeal to our nation’s dedicated sportsmen – whatever their passion.
Punch began in 1841; a magazine dedicated to satire and humour, and swiftly became a national – and international – institution. It ran more or less non-stop until 2002 before finally closing its jolly doors, and always featured sharp, witty writers such as W. M. Thackeray, P.G. Wodehouse, P.J. O’Rourke and Alan Coren among so very many others of their informed, acerbic stripe. Many of these writers’ efforts were illustrated by brilliant draughtsmen and artists. Punch became a social force, an astute historian and savage commentator: its contents could even influence governments.
The magazine probably invented, and if not certainly perfected, the gag and strip cartoon. The list of brilliant pen-men who graced its pages is something I won’t live long enough to relate. Name a cartoonist; if he or she were any good they will have been published in the pages of….
With such a wealth of material, it’s truly surprising how very few collections have been generated from its pages. The one under the glass here is from 1988, selected by Editor William Hewison and features a motley assortment of British gag-men attempting to explain through the medium of brush and pen mockery the Empire’s deeply ingrained obsession with “playing the gameâ€.
The gags range from familiar old friends to the arcane, surreal and outright weird, and whatever your position or disposition on the sporting life there’s beautifully rendered work here that will make you smile, chuckle, groan and even weep with laughter.
Once again this particular book isn’t really what I’m recommending (although if you can find a copy you won’t regret it); it’s the sort of publication that I’m commemorating. These cartoons and many like them by the likes of such luminaries as David Langdon, Heath, Banx, Pow, Steadman, Hawker, J. W. Taylor, Graham, Albert, Dredge, Minet, Honeysett, Stark, Thelwell, Larry, W. Scully, Stan McMurtry, Mahood, McLachlan, Raymond Lowry, Colin Whittock and all the wonderful rest are sitting idly out of touch when they could be filling bookshelves and giving our jolly-muscles a good, invigorating work-out…
© 1988 Punch Publications Limited Inc. All Rights Reserved.