The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Terry Anderson, manager of the Scottish Cartoon Art Studio, kindly explains to us some of the background to both the Glasgow-based Studio, the artists involved and their new collection being published this spring by Edinburgh’s Mercat press, Fizzers:

“The Scottish Cartoon Art Studio was established in 1999 with support from The Prince’s Trust (PSYBT) and the East End Partnership (EEP), the first and only studio in the country that makes the skills of cartoonists available to the public and corporate sectors alike. Unapologetically proud of cartooning, our ethos remains to showcase and promote it as both a valid art form and creative work of real value.

Forbidden Planet subscribers will be well aware that “cartooning” is really a catch-all term for several different disciplines. The Studio produces Character Designs, Comic Strips, Editorial Cartoons, Storyboards and more. However we have from the outset specialised in Caricature, be it Live Caricature (quick likenesses produced fromsittings) or Presentation Caricature (fully-rendered pieces where the artist uses photographs of the subject).

Among some of the luminaries who own SCA Studio caricatures are: film director and Monty Python animator Terry Gilliam; Bob Godfrey, co-creator of Roobarb; Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons; Ray Harryhausen, stop-frame animator on such films as Jason and the Argonauts; and author & film-maker Michael Moore (Bowling for Columbine etc).

The Studio artists have had their work exhibited and published in Croatia, Norway, France, Romania, the UK and the USA, but Fizzers is the first book we can call our own and features work to be shown at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery April-July 2006. The Fizzers project is inspired by European caricaturists such as Sebastian Krüger (Germany) Jean Claude Morchoisne, Jean Mulatier and Patrice Ricord (all from France), who produce caricatures that are humorous purely in their observation and exaggeration of the human face. British people are more accustomed to equating caricatures with satire (think Gerald Scarfe, Spitting Image, Steve Bell etc), but on the continent Caricature and Political Cartooning are distinct disciplines, and it is this approach that’s intrigued and energised the Studio.

Among the other books, comics, newspapers, magazines, feature films and television shows that have previously used us are: Air Warriors; American Cousins; The Beezer; The Big Issue; The Celtic View; Chewin’ the Fat; Cock Tales; The Dandy; Electric Soup; The Guardian; The Herald & Sunday Herald; Hoof Hearted; Hoots!; 9/11- Artists Respond (Vol1);9/11- Emergency Relief; Rabid; The Ratcatcher; Rebus; Safe-T Rex Steps Out; Tales of the Weird West; Toxic Pie; and Young Adam.

The Studio team are…

Chris Sommerville, once described in the press as a “cartoon fanatic”, has steered the SCA Studio with a steady hand for seven years. Chris is28 and lives in the east of Glasgow.

Terry Anderson is an ex-student of the world-famous Joe Kubert School of Cartoon & Graphic Art in New Jersey. He is 29 and lives with this wife in north Glasgow.

Brian Flynn left Cardonald College with an HNC in Graphic Art. Brian is 34, married and lives in Paisley. Derek Gray graduated from Gray’s School of Art with an honours degree in Fine Art and Printmaking. Derek is 38, married, has two daughters and lives in Milton-of-Campsie.

Tommy Sommerville is happy to be called a lesser-known artist, but has always “banged the drum” for the cartoon art form. He is 52 and lives with his wife in the east of Glasgow.

Edd Travers left Glasgow’s College of Building and Printing with an SNC in Art and Design, an HNC in Graphic Design and an HND in Illustration. Edd is 32, married and lives in Kirkintilloch.”

Fizzers is published by Mercat this April while an exhibition of the Studio’s caricature art will be on display at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh from Friday 7th April to Sunday 2nd July (yes, I will be going along to see that!).