Leo Baxendale, one of our true national treasures, drops me a line to say that he now has some coverage up from the opening of the Stroppy Women exhibition of his female comics characters (mentioned a few weeks back here). There are pictures up from the event and also the text of what both Leo and the poet U.A. Fanthorpe had to say (after the famed Acme Thunderer whistle was blown to call for silence); from U.A. Fanthorpe’s speech:
“What we see on the walls tonight aren’t reproductions in just any old newspaper or comic – they’re the real thing, the genuine article, as when freshly drawn by the artist who’s with us tonight.
Now, cartoons are very important things. They’re serious, not just funny. And this is especially true of Leo Baxendale’s cartoons. They are secret weapons. They reach the parts of us that other forms of discourse fail to reach. Laughter liberates us, laughter puts things in perspective.”
(U.A. Fanthorpe, Leo Baxendale and Nick Park at the viewing of the Stroppy Women exhibition on March 16th. Photo (c) The Citizen/Gloucestershire Media, with thanks to Leo for letting us borrow it)
Leo also told me that among the guests were some of the boys from one of our favourite animation houses, Aardman. Leo may be one of the most respected artists in British comics but he still seemed to be delighted and excited to be hanging with Nick Park (in a nice coda to this, the local chip shop owner had to tell Leo’s son Martin that he had just served the famous Nick Park after the event; truly Aardman are loved by all in these islands, and rightly so). I strongly suspect that Nick felt as excited to be around Leo since he, like many of us, will have grown up reading Leo’s comics creations. Some of the folks who are working on the British comics programmes for the BBC were also present and mentioned that the programme on the Beano should probably air in September. For the fuller details and images nip on over to Leo’s own site for a visit; the Stroppy Women exhibition will be in Mills cafe/winebar/gallery at the medieval Whitheys Yard, just off the Shambles in the heart of Stroud until the end of April.
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June 22nd, 2007 at 3:45 pm
[...] I absolutely adored Belleville (in fact I just re-watched it yet again a couple of weeks ago), with a great story, lovely humour, characters and brilliant art which had touches of the Gerald Scarfe about them; I can’t wait to see what he creates in the Illusionist. And I’m in good company in being a fan of his animation – Leo tells me he too is a huge admirer of Sylvian’s work and in fact he put a reference to him in his Treasure Island Tryptich which was the centre piece of his recent Stroppy Women exhibition (which you can read about here), naming an apple in it the Belleville Rendezvous Pippin. Print this Story Send to a Friend [...]