The road to the World War One to be re-visited by top British cartoonists

By John Freeman on April 3, 2014

One of Our Minor Wars ‘Well, if you knows of a better ‘ole, go to it.’ Bruce Bairnsfather, Bystander, 24 November 1915

Over six weeks (28th June – 4th August 2014), twelve top cartoonists and graphic artists, and a number of script writers will respond to the events that happened across the world as the world was heading to war one hundred years ago.

Via BBC Radio 4 or the 1914 Day by Day website, you will be able to follow their illustrated commentary on the issues and incidents of the day as relations between the great powers deteriorated into war.

The website will run alongside a real-time series on BBC Radio 4, 1914 Day-by-Day, in which Professor Margaret MacMillan (The War That Ended Peace) chronicles the weeks leading up to Britain’s entry into the conflict.

Each week, two cartoonists react to the events of one hundred years ago through the prism of what we know, now. Their cartoons will be published online and distributed via social media, bringing home to a new audience the frightening speed with which global war can descend.

Artists include Steve Bell (Guardian), Peter Brookes (The Times), Steven Camley (Glasgow Herald), Kate Charlesworth (The Cartoon History of Time), Achim Greser & Heribert Lenz (Frankfurter Allegemeine), John McCrea and Ferg Handley (Marvel/Lucasfilm& Marvel/Commando), Jon McNaught (Dockwood), Woodrow Phoenix (Rumble Strip), Zoom Rockman (The Zoom!), Posy Simmonds (Tamara Drewe), Ralph Steadman (New Statesman), and Lalit Kumar Sharma and Alan Cowsill (The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Marvel).

The original works will be exhibited at London’s Cartoon Museum beside the exhibition Never Again – The First World War in Cartoon and Comic Art (11 June-19 October 2014).

• For more information visit http://1418now.org.uk/whats-on/1941-day-by-day-cartoons or bbc.co.uk/today

• The Cartoon Museum is at 35 Little Russell Street, London WC1A 2HH. For prices and opening times, please visit cartoonmuseum.org

About the Author
Latest Posts

John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.