Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh has been an enthusiastic Patron of The Cartoon Museum in London for over 20 years and his death, announced earlier today, has been greeted with sorrow.
In 1949 Prince Philip and the young Princess Elizabeth attended the Royal Society of Arts and listened to a speech by the great British cartoonist H. M. Bateman, calling for a national museum of cartoons.
Over the years since the Prince gave the museum continuous support and, with his great love of humour, he admired the genre of British cartooning. In 1994, he opened the museum’s exhibition on Carl Giles, who drew for the Daily and Sunday Express from 1943 – 1991. The Duke of Edinburgh owned several Giles cartoons in his private collection, and was his favourite cartoonist. He admired his social observations, gentle humour, and depictions of the Royal Family.
The monarchy have been a persistent (and easy) target of cartoonists and caricaturists for 300 years, from Gillray and Beerbohm to Scarfe, Bell, Rowson and Peter Brookes – but the Duke of Edinburgh could always see the funny side in any situation, and took humorous depictions of himself in his stride. In 2002, Prince Philip opened an exhibition of cartoons on the Kings and Queens (300 Years of Cartoons about the Monarchy), and in 2006 he opened London’s first museum of cartoons.
The Cartoon Museum team, its Trustees, Staff, and many in the cartooning community are therefore saddened to hear Prince Philip has passed away, and send their deepest condolences to HM The Queen and his family.
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “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.
Categories: British Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Events, Exhibitions, Obituaries
I have always thought that he would the kind of person who would laugh along with you or with the cartoonist’s cartoons about him or the family, and treated it like water off a ducks back. Unless it was one he’d shot and was going to have for dinner……. 🙂