Home › Comics › London’s Cartoon Museum announces “Cartoon Conference 2022: Survival Guide” event

London’s Cartoon Museum announces “Cartoon Conference 2022: Survival Guide” event

By John Freeman on January 7, 2022

Are you a cartoonist or comic creator? Do you want to meet other cartoonists and comic creators? Do you want to learn from the best while doing it? Then the upcoming Cartoon Conference 2022: Survival Guide at London’s Cartoon Museum may be just the place to start.

The event is intended to be a melting for ideas and inspiration for how you can use your skills to survive and thrive as an artist. Learn from industry experts and specialists, and find out how can you make working life work as a cartoonist.

“The idea is something we’ve been planning for a while as part of the Museum supporting the sector with professional development,” Cartoon Museum Director Joe Sullivan tells downthetubes.

Joe Sullivan - Cartoon Museum Director — *Cartoon Museum Director Joe Sullivan hopes to make the upcoming Survival Guide” conference an annual event*

“We’re aiming to make it an annual event that will give cartoonists and illustrators a chance to network and hear talks about different parts of the sector that will help them to develop their careers.

Speakers include representatives from the Society of Authors, the UK’s organisation representing all types of writers, illustrators and literary translators; and the Association of Illustrators, the professional body for illustration in the UK, who will present a “Publishing Contracts Masterclass“.

The individual speakers will be cartoonist, illustrator and author Ruby Etc, speaking on “Online/Offline: Experiences of a Cartoonist on Social Media“; British-Indian creative Natasha Natarajan, who runs a freelance arts business under the name Chikaboo Designs, presenting a talk entitled “FML Comics: It’s all about the process, right?“; Comics Laureate Stephen Holland; artist Steve Marchant, Cartoonist and Learning Officer at The Cartoon Museum; and Holly Burrows, Commercial Manager at The Cartoon Museum who will offer a talk on “Preparing your work for Retail“.

• Book your place for Cartoon Conference 2022: Survival Guide | 10.00am – 5.30pm | Monday, February 7, 2022 | The Cartoon Museum, 55 Wells St England, W1W 8HJ

Tickets for the event are £60 Standard / £40 Student, with Catering included. A small number of bursary places available – please email shop@cartoonmuseum.org for an application form

John Freeman

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.