Steve Bell (cartoonist)

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Steve Bell at the University of Dundee (2007)

Steve Bell (born February 26, 1951 in Walthamstow , London ) is an English draftsman and cartoonist who has primarily devoted himself to political caricature . His comic strip If ... has been published daily by The Guardian since 1981 .

Live and act

Steve Bell was born in Walthamstow on February 26, 1951, the son of an engineer. He grew up in Slough and attended the local grammar school . He began to be interested in comics as a child. His role models included Ronald Searle and Wally Fawkes .

In 1968 Bell's family moved to North Yorkshire and he began training as an artist at Teesside College of Art in Middlesbrough , which he dropped out again. After a brief stay in Canterbury , he studied art and film at the University of Leeds . There he befriended Kipper Williams, a freelance cartoonist . Bell also started drawing comics. He made posters for the Film Society and designed his alter ego Monsieur L'Artiste . In 1974, Bell successfully completed his art studies.

Bell also trained as an art teacher at St. Luke's College in Exeter , which he completed with an English teacher diploma in 1975. But he then only taught art for a year at a secondary school in Birmingham . Bell later described this period as the worst of his life. The teacher's role as an authority figure contradicted his personal aversion to authority in general. In addition to his educational work, Bell continued to draw on comics. In 1976 he published a free comic strip entitled Maxwell the Mutant: Marauding the Midlands in the alternative magazine Birmingham Broadside , which he signed with S. Bell . He applied to The Beano but was turned down.

In 1977 Bell quit his teaching position and became a freelance cartoonist. Except for his friend Williams, however, he had no contacts in the industry. The following year he received his first paid assignment, a series for the children's comic magazine Whoopee! . But only twenty episodes appeared. Bell then frequently took on assignments for children's comics. For example, the magazine Jackpot published its comic strip Gremlins in May 1979 in its first issue. It was about a band of misbehaving ink blots. In the same year Bell drew the political fantasy comic Maggie's Farm , which caricatured the Conservative government and Margaret Thatcher , who had just become Prime Minister . It expressed his extremely critical attitude towards Thatcher. This comic was very successful and was published in Time Out and City Limits from 1979 to 1987 . More political comics followed in left-wing magazines.

Bell, who had now started a family and had to pay off a mortgage, applied to The Guardian in 1981 , although he had already been rejected there once. As the editor Maggie's Farm liked, he hired Bell for a daily comic strip called If ... . The title refers to a well-known poem by Rudyard Kipling that extols British qualities such as courage and determination. In November 1981 the first episode of the comic appeared. If ... established itself as a fixture at The Guardian and, despite occasional problems, became so successful due to Bell's sharp tongues that it is printed every day to this day.

From 1990 Bell began to take on additional duties at the Guardian and was responsible for the entire area of ​​political cartoons. Among other things, he drew four large single images that appeared on the main page. This included a picture of the new Prime Minister, John Major , depicting him as a useless superhero wearing his underpants over his pants. Bell caricatured many other British politicians in his cartoons, Tony Blair was one of his favorite subjects.

Bell also published his comics in numerous other magazines such as Private Eye , Cheeky , Social Work Today , Leveller , New Musical Express , Journalist , New Society and New Statesman . However, his work at New Statesman ended in 1999 when the editor asked for happier cover art. From Bell's point of view, it made no sense to express something positive about politicians in his comics, he wanted to unmask and attack them with his pictures.

Bell draws his cartoons in reproduction size with a "John Heath's Telephone Pen" and with brush and ink either on small cardboard boxes or on watercolor paper.

In addition to the comic strips published in magazines, Bell published more than 20 comic books and, together with Bob Godfrey, created several animated short films for the BBC and Channel 4 .

Bell has been voted best English cartoonist of the year several times, including 1984, 1985 (by the Cartoonists' Club of Great Britain), 1993, 1995-1998 (by the Cartoon Trust), 2002, 2005 and 2007 (by the Political Cartoon Society).

Bell is married with four grown children and lives in Brighton .

Publications (selection)

Exhibitions (selection)

Awards (selection)

  • 1993 Cartoonist of the Year on the BBC radio program What the Papers Say
  • 1993 XXI Premio Satira Politica (Grafica estera) Forte Dei Marmi
  • 2001 Cartoon of the Year Award from the Political Cartoon Society
  • 2002 British Press Awards , Cartoonist of the Year
  • 2005 Political Cartoon Society Cartoonist of the Year
  • 2005 Best Political Satire Award from the Political Studies Association
  • 2005 Channel 4 Political Humor Award
  • 2007 Political Cartoon Society cartoonist of the year
  • 2008 Cartoon of the Year Award from the Political Cartoon Society
  • Honorary degrees from the Universities of Sussex , Teesside , Loughborough , Leeds and Brighton .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Steve Bell Biography British Cartoon Archive, Retrieved May 28, 2012.
  2. ↑ a b c Steve Bell - Biography belltoons.co.uk, Retrieved May 28, 2012.
  3. ↑ Steve Bell's If ... The Guardian , Retrieved May 28, 2012.
  4. ↑ Steve Bell - a life in cartoons ... BBC website, Retrieved May 29, 2012
  5. ↑ Political Studies Association, Awards 2005 ( Memento of the original from July 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. PDF on the Political Studies Association website, Retrieved May 29, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.psa.ac.uk
personal data
SURNAME Bell, Steve
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English cartoonist
DATE OF BIRTH February 26, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Walthamstow , London