Birds

Cartoon penguin with Mickey Mouse ears.

I’ve been drawing quite a few penguins recently, and they’ve started mutating.
This one means whatever you want it to mean.
I probably thought up the idea because Mickey Mouse is a very simple black and white shape, just like penguins.
I like its air or slight weirdness. An ambiguous mix of cute and unsettling.

Cartoon reference number: a022

Penguin cartoons. Even bad penguins look cute.

A cartoon about anthropomorphism and penguins and the fact that penguins always look cute (which annoys some penguins who want to look tough).

This cartoon is funny because it has a penguin as a gangster or similar criminal type, which goes against penguins’ anthropomorphic character type of being cute and clown-like.
A secondary joke is that the gangster penguin is carrying a machine gun case that is shaped like a fish (rather than the usual violin case).
Original version drawn: 2001

Cartoon reference number: a020

Penguin cartoons. It’s impossible not to look at a penguin and anthropomorphise it into a person. Do penguins do it back?

A cartoon about anthropomorphism and penguins.

The joke in this cartoon is that the roles of the penguins and the people are reversed. It is also funny because of the use of the work ‘cute’, partly because we don’t normally think of ordinary people as being cute – but penguins (which we think are cute) seem to think that we are cute too.
It’s a cartoon about anthropomorphism, projection, role reversal.
Original version drawn: 2001

Cartoon reference number: a019

Penguin cartoons. A penguin playing a guitar.

A cartoon showing a penguin playing the guitar in a band. Another penguin is playing the drums.
The guitar playing penguin is thinking “Playing chords is really hard when you’ve only got flippers”.

This cartoon is partly funny because penguins look like humans but don’t look like the sort of humans who would be in a band playing guitar and drums.

Original version drawn: 2001

Cartoon reference number: a018

Penguin cartoon. Showing a penguin up a tree in a tropical jungle, with a parrot.

A cartoon showing a penguin perched on the branch of a tree in a tropical rain forest or jungle.
The penguin has just told a parrot about the existence of snow. The penguin was saying that it has forty different words for snow (similar to the eskimo or inuit claim to have many words for snow).
The parrot is surprised, as it doesn’t know what snow is, having never experienced it.

The penguin is probably a tourist on holiday from the cold Antarctic, visiting a hot tropical holiday destination.
One of the funny aspects of the cartoon is that the penguin is perched in a tree – which is incongruous as penguins can’t fly and most of them have never seen trees as there are no trees at the South Pole or in Antarctica.

Cartoon reference number: a017

Penguin cartoons. Penguins at a fancy dress party, wearing drag.

A cartoon showing penguins wearing drag at a penguin fancy dress party – they look no different to normal, as male and female penguins look identical and indistinguishable from each other.
The problem for penguins as female impersonators, as there are no obvious (to humans) sexual identifiers or distinguishers between the sexes of penguins.

Original version drawn: 2001

Cartoon reference number: a016

Penguin cartoons. A flock of penguins all the same – apart from one penguin which is a different colour.

A cartoon about uniformity of fashion or social conformity and conventionality. The colourful penguin is a rebel, nonconformist, individualistic penguin following the dictum ‘Dare to be different’.

A cartoon about conformity, uniformity, following the crowd, how to stand out from the crowd
The title of the cartoon is ‘One in a Million!’.

Original drawn: 2001

Cartoon reference number: a015

Penguin cartoons. Penguins planning a hiking expedition, trek or walk.

A cartoon showing penguins looking at a map to plan a recreational walk. Part of the joke is that the map is showing nothing but ice everywhere, because the terrain or landscape in which the penguins live is the same featureless ice everywhere. So it really doesn’t matter where the penguins go for their walk.
The cartoon makes reference to the long march carried out by emperor penguins, made famous by the film ‘March of the Penguins’.

A cartoon about Antarctica, the South Pole, rambling, the ramblers, orienteering.
Original version drawn: 2001

Cartoon reference number: a013

Penguin cartoons. Penguins that are all different colours – because black is no longer fashionable (for penguins)

A cartoon showing multicoloured penguins.
The joke is that penguins are all black, which happens to be a fashionable colour in some areas of human fashion. Penguins are often thought of as wearing dinner jackets, so in this cartoon I’ve given drawn brightly coloured penguins as though they can change their colours to suit fashion.

Original version drawn: 2001

Cartoon reference number: a012