Chris Madden cartoon parody of the Keep Calm and Carry On merchandising craze

A cartoon that parodies the current craze for variations on the KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON message or exhortation

This cartoon uses the message Keep calm and wait for this irritating fad to pass

A cartoon about crazes, fashion, catch phrases, posters.

Cartoon reference number: a284

Cartoon. Union jack or union flag?

Cartoon about whether the British flag should be called the union jack or the union flag, and about the common problem of the flag being flown upside down.
And about whether it matters

A cartoon showing a union jack or union flag being flown as part of the celebrations for an event.
A man is pointing out that the flag isn’t called the union jack, because jacks are only flown on ships.
He’s also pointing out that the flag is upside down. The wider white diagonal band should be at the top of the tethered side of the flag.

The flag in the cartoon is called a pennant, as it is a hanging flag and is triangular in shape.
The man is called a pedant, as he is over obsessed with trivial detail.
A cartoon about pedantry, wrong way up union jack, bunting, flags.

Cartoon reference number: a255

A cartoon about solicitors and wills. Some people leave everything to animals in their wills. This cartoon shows someone who has left everything to a plant.

A cartoon about the cliche of people leaving all their worldly belongings to their pets when they die. Along the lines of “Being of sound mind I do hereby leave all my worldly belongings to Tiddles, my beloved pet cat”. Here the situation is made even more absurd by the testator or testatrix leaving everything to a houseplant.

Cartoon reference number: a192

A cartoon about the advantages and disadvantages of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and British Summer Time (BST).
A cartoon about the proposal to put the clocks in Britain forward by another hour all year round, and the consequences of doing so.

This would change GMT to BST and the current BST to double summertime.
This system is opposed in parts of Britain, especially Scotland (where it is argued that the mornings would be too dark). The proposed change would generally be an improvement, allowing greater use of the limited daylight in winter.
It occurs to me that any campaign against changing the clocks could use the slogan “Daylight Robbery”.

A cartoon about GMT, BST, British Summer Time, Greenwich Mean Time.

Cartoon reference number: a059

A cartoon showing top shelf magazines that specialise in women’s bottoms, with the shelf labelled ‘Bottom Shelf’

Cartoon about ‘adult’ magazines, ‘girlie’ magazines or ‘top shelf’ magazines.

The joke is that adult magazines are often called ‘top shelf’ magazines (because they are on the top shelf to keep them out of the reach of children). The magazines in the cartoon depict women’s bottoms, so the top shelf is labelled ‘bottom shelf’.

Cartoon reference number: a048

Cartoon illustration. How tanks got their name

Cartoon How did tanks get their name?
This cartoon would make a suitable illustration for a children’s educational book.

Why armoured vehicles are called “tanks”.
The tank was developed by the British during World War I.
In order to conceal their purpose during their development the armoured vehicles were called tanks because they resembled water tanks.
In my illustration the tank is being used as a watering can because of its association with water tanks.

Cartoon reference number: a036

Egyptian tomb robbers cartoon

Egyptian tomb robbers plundering the tomb of a pharaoh – and being pursued by the police.
The tomb thieves are being pursued by police in a bizarre version of a car chase. The ‘vehicles’ in the cartoon move using the system of rollers that was thought to have been used to transport the stone during the construction of the pyramids

A cartoon about cops and robbers, car chases, treasure hunters, plundering ancient treasures

Georgian fashion cartoon.
A woman wearing a bustle.

The bustle was fashionable in the second half of the 19th century in the Georgian era. It was a type of framework beneath a dress which was used to make the fabric stand away from the body in a bulge, creating the effect of a large posterior.
When this cartoon was drawn (2011), large posteriors were deeply unfashionable, as exemplified by the then current comic phrase “Does my bum look big in this?”

A cartoon about fashion, body shape, aesthetics, cultural aspects of beauty.
Drawn: 2011

Cartoon reference number: bus31

Desert island cartoon
Two recently deceased people are sitting on a cloud in heaven, in the cliche cartoon setting for heaven

The cloud has got a palm tree growing on it, in the traditional cliched desert island cartoon style.
One of the two people on the cloud is saying “I’d hoped that after the shipwreck we’d have been washed up on a desert island rather than drowned as sea.”

The joke is that the cloud is just like a desert island

Charity mugger cartoon
Chugger cartoon

Charity collector trying to peruade a passer-by to stop. Rather than saying “Not now” the passer-by is wearing a t-shirt with the message “Not now” printed on it.

A cartoon about charity fund raising methods
The cartoon is available with the word Chugger on the vest rather than Charity mugger

Stonehenge cartoon strip
How Stonehenge was built

A cartoon strip explaining how the ‘bluestones’ of Stonehenge were transported the 180 miles from Wales
The standard orthodox view is that the Stonehenge bluestones were dragged overland and carried by raft from the Preseli hills of South Wales all the way to Stonehenge in Wiltshire. This would have been a super-human task, given the terrain. It would also have been a supremely pointless task, and no amount of romanticisation of the people’s purposes can really make such a task justifiable.
An alternative theory to how the bluestones reached Stonehenge is that they were carried there by a glacier and deposited nearby. Rocks deposited in this way are known as glacial erratics.

A cartoon about prehistoric monuments, stone circles, megaliths

Tourism Cartoon
An Easter Island (Rapa Nui) statue (or moai) and a tourist with camera

This cartoon is an illustration of the way that tourism affects the places that are visited, with the local inhabitants modifying their behaviour as a result of the tourism.
Here an Easter Island statue has a camera round its neck.
However, the fact that the camera is carved from the same block of stone as the statue implies that the statue had the camera before the tourists arrived, making the cartoon ambiguous

Easter Island is also known as Isla da Pascua (Spanish) or Ile de Paques (French)