Joking apart
Kent Life|October 2020
From his home in Broadstairs, Royston Robertson comes up with satirical, topical and sometimes just plain silly cartoons
Caroline Read
Joking apart

Meeting someone new, how do you describe what you do?

I tell them I’m a freelance cartoonist and then take it from there. There are usually followup questions as people do have lots of different ideas of what a cartoonist is.

The first thing most people assume is that I work in animation, drawing cartoons for children. But my cartoons are aimed at grown-ups and mostly appear in magazines. They definitely don’t move.

My cartoons have been published in Private Eye, The Spectator, Reader’s Digest and many other magazines. I also draw for trade publications and produce cartoons for greetings cards, books, and all kinds of companies.

I am a co-organiser of the Herne Bay Cartoon Festival too, which began in 2013.

Were you always arty at school?

I was always into drawing cartoons. I drew comics at home, I drew for the school magazine, then later the university mag. But I didn’t progress beyond A-level art. I didn’t go to art school. I don’t think I seriously thought of it as a career when I was younger; somehow drawing cartoons is something that you’re encouraged to think of as a hobby. Instead, I trained and worked as a journalist.

So how did you get into this line of work?

I got started professionally simply by sending cartoons to magazines. This was in 1997. I soon got a few printed, then I put a portfolio website together and eventually I began to get commissioned work. I gave up the day job in 2004, though I still do some journalism as a freelancer, and have managed to stick with it, getting cartoons published all over the world.

Do you have to be glued to the news?

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