Real Academik - it's a vision thing
Guardian Higher Education Supplement
January 1998 - February 2000
Guardian Higher Education Supplement
January 1998 - February 2000
In the late 90s i was student cartoonist for the Liverpool Gazette / Liverpool Student newspapers where my strip and editorial cartoons were published fortnightly, almost entirely in black and white. At the same time the Guardian was running a full colour student page in it's HE supplement where all contributions came from student writers and occasionally, illustrators or cartoonists
One particular contribution which i found provocatively vacuous, prompted me to write to the editor of the page claiming that not all students were airheads and that i could offer up some more thought provoking cartoon work
The plan was accepted and for the next couple of years the Real Academik strip appeared fortnightly in the same pages as Bell and Rowson as well as locally in Liverpool. As a student myself, i was flattered by the almost contractual nature of the work and at the same time tested by the demands of strip writing as i'd not much experience in the field and it was actually quite difficult to do
i tried to stick to subjects concerning students - fees, the rampant surge of consumerism sweeping thro the unions, demos and the like - but had carte blanche and veered towards anti-capitalisrt propaganda at the drop of a hat. i suspected that the gushing young editor at the Guardian didn't really care too much about content so long as it sounded studenty and looked colourful. You might need to be of a certain age to get some of this stuff. Who in their 20s for example, will know much of anything about the Millennium Dome 'Mind Zone'
My politics were left of field and getting lefter the more i read tho i always shied away from organised militias like the SWP or whoever. Later my work was influenced by Chomsky and Pilger as i drew my way thro the Iraq war. But those were different days
Real Academik was generally considered highbrow and esoteric. Sometimes it was difficult for readers to work thro a strip, other times it wasn't. I was used to the bizarre metaphorical journeys of Bell's If strip and this influenced me somewhat. I drew in indian ink and coloured in watercolour or colour pencil or both. I also stuck patches on artwork where i'd made inking mistakes and often coloured photocopies of the original drawing rather than the original itself
This was all in the days before digital colour and i used to troop about campus in the snow looking for free photocopiers and laser copy machines, my pound coin held in a clutched fist as i waited impatiently for the finished product which i could then email to London after booking the one and only scanner on campus.
I was a minor celebrity amongst a few fellow students. I now see that whole thing as rather tragic given that the influence of a radical cartoonist extends no further than the edges of his desk. I may have burned out but unlike Bell or Cobb, i didn't sell out tho as both wd say, i never had the opportunity to test that
There are 48 strips in the collection. you might notice that in strip 44, when i had been given notice, i dynamite the strip in the first panel and proceed in similar fashion over the coming weeks to clear the way for a To Let sign on the vacant space. The last strip addresses Garry Trudeau, the greatest strip cartoonist of modern times, and some of his observations on the nature of success
One particular contribution which i found provocatively vacuous, prompted me to write to the editor of the page claiming that not all students were airheads and that i could offer up some more thought provoking cartoon work
The plan was accepted and for the next couple of years the Real Academik strip appeared fortnightly in the same pages as Bell and Rowson as well as locally in Liverpool. As a student myself, i was flattered by the almost contractual nature of the work and at the same time tested by the demands of strip writing as i'd not much experience in the field and it was actually quite difficult to do
i tried to stick to subjects concerning students - fees, the rampant surge of consumerism sweeping thro the unions, demos and the like - but had carte blanche and veered towards anti-capitalisrt propaganda at the drop of a hat. i suspected that the gushing young editor at the Guardian didn't really care too much about content so long as it sounded studenty and looked colourful. You might need to be of a certain age to get some of this stuff. Who in their 20s for example, will know much of anything about the Millennium Dome 'Mind Zone'
My politics were left of field and getting lefter the more i read tho i always shied away from organised militias like the SWP or whoever. Later my work was influenced by Chomsky and Pilger as i drew my way thro the Iraq war. But those were different days
Real Academik was generally considered highbrow and esoteric. Sometimes it was difficult for readers to work thro a strip, other times it wasn't. I was used to the bizarre metaphorical journeys of Bell's If strip and this influenced me somewhat. I drew in indian ink and coloured in watercolour or colour pencil or both. I also stuck patches on artwork where i'd made inking mistakes and often coloured photocopies of the original drawing rather than the original itself
This was all in the days before digital colour and i used to troop about campus in the snow looking for free photocopiers and laser copy machines, my pound coin held in a clutched fist as i waited impatiently for the finished product which i could then email to London after booking the one and only scanner on campus.
I was a minor celebrity amongst a few fellow students. I now see that whole thing as rather tragic given that the influence of a radical cartoonist extends no further than the edges of his desk. I may have burned out but unlike Bell or Cobb, i didn't sell out tho as both wd say, i never had the opportunity to test that
There are 48 strips in the collection. you might notice that in strip 44, when i had been given notice, i dynamite the strip in the first panel and proceed in similar fashion over the coming weeks to clear the way for a To Let sign on the vacant space. The last strip addresses Garry Trudeau, the greatest strip cartoonist of modern times, and some of his observations on the nature of success
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