Harry Hardnose, Hedgehog Benn, the Penguin, the Turkey Trot ... these are some of the famous characters in cartoonist Steve Bell's repertoire. Hilary Driver interviewed him for our Xmas issue.
It was obviously not going to be easy interviewing a socialist cartoonist for International. The great Marxist classics have little to say on the subject of radical cartoons, and the readership of International are a formidable audience. However, armed with much advice and no tape recorder I set off to meet Steve Bell in his home town of Brighton.
For the reader who is not yet part of the growing cult of SB supporters not fortunate enough to live north of Watford Gap, I'll explain that Steve is the cartoonist and political satirist responsible for the 'IF...' strip in the Guardian, and 'Maggie's Farm' in the London magazine City Limits. Steve lives with Heather and their young son, William, who all share their front room with a two-foot high inflatable penguin sent by a fan.
I began by asking Steve how he started out on his cartooning career. 'I was at school in Slough and then went to Middlesborough to do a Pre-Dip course for a year.' (The pre-diploma is done by art students before going on to specialise in a 3 or 4 year course). 'The Pre-Dip was very intensive and they made us work like crazy — some days we were doing 12 hours of life drawing. Then I went on to Canterbury but jacked it in after only 3 weeks, and started a year long job at the ICI fertiliser division, drawing cows and manure and things for £13 per week! I finally went to Leeds for a 4 year fine art course which was half academic and half practical. I also did a film course at Leeds which included making some 16mm films plus studying the history and theory of film-making.'
Schools' careers counselling is not so hot on developing the talents and aspirations of erstwhile cartoonists, most of whom lack a burning passion for the trade in their early years, but just drift into it. Steve was no exception, having begun his art at school caricaturing teachers but never really knowing what he wanted to do, even when he'd finished at Leeds. 'The experience of working for a year changed me a lot. I started to get interested in politics — particularly in anarchism. Lots of their ideas still appeal to me, but I wouldn't define myself as an anarchist. I met a lot of people at Leeds between 1970-74. The influence of '68 was still very strong. I had friends in the IS, IMG ... and the SLL — God bless their hearts! There was always one SLL member who would get up at every meeting and say the same thing over and over and over. After Leeds I worked in a bookshop, did some part-time teaching and eventually decided to do a Post-ed teaching course at Exeter which was OK. Heather was working in Birmingham so I moved up there and got a job as an art teacher in a Comprehensive in Aston. It was hard work and I realised quite soon that I wasn't cut out for teaching but I stuck it for a year. I prefer to [illegible].
While I was teaching I did some cartoons for Birmingham Broadside in particular one strip called 'Maxwell the Mutant'. I started [illegible] made the [illegible] living doing paid drawing work. My first regular paid job was for an IPC kids comic called Whoopee! — a poor imitation of the Beano. Some things about comics are offensive, but it's a good way of learning the trade and really learnt a lot doing that. Comics aren't half as good as when we were kids. In its heyday the Beano sold millions, now its circulation is down to around 100,000 copies. [illegible] who'd been working doing the same sort of [illegible] years. There's something depressing about one of the strips. At The Leveller people were divided into two camps over the strip, those who hated it and those who liked it, with the latter just prevailing. One of the strips contained a character called Bella — the lucky housewife, who was approached by Saatchi and Saatchi about doing a testimonial for the Tories. The editorial collective first rejected it and then printed it inviting comments from readers.
At the same time as the comic work I was doing some serious illustration for Social Work Today (I felt schizo!) and also alternative stuff for Broadside and The Leveller.
Now I'm not doing the diversity of work I was then. You find out you're better at some things — for me it was strip cartooning. Good [illegible]. I made more contacts through work for New Society, and then, just after Thatcher was elected, started 'Maggie's Farm' for Time Out.'
I asked Steve if he found it hard to find ideas for his work? 'I don't find it too difficult. A strip obeys its own laws, its own inner logic. Over the years I've built up a stable of characters. For example, I first used Badger Courage in Leeds (he was a constable then!). The name came from a cops recruiting poster which said "Wear the badge of courage"! Harry Hardnose first appeared in The Leveller. I don't envy cartoonists who do one-off "joke" cartoons — you have to cope with a very big rejection rate. Tom Johnson now does a one-off cartoon in the London Evening Standard, in 1978 he produced five issues of a cartoon magazine called Duck Soup some of which was pretty bad, sexist for example. In general though, I like his work. You always get some people who dislike aspects of cartoons.'
Did Steve ever get complaints? 'One or two people have written to the Guardian: "Dear Editor, please get rid of this strip...". When I was doing the 'Lord God Almighty' strip for The Leveller a big debate broke out [illegible].
An illustration I did for Liberation Films to advertise a season of films about women was rejected because someone had said it might be construed as offensive — without actually saying why. The illustration was of women on a march, white, black, young and old women. The problem may be that with cartoons you're always dealing in stereotypes — big noses, caricatures, etc. There's more discussion of this in the left press — people working for the straight press expect to be edited. To a large extent I operate self-censorship. I [illegible] if I [illegible] or "fuck" in the Guardian it would get rejected.
I was influenced a lot by underground comix like Gilbert Shelton and Robert Crumb (of 'Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers' and 'Fritz the Cat' fame). I don't find Crumb as offensive as the sleek dolly-bird images thrown at us by the media every day, but underground comix are flawed because of sexism and very violent images.
The Guardian have only rejected two strips to date. One was the strip of a series of explosions (BOOM! WHAMM! THUDDD! PYM!) which was due to be published the same day the paper was carrying photos of the HMS Sheffield blowing up, and they thought it would be distasteful. The second was one of the early strips introducing Badger Courage — about him being corrupt which they thought could be libellous, as Badger has some resemblance to Anderton! Mind you I've done much more libellous things than that in 'Maggie's Farm'.
[illegible] was no point in me slagging off Benn, Foot, etc because the majority of the press spends most of their time doing it anyway. That's not to say that I agree with them, especially not Foot. Now with the register and the witch hunt I think I'll have to do something on Golding and those other bastards.
I don't think cartoons have a direct political impact, a direct effect on what goes on or making people act differently. Cartoon strips are different from one-offs. People pick up on a strip — it's like a contagious disease, you get hooked. Too many so-called political cartoons aren't that at all, they're not much more than a good gag. In the States political cartoons are much sharper. The political cartoonists in the national press don't care about politics, you just get the feeling they're politically inept. Brétecher is very good on the other hand. The Sunday Times have now dropped her, I imagine because she was a bit too near the knuckle and a bit too sharp for the package of drivel they produce every week.'
Steve was surprised at the success of Mr Kipling and the penguin: 'I think it's because I used them to think aloud, they were saying what I thought about the stupidity of the war in the Falklands. The "IF..." strip has changed since then, I think people take it much more seriously now.'
The popularity of the penguin and Kipling was undoubtedly because of the fact that they represented almost lone voices in expressing minority opposition to the war. Fans will be sad to know that Steve is giving the pair a holiday for the time being, after the excitement of the Peckham by-election.
For anyone who is hooked on Steve Bell's cartoons, they should demand from their friends and comrades Xmas presents of the two anthologies published so far, 'Maggie's Farm' books One and Two, available from The Other Bookshop, 328 Upper Street, London N1 2XP. Prices are £2.75 and £2.95 respectively, published by Penguin (!) Books.
Steve's favourite cartoonists include Leo Baxendal who invented the Bash Street Kids, Minnie the Minx and Little Plum in the Beano, and Cormac who does strips in Republican News and Socialist Challenge. 'I like Cormac's stuff, I saw a lot of it for the first time in the compilation of his work that's just been published. I don't often see Socialist Challenge — being a slow reader!'
We began discussing the 'IF...' strip in the Guardian, and I asked Steve why he concentrated all his fire on the SDP and the Tories and not the Labour bureaucrats? 'I was written to by a kid a few months ago who said why didn't I do Benn, Foot and Cyril Smith. I wrote back and said I'd do Cyril, but there [illegible].