Steve Bell- Margret Thatcher

Steve Bell was born in 1951 in East London, Walthamstow. Bell was educated at Slough Grammar School, and was a fan of cartoons from an early age.

In his early career he drew children’s comic pages, including Whoopee, Cheeky and Jackpot and he also created illustrations and comic strips for magazines such as Social Work Today, Punch, Private Eye, New Society, the Radio Times, the New Statesman, the Spectator and the Journalist.

Fig 1- Steve Bell- Steppin out on the third way legged race

His cartoon, Maggie’s Farm appeared in Time Out and City Limits magazines from 1979 until 1987 and, since 1981 he has written and drawn the daily If… strip in the Guardian. He has produced many memorable images of some influential characters in politics such as John Major with his underpants worn outside his trousers, of Tony Blair with Margaret Thatcher’s rogue eyeball, and of George W Bush as a chimpanzee. His work as become a global successes and has been awarded, ‘the Papers Say’ Cartoonist of the Year in 1993, the XXI Premio Satira Politica (Grafica estera) Forte Dei Marmi, Italy 1993, the Political Cartoon Society Cartoon of the Year Award in 2001 and 2008 and Cartoonist of the Year in 2005 and 2007, the British Press Awards Cartoonist of the Year in 2002, the Cartoon Arts Trust Award eight times, the Channel 4 Political Humour Award in 2005 and the Political Studies Association Best Political Satire Award in 2005. He has also received honorary degrees from the Universities of Sussex, Teesside, Loughborough, Leeds and Brighton. In total he has published 28 book twenty eight book, including a cartoon autobiography of George Bush called Apes of Wrath, an anthology If… Marches On and, most recently a Tony Blair self-help guide titled My Vision For a New You, published by Methuen.

Fig 2- Tony Blair 

Alongside Bob Godfrey, Bell has produced a number of TV animated cartoons, including a cartoon biography about Margaret Thatcher – Where Am I Now? broadcast on Channel 4. This series of work started in 1979 when Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister. Bell learned from the news editor of London’s Time Out magazine, Duncan Campbell, that they was interest for him to create political cartoon strip that would attack the Conservative government. Very keen to express his intense dislike of Margret Thatcher, Bell began drawing "Maggie's Farm", an inspired political fantasy which was hugely successful, and later transferred to City Limits magazine. Bell disliked, as many at the time did, Thatcher's political beliefs and style of government, he said he "…had this sense of total outrage right from the start because she was totally divisive," acknowledging that “She was overthrowing everything I felt I believed in. If you were on the left in those days it was quite a bleak time because she swept in and changed politics to the way she wanted it." They met for the first time at the Conservative conference in `Brighton in October 1980, he said he was "horrified and intrigued.", admitting that during these years he “hated Thatcher and wanted her to die."

Fig 3- Steve Bell- Thatcher 

For this task I wanted to characters Margret Thatcher. However, my illustrative style is not very cartoon like, so I decided to make a 3D clay head of Thatcher, inspired by the popular 1980s TV series Spitting Image. 

Fig 4- Margret Thatcher- Spitting Image TV series

This experiment wasn't that successful, I found it surprisingly very difficult to mould the clay to the shapes I wanted, as I found it hard to visualise the shapes from a 2D image, but that was the point of the exercise. I also found that because I was using air during clay, and where I was making this was very warm, the clay was drying quickly meaning that i couldn't smooth out the clay, meaning that it started to crack.

From this I then found it a lot easier to exaggerate her feature. I drew her then using black 

pen, as Steve Bell does, and coloured her on Photoshop. 

I was thoroughly surprised with the result. I believe that it does feature some of Thatcher more dominated feature, such as her bulging eyes and large cheek bones.

Steve Bell sometimes productions animations based on politicians so i decided to create a short GIF of Margret Thatcher, using the image I had created.

Image References

Fig 1- News.bbc.co.uk. (2016). BBC NEWS | Programmes | Politics Show | Steve Bell - a life in cartoons.... [online] Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/politics_show/6437053.stm [Accessed 9 Dec. 2016].
Fig 2- Original-political-cartoon.com. (2016). Bell rings time on Blair’s premiership. [online] Available at: http://www.original-political-cartoon.com/cartoon-history/bell-rings-time-blairs-premiership/ [Accessed 9 Dec. 2016].
Fig 3- lambiek.net. (2016). Steve Bell. [online] Available at: https://www.lambiek.net/artists/b/bell_steve.htm [Accessed 9 Dec. 2016].

Bibliography 

• Bell, S. (2016). Steve Bell on John Major and Scottish independence – cartoon. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cartoon/2014/sep/10/steve-bell-cartoon-scottish-independence-john-major-referendum?CMP=twt_gu [Accessed 9 Dec. 2016].
• Bell, S. (2016). Steve Bell on John Major's intervention on Tory social policy – cartoon. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cartoon/2013/nov/11/john-major-conservative-party-steve-bell-cartoon [Accessed 9 Dec. 2016].
• Cartoons.ac.uk. (2016). Steve Bell - British Cartoon Archive - University of Kent. [online] Available at: https://www.cartoons.ac.uk/cartoonist-biographies/a-b/SteveBell.html [Accessed 10 Dec. 2016].
• Cool Like Pie. (2016). Fun furry friends.. [online] Available at: http://www.coollikepie.com/inspiration-blog/fun-furry-friends56 [Accessed 9 Dec. 2016].
• En.wikipedia.org. (2016). Steve Bell (cartoonist). [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Bell_(cartoonist) [Accessed 10 Dec. 2016].
• lambiek.net. (2016). Steve Bell. [online] Available at: https://www.lambiek.net/artists/b/bell_steve.htm [Accessed 9 Dec. 2016].
• Londonlovesbusiness.com. (2016). Boris Johnson’s 19 wittiest quotes | News | LondonlovesBusiness.com. [online] Available at: http://www.londonlovesbusiness.com/business-news/politics/boris-johnsons-19-wittiest-quotes/11505.article [Accessed 9 Dec. 2016].
• News.bbc.co.uk. (2016). BBC NEWS | Programmes | Politics Show | Steve Bell - a life in cartoons.... [online] Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/politics_show/6437053.stm [Accessed 9 Dec. 2016].
• Nicholas Cecil, R. (2016). Boris Johnson reveals he plans to stand as Tory MP in Uxbridge. [online] Evening Standard. Available at: http://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-declares-he-will-stand-in-uxbridge-and-south-ruislip-9691619.html [Accessed 9 Dec. 2016].
• Original-political-cartoon.com. (2016). Bell rings time on Blair’s premiership. [online] Available at: http://www.original-political-cartoon.com/cartoon-history/bell-rings-time-blairs-premiership/ [Accessed 9 Dec. 2016].
• the Guardian. (2016). Steve Bell | The Guardian. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/stevebell [Accessed 10 Dec. 2016].
• Theguardian.com. (2016). 28.04.2006: The usual suspects | Cartoons | guardian.co.uk. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/cartoons/stevebell/0,,1763592,00.html [Accessed 9 Dec. 2016].
• Yourpurebredpuppy.com. (2016). Komondors: What's Good About 'Em? What's Bad About 'Em?. [online] Available at: http://www.yourpurebredpuppy.com/reviews/komondors.html [Accessed 9 Dec. 2016].