Vegetables, Soil and Hope

We had the pleasure of working with Riverford, and produced some cartoon illustrations for their latest book, a collection of Guy’s very nourishing rants. From the Riverford site:

“Every week for over 25 years, Riverford founder and farmer, Guy Singh-Watson, has distilled his ruminations on ethical food, farming and business into a missive for our veg boxes.

We’ve pieced together a selection of them in a new book, Vegetables, Soil & Hope, alongside witty illustrations, to chronicle a quarter century of a life on the veg. We have some of you to thank, for suggesting your most memorable newsletters for us to consider, and some of you who sent in ancient newsletters and helped us to fill gaps from the early years, when our file keeping wasn’t great.

Each piece promises to challenge the food on your plate, make you empathise with those who produce it, or celebrate Guy’s true vegetable loves, which include artichokes, bitter leaves and cardoons. And for some of you who have been customers for donkeys years, we hope the book might bring some veg box nostalgia.

The newsletters are brought to life with witty, colourful and inventive drawings, which we have Guardian Weekend artists, Berger and Wyse, to thank for.”

You can order the book here

Moving about a bit

Years ago we did a 15 second animation for Nokia Shorts – and really enjoyed the challenge of trying to make it as much of a complete story as possible despite the tiny space. Since then, periodically, the idea of animating our cartoon strips has come up at the Guardian, but somehow we've never cracked it (ie got off our arses and done it). For one, we weren't always sure we knew how to make the animations do something the still images didn't already manage. Just trying to replicate the gag in a moving form can actually spoil the way, in a still, the viewer can create their own sense of timing, their own path through it. When the Guardian came to us and wanted to try something that just went out of social media, it seemed like the right space and opportunity to give it a go. 

Pick a card, any card

Really pleased to announce that some of our cartoons are now available as cards through Woodmansterne and, you know, in all good retailers. Honoured to be in the company of Matt, Punch, Spike Milligan and others. Buy them for all your loved ones, and the people you can't stand.

Guest spot

Meg Miller is running a week-long contest on her blog, extolling the virtues of the rewrite. She invited me to do a guest blog about my experience of rewriting and revising stories.

She knew me from my children's books, but I thought I'd like to do something about how rewriting and refining informs the cartooning process. My piece is live today, and can be found here:

ReViMo day 2 with Joe Berger

JB

All rise for Judge Ferrero Rocher

A month of cartoon scoff

What the peppers say

Here's the latest from the food cartoon. Also, news of a bit of piggery jokery going on in Beverley, East Yorks. From Saturday we have an exhibition of cartoons and animation at the lovely Creation Fine Arts gallery. This also represents the first northern tour for Roger the Pig. I would like to say he is excited about it, but that's not really part of his deal. He claims to be no less unhappy though.

Short notice, but if you are in the area and would like to come along to the private view on Saturday evening (March 8), drop us a line via this website. It would be great to see you. PW

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A new beautful, slim, confident you (if you're a prune)

Funnel of love

End of seasoning

Good for laying down

Blue sky breakfast

Apple operating system

Vanity fare: cartoon catchup

G whizz

Our sequence for the Guardian, for use in their videogame reviews etc. The idea was to cast the "g" in a few iconic games and write a soundtrack that goes from 8-bits to the full orchestral monty. Memories of a time when a dose of Defender cost you 10p – and your thumbs.

Diplomatic bag: our title sequence for BBC2's Ambassadors

It has been a while since we did a title sequence, but we couldn't resist Ambassadors, starring Mitchell and Webb, since they gave us a minute to play with and real encouragement to do something more than just plop some names on the screen. Also, the production team at Big Talk had the neat idea of a journey that begins in the comfort of London and the home counties before gradually revealing an increasingly jaundiced and ill-informed view of the Foreign Office's more distant postings. Thanks to great producer Chris Carey, writer James Wood and the Big Talk team for seeing this through. PW/JB

A bit of a stiff

Nothing doing

Dairy of a nobody