There is no doubt in the minds of the members and guests who attended the The Arts Society Wokingham’s June lecture: Harry Venning is an amusing and entertaining speaker, as well as a famous cartoonist and comedy writer.
In 2016, Harry was awarded the UK Strip Cartoonist of The Year for his Guardian cartoon, Clare In The Community, which he also adapted into a Radio 4 sitcom.
This evening it was Hamlet the Pig who was the star.
Interspersed throughout his talk Harry drew cartoons of Hamlet and asked his audience to guess the punch line.
It soon became clear that the answer would be a pun on the famous Shakespearean line, ‘To be, or not to be, that is the question’.
The enthusiastic audience joined in the fun and shouted out their guesses.
As well as fun, there were facts.
The audience learnt about the history of cartoons, their political and social influence, their lexicon and the work of various famous cartoonists.
During the 19th century satirical cartoons were growing in popularity and influence. James Gillray drew a series of political cartoons including ‘The Plumb-Pudding in Danger’ which depicted Pitt and Napoleon carving up the world between them. Napoleon was depicted as a short domineering ‘‘little corporal’.
In fact, he was probably of average height and he was reputed to have said that Gillray “did more than all the armies of Europe to bring me down”.
John Leech established the place of cartoons in British magazines and newspapers. He was the cartoonist for Punch magazine from its inception in 1841 until his death in 1864.
Charles Schultz, creator of ’Peanuts’ did the same in the American press, making the characters of Charlie Brown and Snoopy well-known throughout the world.
On a more technical level, Harry introduced the audience to the terminology invented by Mort Walker to describe the symbols used by comic cartoonists.
The audience were fascinated as Harry illustrated the meaning of terms such as plewds which illustrate beads of sweat, grawlixes representing rude words and a waftarom which shows that a pie smells good.
Mort Walker’s The Lexicon of Comicana is essential reading for a budding cartoonist.
After, one audience member said: “Very enthusiastic, entertaining, unusual. We all love cartoons and the lecture helped us understand why”
Another excellent speaker, Rosalind Whyte, will be explaining why Antony Gormley’s sculptures are so appealing and meaningful at the Arts Society Wokingham’s free annual lecture.
Guests are most welcome at Newbold Church at 7.45pm on Monday, July 18. The talk will also be broadcast as a live stream.
Email memsectheartssocietywham@gmail.com to register your interest.
Details of next season’s talks are available on the Society’s website www.TheArtsSocietyWokingham.org.uk
Sue Bryant
