The sad news has reached us at Scamp Towers of the death of Fletcher ‘Christy’ Hanks Jr, the son of cartoonist Fletcher Hanks. Only in January Joven Kerekes posted informing us that after 70 years of obscurity there was finally a book reprinting the work of forgotten American cartoonist Fletcher Hanks, so it was great that his son lived to see his father get some deserved recognition.

As a pilot, inventor, and WWII veteran, Christy lived quite a life himself. Please read the obituary here.

Here’s an interesting NY Times article on the cartoonist Al Jaffee, the man behind those iconic Mad Magazine fold-ins. It includes a great interactive feature of fold-ins down the years that you can play with. On a related historical note check out these amazing “two-way pictures” or Joge-e  – popular 19th century chinese woodblock prints that featured the faces of deities, monsters or historical figures.

The Booktrust’s Big Picture Award celebrates the UK’s best new illustrators. Twenty-seven were longlisted this year, and the 10 winners were announced at the Bologna children’s book fair on March 31 2008, including the now obligatory award to our own Oliver Jeffers (YAY!). There are great interviews with all the winning illustrators on thebigpicture website.

There are examples of work from all 27, with the 10 winners appearing first at the Guardian Website.
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The above image is adorning the billboards of Dublin at the moment. It’s for Opera Ireland’s production of The Marriage Of Figaro and as you can see features a very nice painted illustration. I can’t identify the artist and can’t find any reference online to the design team but I’m sure our eagle-eyed scamp readers or the artist will be able to supply the info soon.