I read a lot of books with cartoons in, and they’re not always easy to track down if you don’t know where to look, so this seems as good a place as any to share them with you.

You may well have heard of Dave Gaskill due to his editorial cartoons from The Sun, Today and the Sunday Mail, and even if you don’t recognise the name there’s a good chance you’ve seen some of his work. He’s a superb cartoonist and an excellent caricaturist, and, as is proved by this book, can write too.

The story is set in Georgian London and centres around Moll and her tavern, Ye Sotted Sow, filled with various nefarious ne’er-do-wells and parodied patrons. Press gangs are at large conscripting the drunk and the vulgar, and who should get swiped while leaving Moll’s premises but the Prince Regent himself. It’s left to Moll, Sgt Rupert Romper and a few regulars to track him down, taking them all the way to the States and a potentially explosive situation.

The book is jam-packed with wit and is full of gloriously detailed illustrations and caricatures of the famous and infamous. It reminded me a lot of Goscinny and Uderzo’s Asterix books with it’s comical takes on the familiar and globe-trotting exploits, which is no bad thing at all, but that said, the book has a heart and style of its own and is clearly a work centred around Dave’s own storytelling talents. There are genuine laughs and smiles amongst the pages, which should be recommendation enough, but if you need more than that, then just delight in the drawings.

If you enjoy cartoons then this should be on your bookshelf. You can get your copy by clicking here. Enjoy!

Jake and Dinos Chapman are exhibiting their My Giant Colouring Book at the Winchester Discovery Centre, and in turn the WDC have been putting on a series of related events. My Giant Colouring Book consists of various pieces that look as if they’ve been taken from a kids’ activity book, but the results of the dot-to-dots and colouring-in are somewhat disturbing and grotesque.

As it’s the summer hols, I’ve been asked to take two days of drawing workshops, on the 18th of August for 7-9 year olds, and the 25th for 10-13 year olds. Whereas My Giant Colouring Book takes something innocent and reveals the horrible, I want to take the horrible and turn that on its head, hence No More Nightmares. There will be drawing exercises, lots of scribbling and a trip to the Gallery to see the exhibition.

You can find out more here.