Regular readers of this blog will know that I recently had a cartoon published in Private Eye magazine (issue 1396, number fans), a cartoon I can reproduce here given that the said issue has since gone off sale.

You can see the cartoon above, a response to the terrible Charleston shootings of a few weeks back. I don’t want to over explain the cartoon or anything (a picture speaks a thousand words, or so they say) so I’ll just leave it up there for you to interpret as you see fit.

The Private Eye gig came after years and years of trying, and years and years of getting the infamous stock reply (infamous to us cartoonists, anyway) ‘The Editor say sorry not to use, thanks for sending’. I was all set to get those words as a tattoo or engraved on my gravestone so familiar were they to me, but then upon opening the email in response to my last attempt, I found – to my utter amazement – no stock response, but instead the news that the Eye actually wanted to BUY a cartoon from me! Gadzooks!

I’m hugely proud of having finally cracked Private Eye, as I’d wanted to be in Lord Gnome’s esteemed organ ever since I was about 16. I created and ran a spoof newspaper for my sixth-form called ‘The Scum’, which I once sent to Private Eye editor Ian Hislop, along with a cheeky little note asking if there were any jobs going. Hislop did take the time to reply (Gawd bless him!) saying he had enjoyed The Scum, but regretted to inform me there were no jobs going. Curses!

Still, here I am now, with my work now published in Private Eye. And it only took fourteen years to crack. This is either a prime example of how one should NEVER give up, or it’s a chilling tale of an unstoppable obsession held well over a decade. As with the cartoon above, I’ll leave you to decide.

- Fanton.

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