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If... #13
The If... Files
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
About the author
Steve Bell
32 books3 followersSteven Bell (born 26 February 1951) is an English political cartoonist, whose work appears in The Guardian and other publications. He is known for his left-wing views.
Steve Bell is probably best known for the daily strip called If... , which has appeared in The Guardian newspaper since 1981, and since the mid-1990s he has also been that newspaper's principal editorial cartoonist.
Steve Bell is probably best known for the daily strip called If... , which has appeared in The Guardian newspaper since 1981, and since the mid-1990s he has also been that newspaper's principal editorial cartoonist.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 13, 2018
Another collection of Steve Bell's "If Files". These are Political strips, published daily, from the Guardian Paper. Originally published between June 1995 and June 1997 this includes the "large" format single frame cartoons. They cover the time from the middle of John Major's Tory leadership through to the start of Tony Blairs' Labour leadership.
Reading this now it seems like a distant world; Northern Ireland, Foot and Mouth disease, the start of the Millennium Dome fiasco... 'simpler times in this age of Brexit. I expect this was a great read at the time but now it seems very old news; a commentary explaining just what the issues were that week would have helped. Without that commentary I ended up focussing on the surreal antics of Bell's world... which wasn't very satisfying and felt a bit like a stuck record (various political characters implode in bizarre ways...).
I still love his drawings but I'll stick with his current strips and wonder if the commentary in a future edition would just resign this to academic interest. A bit like the sharp wit of Jonathan Swift's "Tale of a Tub"... which is utterly surreal without a good commentary. I suspect that Bells' strips, great as they are, won't have enough structure to allow them to be great comic reading for future generations.
Reading this now it seems like a distant world; Northern Ireland, Foot and Mouth disease, the start of the Millennium Dome fiasco... 'simpler times in this age of Brexit. I expect this was a great read at the time but now it seems very old news; a commentary explaining just what the issues were that week would have helped. Without that commentary I ended up focussing on the surreal antics of Bell's world... which wasn't very satisfying and felt a bit like a stuck record (various political characters implode in bizarre ways...).
I still love his drawings but I'll stick with his current strips and wonder if the commentary in a future edition would just resign this to academic interest. A bit like the sharp wit of Jonathan Swift's "Tale of a Tub"... which is utterly surreal without a good commentary. I suspect that Bells' strips, great as they are, won't have enough structure to allow them to be great comic reading for future generations.
Displaying 1 of 1 review