Look, No Feet!: Best of Bryan McAllister Cartoons from the "Guardian" - Tapa blanda

(Inside every good political journalist there is a cartoonist struggling to get out. Most are imprisoned by their inability to draw, but a few escape to enjoy a life of rare freedom. If they have more than a single column in which to indulge themselves, they take to commenting on the political story of the day in terms of the popular story of the day, dress up the principal characters, and often dispense with words. But those with only a single column to themselves strike an attitude and say what they think. The words are not captions but committed wisecracks, and no one is better at that than Bryan McAllister. Indeed, I took to quoting him so often on the radio in the mornings that some of his Guardian fans wrote to protest. I was beating them to it and spoiling their pleasure, they said. He was especially good during the miners' strike. Pickets in a car to a policeman: We're on our way to Richard Burton's funeral. Policeman to policeman: To show there are no hard feelings, I think I might offer to pay the NUM fine out of my overtime. And if you look at the drawings you will see that the figures are not simply an excuse for the words, but the embodiment of them. They could have said that for themselves. They certainly wish they had, which may explain why their feet never touch the ground. Politicians of my acquaintance wince at his wisdom and even pretend to be affronted. But then his work is not for those in authority, nor even for those who oppose authority. It is for those who never cease to be amused by the antics of the people in the public eye. I was going to say that Bryan McAllister is a private eye... but he is better than that.
Bryan Redhead 1987)