The Galway Cartoon Festival has announced their line-up for this year’s event. The annual festival in Galway Ireland will feature Lucie Arnoux, Dave Coverly, Ben Jennings, Malak Mattar, Will McPhail, and Dean Patterson.
The Galway Cartoon Festival was established in 2017 with the objective to “nurture, promote, and develop the art of the cartoon in Ireland, particularly as a living means of social commentary and protest” as well as “be international in outlook, forging links and exchanging ideas between our cartoon culture and the ones beyond these shores.”
Details on the featured artists:
- Lucie Arnoux – best known as an artist on the Enola Holmes comics & for her graphic-novel autobiography, Je Ne Sais Quoi
- Dave Coverly – creator of Speed Bump. He is a four time winner of Best Panel from the National Cartoonists Society.
- Ben Jennings – Cartoonist and illustrator whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The i Newspaper). He was awarded European Cartoon of the Year in 2023.
- Malak Mattar – author/illustrator of the best-selling children’s book, Sitti’s Bird: A Gaza Story. Her astonishing grayscale painting, No Words is a personal response to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
- Will McPhail – New Yorker cartoonist, National Cartoonists Society’s Divisional Reuben for Gag Cartoons in 2016, and British Cartoonists Association’s Young Cartoonist of the Year.
- Dean Patterson – cartoonist for Private Eye, The Phoenix, The Idler, and others.
Dean will be honored as having made a significant contribution to the art in Ireland. He will have a solo exhibit at the festival.
Tonight at the festival organizers will hold a kick-off event at Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop to announce their full festival program. The festival runs October 4-9, 2024.
Correction: this post was updated to correct the award Will McPhail received in 2016 was a National Cartoonists Society Divisional award and not The Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year as reported by Galway Cartoon Festival.
From the Galway Festival’s Facebook page: “What is Will McPhail of The New Yorker (not to mention Reuben Award’s Cartoonist of the Year 2017 and 2018 and the British Cartoonists Association’s Young Cartoonist of the Year) going to be doing at Galway Cartoon Festival 2024?” https://www.facebook.com/galwaycartoonfestival
Not to rain on Galway’s Festival but Will McPhail, one of my favorite current cartoonists, won the Divisional Reuben for Gag Cartoons in 2017 for his work in 2016 (https://nationalcartoonists.com/awards/division-awards/). The Cartoonist of the Year Reuben Award for 2017 and 2018 were given to Glen Keane and Stephan Pastis respectively (https://nationalcartoonists.com/awards/).
Thanks to D. D. Degg for pointing out this error, which we are endeavouring to correct. On behalf of the Galway Cartoon Festival, I’d like to apologize unreservedly to Glen Keane and Stephan Pastis.
Thanks also to The Daily Cartoonist for this coverage. I am still recovering from last night’s launch event, which was delightful.