Cartoon scrapbook | typerrorsinenglish

Cartoon scrapbook (Page 1)

Of course, I'm sure you have all realised that all the illustrations provided on this website and in this book have all been provided by myself, along with the general design of the cover and the layout inside - a rare activity (or privilege) for such a book as usually all these other activities are done by other departments, usually several of them.

But not all the cartoons I drew made it. There are many reasons, and in all cases those decisions to not include or remove them altogether were taken by myself. But I am sure that had I not made those decisions, the publishers would almost certainly have made those decisions for me for at least half of the examples you are going to see.

So have a look at these pictures and judge for yourself as to whether these cartoons are any good, and if you agree with my comments as regards why they are not included.

1. Actually, not a lot wrong with this example.

I simply have not had enough practise in drawing different ethnicities, and therefore lacked some confidence in drawing examples. But this one is okay and perhaps I should have been more confident in using it in the book. Even without the colour, they look pretty good. So this one is a contender for any new edition, and the only one in this collection that I have coloured as I needed something for the home page for this website!

2. My wife is a good cooker

On page 46, there is a picture of a man eating food at a table to himself, and he is being observed by the man in this cartoon. The caption reads: 'Your wife is a good cooker'. I had then planned to add this cartoon next to it to show the character loving and caressing the cooker as if it was his wife.

3. A big price

For page 106, this cartoon was drawn for the dialogue 'It's difficult to find a good dentist that is not such a big price'. But after drawing it, it just did not seem that funny.

5. Bill Clinton

...so I came up with this.

Bill Clinton is probably one of the most recognisable politicians in the world, so it seemed logical at the time to go for this.

However.

Would a native English speaker - even Bill Clinton - make such a mistake when saying 'Politics? I could talk about this for very long?'

So we had to go for a non-native. I could not draw Angela Merkal. It would be difficult to recognise any of the other nations' politicians, apart from Vladamir Putin and perhaps Francois Hollande.

So we had to go back in time, and perhaps Poland's most-recognisable politician is/was Lech Walesa, the trade union leader who played his part in bringing down communism in Poland. But I understand his English is not brilliant, so he became the cartoon for the book.

As an extra note, at the time of writing, the ex-prime minister of Poland, Donald Tusk (now President of the European Council), has had a book issued under his name called 'Polish your English'. But I do not really think he actually wrote it, even though I have heard him speak English and it was not too bad.

4. Jaroslaw Kaczynski

Who?

This was the cartoon originally planned for page 47.

Before Autumn 2015, for almost everybody outside of Poland, Jaroslaw Kaczynski was virtually unknown except for those who remember him as being the prime minister of Poland between 2006-2007. Now he's the leader of the ruling party in the country, but he's not the president, and he's not the prime minister...

So while I think I've got a good cartoon representation of him, I think he is (at the time of writing) still not known well enough internationally. This is the sole example where the publishers thought this would not be a good example. I wanted a politician, so I did a new cartoon for someone more well known...

6. The food is eating...

Introducing unit 3 is a cartoon very similar to this, but this is wrong for several reasons.

I wanted to draw a sausage that looked like it was about to enjoy eating an unfortunate diner for its dinner, but once I had pencilled and then inked it in, it looked, well...

Let's go through the problems.

1. It looks like a condom with legs.

2. Even worse, it looks like it has a willy.

3. And even worse than that, it looked a little like a racial stereotype. This was totally unintended. Perhaps I am over-reacting here, but if you think the first two reasons are an over-reaction on my part, then the third is definite reason enough not to include it.

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Cartoon scrapbook (Page 1)

So have a look at these pictures and judge for yourself as to whether these cartoons are any good, and if you agree with my comments as regards why they are not included.

1. Actually, not a lot wrong with this example.

2. My wife is a good cooker

3. A big price

For page 106, this cartoon was drawn for the dialogue 'It's difficult to find a good dentist that is not such a big price'. But after drawing it, it just did not seem that funny.

5. Bill Clinton

...so I came up with this.

Bill Clinton is probably one of the most recognisable politicians in the world, so it seemed logical at the time to go for this.

However.

Would a native English speaker - even Bill Clinton - make such a mistake when saying 'Politics? I could talk about this for very long?'

So we had to go for a non-native. I could not draw Angela Merkal. It would be difficult to recognise any of the other nations' politicians, apart from Vladamir Putin and perhaps Francois Hollande.

So we had to go back in time, and perhaps Poland's most-recognisable politician is/was Lech Walesa, the trade union leader who played his part in bringing down communism in Poland. But I understand his English is not brilliant, so he became the cartoon for the book.

4. Jaroslaw Kaczynski

Who?

This was the cartoon originally planned for page 47.

6. The food is eating...

Introducing unit 3 is a cartoon very similar to this, but this is wrong for several reasons.

I wanted to draw a sausage that looked like it was about to enjoy eating an unfortunate diner for its dinner, but once I had pencilled and then inked it in, it looked, well...

Let's go through the problems.

1. It looks like a condom with legs.

2. Even worse, it looks like it has a willy.

3. And even worse than that, it looked a little like a racial stereotype. This was totally unintended. Perhaps I am over-reacting here, but if you think the first two reasons are an over-reaction on my part, then the third is definite reason enough not to include it.

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