FOUR leading cartoonists shared trade secrets with a packed crowd at Unity Books in Glasgow at the weekend. 

Organised by the Glasgow Morning Star Readers & Supporters Group, Saturday’s event, jocularly titled “Don’t be a cartoonist,” ran for an hour-and-a-half and featured Martin Rowson, Lorna Miller, Tom J and Jamie-Max Caldwell, each offering entertaining and occasionally scandalous anecdotes from their careers.

Each artist selected five images to project to the audience, offering a wide range of styles and perspectives on the craft.

Mr Rowson’s work took aim at corporate greed through grotesque satire while Ms Miller, known for her work as the “Mistress of Line,” explored cartooning as an effective tool for community activism. 

Tom J presented his caricatures of Labour Party figures and Mr Caldwell, a contemporary creator of trade union banners, murals and illustrations, showcased new imagery marking union solidarity today.

The final image shown was a still unfinished stained-glass window commemorating the defeat of fascists at the Battle of Cable Street commissioned for its 90th anniversary for a London church.

The audience heard that cartooning faces mounting pressures with print media in decline, editorial censorship a persistent issue and pay rarely reflecting the skill involved: national platforms for political cartooning have become increasingly rare, with the Morning Star among the few exceptions.

But the Glasgow event demonstrated that the art form remains in safe hands, offering a vital source of education and delight to the labour movement.