Tony draws on his natural inspiration
AFTER avoiding each other like ships in the night for at least 30 years, at last, one of the UK’s best cartoonists is gracing one of my columns with his work.
Local man, Tony Husband of Gee Cross, a regular for many years in The Times and The Daily Express and still the go to guy for his brilliant strip cartoon ‘Yobs’ in that most august of publications, Private Eye.
Tony is as close to an ‘institution’ that one person can be and his work is up there with the best and it is hardly surprising, in my view, that his mantlepiece is stacked with prestigious awards.
He has also worked in television, theatre and written and illustrated many books, including recently, ‘Take Care Son’, inspired by his father Ron’s struggles and descent into dementia.
This is the touching, illustrated story of Tony’s father and how dementia slowly took him away from his family.
The title is a reference to his last words to his son - on a day when Tony had spent the day in the care home with no sign of recognition. Stephen Fry said of the book: ’Rather wonderful cartoon strips [...] chronicling his father’s dementia with loving charm and wit.’
In recent months, Tony, becalmed at home like the rest of his, has cast his careful eye over some of the wildlife in his garden, the surrounding countryside and indeed the people in it and I could not help but be impressed by the tender beauty of the drawings.
Not over detailed and neither too sentimental, just an honest attempt at capturing the essence of a field mouse, a Jenny Wren,or even kids in the snow with the same verve that he is able to transfer a funny idea onto paper in a matter of minutes, maybe even seconds.
If you ask me, all artists, from Breugel to Van Gogh and everyone before and after, began with wildlife and the countryside, especially trees and their interpretations of what was around them.
Tony’s caring and campaigning nature has also seen him become a big supporter of the Environmental Investigation Agency, an organisation which fights to protect endangered species, for example their ‘Save The Tiger’ campaign.
Closer to home, I wanted to know if, like me, Tony had a view from his desk and of course he does.
He said: “The view from here is amazing, not least the garden itself with all my trees and then further off towards Manchester Airport and beyond.
“Some days there’s nothing to do and I have to create, but I don’t have any problem with that and that’s probably where my little animal drawings come from.
“I don’t think about my work going into Private Eye and books and everything and then going all around the world.
“It’s just the piece of paper in front of you and I don’t think about the bigger picture really.
“It’s only when you meet people, you think ‘I’ve made some sort of impact’”.
I reckon he has indeed.