Interview with Iconic British Cartoonist Michael Heath.

  

British cartoonist, Michael Heath, now in his eighth decade, has been a visual fixture in my life from adolescence, when I first encountered his work. In particular, his cartoons for 'Private Eye', and 'Punch' filled me with joy. Along the way, his many wry references to the gay world were fascinating to this young gay boy. His satire was both sharp and hilarious; cosy and caustic. Michael went on to submit work for The Evening Standard; The Evening News; The Guardian; The Independent; The Sunday Times; The Mail on Sunday; The Evening Standard; The Evening News: The Guardian; The Spectator; The Independent; The Sunday Times; The Mail on Sunday; and Private Eye. He is currently the Cartoon Editor for The Spectator, a position he has held since 1991.

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Michael, thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. I have been a big fan of your work ever since I first saw it in ‘Private Eye’ magazine as a teenager. Your idiosyncratic line was always instantly recognisable. Your illustrations to ‘Great Bores of Today’, for instance, were both tart and hilarious.

You are too kind!

What can you tell me about the young Michael Heath? Where did you grow up?

I was born in London in 1935. I had no education to speak of. I just wanted to draw cartoons and make people laugh. I’ve drawn for magazine that no longer exist. You must understand that the need for humorous cartoons has almost died. It’s difficult being funny day after day. I still do it, but I regret that I’m not an ‘artist’. The New Yorker has gone ‘woke’ and is not funny anymore. The notion of ‘funny’, or ‘amusing’ is now history. I’d have been better off drawing on walls.


When did your career really begin?

I started cartooning probably around 1954.

 

Can you speak a bit about your art school experience?

I didn’t dislike college, but I was sent there as I couldn’t do anything else. Nobody worked much then – and even cartooning was the pits then.

 

Later on, you were part of a social group that included some of the great cultural figures of the day, including Francis Bacon; Lucian Freud; Jeffrey Bernard amongst many others. Was there a sense that those were extraordinary times?

Yes, Francis Bacon and Lucian came along later. I was very taken with Jeffrey Bernard. He was amazing – if you wanted to die! He was rude, intelligent, and drunk.

 

There is a great tradition of British satirical cartoonists – one thinks historically of James Gillray, and Thomas Rowlandson, for example. Do you think that cartoonists today still have the same power to prick pretensions and taunt tyrants?

Well, a political cartoonist I am not – I don’t do enough crosshatching! Political cartooning is about the only hand drawn work around. But they have it easy. Being funny is far more difficult. They certainly look down on me. They are artists. I wish them well, but funny they are not. Nor do they wish to be.

A recent cartoon of yours featured ‘Alice in Wokeland’. We are living through a period where certain subjects are being barred from coverage in the arts. Do you have any thoughts on this virtue-signalling phenomenon?

The real-life Alice in Wokeland is killing the observational world that I draw.

 

Has any of your published work caused controversy?

No, not much you see, if I’m drawing the world around me. They don’t get that kind of drawing nowadays. Fashion, hair, clothes has always kept me on my toes. I do it because I don’t want to get sacked!

Are there any subjects that cannot be dealt with in a cartoon?

Well, you have to have a go at drawing the world around you, without fear. Women’s Lib, and the ‘woke’ people, all object to me drawing them. But it’s not the drawing they object to so much, it’s the fact that a man is drawing it. I have trouble drawing people of colour, for the same reason. I like doing so, but it always seems to them that some dumb, white cartoonist is drawing them. I’d like to work out some way around this. I suppose all of the jazz I love was produced by black men and women. I was, and still am, a great fan of Thelonius Monk and Charlie Parker. I’m still a huge fan of Monk – I still think he was the main man! Are there any people of colour cartooning, I wonder?

 

Do you have any advice for a young cartoonist just starting out?

Yes – fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a rough ride. Remember that it’s a 24-hour job. Keep right on to the end of the road. There are so few outlets – especially now – it is very tough! Also, nowadays, young guys won’t take rejection. I have hundreds of rejection slips! You just have to keep going – through divorce, reality, illness, fear… Use Higgins Black Magic Drawing Ink! See a psychiatrist.

 

If you could invite three people, living or historical, to dinner, who would they be?

1.      Osbert Lancaster (cartoonist and artist (dead)).

2.      My wife.

3.      Robert Benchley (American humourist, columnist, essayist).