Award winning cartoonist still gagging for work...

Nov 15 2007 by Mike Chapple, Liverpool Daily Post

LIVERPOOL’S renowned sense of humour has helped artist Peter King to win the most coveted award for funniest Gag Cartoonist of the Year.

Peter, 46, from Litherland, was delighted to receive the award at a star-studded event in London – and the praise that came his way.

“No-one even mentioned Liverpool and hubcaps in the same breath either, which was good,” said Peter, who received the Cartoon Arts Trust award from I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue veteran and ex-Goodie Graeme Garden.

“He was waxing lyrical about my stuff which was very nice and what made it even better is that this award was voted for by fellow gag writers,” said Peter.

It was the realisation of a dream come true for someone whose ambition as a 13-year-old was to have his work published by magazines such as Private Eye, which he now does on a regular basis along with others such as The Spectator, the New Statesman and Reader’s Digest, as well as being an occasional Daily Post contributor.

But it hasn’t been easy, as Peter freely admits.

“Being a cartoonist you have a perverse sort of apprenticeship: rejected, rejected and rejected again before getting anywhere,” says the man whose adopted penname is PaK, aka Peter Anthony King.

“Nothing personal but the person you get to hate most in the world is the postman. Even at the awards ceremonies like the one I’ve just been to, you’ll always get the cartoonists standing together moaning how tight the money is.”

He first began drawing cartoons seriously in 1992 and had his first Punch cartoon published in 1997 with his first for the Eye a year later.

“But then they never used another one for another three years. Hopefully, getting this award will mean I’ll get more of a foot in the door. But one thing you remember in this game is to never count your chickens. In fact, I’ve only just got another couple of rejection slips through this morning.”

Accordingly, he supplements his income as a talented private gun-for-hire caricaturist. The level of the quality of this can be seen in the irreverent recreations of his beloved Liverpool FC in the Daily Post and Echo’s sister publication, the Liverpool fanzine The Kop.

“I’m available for birthdays, weddings and bar mitzvahs!” says Peter, who jots down ideas for jokes on his mobile phone wherever he goes then puts flesh on them when he goes home to his wife Ged and two young sons, Matthew and Ben.

He adds: “The most difficult thing about being a gag cartoonist is to try and convince the wife that you’re working when you’re thinking about material while staring out the window.

“And I’m still riddled with insecurity that all I’m doing is putting a new slant on something that may have been done before.

“Ultimately though the test is, it funny or is it just me? On that, I’m my own best judge – but if Ged says that’s rubbish that’s the one that usually sells!”

mikechapple@dailypost.co.uk