07/03/2023

Alex is now the longest-running current British daily cartoon strip still written by the same authors. To celebrate this rather convoluted milestone The Comica Festival invited Charles Peattie and Russell Taylor to give a talk on their cartoon creation in London on March 7th.

An audience of seventy or so Alex aficionados assembled in the Green Room at the Century Club in Soho, where they were taken on an illustrated romp through Alex’s life and career from Yuppiedom to Covid 19. Many legendary Alex cartoons were featured and old friends like the “Magic Flute” strip and the “Twat” joke received a hearty welcome from fans who no doubt knew them by heart. At the end of the talk there was the opportunity to ask questions. “What’s the worst thing that Alex has ever done?” enquired one lady, which left the authors a little stumped. Where to begin? In reply to a question about how comedy copes in the age of wokedom, Charles and Russell showed a selection of Alex cartoons which had fallen foul of censorship (largely self-imposed) and had never seen the light of day.

Charles then treated the guests to a display of live drawing, where they learned such insights as that when drawing Alex he starts with the squint. Then they were shown some attempts by AI to create Alex cartoons, which were scarily good.

The audience proved to contain a surprising number of compliance officers. Perhaps they were there to show that, despite all the negative publicity they receive, they at least have a sense of humour. Or maybe they wanted to check how many of their bank’s employees were in attendance at this celebration of corporate subversion. There were also a number of Russians present: possibly for similar reasons.

After the talk, in accordance with Alex’s values several guests repaired to the club’s famous rooftop terrace to enjoy port and cigars, while surveying some magnificent panoramas over the capital.