Brilliant 12-year-old Macclesfield cartoonist, Christian Beeston, turned an age-old joke on its head to win the British Cartoonists’ Association’s Young Cartoonist of the Year Competition.
Christian was the youngest entry from more than 500 submissions nationwide in a competition open to 18-year-olds and under and judged by the cartoon glitterati of the national press.
His winning entry features a rabbit pulling a man out of a hat and has only four letters of writing ‘Ta Da’, the impact all stemming from absurdity of the image. “I wanted to think of something original and simple; something that makes you laugh and it just came to me. It’s not really a comment on how mankind uses animals and what it would be like if the roles were reversed, but I can see how people might think that. It was just a joke and I liked it because it made me laugh.”
The award was judged by some household names including chairman of the BCA Martin Rowson, from The Daily Mirror; Christian Adams, The Daily Telegraph, The Financial Times; Steve Bell, The Guardian; Peter Brookes, The Times; Dave Brown, The Independent; Andy Davey, The Sun; MAC, The Daily Mail; Matt Pritchett, The Daily Telegraph; Nick Newman, Private Eye and Paul Thomas, The Daily Express among others.
Christian received £250 in a special ceremony at the Cartoon Museum on Little Russell Street in London.
Mum, Lotte, said: “Christian always has a pen and appear to hand and loves drawing. I remember when he was just three-years-old he produced a picture of a giraffe that was just remarkable.”
The winning artwork, along with runners up, will be displayed in the museum’s Young Artist’s Gallery for the next year.
