The brilliant Martin Honeysett has died at the age of 71. Gerald Scarfe and Ralph Steadman have received most of the plaudits over the years, but they weren't a patch on Honeysett, who, apart from illustrating children's books, mainly plied his trade for Private Eye, Punch, the Evening Standard, The Oldie and the Observer. His death leaves Ed McLachlan (they were remarkably similar in terms of drawing style, a general air of seediness and the macabre, often violent, nature of their subject matter) and Matt Pritchett as the two funniest British cartoonists working today. The three of them - along with Larry, Gary Larson and Charles Adams - had the highest strike rate in terms of making me laugh out loud. I have no idea what exactly it is that makes a cartoonist funny - I suspect how they render facial expressions is a large part of it (see the lawyer in the above cartoon), but whatever it is, Honeysett had it in absolute spades. Here are some of my favourites:
The Telegraph has just posted a good obit, here.
Thanks for all the laughs, Mr. Honeysett - you will be sorely missed.
Oh! Now that is genuinely sad and a great loss.
ReplyDeleteI just LOLed (now there's a word he'd have loved!) at two of those cartoons and I can't recall the last time a cartoon struck me as even mildly amusing.
I spent the afternoon in Ashford, Kent today. He could have created the entire hideous chav-infested town and everyone in it.
Farewell, indeed.