HUNT EMERSON
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HUNT EMERSON
was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1952, and his childhood was
spent in Walbottle and Blaydon. He moved to Birmingham in 1971 to go to Art
College, and has lived there ever since, despite quitting his college course
after one year. It was after he left college that he came in contact with
the'underground' comics movement, typified by American cartoonists Gilbert
Shelton and Robert Crumb, and by Europeans such as Moebius
(France), Max (Spain) and Gerhard Seyfried (Germany) Emerson saw in this new medium humorous, satirical comics for an adult readership - a way to channel his own work and began producing his own comic stories and characters. He quickly gained a reputation as 'Britain's craziest cartoonist', and his drawings and strips appeared in many and various publications, from International Times through Fortean Times to Radio Times. He has worked since 1979 with Knockabout Comics of London, publishing through them around 20 comic books and albums. His work has also been widely published in Europe and the U.S.A., and he has been given several prestigious comics industry awards, including 'Humorous Cartoonist of the Year' 1982 by the Society of Strip Illustration, 'International Album of the Year' 1989 by Kemi International Festival, Finland, and 'Grand Prix de la Festival' 1995 by the Pertuis Comic Festival, France. Perhaps the most notable of Hunt Emerson's comic albums have been 'The Cartoon Lady Chatterly's Lover' 1986, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" 1989 and 'Casanova's Last Stand' 1993 - adaptions of classic works which concentrate on the bizarre humour that has become Emerson's trademark. His comic stories of sexual satire, Firkin the Cat, have appeared in Fiesta magazine for the past 18 years, and he has worked with Fortean Times - the journal of unexplained phenomena - for 20 years. Hunt Emerson has created many cartoon characters over the years. Among his most popular are Calculus Cat, the cat who hates television, and Max Zillion, a modern jazz saxophonist whose best friend and partner is his horn, Alto Ego. Emerson spent part of last year working with Spitting Image on animation projects, and he is currently developing an animated film about Max Zillion. The Newcastle International Comic Art Festival will be the first time his work has been exhibited in the city he still regards as 'home'. Hunt Emerson lurks 100 feet in the air, in sight of Birmingham's picturesque city centre. At night, the dome of the new Hindu Temple on Soho Road is lit from below in blue light. The local rooks and magpies are familiar with Emerson's face peering at them in the treetops. They remark to each other on his worried expression - due, perhaps, to the mountain of sheets of paper which grows and looms threateningly behind him. Each sheet carries a carefully drawn cartoon.
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