Noel Ford 1942 - 2019

British cartoonist Noel Ford passed away the morning of September 27th. The cause was liver cancer.

He illustrated hundreds of books and written and illustrated his own. Known for his cartoons in Punch, his work also graced thirty covers of the magazine. He was a member of many cartoonist organizations and was elected as Fellow of The Royal Society for Arts. An early adopter, he went all digital in the 1990s.

Noel touched a lot of lives as a cartoonist -- and becoming a cartoonist almost didn't happen.


From the David Wasting Paper interview with Noel:

Noel Ford is a cartoonist who was born in December of 1942 in Nuneaton, England. He had always wanted to be a cartoonist but while attending Birmingham College of Arts and Crafts was told that he could never make it as a full-time cartoonist. He left school and spent a couple of years touring as lead guitarist for a traveling rock band and writing fiction for magazines and BBC radio. In 1975 Noel changed his focus and became a full-time cartoonist. He started sending out cartoons to various publications and was determined to be published in Punch. After submitting 10 cartoons a week for a year he finally saw one of his cartoons printed in Punch. He soon became one of the magazine’s regular contributors and went on to illustrate over 30 covers for them. Noel became an editorial cartoonist on the Daily Star in 1979 and continued working there until 1992. In addition to the Daily Star, he has also been the editorial cartoonist for the Church Times since 1989.

His cartoons have appeared in Spectator, Truck and Driver, The Golfer, Private Eye and many other magazines. He has done advertising work for clients such as Guinness, Mercedes Benz, Digital, British Telecom, and Coopers and Lybrand. Noel has illustrated hundreds of books for others and has written and illustrated many of his own, including “Golf Widows”, “Business Widows” and the children’s books, “Nuts”, “The Lost Wag”, “The Greedy Ghost”, “Limeroons” and “Diary of an Alien”. Most recently he has co-authored two books for New Holland Books, “Draw Cartoons” and “Draw Caricature”. He has won numerous cartooning awards and is a member of The British Cartoonists Association (BCA), The Cartoonists Club of Great Britain (CCGB), The Federation of Cartoonists Organisations (FECO) and The Cartoonists Guild. In 2003 he was elected a Fellow of The Royal Society for Arts. Since 1998 he has worked completely digital using a Macintosh and Wacom tablet; sending out his work via email. In 2000 he moved to the Welsh countryside where he still resides. Visit Noel’s website to see many more examples of his work.