Quarantoons – Cartoons from a new normal

James Mellor, prominent corporate cartoonist and regular contributor to private eye magazine, presents his favourite cartoons from the time of coronavirus.

---

The new normal isn't very normal. but then, neither was the old ...James Mellor, prominent corporate cartoonist and regular. contributor to private eye magazine, presents his favourite cartoons from the time of coronavirus. This is the story of how we were locked down and unlocked, tested and traced, then jabbed and pinged from the satirical to the silly, quarantoons is a record of, and antidote to, the strange times we live in.

It was a strange feeling to watch a disaster coming from afar. Like a tidal wave in slow motion, inexorably moving closer. In the UK we saw the news from China, then from New York, then Italy. In today’s globally connected world, the English Channel was no defensive moat. We watched as the virus spread closer and there was nothing any of us could do. Well, we could go and buy large amounts of toilet roll, but there was nothing we could usefully do.

I say nothing we could do; being British, we did what we always do. We made jokes, we made fun, and we carried on. Except for the oddballs buying the toilet roll, of course. Cartoonists who make fun of the news continued to make fun of the news. Laughter is a coping mechanism that helps confront adversity and dampen anxiety. It was very important to carry on cartooning. As many a redcoat joked down the centuries, ‘for what we are about to receive…’