Ben Jennings
About
Ben Jennings was born in Hemel Hempstead, and began cartooning at school, recalling that in his maths class he’d be “drawing scathing caricatures of his teacher instead of Venn diagrams.” He then studied art at the West Herts College in Watford from 2008-2009, and illustration at the University of Westminster from 2009-2012.
By the time he graduated he was working as a freeland cartoonist, with work published in The Guardian, The Independent, the Morning Star, and the Stool Pigeon music newspaper. In the summer of 2010 Jennings had been one of six young cartoonists invited to cover for Steve Bell and Martin Rowson at The Guardian, and in 2011 he was one of the two winners of Cartoon Idol, the search for a cartoonist run by The i, the compact sister newspaper to The Independent. He now provides the weekly cartoon for The i.
In September 2012 Jennings drew the cover of the New Statesman’s Labour Party Conference Special Issue.
- Ben Jennings’ website at satiricalsketches.com
- Helen Lewis “Ink-stained assassins”, New Statesman, 23 August 2012.
- the design of Jennings’ cover for the New Statesman - www.newstatesman.com/blogs/media/2012/09/undercover-behind-scenes-our-labour-special-issue
- Huffington Post, 21 December 2011, “Ben Jennings Beats Steve Bell, Martin Rowson to Win Political Cartoon of the Year”: www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/12/21/ben-jennings-beats-cartoon-professionals_n_1162457.html