Steve Way

About

Steve Way was born in Plymouth on 1 January 1959, the son of Colin Way, an electrical engineer. Way studied graphic design at Leeds Polytechnic, and his first published cartoon appeared in National Student in 1980. In 1989 Way became Cartoon Editor of Punch, and named Matt and Peattie as his favourite cartoonists, although admitting that he still had "quite a lot of time for the 'middle-aged mob' such as Heath and Austin."

In 1993, after the closure of Punch the previous year, Way was co-founder - with John Sorrell - and editor of the fortnightly broadsheet "cartoon newspaper" The Cartoonist. He signed up a number of prominent cartoonists for the new publication, including McLachlan, Austin, Lowry, Haldane, Kipper Williams, and Riddell, but The Cartoonist failed to get advertising and folded after eight months. From 1995 to 1998 Way was Cartoon Editor of Maxim, and in 1997 he again became Cartoon Editor of Punch in the magazine's second incarnation.

Way's drawings have appeared in Punch, Private Eye - from 1992, Spectator, Listener, Independent, Sunday Correspondent and the Observer. He works with a Gillott 303 dip pen and indian ink - usually Dr Martin's Blackstar waterproof variety. The many artists he cites as having influenced his work include Quentin Blake, Ralph Steadman, Frank Dickens, Johnny Hart, George Herriman and Edward Sorel.

• Joseph Connolly "Times Diary", The Times, 2 October 1989.
• Ken Gofton "Media: The Cartoonist seeks niche as supplement", Marketing, 9 December 1993.
• Mark Bryant Dictionary of Twentieth-Century British Cartoonists and Caricaturists (Ashgate, Aldershot, 2000), p.235.
• Steve Way's website at stevewaycartoons.com