A landmark photography project
Tony's last cartoon
Tony Husband 1950 - 2023 was an award winning cartoonist who’s cartoons regularly appear in newspapers, magazines and books, including Private Eye, The Times, Punch, Playboy, The Sunday Express and The Sun.
Tony was born in Blackpool and moved to Audenshaw, East Manchester at the age of four. He became a full time cartoonist in 1984 and is known for his black humour. He had a regular cartoon strip in Private Eye entitled Yobs that has been published since the late 1980s. Tony co-devised and edited Oink!, a popular children’s comic and co-wrote the children’s television series Round the Bend which ran from 1989 to 1991.
In 2014, Tony illustrated a poignant record of his dad's decline from dementia in a book called ‘Take Care, Son’. Through 50 cartoons he tells the story of how his father’s memory ‘of everything and everyone he cherished’ would be wiped away by dementia. The book is framed as a chat between Tony and his dad, who fades away through the last few pages of the book.
“A lot of people tell me they put my work on their toilet walls. I really like that.”
Photography by Jolita Jaugaite and MJ Smith
Tony died in 2023 on his way to a Private Eye leaving party in London, on a Thames barge, when he suffered a heart attack on Westminster Bridge. After his father’s death, his son Paul posted online the last cartoon Tony drew: on the train to London, thinking that he would be late, he sent a picture of himself waving goodbye to a boat departing from Westminster Pier.
More recently, Tony along with his son Paul documented Paul's battle against heroin and his subsequent recovery in a book entitled ‘From a Dark Place' - a very personal story of how a family coped with drug addiction.
In his most recent project with author Libby Moore, 'After... The impact of Child Abuse' Tony provides the powerful expressive illustrations for a universal personal story. Libby Moore is a pseudonym for an adult survivor of childhood sexual abuse. The book is her true story of learning to embrace the child lost inside her.
THE SHOOT: Gee Cross, Tameside
Tony's home studio
Student reflection: Jolita Jaugaite
Jolita
"I did my research into Tony’s career before the shoot and I have to admit was a little nervous about photographing someone with such a successful career. When we got to his house in Gee Cross he made us very welcome. Tony’s studio was in a room with very little room for manoeuvre, but I managed to control my camera and find the best angles to get the shots I wanted. For the second part of the shoot we moved into the garden to take advantage of the strong natural light on a bright Spring day. My nerves soon disappeared as the shoot went along. Tony was very patient throughout and told us some interesting stories about his career as a cartoonist. The whole experience was a real learning curve."