DAVE WALKER INTERVIEW


1 You are perhaps best known for your cartoons on church life. This is quite a unique gifting, so how did you get into this ?

I've always enjoyed drawing, but I first started drawing cartoons whilst at Bible college. I found it more interesting than writing essays. I used to stick them on the door of my study bedroom for passers-by to peruse. People kept stopping to look so I kept on drawing them. I started drawing professionally in early 2005.

2 Are your cartoons just to show the ‘quirks’ in the Church of England, or do you have a deeper goal behind your work?

Some of my work has a deeper message, but a lot of it is just me having fun. For me making the reader laugh is the most important thing. I tend to draw about the Church of England as I have had a lot of experience of it, but I hope that people of other denominations (or none) can enjoy what I do too. I do sometimes draw about things that frustrate me - it is a kind of therapy for me - but it tends to result in some of my better work. I hope that I communicate the things that are good about the church as well as the aspects that are easy to laugh at, of which there are many.

3 You are going to be Cartoonist in Residence at the Lambeth Conference. What does this role mean and what are you looking forward to at Lambeth?

The idea is that I'll be helping to communicate what is happening in an accessible way to the wider world. I will be producing cartoons based on the events of the conference and also doing some drawing in the public areas of the University campus in Canterbury, where the conference is to be held. It is a huge privilege to be asked to undertake such a role. I'm looking forward to talking to people there and hearing their views on current Anglican-goings-on. I aim to produce work that people with a range of viewpoints within Anglicanism can appreciate, but I don't know whether I always succeed.

4 What projects are you currently working on at the moment? Are you planning another book?

There will be another book in the summer. This will feature more cartoons from my 'Dave Walker Guide to the Church' series which appears in the Church Times. I have also been working on my Canterbury Press calendar for 2009 and illustrations for a book 'What am I doing here - a beginners Guide to Church', by Hilary Brand (Church House Publishing). I'm also writing daily entries on the Church Times blog and hope now to have some time to add some new material to my own site, www.cartoonchurch.com.