'The King's Irish: A Celtic Tiger Earns his Stripes' (2018).
Richard Yeend is a British cartoonist and newspaper designer, who made caricatures and political cartoons for British newspapers, before moving to the United States in the 1970s. There, he served as cartoonist and art director for The New York Times, the Boston Herald American, the International Herald Tribune and many other publications. Nowadays based in Belgium, Yeend has released satirical graphic novels like 'The King's Irish: A Celtic Tiger Earns his Stripes' (2018) and 'Tex Twitter Meets the Cherokee' (2023).
Early life and influences
Richard Yeend was born in 1945 in London, and got his education at Canterbury Cathedral Choir School, Kings College, Taunton and the Cambridge School of Art. Among the cartoonists who caught his attention while growing up were Frank Bellamy (who was also an influence on his later work as art director) and H.M. Bateman. Later in life, while living in the USA, he found inspiration in the 'Krazy Kat' comics of George Herriman, and the political satire of Walt Kelly. Other influences on his drawing are Olaf Gulbransson and the Daily Mail cartoonist Emmwood. As designer of typefaces, he is an admirer of the calligraphers Alfred Fairbank and Berthold Wolpe, as well as the cartoonist Roger Law.
Cartoon about British Prime Minister Edward Heath and the 1972 miners' strike, for Time Out magazine.
British career
In 1969, Rich Yeend replaced Abu Abraham as topical cartoonist in The Guardian, and for five years produced caricatures, cartoons and comic strips for that newspaper's feature pages. Following an introduction from Roger Law - at the time an illustrator for the Sunday Times - Yeend also began working freelance for that paper, drawing weekly caricatures and political cartoons. At this time, The Guardian and Sunday Times shared a building and presses in Gray's Inn Road, London, and Yeend worked from a desk in the Sunday Times art department. He also drew covers for Time Out magazine, and in 1973 was a guest cartoonist in The Sun while their house cartoonist Paul Rigby was on holiday.
Sports cartoon depicting baseball player Billy Martin, The Boston Herald, 9 June 1977.
International career
In 1974, Yeend moved to New York City, where he freelanced for the New York Times, the Soho Weekly News, and Screw magazine. In 1975, he joined the Boston Herald American as art director, redesigning the daily and Sunday papers as well as the color magazines, and drawing political cartoons. In 1978, he moved to The New York Times, where he designed the financial and business sections, and also drew sports caricatures. Yeend cited his politics were formed while working for his newspaper, resulting in cartoons and comic strips tackling topics like social injustice, greed vs. poverty and violence vs. peace.
Cartoon for the International Herald Tribune, depicting the 1991 failed Communist coup against Mikhail Gorbachev, which still led to his abdication and the fall of the Soviet Union.
During the 1980s, Yeend moved back to Europe, working as cartoonist and art director for internationally oriented papers. In 1987, he joined the English-language daily International Herald Tribune in Paris, France, and in 1998 moved to the German paper Die Welt, in each case redesigning the paper and drawing editorial cartoons. In 1999, he became art director of Wall Street Journal Europe, also contributing caricatures and stipple portrait drawings. Yeend has also drawn for international magazines like Time Out, Radio Times, Newsweek, Fortune, Rolling Stone, New York Magazine, Le Monde, Abendzeitung and the Berliner Morgenpost.
In addition, he designed eighteen typefaces for the Monotype Corporation and ten for Linotype GmbH. In 1970, Yeend designed a neon sign for Lloyds Bank in Piccadilly Circus, London, and in 1998 the logo for the Berliner Morgenpost.
1993 cartoon for the International Herald Tribune about EU expansion and the Copenhagen Criteria.
Graphic novels
Since 2017, Richard Yeend is a Belgian citizen, living and working in Brussels. There, he ventured into creating graphic novels, starting with 'The King's Irish: A Celtic Tiger Earns his Stripes' (Markosia, 2018), a satire on the IRA and the Boston Mob, written and drawn under the pseudonym J. R. MacCléireach. This first book was followed by 'Tex Twitter Meets the Cherokee' (Markosia, 2023), a satirical biography of a rogue president, coincidentally modeled after U.S. President Donald Trump.
Tex Twitter Meets the Cherokee' (2023), mocking Donald Trump.