Art For Art’s Sake #320 – Ladies & Gentlemen, Hunt Emerson & The Beat Girl

by Richard Bruton

Okay you beautiful people, time to give you another serving of the finest of comic art from around the Internet – great for the eyes and absolutely zero calories… it’s Art For Art’s Sake…

Well, this was going to be the sort of usual Art For Art’s Sake with various bits of art for you to have a look at, followed by an extended look at the work of Hunt Emerson, all triggered by me seeing a commission of his iconic Beat Girl character, created for ska band The Beat… here’s the original by Hunt…

… and here’s the commission from John K Snyder,which sent me off on this one. It’s Spidey and Spider Gwen, riffing off both the Emerson original and the other iconic 2-Tone logo, Jerry Dammer’s Walt Jabsco, based on a photo of Peter Tosh…

So, anyway, this led me down a little rabbit hole of Hunt Emerson’s artwork. A load of artwork was found. And seeing how much I love Hunt’s work, it was a case of waaayyy too much that I wanted to show you. So, we’re having a Saturday spent looking at nothing but Emerson’s artwork. It’s a great way to start the weekend.

Right then, we’ll get back to Beat Girl and Hunt’s iconic contribution to music in a bit. But first, Hunt Emerson, an introduction…

Obviously, you should all know of Hunt Emerson, one of Britain’s finest cartoonists, responsible for so many years of iconic and original creations since starting off in the 70s with the British underground/small press. Since then, he’s been published far and wide, in many different countries and languages, all appreciating his joyous artwork and stories, but his longest collaboration is with Britain’s Knockabout Comics, where so much of his work has found a home.

His work is just full of wild ideas and energetic artwork, harking back to such greats as Krazy Kat but going further and further with it all. Characters such as Calculus Cat, Max Zillion & Alto Ego, Pusspuss, Momo and Fuzi, Charlie Chirp, Mouth City are just crackling with mad-cap energy. He writes and draws for all-ages, with his kids work including years at Beano, and adult work including so much work at The Fortean Times, not to mention all those years of Firkin The Cat, written by Mike Manley and appearing in the UK ‘gentlemen’s magazine’ Fiesta, that ran from 1980 to 2020 – forty years of absolute hilarious smut.

His work’s been variously collected over the years and it’s all highly recommended. Do yourself a favour and look at the likes of Calculus Cat, Hunt’s adaptations of Lady Chatterley’s Lover and The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, or hunt down the viciously satirical You Are Maggie Thatcher (A dole-playing game, written by Pat Mills).

He shows absolutely no sign of slowing down into his sixties and seventies, with the last decade or so including the publication of Dante’s Inferno (with Kevin Jackson, 2012); two incredibly beautifully produced hardback collections of Calculus Cat (2014) and Hot Jazz (2015); Bloke’s Progress (2018, again written by Jackson), a hilarious thing mixing philosophical treatise with perfect satire, all taking its cue from Victorian art critic and philosopher John Ruskin; Lives of the Great Occultists (2022, again with Jackson) collecting their strips from Fortean Times; and Phenomenomix (2022), another grab-all collection of so much of Hunt’s Fortean Times work. And finally, he’s also illustrated two childrens books in 2023, Moby Duck (2023) with Ian Billings, and Trouble at the Dinosaur Cafe with Brian Moses.

Anyway, back to Beat Girl. It’s an image of a young girl dancing to ska, immortalised in this photo…

That’s ska singer, actress, and cabaret performer, Brigitte Bond, dancing alongside Prince Buster in the 60s. Emerson took that image for a job for the ska act The Beat, and helped immediately create an iconic image immortalised by ska fans over the decades…

Emerson said this of the design – ‘The Beat wanted a logo and I wanted to do something to rival Jerry Dammers’ Walt Jabsco; I was so envious of that perfect bit of design and marketing. Well, The Beat got their logo, which is still very much recognised, but I don’t think she was as good as The Specials…but of course, not many were as good as the Specials, were they?’

But The Beat’s Dave Wakeling fleshes that out – ‘The Beat Girl image had a real purpose. Our early shows were mainly dominated by males. And of course they were drinking, so there were a lot of fights at the shows. That was the reason why we had the Beat Girl. We hoped the Beat Girl logo would draw more women to the gigs. With women there, the guys would stop trying to break each others noses. They’d dress a little more dandy and be on their better behavior to impress the women. It worked. Within 3 months of inventing The Beat Girl, we got loads of girls in Beat Girl costumes at our gigs. With all the skinheads showing off like crazy to the girls, we hardly had any fights after that.’

The Beat Girl herself, Brigitte Bond, also known as Brigitte Saint John was not only a ska musician herself as well as an actress and cabaret performer, but also a trans pioneer, whose life is little known. If you’re interested – and you should be – there’s an excellent documentary by MissUpsetter on You Tube – here’s the trailer…

Here’s another Beat Girl by Hunt – a Beat Girl commission…

In looking for images for this particular piece, I came across a treasure trove of Hunt’s art from the 70s when he did character pieces for the Melody Maker music paper capturing the spirit of the times. Art by Hunt Emerson, from this great interview from Les Monstres Sacres here. Plus, Les Monstres Sacres has Hunt commenting on his images here.

And a few more music pieces from Hunt…

And now, because there’s just so much that’s so damn great from Hunt, let’s take a little look-see through just some of his wonderful art over the years…