Tom Humberstone savages warped Olympics ideals in new cartoon

Art © Tom Humberstone. Read the strip

(Updated 30/7/12, quote added from Tom): Over on Cartoon Movement, a publishing platform for high quality political cartoons and comics journalism, Solipsistic Pop editor and ace artist Tom Humberstone's commentary on the London Olympics is curently fronting the site.

The Olympics begin in London on Friday (what? you didn't know?), and as we've seen in previous host cities, there are many winners and losers when it comes to a production this size, as Tom relates in his thought-provoking 11-page strip.

His comic includes concerns from charities such as Shelter and War on Want, reflecting worries that the Olympic ideals have been warped by over the top commercialization of the event.

Tom takes a look at the increased commercialization, police actions, and surveillance as London 'cleans up' for the games.

Part of the comics intent, quoting various media stories, including one about unguarded missiles*, was to introduce the idea of what the media were covering in the lead-up to the games. "The controversies people were talking about," Tom expands. "The story about unguarded missiles... was also about the wider issue of whether people were comfortable with these things on their roofs. This all being mentioned in the comic as a way to introduce the deeper and more troubling issues of housing and corporate interests which haven't been looked at in quite so much detail in the media as these headline-grabbing stories."

Elsewhere, Tom has finished the first chapter of his six part comic series Ellipsis, which will have a launch party at Gosh! Comics in London on Friday 27th July followed by an official release on Monday 30th July.

 A digital edition will also be available to download on the Monday. Those who attend the Gosh event will be able to have their copies signed and will also receive an A5 signed & numbered colour print incentive. 

Heck, what else is there to do on London on Olympic Opening Night?

• Solipsistic Pop web site

* Recently a local activist with a video phone walked up to bags that he claimed were missiles at the bottom of one of the towers when the military were doing their form and fit checks on the building with inert training rounds. However, as the Daily Telegraph notes, the full version of the clip shows that the military immediately walked over to him to find out what he was doing.

An MoD spokesman said: "These were dummy missiles which are used to practice with, not live ammunition. Had they been live missiles, they would have been protected by armed personnel and in any case, as the video shows, there were three personnel there at the time."