Modern Toss

Iconic cartoonists and illustrators unveil bold new exhibition

Originally started as a website packed with one panel jokes, before moving onto physically published comics and books, Modern Toss is an unlikely British cartoon phenomenon. Founded by Jon Link and Mick Bunnage, their unique style of illustration and surreal humour has gone on to inspire TV shows and create a brand which is recognised around the world. Now they’re about to unveil The First 8000 Days…, a landmark interactive exhibition at the Corn Exchange on Thurs 24 - Sun 27 Oct, as part of Brighton Comedy Festival 2024.

“We never thought we’d still be doing this in 2024,” Jon Link tells me. “We were really happy to get our first comic printed and paid for by our small band of early adopters. Back then, you could walk into a shop on Oxford Street with a cardboard box of comics and the man in the shop would buy some off you. We did that at Borders and also the ICA. Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine that people would still be buying fridge magnets of some of those cartoons 20 years on.”

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So, what’s it all about? Somebody perfectly representing the Modern Toss world is Alan – an anthropomorphic scribble with sociopathic tendencies, who constantly plays horrific pranks on his long-suffering brother-in-law. Other much-loved characters included the Drive-By Abuser, a yob on a moped who bellows inanities at anyone, or anything, he speeds past. We also can’t ignore the infamous Mr Tourette. This French sign-writer consistently provides eye-catching branding for shops and vans, but it always includes the kind of robust language his unsuspecting clients don’t want associated with their business.  

While the attitude of the characters in their Work cartoons is probably their best known, Link says his personal favourite is the lesser known Liberty Taker - a man who pushes and invents new boundaries of what is acceptable. “He’s working on the cutting edge in this area, but is always polite and gives good warning of his actions… like when he texts his neighbour to warn him he’s about to start catapulting lumps of horse shit at his garden, maybe the world would be a better place if people showed this level of consideration towards others!”

None of this makes any sense, but then it doesn’t have to. Modern Toss might be bawdy, extreme and surreal, but it seems to come from a place of joy. Behind even the most outrageous jokes, nothing is punching down. Much of their output seems to be a method of rationalising an increasingly chaotic society. “We’ve both always drawn cartoons,” says Link. “I had my first rejection from Private Eye when I was 13 years old. I’ve still got the little slip of paper that said: ‘Try Punch’. Cartoons are a good way of trying to bring order to the world, the same way a gardener looks at a pile of old dirt and decides to put in a fishpond and plant some daffodils around it.” 

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He says he got back into cartooning in the early 2000s while commuting from Brighton to London. He still has an early sketchbook of primal cartoons about Thameslink trains. “In many ways the shitness of their service kickstarted the whole project, I found making them useful and it helped me get through that period. We are extending this concept with our Modern Toss Monday Morning Work Therapy session on Mon 28 Oct. Take the day off, drop-in and listen to the calming sounds of waterfalls, birdsong… and people swearing at each other in the workplace. We’ll be encouraging participants to control their breathing in time to a gong. You‘ll also get a free biscuit and a warm drink.”

When mixing whimsey and rude words, there’s always a danger of pushing things too far. But Link says treading the line is a skill everyone must learn. “There’s nothing wrong with that. Learning not to do or say things that you think of is what holds society together. The line is shifting around a bit at the moment, a bit like that TV game where the hole in the wall comes towards you and you have to make a shape to get through it. It’s a laugh, yeah?”

It will be little surprise that Link and Bunnage first started working together on Loaded Magazine, long before it descended into being just another men’s mag. Since then, they’ve had their strips regularly printed in publications like The Guardian, Private Eye and Sunday Times, along with a TV adaptation for Channel 4. Tackling that British sense of repression seems to be a recipe for success. To celebrate the second decade of blunt eccentricity, Modern Toss is taking The First 8000 Days… around the country. “We couldn’t face making another 500-page book, like we did after our first decade. A touring exhibition is much better idea, less spell checking and dealing with printers.”

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The pair are collaborating on the show with Dan Hipkin, who runs Whistleblower Gallery on Hove seafront. “We’ve worked with Dan for nearly the whole 20 years of Toss and he’s an important part of the gang, he’s helped us make some incredible china Flying Flies, like flying ducks but flies.  I've found a lot of it quite therapeutic, making big stone sculptures for example… I’d recommend everyone has a go at making their own spirit stone”

The exhibition features 3D recreations of their most iconic works, including an interactive Periodic Table of Swearing and a Drive By Abuser diorama, where he rides round a miniature landscape shouting at people playing golf and other things. There’s the incredible Flies Of The British Isles artwork, including over 300 pinned and named flies; lots of classic artwork from the last 20 years, Newton’s Executive Bollock Clacker, big sculptures of stones that look like Toss cartoon heads (which were all found on Brighton beach), some real items from the Royal Shitters plumbing catalogue and their 100 best cartoons.

There’s a chance to join Modern Toss curator Dan Hipkins on a guided tour of the exhibition, revealing background stories, hidden meanings and what thickness of paint brush was used on certain bits. Alongside this are late-night cinema screenings of hand-picked classics from the Toss cartoon and film stable, including remixed pieces and never before seen work and a Q&A with Link.

There’s also been a reimagining of that infamous Periodic Table of Swearing as a choral version, which will be performed at Live At Brighton Dome. Link had the idea a long time ago. Then, in 2019, he met Li from the community chorus, Jam Tarts Choir. “I asked her if it was something she’d be up for doing, she instantly said; ‘Yeah, alright’ and came up with this incredible multilayered baroque style masterpiece, combining all 102 elements from the table. It was meant to happen in 2020 but got blocked by Covid. I urge people to see and hear this as we’ve no idea when it will happen again and it’s brilliant!”

www.brightondome.org 

www.moderntoss.com