Cartoon exhibition pokes fun at life on Hadrian's Wall

  • Published
Arbeia SocietyImage source, Roger Oram

An exhibition featuring cartoons satirising Roman life at Hadrian's Wall is on show in the North East.

Borderline Funny at Segedunum Roman Fort and Museum in Wallsend depicts life at ancient Rome's great frontier through irreverent drawings.

Magazine artists from Private Eye contributed, while Viz's Sid the Sexist has also shared his thoughts on the 73-mile (117km) wall.

Cartoons were also inspired by contemporary topics such as Brexit.

The show also features 50 works by the late Roger Oram, who produced the Arbeia Society magazine and was an archaeologist with Tyne Wear Archives and Museums.

Lindsay Allason-Jones, of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, said: " If everybody laughed during planning meetings then the cartoon was in the exhibition.

"Many of the them are just funny, but what we also found was that for some of them you need to know the context.

"For example there's one of Trump looking like Emperor Hadrian and talking about building a wall."

Image source, Graham Drury/Dennis Publishing
Image caption,

Sid the Sexist admires the wall in his own unique style

Ken Hutchinson, chairman of the Friends of Segedunum and project manager, said: "It was great fun choosing what to exhibit - the laughter of everyone during the research process has been very encouraging."

The show also features the earliest known published cartoon to mention the Roman Wall in 1872 from Canny Newcassel Diary and Rememberancer.

More than 100 cartoons by local schoolchildren have also been made with the help of Beano comic artist Nigel Auchterlounie.

Image source, Doug Lawrence
Image caption,

Many of the cartoons have been inspired by contemporary topics such as US politics

Image source, Cluff /Private Eye
Image caption,

The exhibition is being put on thanks to funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund

Related Internet Links

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.