Frank gets his point across with show

EVENING News cartoonist Frank Boyle has ridiculed everything from the rise and demise of Tony Blair and the war on terror, to the elections at Holyrood, and the trials and tribulations of football rivals Hibs and Hearts.

City council leaders have morphed into characters from The Simpsons, Beyonce Knowles has been targeted by the city's parking attendants at the MTV awards, and Jenny Dawe has been captured sporting ceremonial robes asking "Does my ego look big in this?" Frank certainly takes no prisoners.

With over 2000 cartoons under his belt, it was only a matter of time before the award-winning cartoonist staged his own exhibition, which opens this Saturday at the City Arts Centre.

"I wanted to have the opportunity to get together a body of my work from the last nine years of my career," explains Frank. "The exhibition is really a snapshot of the history of politics during that period. My job at the Evening News coincided with the setting up of the Scottish Parliament so it's a potted history of the Capital in some ways too."

Whittling down 2000 cartoons to the chosen 75 which will be displayed was no mean feat, but eventually Frank chose his favourites, which depict everything from wheelie bins in the New Town to the Capital's infamous traffic wardens.

His main aim, both with his sketches and with the exhibition is to make people laugh.

"I do like that – with the ones that are supposed to be funny, of course. There are some serious cartoons in there too so there's everything from the funny to the serious and hard-hitting. I've always made them to appeal to everyone, to be accessible. Cartoons can say very quickly what it can take a story a long time to say."

That doesn't mean that Frank finds the creative process an easy one and he admits that his typical day can be fairly arduous. He explains: "I read the papers, watch the news on television and read the online news and just look for anything that jumps out at me. It's the daft wee stories that often make great cartoons. Then, I start doodling, thinking of ideas. It can take anything from ten minutes to six hours for ideas and it is intense. It comes down to lots of doodling until I see something coming together – sometimes my cartoons make me laugh out loud. And that's when I know it's going to be good."

Having won awards for his work, you'd assume they've been his proudest achievements. But, according to Frank, his biggest kick comes from having people cut out and keep his sketches.

"I've heard of people doing that and for me, that makes it all worthwhile and means I'm doing my job. I've even heard of councillors doing it ... which is kind of annoying. You spend ages trying to annoy them and they end up liking them and lap it up. I suppose I'll need to keep at it!"

Boyling Point: Cartoons by Frank Boyle from the Edinburgh Evening News, runs at the City Art Centre, Market Street, from Saturday until April 19. For more information telephone [phone].