Stephen Collins

Stephen Collins has been producing consistently brilliant commentary on life, politics and everything else for the Guardian since 2011. His work appears weekly in the Guardian's Saturday magazine and typically takes the form of a strip. He expertly pushes the format of the traditional newspaper comic into something more like an illustrated TV comedy sketch: pitch-perfect satire, deftly condensed into twelve panels or fewer.

Readers have described Stephen’s work as “always a highlight of the magazine”, “the first thing we look at when the paper turns up on Saturday”, and “consistent brilliance and delight”. Each week he produces something that is topical, relevant to readers' lives and, most importantly of all, funny.

Stephen's work is unique. It is recognisably a 'newspaper comic strip', but has no recurring characters or plots, other than the politicians he draws. Like a columnist he covers a new subject each week, often with a fully formed argument buried inside the jokes. He has a great ear for dialogue, cleverly dramatising the crosstalk and 'dead air' of everyday conversation with overlapping speech bubbles and silent panels.

Stephen's illustrations display a knack for light-touch caricature, making his subjects look funny while consciously avoiding old-fashioned physical cruelty. His Rishi Sunak was a good example of this throughout 2024: the once-chipper ‘camera stare', carefully redrawn across panels to express the increasingly desperate state of his election campaign.

The three examples we are submitting for the 2025 Press Awards are:

15th June 2024 (“So thanks for sending in your application..."):

This scene, published in the middle of the election, imagines a post-power Rishi Sunak going for a job interview in California. We feel it showcases Stephen’s ability to make political points with a uniquely subtle ruthlessness. He manages here to combine the relatable experience of an uncomfortable job interview, with a deeper point about the shift of power from governments to tech companies - all while keeping it topical, pointed and, of course, funny.

24th August 2024: (“We should probably leave for the airport…"): This cartoon, published around the summer holidays, showcases Stephen’s knack for observing everyday life. Appearing in Saturday section gives him the opportunity to switch week-by-week between current events and less political themes which are ‘in the air’ for readers. They loved this depiction of a cave-dad wanting to get to the airport extra early, and we feel it demonstrates Stephen’s talent for comedy dialogue and what might be called ‘illustrated acting’.

7th September 2024 (“Well I must say Michelangelo..."):

Discourse around the effect of AI on creative industries increased this year, and was very much under discussion in the newspaper by September. This piece - imagining an entrepreneurial Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling - is a perfect example of Stephen’s ability to take big, slow-burning news stories and condense them into a brilliantly pithy, humorous and memorable scene.