Martin Rowson's year in cartoons

'My year, like everyone else’s, started miserably: the government was moribund.' Photograph: guardian.co.uk

'Maniacs with exploding underpants filled the skies.' Photograph: guardian.co.uk

'Hewitt and Hoon revealed themselves as the world’s worst assassins and it was bloody freezing.' Photograph: guardian.co.uk

'The coincidence of the Haitian earthquake with howls of complaint from Wall Street and the City about threats to rein in their bonuses ... really plunged me into almost terminal gloom' Photograph: guardian.co.uk

'By the time the general election was finally announced, my mood had darkened considerably.' Photograph: guardian.co.uk

'Meanwhile, like almost all my peers, I was having real problems with Nick Clegg. The point was that I couldn’t draw him, and nor could anyone else ...' Photograph: guardian.co.uk

'... in an almost Damascene moment, inspiration struck when I realised that he is, physically, a cross between Private Pike from Dad’s Army and Pinocchio' Photograph: guardian.co.uk

'That was one good joke in the bag. The election result provided an even better one with the formation of the coalition government between the nauseatingly bouncy Cameron – who I was still drawing as Little Lord Fauntleroy, although he’s been shrinking in stature with office – and a wooden puppet' Photograph: guardian.co.uk

'I wasn’t really happy with the way I drew Osborne either. There was something missing ...' Photograph: guardian.co.uk

'... until I did a cartoon of the Tories and Lib Dems locked inside a boarded up room for the next five years, when I think I finally captured little Gideon. Most other cartoonists draw him as quite fat, but the thing about Osborne is that in fact he’s a fat man who’s currently thin, and his defining feature is actually his smirk.' Photograph: guardian.co.uk

'The rest – Vince, the preposterous Danny Alexander transformed into Beaker from the Muppet Show, little Gove and the ubiquitous and ever larger pinstriped fat cat – have joined the big boys to provide me with a cast of characters who’ve been keeping me happy ever since.' Photograph: guardian.co.uk

'Apart from its complacency and malevolence, there is something inherently hilarious about this government.' Photograph: guardian.co.uk

'Riots in the streets ...' Photograph: guardian.co.uk

'... and bloody freezing again.' Photograph: guardian.co.uk