On Thursday, August 19, US troops officially ended their mission in Iraq. It’s been seven years and five month now since the invasion started on March 20, 2003. I find it striking how I got used to the war and how the repetitive mess of shootings, terrorist attacks, etc. formed a background structure to my life in Berlin.
Admittedly, the media coverage on Iraq probably won’t change too much in the months to come. There will be further fighting and further bombings and there will still beAmerican soldiers in Iraq. Only one toonpool.com artist has commented on the latter aspect. Yet, Rafa from Equador did two cartoons – one attacking the continuing military presence and blaming America for the destruction the troops left behind. The latter position is shared by several other artists.
Spanish cartoonist Quel and Shahid Atiqulla from Afghanistan both concentrated on the destruction. German artist Erl did something similar but chose a metaphor more related to the medical-themed language often used to emphasize Western professionalism and the overall therapeutic quality of the bloodshed. Firuz Kutal from Norway, on the other hand, has provided a series of enigmatic but powerful images to illustrate the situation in Iraq (1,2,3). Of course there also cartoons that link Iraq to the current situation in Afghanistan (here & here).
Introducing…
Satish Achrya is an editorial cartoonist from Kundapura, India and a new member of toonpool.com. There are only four cartoons of his so far (all of them drawn in a classic caricature style and digitally colored): one on the world’s longest tennis match, one on the Pakistan flooding, one on Manmohan Singh, and one on Obama. I do hope that there wil be more to come. Professional political cartoons from other regions are one of toonpool.com’s main attractions to me. And, as a sad consequence of my anglocentric language skills, Mr. Achrya’s works are more easily accessible than other cartoons from India (sorry Kaak).
Giacomo is from Italy. His cartoons and illustrations are drawn in charcoal and digitally colored. Giacomo’s works are comparably calm and quiet in their narratives. Except for the 50s-ish shark cartoon, maybe. I also liked the clock cartoon, the pollution cartoon, and the one about Turkey and the European Union. The one about the beauty of being apolitical is a bit ambiguous in its statement. That is, of course only if you take the question mark in the “Information” in account and/or start to think about a broken and withered statue becoming the epitome of beauty to a degree that its complete and gaily-colored original version would seem ugly. This left aside, judging from its arm position, the Venus de Milo clearly used to be a Communist.
Cartoons of Interest
This week’s favorite is “Snail” by Dragan Milos from Serbia. The caption should read “I would feel much safer if he took a longer run-up”. Other than that it’s a great snail gag.
I also liked the composition Zoran Spasojevic’s “A Head for Every Occasion”, the grotesque mood of “?” by Leichnam and the word “Kandesbunzler” (as found in a cartoon by Zenundsenf).
© toonpool.comTags: irak, iraq, last week, letzte woche
