Let’s start with some good news: toonpool.com has started a cooperation with Munich’s public transportation agency. Starting in May, cartoons by toonpool.com artists will be on display on screens in most subway trains and streetcars. As with the existing cooperation with Berlin’s public transportation, there’s no money involved – none for them, none for us, and none four you.
Monday, March 8 is International Women’s Day and there are already a number of cartoons. Some of them see women as the fuehrer of the world, while others point out the persistent inequality. Firuz Kutal from Norway concentrates on the issue of women’s rights and Islam (1,2) while Oguz Gurel apparently sees gender inequalities as less pressing a topic than class inequalities (1,2,3). My favourite of these cartoons makes shows how the wheel was invented by intersex people.
Introducing…
Raed Al-Rawi is a new member from Baghdad. His cartoons look hand-drawn as hand-drawn can and they all express a slightly twisted kind of humor. I especially liked the rainbow deodorat guy (although his feet are somewhat gross), man VS bureaucracy, and the contemplating cat. Raed has also done the first public urination cartoon I’ve ever seen. Regarding the number of general urination cartoons, the reason can’t be that pissing is an inappropriate topic for a cartoon. Must be something about doing it in public. Weird.
Andreas Eikenroth is a German cartoonist whose cartoons rely heavily on the (German) captions. While this makes them a little unsatisfactory for a non-German reader, the idea behind Andreas’ cartoons is worth looking at. They are basically a cartoon version of Wikipedia’s “On this day..” section, i.e. they are based on an event that has taken place x years from today. As Andreas admits in his profile, not all of them are rofl-worthy, but they are sure nice to look at. Take a look at March 7, 3, 2, and 1.
Miguel Villalba Sánchez, AKA El Chico Triste is from Spain. His most in-your-face work is very likely this full frontal portrait of Silvio Berlusconi and mobsters Gaspare Spatuzza and Giuseppe Graviano. Miguel’s other political cartoons include a display of Europe’s recent natural disasters, a rodent-like Hugo Chavez andd this one about one about Sarkozy’s national identity project. The nature of Miguel’s political agenda leaves me a little puzzled. While the Eiffel one could be pretty right-wing, the natural disasters look like your standard leftish criticism. Good thing he also does simple cartoons.
Cartoons of Interest
This week’s favourite, “Parcondicio” by Giulio Laurenzi only replicates a common stereotype about the mutability of political opinion. The whole thing wouldn’t be worth mentioning, if Giulio hadn’t put it in such a brilliantly designed cartoon. I love that guy’s unmoving face, the spare use of colors and the the artist’s idea to use animal noises instead of words.
Be also sure to check out this piece by new member Andreas Walter. It’s probably a bit small, but I think it has a great layout, and there is also a single panel version. Which obviously lacks the grand design.
Finally, there’s two more cartoons I would like to point out: Egypt’s long-time president Hosni Mubarak by Medi, and Argentina’s own Diego Armando Maradona byAmauri Alves. If you watched Wednesday’s soccer game, Germany VS Argentina you know that Diego does look a bit weird in that jacket.
Paul Hellmich
Tags: International Women's Day, last week, letzte woche, weltfrauentag
