Last week, our headquarters was honored by a visit from toonpool.com regular Menekşe Çam. Photos have been taken and we will publish an interview some time next week.
Although there is a steady supply of cartoons on the war in Afghanistan (there, I said it), there have been surprisingly few on Thursday’s International Conference in London. In fact, there are only two cartoons directly concerned with the conference, both of them by Afghan cartoonist Shahid Atiqullah. It seems that Apple Computer’s new gadget, the iPad, has inspired more artists (1,2,3,4,5,6). Probably that’s because the whole Afghanistan business doesn’t really offer new topics – see this week’s Cartoons of Interest section.
A few more cartoons have been done on Barack Obama’s first year in office. And – with a varying degree of schadenfreude – they all paint a pretty gloomy picture. There is Tjeerd Royaards’ explosive cake, Klaus Stuttmann’s gory magic show, Fredy Rodriguez’ new version of the campaign slogan and Joel Barbee’s dead fish.
Introducing…
David Toth is from Budapest. He does amazing illustrations (take this flyer, the diving bell guy or this lab scene) as well as narrative bits that, as far as I can see often include chicken (here & here). They make me wish I had taken Hungarian instead of French. If anyone feels like translating: I would love to learn about the mystery behind this couple’s conversation, the lab assistant’s mumbled curses or the word’s spoken at Snow White’s funeral.
It was Thomas Hollnack’s cardboard cut out-like mutant deer that got me in the first place. They say it knows eternity, and who am I to argue. The old-school dinosaur is a bit too adorable for my taste but it’s probably abest-selling geek shirt. Thomas also does nice cartoons about piranhas and the vegetarian option or busy stones. The latter reminded me of Volkertoon’s “Steine” (relatively language neutral strips: here, here & here.
Cartoons of Interest
This cartoon by Rodrigo was published originally on December 25 2009. It still works a month later and probably would have worked any time during the last five years. Strictly speaking it’s a Christmas cartoon (I just now noticed that the bomber is leaving “ho ho ho” vapor trails). But you don’t need an occasion to give away presents. I just love the boy’s face. And the fathers face. And the GI’s face…This cartoon is such a nice and absurd commentary on the whole “more troops” business. I am sure that there is a considerable number of Afghan people who would welcome “more troops” and soldiers are cool as long as you are not too closely involved in their soldiering business. Which I fear a lot of people in Afghanistan are. On the other hand, the outcome of this policy is just as uncertain as “less troops”, “exactly the same amount of troops” or “more engineers” would have been. To me, the GI’s face reflects the uncertainty individual soldiers must feel upon arrival. Just like Christmas puppies.
Tags: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, last week, letzte woche
