Each week, there are some new cartoons on toonpool.com that I just don’t get. Sometimes it’s because I don’t speak the artist’s language – I have, for example, always wondered what the cartoons by Indian artist Kaak are about. Other times it’s because I don’t know about the events the cartoon is referring to. Happens all the time with Barbeefish‘s cartoons on right-wing American topics. The third category is just plain mysterious.
Last week, as every week, there were some new mysterious cartoons. I think this one by Portos is a good example for the I-don’t-understand-a-word category. The I-could-understand-it-if-I-knew-anything-about-your-culture category is being adequately represented by new member Mohamed Alafia, whom I will introduce below. Then, there are some cartoons that I think I should be understanding but I don’t: one in German, one in English, and two without any dialogue. There’s one that uses clear symbolism but makes your brain hurt if you try to think about it. And there are at least two that havecrossed the line to surrealism (one, two)
Introducing…
Mohamed Alafia’s cartoons are sporadically mysterious. Sometimes this is due to my ignorance of Moroccan topics (here & here) and a little research does help. At other times it’s due to my ignorance of Moroccan topics but even Wikipedia is clueless. Who is that Ponky guy? One cartoon, however, remains mysterious even though the captions are pretty clear. Anyway, Alafia’s style is interesting to look at – especially when he does these scribbly outlines in what might be ink, adds another layer of paler and broader ink scribbles and then puts in blotches of color on his computer (e.g. here). I’ve never quite seen anything like this before.
German artist Schwoe has uploaded only four cartoons so far (1, 2, 3, 4). And, since I am German too I understand all of them. The reason I am mentioning them here is because they are funny, well-drawn, and make my neck hurt in a peculiar way because of the perspective Schwoe employs. Seriously. It’s like looking at German newscaster Klaus Kleber [I found this cartoon when looking for the photo… toonpool.com has once again made page one of the search results. yay!]
Cartoons of Interest
I think my favorite cartoon this week is “Daylight Robbery” by Russian artist Sergej Tunin. I love those old timey pilots in their leather caps and goggles and it’s fun to imagine the sound of the plane.
Paul Hellmich
© toonpool.comTags: last week, letzte woche, mystery, review
