James Dean. I am impressed by the hairdo and intrigued by the weird red areas

I like the colors and the many details in this illustration by H. Mercker.

Consequences the half-assed Cancún resolution could have on cartoons.

Vladimir Mayakovsky This is part of a series of strange portraits of Russian writers.

Man shaped by his surroundings by Schwoe . Surreal, silly, and brilliant.

This is one of the less melodramatic cartoons on the Nobel peace prize ceremony

Of all last week's Assange caricatures, this is my favorite. Rocchetti quality.

... this is what we'll get. The maiden flight of the "Dragon" capsule was just the beginning

RIP Leslie Nielsen. This great caricature was drawn by Italian artist Sting-One.

Personal Favorite

This week's cartoon combines two topics I was actually hoping to avoid: Christmas and WikiLeaks. Canadian artist Mike Spicer has managed to create a cartoon that avoids both glorification and demonization of Julian Assange and yet is poignant and inventive.

Paul Hellmich

Even if Stefano joined toonpool recently, on October 21, 2010, he has an wonderful and impressing gallery of almost 500 cartoons by now, in Italian, English, German, Romanian…
It’s interesting to find out more about how Stefano lives in two places, speaks two languages and once dated two girls at the same time.

Little Stefano and his mother

1. Which movie/TV character you see yourself as and why?

I can probably see myself as Monsieur Hulot, as played and directed by Jacques Tati. This character always fascinated me for his ability to retain a level of sanity in a modern world that seems to become robotic, impersonal and insensitive. The central metaphor of Tati’s films is the contradictions and conflicts of globalization. He was a true pioneer. And there is nothing more devastating than globalization…

2. Next plans or ideas?

I do not have plans, and sometimes I lack ideas… that is partly why I turn to cartoons for assistance in trying to explain, or make any sense of, the reality around me. Only a few things make sense to me. I view the world though the eyes of Franz Kafka, Eugene Ionesco and Peter Pan…

3. Your food today?

I am about to prepare “Fettuccine alla Norcina” (Fettuccine Norcia-style) with truffles from that area (Umbria, Italy).  You are invited.

Times Square

I Tre Merli restaurant

4. Do you like your place or would you like to live somewhere else?

I basically live in two diametrically opposite worlds, the United States (New York) and Italy (Perugia). I have two passports, and think and speak in two languages. This is actually something I do not wish to anybody. It’s a torture. You are neither here nor there. You are always a tourist, and it is difficult to pinpoint where you belong.

Crowded New York. Either go on a horse taxi ride or deliver a message with a pigeon.

5. What was the huge mistake in your life you (unfortunately) never made?

There have been several huge mistakes I’ve made, that’s why there are cartoonists! I am, essentially, a huge mistake myself. I guess I should have not studied film. I spent too much time writing and rewriting screenplays, and tons of money to produce a couple of short features. Not much success. But I do not miss the Hollywood environment. It is a gigantic delusion. And nobody is really happy.

6. Who are your neighbors?

Nobody ever asked me this question. Frankly, I have no idea who they are, although they have been across the street for at least 12 years. They really look like nice people. But this is the way we live in the United States. Nobody speaks to anybody. And if you eventually smell something funny, it only means that your neighbors are probably dead.

Friends

7. Tell me the shortest joke you know

A: “Excuse me, do you have the time?”

B: “No.” (B walks away)

8. Tell me the biggest prank you did on a friend.

I once (in my irresponsible youth) briefly dated two girls at the same time and gave them an appointment in front of a specific location. They did not know one another but stood there waiting for me while I was laughing with a friend of mine inside a car. In retrospect it was a horrible prank. But they never found out, and we are still good friends.

9. How to ruin your vacation?

To ask the two girls of question 8 to come along with you on a Caribbean island.

Out of the window is the Empire State Building

The moments before "tooning up"

10. In 1977 NASA has sent orbiters Voyager 1 and 2 into space which will never stop to fly through the universe by gravity. They contain the Voyager Golden Records with many testimonials of the whole mankind, greetings in 55 languages introduced by US president Jimmy Carter (“This is a present from a small, distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings….”). The Golden Records with a lifespan of 500 million years at least are including drawings of a naked man and woman, detailed genitalia, many scientific graphics, sounds of planet earth and music by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart – and Chuck Berry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3haYAbqKjA

Maybe aliens out there will be shocked in some million years! But in case such a NASA mission will be replayed: which of your artworks should join it?

Beluga

11. Please give us an answer to a question we didn’t ask!

Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are an exercise in futility.

Credits to Nicoleta Ionescu for talking with Stefano Maria Baratti

Kifah Al Reefi grew up in Iraq and now resides in Amsterdam. He uses very simple color gradients for his cartoons that would seem a bit dated if they didn’t work so well (look at these two, for example). So far, his cartoons mostly deal with the big topics – war, peace, freedom and terrorism. I liked the symmetry of this one, the hypnotic cross-hatching in this one, and the overall design and sickish green background of this one.

Massachusetts-based Jeremy Billadeau works in a field of cartooning  hardly found on toonpool.com. His “Skipper”, although technically a webcomic, is actually a classic American newspaper strip. The stories about the be-hatted title character  and his friends (a rat and a squirrel) come in different formats: single or three-panel cartoons for weekdays, a larger format for Sundays. One of the Sunday strips has a nice shout-out to Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes. I think this is an interesting format and I would be glad if more “newspaper strip artists” would present their work on toonpool.com.

Cartoons of Interest

One of several cartoons on last week's WikiLeaks disclosure. It's by R. Slabbers.

Madrid devastatingly lost to Barça last week. Great use of colors in this cartoon by Portos.

A dazed-looking, possibly Spanish, lady listening to a Victrola. Who needs gags?

Howto mug people in regions without street corners to hide behind: the manual

I bet lots of professional musicians dream about doing the exact same thing.

A cartoon about Fifa's controversial decision. It took me some time, but it works.

Personal Favorite

Rex May's "Recession" is my favorite cartoon of last week. It is a great comment on economists' abstract definitions of developments that can have very concrete consequences. It also reminded me of these simulation computer games like "Civilization" - especially of those little guys representing your population.

PS: Another cartoon by Rex – the one with the marriage counselor – was a very close contestant.

Paul Hellmich

Documents published in this week’s grand Wikileaks disclosure describe Silvio Berlusconi as “feckless, vain, and ineffective as a modern European leader”. They also claim that “frequent late nights and penchant for partying hard mean he does not get sufficient rest”. If you followed the career of Italy’s premier this probably doesn’t come as a surprise.

The earliest Berlusconi cartoons on toonpool.com date back to early 2008 (here, here, & here). At the time, Il Cavaliere was running for office after Romano Prodi’s cabinet had fallen apart. Berlusconi won the elections and became prime minister once again. Over 650 new Berlusconi-themed cartoons and caricatures have been added since (click here to see them all). To put this in proportion: there are only a little more than a hundred pieces on Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Queen Elizabeth II. and Prince Charles combined.

I think that there are two reasons for this. The first one is the relatively large number of Italian artists on toonpool.com, several of whom, apart from being very talented are also very politically-minded and, most of all, very productive. The second reason has to do with Berlusconi himself. There is something about that man that makes him especially suited for cartoons and caricatures.

The picture painted in the report mentioned above fits well with all the articles on Berlusconi’s blundering comments, his hair transplants, his sketchy pool parties, etc. Looking at these, it’s easy to see him as a joke, a cartoon character turned real. Of all the interpretations, Giulio Laurenzi’s big-nosed, high-heeled Silvio (left) is certainly the cartoony-est.

I was wondering if Italian cartoonists thought that their premier was funny and wrote a couple of emails to find out more. It turned out that none of them did.

In fact their perception of “Papi” was much darker than I had expected. Stefano Trucco, aka Kurtsatiriko, for example, wrote that: “in Italy we [don't have] any ideas about future after 15 years of Berlusconi. He modified most Italians’ minds trough television and newspapers.” A statement made by both Berni and Matteo Bertelli was particularly enlightening: both of them described his government as a “tragedy”.

This term fits well with the theatrical quality of Mr. Berlusconi’s style of government and creating a persona for himself. His efforts, however, are pointed in the exact opposite direction: reading about the things he does you can’t help noticing that he is trying to perform politics as a comedy. He has perfected the role of that lusty old buffoon you just can’t stay mad at. He is the star and the center of the political process.

I believe that it’s this tension the between his antics’ entertainment value and the way his policies are undermining democracy that does for the immense number of cartoons.

The question is, if it is possible to fight comedy with comedy, so to say. Don’t cartoons emphasize and strengthen his persona and a cynical view on politics? About a year ago, following the “Milan Cathedral” incident, I was quite disturbed by a number of cartoons, that turned an act of violence into a part of the Italian comedy – a kind of real-life slapstick (1,2,3). On the other hand, how do you fight this kind of tragicomedy? An exclusively objective approach will very likely lack public support and be an easy target for ridicule. I am at a loss here. Admittedly, Mr. Berlusconi will probably not remain in office for too long, now that Gianfranco Fini has sort-of seceded from the PDL. But there might be other comedians following his example.

Paul Hellmich

title image: caricatures by David Pugliese, Rodrigo, Portos, and Dragan

Introducing…

Sascha Dörp, AKA Schoolpeppers, is a new member from Cologne. His single-panel cartoons are in German, but most of them work in translation as well. The cartoons frequently are a bit on the dark and/or scatological side, just look at this one, this one and this one. He does, however, also do more family friendly stuff like this one on the early 1990s or this one starring recurring character Beppo the Clown. Besides Beppo, there are a couple of other regular characters like Count Dracula, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, and a guy who farts. Count me out on the fart jokes, but I really like some of the other stuff.B

Lluis Fuzzhound is from Melbourne, Australia. He owes a lot to artists like MAD-Magazine’s Basil Wolverton and Harvey Kurtzman or hot-rod fanatic Ed Roth. In fact he even included a shout-out to Roth (for reference, look at the Roth piece on Birthday Party’s amazing “Junkyard”. They are from Melbourne, too). The silkscreen-print look to this illustration alone demonstrates Mr. Fuzzhound’s superb artistic skills and his proclivity towards vintage styles. Among others, I enjoyed his comment on the love for underage sheep, his New Yorker-style cartoons, and this one about a talkative orifice.

Cartoons of Interest

Burglary in a fish museum. Apparently a pro job, sez Comissioner Goldstein.

I always thought that Turkey smelled funny. Happy belated Thanksgiving!

The Berlin-Neukölln (think: South Bronx) town musicians. Alas, poor donkey.

Only one of several Kim Yong Il cartoons uploaded last week. He sure loves the bomb.

Jim Worthy works for several animated shows. This is one of his characters.

H. Bauer, jr. started to learn Russian. I don't understand a thing. Looks great, though.

Personal Favorite

"Attack" by Alex Falco. Very simple pictogram style yet managing to include gender relations, Raiders of the Lost Ark AND large heads.

Paul Hellmich

Who could have forseen the highschool nickname

1. Which movie/TV character you see yourself as and why?

Uncle Fester from Adam´s Family old TV show, it´s not that I want to be like him, it´s just that I look like him, ha-ha, although, It would be so cool if I could light bulbs like him and light up my drawings anyplace, anytime.

2. Next plans or ideas?

I´m working on a comic book, that is more like a graphic novel, I´m close to finishing it, it´s a science-fiction story about two detectives investigating some murderers that happened in Cuenca Ecuador of the future.

3. Your food today?

Veggie soup, and “seco de pollo”, that literally means dry chicken , but actually is quite the opposite, it is hard to explain in English since this is a very traditional dish in my country, so I leave that in mystery, but I must say it was delicious.

4. Do you like your place or would you like to live somewhere else?

I like the place I live, Cuenca in Ecuador. it´s a beautiful little city  in a valley surrounded  by Andean mountains,  where the weather is great, landscapes are fantastic and city spots like little colonial churches squares and bars located  in republican building make you feel in old times, as you see I really like my town, but also I would like to visit Spain some day, especially because I was born there and of course take a journey somewhere else beyond these mountains, but most I hope to get the unreachable visa, this is ironic that sometimes I feel like my own migration cartoon characters trying to cross the borders that keep me stuck.

CAJAS - beautiful landscape 20 minutes away from the city with 235 lagoons

Favorite bar EL JOACO. It´s name is a tribute of JOAQUIN SABINA, the spanish singer

Bar owner and friend ELI has all kinds of drinks, but Rafa's favorite is beer

5. What was the huge mistake in your life you (unfortunately) never did?

Still soon to know, I rather prefer not to think there is something I didn´t do, I would like to think I´m still young to do a lot of things I did not do yet, but there is a thing I will never do and I regret already, that is bungee jumping because I have an awful problem with heights…

6. Who are your neighbors?

Besides my dad, I have no neighbors, because I live in the countryside far from city.

7. Tell me the shortest joke you know

Can´t tell, I´m better with drawing jokes, it costs me a lot to express my humor in words.

8. Tell me the biggest prank you did on a friend.

I´m not proud, but someday on the beach a friend of mine was so thirsty because of a hangover, he asked me for water. But he also told me, and I quote, “I´ll drink sea water if I don´t get a beer”. So I made his wishes come true, I gave him sea water in a beer can, poor guy. That´s the ugliest prank I did on a friend.

Flower market at Santuario Mariano church

Inside the flower market

9. How to ruin your vacation?

That´s a tricky question, because cartoonists don´t have vacations, on the other hand it is easy for us to travel everywhere if there is electricity and internet, so I guess there is a way for us to ruin vacations, going to a place without those services.

Rafael at work

The view from Rafael's window

A true detective knows the buttler didn't always do it

10. In 1977 NASA has sent orbiters Voyager 1 and 2 into space which will never stop to fly through the universe by gravity. They contain the Voyager Golden Records with many testimonials of the whole mankind, greetings in 55 languages introduced by US president Jimmy Carter (“This is a present from a small, distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings….”). The Golden Records with a lifespan of 500 million years at least are including drawings of a naked man and woman, detailed genitalia, many scientific graphics, sounds of planet earth and music by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart – and Chuck Berry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3haYAbqKjA

Maybe aliens out there will be shocked in some million years! But in case such a NASA mission will be replayed: which (1) of your artworks should join it?

“What moves the earth” cartoon would be my offer.

What moves the earth

11. Please give us an answer to a question we didn’t ask!

Sometimes I sign my work as LUCAS as my pseudonym, because it was my nickname in high-school. I already told you I look like Uncle Fester…. let me explain,  this famous character´s name, was translated into Spanish as Tío Lucas, ha-ha! Truth be told, I got bold very, very young .

Credits to Nicoleta Ionescu for talking with Rafael Carrasco

Andreas, wie sieht denn deine Arbeit an den “Chronicartoons” aus – von der Recherche bis zum fertigen Cartoon?

Am Anfang hatte ich eigentlich nur die Ideen für ein paar bestimmte Tage – Ich glaube, es waren der Mondlandungsgag und der Mount Rushmore-Gag. Ich habe mich gefragt, ob es möglich wäre, ein ganzes Jahr zu füllen.

Bevor ich mich ans Zeichnen machte, hab ich erst mal die Büchereien und Wikipedia durchforstet, mir Ereignisse rausgesucht, die pointentauglich waren und dann eben versucht, die Pointen auch zu finden. Nachdem ich dann für 365 Tage Ideen hatte, hab ich mich ans Zeichnen gemacht. Es hätte ja keinen Sinn ergeben, anzufangen, wenn auch nur ein Tag dabei gewesen wäre, für den ich nichts gefunden hätte.

Und so zeichne ich die Dinger, versuche immer, so ein bis zwei Wochen Vorlauf zu haben, überarbeite den einen oder anderen nochmal, dann Tuschen, Einscannen, Photoshop, fertig.

Hat sich durch die Arbeit an der Reihe dein Verhältnis zu Geschichte geändert?

Hmm … Ich merke mir ja leider nicht alle Chronicartoons-Daten, aber ich glaube, mittlerweile käme ich bei “Wer wird Millionär” schon ‘ne Stufe weiter als früher…

Ich kann mir vorstellen, dass es manchmal schwer ist, ein passendes Ereignis zu finden. Gab es auch schon die gegenteilige Situation – dass du Schwierigkeiten hattest, dich zu entscheiden?

Ja, manche Tage geben schwer was her. Aber es muss bzw. soll ja nicht immer ein Lacher sein. Bei Tagen, die mehrere Gags bereitstellen, suche ich mir den aus, der mir am besten gefällt und hebe den Rest auf. Vielleicht geht es ja irgendwann in ein zweites Jahr…

Du produzierst außer den Chronicartoons noch andere Cartoonreihen, z.B. “Gelle Gießen”. Wie funktioniert das denn praktisch? Hast du einen festen Zeitplan. sagen wir “9-11 Uhr Gelle Gießen, danach zwei Stunden Chronicartoons, dann Mittagspause, usw…?

Es kommt dran, was zeitlich am wichtigsten ist. Ideen habe ich für jede Serie einige auf Vorrat. Der Strip für den “Gießener Anzeiger” ist wöchentlich, beim “Tätowier-Magazin” habe ich mehr Zeit, weil das monatlich erscheint. Das “Theaterblatt” erscheint nur alle zwei Monate und ‘ne Mieterzeitschrift, für die ich auch zeichne sogar nur alle drei Monate.

Wenn das alles abgehakt ist, quasi in die Lücken, kommen die Sachen, für die ich (noch) nicht bezahlt werde und für die ich mir nur selbst den Abgabe-Druck stelle.

Neben deinem Zeichenstil haben auch die Farben, die du benutzt einen hohen Wiedererkennungswert. Kannst du noch nachvollziehen, wie du zu dieser Palette gekommen bist?

Deutscher Expressionismus und osteuropäische Illustratoren der 60er und 70er Jahre, da steh ich ziemlich drauf. Da könnte das ein oder andere mit reingerutscht sein…

Kannst du Beispiele geben?

Bei den Illustratoren Herbert Leupin und Alain Grée. Zugegebenermaßen beides keine Osteuropäer. Aber sie zeichnen so. Dann noch Fjodor Chitruk, der den russischen und viel cooleren “Winnie Puh” Film gemacht hat, und Walter Trier, den viele wahrscheinlich von den Erich-Kästner-Buchdeckeln her kennen. Allerdings ist der auch kein Osteuropäer.

Vielleicht sollte ich das “osteuropäisch” streichen und stattdessen “30 bis 70er Jahre” sagen. Bei den Expressionisten mag ich vor allem Kirchner, Müller, Beckmann und Grosz..

Letzte Frage: warum die Mickymausohren auf deinem Avatar?

Ach, der Avatar. Da könnte ich mal einen Neuen zeichnen. Die Ohren sind für mich einfach das Sinnbild für oberglattgebügelten, kantenlosen Mainstream. Dazu als Kontrast mein missmutiges Mehr-oder-weniger-independent-aber-dafür-nicht-reich-und-berühmt-Gesicht. Fand ich wohl irgendwie passend…

Danke, dass du dir die Zeit genommen hast!

Paul Hellmich