Introducing…
Álvaro Cabral is from Porto Alegre, Brazil. His avatar has a Dürer-esque quality to it that I like very much. He did a similar thing in this portrait of architect Oscar Niemeyer. Some of his caricatures are standard fare – they’re not bad at all, but, well, I am looking at caricatures of Pope Benedict XVI. on a daily basis. Others, however, display interesting ways of distortion and composition (this caricature of adipose Brazilian singer Ed Motta), stunning plasticity (this one of football player Dunga) and nice little details (the shadow that turns the portrait of Hugo Chavez into a flying bust).
Jacek Piotrowski, Jaski for short, is based in Luzern, Switzerland. Most of his works are caption-based cartoons with nice, lightly sketched lines. Some of them form a series of cartoons on marketing and management (e.g. this one, this one, and this one). The soul-patched, pony-tailed main character alone gives me the creeps. Other cartoons by Jaski feature suicidal parrots, are hard to understand because they use Swiss dialect, or defy comprehensibility altogether despite their English caption (I like the driven expression in the chicken’s eyes, though).
Cartoons of Interest
Puns and absurd personifications is all I need in a toon. This one is on time zones.
Heck, I don't even need puns. Just give me ass rockets. 36 people died in this incident.
This one falls into the 'personification' group. I love how Death seems rather sheepish.
The war winter of 2010/2011. Great design and an un- comfortable reminder
Garrincha's other New Year's cartoon has the gag, this one has the colors. Enjoy.
A leftover Christmas cartoon. Or a post-Christmas cartoon. You decide.
Personal Favorite
I just had to pick a New Year's cartoon. This one is by Til Mette. The metaphor doesn't really work for all events that are unique, processural or follow a non-anual pattern. But, boy, is this true for society's little annual rituals. It won't be long and I will be writing about Easter cartoons, the summer slump in cartooning, Halloween cartoons, Christmas Cartoons, and - worst of all - New Year's cartoons AGAIN.