Cartoons are all about information. If you don’t know certain things, they won’t work. Admittedly, a lot of cartoons won’t work even though you might get the joke because they just aren’t funny. But let’s stick with the information part. On toonpool.com you can usually get along quite well if you know your pop culture and have some idea about recent news items from a cartoon’s country of origin (language barriers left aside, that is).
“Special interest” cartoons, on the other hand, demand knowledge held by comparably smaller groups of people. They offer a kind of in-crowd bonus (“Ha! There are only twenty people in the world who will get this joke. And I am one of them.”) and, perhaps more important, enable people to discuss parts of their lives that do not get covered in general public discourse. Special interest gags have been around a long time, both in oral culture (“What does it say on a blues singer’s tombstone?”) and in cartoons published in journals or fanzines.
Of course their numbers have increased greatly through the internet. There are webcomics for PhD students, History majors, and programmers. As well as many, many others. My choice of examples, however, apart from displaying my own geekiness points to a major bias in special interest cartoons and Internet culture in general: A lot of it is made by and meant for people with higher education. There aren’t too many cartoons about plumbing, although I am sure that there must be lots of inside jokes. Taking an optimistic view on the democratic potential of the internet, you could argue that this will change in the next couple of years. I definitely hope it will. Staring at esoteric cartoons is a great (although not necessarily successful) way of learning about society.
Sports cartoons are a bit of an exception to the bias I mentioned earlier. While I would still count them as special interest, they cater to a much wider range of people. Omar “Omomani” Momani is a 30-year-old cartoonist and animator from Jordan. He is an animation team leader at a company called Crazy Piranha Studios and draws football-themed cartoons for a website called goal.com. We talked about his own fandom, about how he became a football cartoonist and about players who simply look funny.
Omar, since you do a lot of cartoons on football, I guess that you are a fan.. What’s your team?
Of course am a fan! I am a big fan of AC Milan. I support them since childhood, Milan is part of my life indeed.
What was it about Milan that made you – someone who grew up in a different country – a fan?
It was in 1989 and 1990 when I first noticed football. Milan was then the best team on the planet. So, as a child, I became obsessed with their magic. I liked the understanding between the lines – Baresi – Maldini, Rijkaard – Gullit – Van Basten.
What did you think about them this season? They won the Serie A but didn’t do too well in the Champion’s league…
Honestly, I was not that happy. Milan just lacked the spirit. In the past Milan has had the same soul in its various eras – Sacchi Milan, Cappelo Milan, Ancelotti Milan. When you saw them play you knew it was Milan, I didn’t feel that this season. And, besides, I am sad about the departure of Pirlo. He was my favorite player in Milan.
How many games do you watch in a week?
Well, it’s impossible to watch all the games in the world. I focus on the major European leagues. If I can make it, I will watch the most important matches of the week. Usually three games a week, but I also follow all the summaries in these leagues as well as the news.
How did you end up drawing football cartoons?
This came up during the last World Cup. My friends asked me to start drawing cartoons in general. I found that football was a good subject for me as an animator. Football gives you all the actions and ideas you need. Well.. then I contacted Goal.com. They liked the idea and signed me up to be their cartoonist.
Do you follow football cartoons by other people?
I have been searching for other colleagues but I didn’t find many. Maybe because I am new at this. I like Caye‘s sports cartoons but they are so biased with Barcelona. I try to be neutral when drawing a cartoon.
Which football personality is most fun to draw and/or to use for a cartoon?
I love classic playerslike Valderrama and Gullit, they are hip and cool. As for modern football there are Messi, Gatusso, Puyol and Rooney.
What is it that makes them suited for cartoons?
Their funny looks. When you hear Puyol’s name you always remember his hair. Its like he is the “hairy man”. Gullit is the same but with a funny mustache. Other players look much less unique. Xavi for instance. From a cartoonist’s point of view, of course.
Are you going to draw cartoons about the Women’s World Cup?
If and idea pops up, of course i will!
Thanks for your time!
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The bronze medal goes to CakBoy from Indonesia and his caricature of England’s Wayne Rooney. CakBoy’s Rooney is smiling, he is stocky, and he definitely deserves this medal.
While the actual Wayne Rooney couldn’t do much to prevent his team from going home after their defeat against Germany, his caricature counterpart made it all the way to the end. The Indonesian “team” won against Croatia, Jordan, and Switzerland – and none of them was exactly easy competition.
The silver medal goes to Geomateo, who lives in Romania but because of his Oceanian heritage preferred to run for New Zealand.
His caricature of Portugal’s heart-throb Cristiano Ronaldo has meanwhile gained new importance since real-life Ronaldo announced the birth of his son on July 3rd. Instead of running from him, however, he requested full custody for the boy. New Zealand defeated cartoons from Bulgaria, Brazil and Italy on its path to the trinal. Once again, that’s much better than New Zealand’s soccer team did.
The winner of toonpool.com’s 2010 CARICUP is Hungary with a caricature of legendary player Ferenc Puskás by T-Boy.
Hungary has not taken part in a soccer world cup since 1986 in Mexico, and they haven’t reached the final round since 1954 – back when Puskás was still playing. T-Boy and his semi-realistic caricature, on the other hand, were triumphant against skillful opponents from Germany, Guatemala, and Austria. Congratulations!
For a chart displaying all games of CARICUP, click here.
]]>In other news, the Toronto G8/G20 summit has ended with mixed results. Toonpool.com artists have anticipated these in last week’s cartoons, mostly referring to the different approaches of Europe and the United States (1,2,3, 4). There are, however, unexpectedly few cartoons on the issue. I don’t know if this is due to the abstract issues discussed, the already toned-down expectations or the World Cup.
Introducing…
Ed Heals AKA Birdbee is based in Halifax, Canada. His trademark character is .. well.. half-a-bee & half-a-bird. Birdbee (the character) is huggably melancholic and he rides a tricycle. I particularly enjoyed the cantilever chair frustration, the “not-a-trike-town” one, and the one with various hats. Apart from these very effective digital drawings, Birdbee (the artist) also has also contributed some cool illustrations. Part of these are ‘manual’ paintings (1,2,3), others are digital. Be sure to check out the cool money-for-nothing-ish 3D model illustations (1,2,3).
Cartoons of Interest
This week’s favorite is “12 Punsch” by Schwoe. Technically it’s a cartoon – it has a caption and all. It roughly translates to “After those 12 glasses of punch I had last night, a massive iceberg would be the best medicine.” I don’t think this is funny, though. Still, Schwoe manages to create such a somber and surreal mood here, that I can’t stop looking at this piece. Had I seen this drawing when I was a child, I’m pretty sure it would have caused some intense nightmares.
Apropos of nightmarish technology: here are a couple of strange devices by Portuguese artist Raim: 1,2,3. They are not funny either.
Finally, there’s a very interesting experimental “graphic poem” called “More Road” by Chris Beckett from Great Britain. And, no, as far as I can tell it’s not funny.
]]>Here’s how the knockout stage works: There will be four rounds – The “Round of 24″, the “Round of 12″, the Semi Finals and what we like to call the “Trinal” – which combines the final and the a third place playoff. In each round everyone visiting toonpool.com can cast their vote for one contestant in each “match”. The “Round of 24″ will be the longest. It’s open until Thursday, July 1, 8 PM CEST.
Here are the contestants (click here to vote):
The fist match pits Austria against Ireland – to be more precise it’s Ausgezeichnet’s sweaty version of Germany’s injured captain Michael Ballack versus Nerosunero’s elegant portrait of France’s Thierry Henry. Who ya got?
In match number two Bosnia-Herzegovina‘s representative Senad and his caricature of Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o meet England‘s very own Hugh Jarse and his portrait of bug-eyed German midfielder Mesut Özil. What will it be – old school caricature skills or straightforward minimalism?
The third match sees Guatemalan artist Guillermo Lorentzen taking on Marian Avramescu from Romania. The contesting caricatures show Portugal’s Christiano Ronaldo (GT) and Brazil’s Kaká (RO).
The German and Hungarian football teams go a long way back. In the fourth match they meet once again – as a hand-drawn portrait of Hungarian legend Ferenc Puskás by T-Boy and a vectorized and very cartoon-y caricature of Oliver Kahn by Thomas Gronle-Legron. Will a little modern technology suffice to recreate the outcome of the 1954 finals or is Hungary still the better team?
While both Switzerland and France have missed the next round in the FIFA World Cup, they are still very much at it on toonpool.com. A pacinoesque portrait of Diego Maradona by Ian Marden meets a caricature of Thierry Henry by Zed. Both players may be blessed by the Hand of God but only one of them can continue to the next round.
“El Loco” Marcelo Bielsa may have settled down a little, as he’s now Chile‘s head coach. Drawn by Chilenian artist Horate he will have to enter the arena once again. This time it’s against Equador, represented by Omer Correa’s caricature of snaggletoothed Brazilian Ronaldinho.
Match number seven sees Egyptian player Muhammad “Gedo” Naji as done by Jordanian artist Samir Al Ramahi facing Uruguay‘s Diego Forlán by Paleju. So.. who will triumph in the end - South America’s Switzerland or the Middle East’s Austria?
The eighth match is between Gero from Croatia and CacBoy from Indonesia. Gero’s caricature shows Argentina’s Lionel Messi in full Barca attire while CacBoy chose England’s Wayne Rooney. Rooney’s face may be more amusing than Messi’s but people might as well choose the better looking player.
As in real life, the outcome of our match between Spain and Brazil is far from sure. It’s two long-time members of toonpool.com facing off here – Junior Lopes from Sao Paolo and Xavier Salvador from Reus. They even decided to post pictures of Bayern Munich teammates Franck Ribéry and Bastian Schweinsteiger. Those two players are pretty much on par when it comes to .. unique … features.
Thierry Henry is one of the most frequently drawn football players on toonpool.com – also due to his game breaking stunt during the play-off match against Ireland. In this case he was drawn by Bulgarian artist Tchavdar and sees himself in a play-off against another frequently-drawn player: Cristiano Ronaldo. This version of the Portuguese Forward was done by Geomateo and is running for New Zealand.
The eleventh match features two Brazilian superstars: Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. Ronaldo the elder’s portrait was done by Mexican artist Romero while “little” Ronaldo was done by Aswini-Abani from India. While the two boys from Brazil did not make it into the Seleção this time, they are more than prepared for CARICUP 2010.
Match number twelve is somewhat special. As a German-based website, toonpool.com feels a special responsibility for the Italian national football team. When we heard that the Azzuri finished last in their group, we decided to do something about it. Be assured that Italy will make it to the next round of CARICUP 2010. You may choose between A-Tale’s caricature of 70s football legend Paul Breitner and Guido Salimbeni’s Ronaldinho.
… now go, and vote for your favorite teams.
the toonpool.com staff
]]>There’s also some sad news: toonpool.com member Zoran Mazos has passed away. Among Zoran’s works are the explosive olive branch and brightly-colored apocalyptic mutant-God. We would like to send our condolences to his friends and family during this difficult time.
Introducing…
Thomas Bertelon is a new member from Toulouse. He has only contributed three works so far, but I like them. As you can tell from his avatar, exposure to Japanese comices definitely influnced his style. There is, for example, a “super-deformed”-style comment on the recent quarrels in the French national football team. The great thing about Thomas’s art is, that his style is still varied. Just compare this watercolor caricature of Maradona and this computer-colorized sketch of Uruguayan forward Forlan.
Néstor Marcià is from Barcelona. The majority of his works so far are about Spanish politics and culture and mostly they are in Spanish (don’t be mad at me if it’s atually Catalan – I don’t speak either language). Luckily, he added translations, so readers can roughly figure out what the cartoons are about. Getting a glimpse at other nations’ political cartoons is one of my favorite things about toonpool.com, so I enjoyed his works. Néstor does minimalist cartoons (1,2), slightly less minimalist cartoons (1,2), and photo manipulations (1).
Cartoons of Interest
As you may have figured out, I am far from done with the football cartoons. There are just too many and too many good ones. My favorite this week is kind-of uncharacteristically quiet. It’s called “Ballfieber” and it’s by German artist Trantow.
Please remember that you can still sign up for toonpool.com’s Caricup 2010 in our forum. There are plenty of new and awesome football caricatures in our soccer portraits colection. Take, for example, this Michael Rooney by new member Paleju and a whole series of very cartoonish and very spot-on caricatures by Junior Lopes (e.g. Ribéry, Messi & Klose).
]]>Personally, I am more interested in cartoons that specifically deal with the 2010 World Cup. Among German artists a new subgenre of football cartoons has sprung up: the Vuvuzelatoon. Part of this national phenomenon is probably due to the plastic trumpets’ name somewhat resembling the name of famous German football player Uwe S. (here, here, here, here & here).
Of course I am also interested in cartoons on the 2010 World Cup in nations other than Germany. So far I have found cartoons from Turkey, Brazil and Palestine. Please tell me, if there are others.
I also noticed how the phenomenon of perceiving this South African World Cup primarily as an African World Cup is also found in cartoons. Since this is the first World Cup taking place in an African country this definitely is a valid way of looking at the event. On toonpool.com this tendency shows, for example, in some illustrations that are more in a ‘general’ African vein (here, here & here). And, of course, there are some cartoons that contrast “Africa’s hungry children” with the decadence that is the current football spectacle (here, here, here & here). African artist Damien Glez once told me that he would mind such generalizations. Still, I don’t feel comfortable with the way actual human suffering is thus turned into a cliché.
Cartoons of Interest
Regarding the problem mentioned above, I was happy to find “Fußball-Chance” by German artists Jünger & Schlanker. It effectively plays on the rhetoric of ritualized pity and creates and absurdly funny image. The caption reads “For many of them, football is the only way to escape their misery.”
The FIFA World Cup 2010 is up and running and so is toonpool.com’s own CARICUP 2010. This means we are finally going to tell you how this thing works. Here are the rules:
Caricup is an international caricature competition limited to caricatures of soccer/football players. Since sports is one of the few fields where nationalism can be fun for everyone, we decided to have only one contestant per country. Each country taking part in the competition will be represented by one caricature.
The subject of this caricature doesn’t need to be from the country it is ‘running for’. The artist, on the other hand, does. An example: this caricature of C. Ronaldo could be representing Hungary, since that’s where artist Tonio is from.
The players depicted do not necessarily have to take part in the World Cup. Franz Beckenbauer would be totally fine with us. We also decided that there can be several caricatures of the same player running for different countries. The competition is about the images after all, and not about the players. So, Hungarian C. Ronaldo could be battling French C. Ronaldo. Keep in mind, though, that people watching this competition might be bored by 30 C. Ronaldoes.
Stage One (June 11-22): Sign-Up Stage
During this stage, artists wishing to take part in the competition need to do two things:
- Add soccer caricatures to our “soccer portraits collection”. Add as many as you like, but only one of them can take part in the competition.
- Sign up in our forum (click here). If nobody else signs up for the same country, you will take part in the CARICUP with the picture you mentioned in your post (see example below). If other people sign up as well, there are two possible solutions: You may discuss the subject, consider all the pro’s and con’s, and finally decide who will be running. You could, for example, decide that artist x will let artist y represent their country if he only changes the picture from C. Ronaldo to Diego Maradona. If you haven’t decided on who will be running until June 22, we will randomly choose one contestant from the forum posts.
Stage Two (June 25-July 11): Knockout Stage
This is the actual competition. There will be “matches” between two caricatures and the winner will move on to the next level (see example below). In the end, there will be a “World Champion”.
The “matches” will be held on a special page accessible from toonpool.com’s main page. One match will take a fixed amount of time, during which people can vote for either team. The team with the most votes wins. We will announce the matches on the main page.
We have not figured out yet how long the individual “matches” will take, since we don’t know how many teams will be competing. If a lot of people sign up right away, we might have to shorten the sign-up stage – but we’ll definitely tell you in advance.
As we mentioned last week, there will be no material prizes and there are no other companies involved either. The three best artists will, however, receive virtual trophies which will be on display on toonpool.com. And, of course, the further you get in this competition, the more people will see your artwork. We are pretty sure that the 2010 Caricup will be a lot of fun for everyone involved, so.. Let’s go!
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The 2010 FIFA World Cup will begin on 11 June 2010 – from then on it’s four weeks of soccer, football, fußball, fútbol, voetbal, pêl-droed, or whatever it is in your language. Of course, toonpool.com will take part in the general hysteria.
On June 11 we will launch our own little world cup and you’re all invited to be a part of it. Starting today, we collect portraits and caricatures of soccer players in our “soccer portraits collection”. So, if you have drawn a soccer portrait – no matter if it’s a legendary player like Pelé, a current player like Lionel Messi or someone who didn’t quite make it to South Africa like Dynamo Moscow’s own Kevin Kuranyi – just become a member of the collection and add you work.
The actual competition will begin next Friday. That’s also when we’ll post further information about the rules and schedule. For now, you only need to know that we collect those portraits and that, in the end, there will be a toonpool.com World Champion. And a trophy.
We decided to make our own competition non-commercial. There are no other companies involved, no big money, and not even little money. It’s all about the competition and the fun – just like the real FIFA World Cup. Used to be. Some time. Probably.
Anyway.. there’ nothing to win except fame and the trophy and even those two are merely digital. But it will definitely be exciting and fun, so join the “soccer portraits collection” and keep them portraits coming!