Omar

For this new issue of Letter from… column, we asked toonpool artist Omar Momani about his life and begged for some photographs of his working place and the city he lives in right now, Amman. And if you ever travel there and you see a man wearing a giraffe as a scarf, he would probably be Omar. Read the interview below to find out why.

01. Which movie/tv character you see yourself as and why?
Well, I see and also many friends see me as Harry Callahan from the Diry Harry movies, because I don’t give a damn about what it is no worth to me in the world.

02. What was your New Year’s resolution?
To finish my first short animated movie, this means that I must finish it this year.

03. What bores you the most?
Routines and phony compliments, I also add chemistry cos i’ve never understand it

04. Do you like your place or would you like to live somewhere else?
I love cities that are on seashores (which is not Amman’s case)

05. What are you able to do that Superman can’t do?
For sure I can do a better disguise; it’s so obvious that Clark Kent is Superman!!!!

06. If you were sleep walking one night, where would you probably wake up the next day?
Probably I would wake up in the woods, next to an owl on a tree.

07. What would you wear to be kicked out from a black tie cocktail party?
I’ll just wear my underwear, and with a snickers

0

8. Tell me the biggest prank you did on a friend.
Once I told my friend that if he drinks water every day he would have the water pox, so person must 
drink a day and a day not, so my friend believed that, till he exposed that and everyone laughed on 
him, and sure he kicked my butt

.

09. How to ruin your vacation?
Sleeping all day and not doing anything, I really hate myself when I am in apathy.

10. If I gave you a giraffe, where would you hide it?
I will fold it and hide it in my closet as a new scarf.

11. What do you do when you see the glass half empty!
I will enjoy drinking the other half.

Credits to Nicoleta Ionescu for
talking with Omar Momani

Carolyn Hiler

Carolyn Hiler makes A Zillion Dollars Comics, and she has been a toonpool member since June 2011. Carolyn lives at 4400 feet in Mt Baldy, CA, a town of 300 people located in the Angeles National Forest, about an hour east of Los Angeles. When not cartooning, designing goofball products, or hiking with her two adorable mutts, she works in private practice as a psychotherapist and art therapist. A Zillion Dollars products are available at http://www.etsy.com/shop/AZillionDollars.

Which fictional character are you?
From the Wizard of Oz, I am the Wicked Witch of the West. I love monkeys, and the color black, and flying. I am also Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The vampires are the enemies of a creative life. I slay them all the time! When I’m feeling a little more pensive, I’m Kermit the Frog, always wondering about things like rainbows, and trying to write sweet memorable songs.

What’s in your refrigerator right now?
Leftovers from a big launch party I threw last weekend for these new tote bags I made. If you live within a 30 mile radius and are interested in some extra mozzarella, goat cheese, feta, romano cheese, tomatoes, peppers, basil, artichoke hearts, arugula, pizza dough from Trader Joes, tortilla chips, and other fixings for grilled pizzas, you should come on by with some tupperware.

What bores you the most?
The idea that life was better in the good old days. Anyone who has it all figured out. The Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.

What do you do when you see the glass half empty!
I paint the words “half empty” on a drinking glass.

Today you might feel one way, tomorrow another

Do you like your place or would you like to live somewhere else?
I love my place and I would also like to live somewhere else. Pros of living in Mt Baldy: Pristine mountain air, delicious tap water, creeks running by our house, view of the stars, total silence, and novelty snow. None of those things are available in nearby Los Angeles. Cons of living in Mt Baldy: No good restaurants, art stores, or easy access to my best pals. A significant amount of isolation. Pros of isolation: Extreme productivity. Cons of isolation: Insanity.

What are you able to do that Superman can’t do?
Couples therapy.

If you were sleep walking one night, where would you probably wake up the next day?
At the airport boarding a plane to New York, my city of origin, where I also live at this exact moment in a parallel universe.

What would you wear to be kicked out from a black tie cocktail party?
The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

Thinking up cartoons is hard work and takes time

Studio table with trusty pal

Tell me the biggest prank you did on a friend.
I seriously cannot think of any pranks I’ve ever done. I’m way too nice. I prefer to limit my mockery of other people to quiet,private endeavors such as cartooning.

How to ruin your vacation?
Bring along, an uptight, miserly, control freak. Or someone who thinks you are.

10. If I gave you a giraffe, where would you hide it?
First, I would talk to the giraffe and see if it really wanted to hide or if it wanted to be out in the open. We would go over the risks and benefits of hiding vs. exposure. I would talk about how vulnerable one feels when putting one’s giraffeness or one’s artwork out there every day, but how it’s actually worth it, because life is too short to spend too much time hiding or worrying about what other people think or trying to be something that you’re not, like not-a-giraffe. Then we would sing an inspirational song together about the freedom that comes from being oneself, and about how you can make fun of clichés and believe them at the same time. After that, the giraffe would probably prefer to embrace its giraffeness and risk going public. But because I’m such an incredibly accepting and respectful person, in case the giraffe still preferred to be hidden, I would stash it up on my roof, where the only creatures who would see it would be the mountain chickadees and the Search and Rescue workers in the helicopters flying overhead looking for lost hikers.

Credits to Nicoleta Ionescu for
talking with Carolyn Hiler

Aristotle Kallis

Interview with Greek Professor of Modern and Contemporary History Aristotle Kallis (41), living in the United Kingdom and teaching at the Lancaster University

toonpool.com: “Zorba the Greek“, written by Nikos Kazantzakis, is a very famous Greek novel and a treasure of world literature, of course also world-renowned as the film of the same name (1964) starring Anthony Quinn. In that story Zorba has to repair a collapsed mine in the Greek countryside. In order to do that, he goes downtown to purchase building material. But he goes to the dogs with a fast woman, with drinking, dancing and sleeping, and he blows all the money – even though he’s responsible for the country people who subsist on wages from working in the mine. Though he’s penniless, he doesn’t surrender: he constructs a ropeway to transport logs from a mountain above the mine, in order to use them as supporting pillars. His undaunted optimism is so likeable – but during the first test run, the ropeway implodes in a big noisy crash – a complete disaster. Aristotle, do you think: Yep, that’s Greece! Is it an early omen for the current situation of the country? The Greeks are in love with life as the story says, but – what the heck! – they never become discouraged by failures, catastrophes or death, and if they fail, they simply get up and start over. Is this the typical Greek mentality, or have the Greeks lost their characteristic optimism since becoming embedded in the euro zone?

Aristotle: You mention Zorba by Kazantzakis – one my favourite authors’ least favourite book. Generations of Greeks grew up with this image of the one who knows better, who does things in the most unorthodox manner, who tries and fails and tries again and fails better (one of my favourite quotes by Beckett!). The story is accurate in so many respects, not all of which are positive: the maverick, yes, full of love for life, ready to try the most extraordinary thing and fail but then get up as you say and try again; the person who follows a bizarre inner voice, the thrust of emotions, the exaggeration of language, the harshness of the Greek summer landscape. But there is a side to the stereotypical Zorba that’s far from flattering: the person who does not recognise rules and is willing to find excuses to bend them to their benefit; who defies reason and celebrates flight from rationality; who is convinced of their intelligence against all odds, even if reality crushes them; who thinks first and foremostly about themselves; who embrace exaggeration and tragedy even if this means that they themselves will be crushed in the end. But Zorba (and, let’s face it, most people know the cinematic rather than the literary hero) is of course a stereotype, a caricature with deliberately blown-up charisma and flaws. He is a penniless bon-viveur, a man of extreme passion and clouded judgement, a blinded individualist, a charming crook. He is the epitome of human contradiction.

The Greeks of 2012 are far less enamoured with life, even if they have not entirely lost their knack for enjoyment. Greeks today are confronted with a very tangible and debilitating reality – of lost jobs and reduced wages, of closed shops and wounded pride, of real insecurity and a sense of profound decadence. I travel to Greece every two or three months- and I saw a very real difference in the last year or so. People feel trapped, cornered, trashed, fooled – it does not matter if they really are any of these things; they believe they are, they think they are, and this is what matters to them. This is the kind of psychological state that allows false prophets to flourish and makes people willing to worship them temporarily.

Greeks also love pompous, pulsating rhetoric. They have an inflated collective ego – from history primarily but also from a sense of perseverance, against all odds. They are the archetypical proud, morally unassailable victims of a tragedy. They thrive on exaggerated rhetoric, on declarations of national bravado, on a kind of almost childish obstinacy when confronted with their own failings. An eternal teenager mentality if you wish, unwilling to heed the boring advice of their elders, convinced they know better, almost relieved from accountability that applies to everyone else. In this respect, Zorba is an eternal teenager too. His failings are romantic and likeable – but failings they are. Greeks today engage in finger pointing, in scapegoating, in unfiltered anger, indignation, and an extreme sense of reckoning that never includes their own responsibility.

Have they lost their sense of rationality and sanity? I don’t think so. It is just that in times of real crisis and tribulation human behaviour tends to become magnified. The virtues and the flaws, individual and above all collective. The veneer of ‘Europeanisation’ that at least three generations of Greeks tried to live up to has come undone, exposing deep insecurities about who Greeks are and who they wish to be. The sense of achievement that my generation experienced from EU membership and then joining the euro means far less to people in their 20s now. I do not fully blame them. For me and my friends, the euro meant a moment of symbolic triumph; for them it has become associated with crisis, lack of prospects, a harsh everyday reality, a lack of inspiring vision.

Zorba’s love of life and enthralling life philosophy contrast sharply with his flaws and failures. His beautiful language and thoughts are almost tragic when viewed against the backdrop of his maverick actions and misfortunes. For sure he is not afraid of failure or death; but this exposes a sense of unaccountability and moral superiority that are misplaced and misguiding. He is a tragic antihero, trapped in a hostile reality but unable to change it and unwilling to change in order to change it. He lives in his own rhetoric and relives drama in every waking moment. In the end, he fails and falls, with a lightness that is both endearing and devastating.

toonpool.com: Ancient Greece is regarded as the cradle of European democracy. The ancient Greeks were pioneers in politics, philosophy, arts, natural sciences, technology, and many other disciplines, and their achievements continue to influence peoples and nations all over the world. Does this fact still play a role today?

Aristotle: In the complex, volatile, vulnerable psyche of the modern Greek, it does, very much so; and it has become the ultimate psychological refuge when all other rational or semi-rational arguments have run out. Greeks believe that the world owes them – and this is a very interesting kind of analogy to use by a debt-ridden nation! There is a historical installment that others are constantly repaying to Greece; and there is a parallel with the past (of heroism, of obstinate refusal to accept reality, of fighting – and often losing – but with heart-breaking pride … think 300!) that the modern Greek will use to dismiss any attempt to remind them that the country is heading for a spectacular, devastating crash. My personal favourite is the ownership of the trademark ‘Europe’ – after all it was the Greek forefathers who imagined the story with the woman/cow and the besotted promiscuous father of the gods that gave us a foundation myth for a continent. Can there be Europe without Greece? Of course not, say many (in fact, probably a sizeable majority) of my compatriots, because it was the Greeks who over the centuries gave meaning to the very sense of European identity as a humanistic, democratic, refined civilisation.

Here is a bit of an alternative example – in the Eurovision song contest of 2012 the winning song was titled ‘Euphoria’. Now, this is a Greek word. When I was talking to some of my friends, I was shocked to find out that most of them thought that we (the Greeks) have a mission to inform the rest of the world (and the Swedes in particular, who won the contest) that they owe this word to us! Seriously. What does this (and other examples along the lines of a constant, impossible to repay debt of the world to the Greeks) illustrate? You have a nation that never really seriously bothered to redefine itself as a modern political and culture entity. Trapped between the proverbial east and west, wanting to belong to both and neither at the same time, Greeks lived in the past, basked in the glory of a long bygone era, and created the illusion of an entitlement – to respect, reverence, special treatment etc etc. In the discussions surrounding the drafting of the ill-fated European constitution last decade, Greeks were given numerous opportunities to feed this kind of illusion. This, incidentally, is the same illusion and rhetoric that brought Greece in the EC back in the late-1970s, when countries such as Germany and The Netherlands and Britain had serious reservations about the rationale behind the country’s entry: it made no sense economically, it was deeply unsettling in political terms (in 1979, when Greece’s membership was agreed, the country’s democracy was only five-years old!) – and yet, lead by the French, the notion that it was ‘impossible’ to have ‘Europe’ without Greece won the day; the Germans were convinced, and the rest is history. This rhetoric may not matter to many Europeans today (and rightly so, for the kind of challenges we are facing are not metaphysical or historical but very tangibly political and economic) but it is supremely important to the psychology of the modern Greeks. Remember how the Greek president reacted to the (rather crass, it has to be said) criticism by Wolfgang Schaeuble – he invoked the imagery of a wounded, diminished, inert but fiercely proud sleeping giant against the power of Europe’s ‘nouveau riche’ (the entire ‘western’ Europe) and used it to attack the attacker with a kind of emotional blackmail. So it is not just street philosophers and everyday people who are deeply embedded in this structure; politicians have no problem using it, whether because they believe it themselves or as a mechanism for boosting the morale of Greek society.

toonpool.com: Medical progress means that citizens of most Western societies are getting older, an effect which is supported by healthier eating. Starting in the 1960’s, Greek (and Italian) eating habits have revolutionized the cookery of the Western world. In Germany for example, gastronomy is unthinkable without Feta cheese, Tzatziki, olives and olive oil, garlic, Dolmadika, Choriatiki and many other Greek dishes. Do you think Mediterranean peoples, who are now in huge economic difficulties, have made other societies ready for the struggle for survival and for success in business – playing the role as perfect Southern nutritional advisers?

Aristotle: Maybe! But let us avoid the temptation to add this item to the long list of things that others owe to Greece! Incidentally, most of the dishes that you quote above have an Ottoman or Arabic provenance; they were defined during centuries of fascinating plural life in the Ottoman empire, where a true sense of ‘Balkan’ or ‘Ottoman’ culture did emerge. The Greek cuisine is a particular take on this kind of food and culture lifestyle. Ottoman does not of course mean ‘Turkish’; the latter was also part of it. It is ironic that politically Greece expended the last six decades denying this past while culturally continued to embrace it as its own. It is also equally ironic that it is dolmadakia and choriatiki salata that are the most immediate experiences of ‘greek-ness’ for many Europeans – much more so than philosophy, theatre, classical architecture etc!

toonpool.com: Germany has incited two world wars, and committed atrocities in Greece and other countries. After the crash it received generous support from the USA for a rapid recovery and a new prosperity. Ok, the USA had an agenda, but don’t you think it is a bizarre paradox that the Germans – represented by Angela Merkel, Wolfgang Schäube and some other German politicians, commercial experts and media – now are setting conditions and dictating to other countries in trouble? Are Greek fears of an upcoming “Fourth Reich” reasonable?

Aristotle: The imagery of a Fourth Reich is very strong in Greece – and it is part of the same Greek contemporary populism (of both left and right) that has meshed with the beliefs in an eternal debt by everyone to Greece for all the great things that ancient Greeks ‘gave’ to the world. Greek journalists have fed this monster and it is now almost uncontrollable. There is a new political party (Independent Greeks) that uses these kinds of metaphors all the time in its official discourse. Think also of another powerful discourse in Greece – reparations for the atrocities of the Nazis in the 1941-44 period. It is hard to shake off this stereotypical image, I am afraid. I have almost maintained that Germany has now found itself in a paradoxical position – and one that I believe never really wanted: it *has* to behave like the gigantic power that she really is; postwar Germany expended considerable efforts to disguise this newfound power; it behaved like the benevolent giant, shy and introverted, hesitant and overcautious, who always tried to pretend that it is far less powerful and important to the European process than it objectively was. Kohl excelled in this, when he was going around Europe trying to allay fears of a German resurgence post-1989 – and he framed German politics to that effect up until very recently. Now, Germany has been forced to confront its own power and assumed responsibility vis-a-vis the European project. The Merkel government gave voice to a mentality and attitude (shared silently by many Germans, including new generations) that Germany does not need to feel guilt for its contemporary power. The taboo is broken – see the recent book by Sarrazin about Germany leaving the euro because it is fed up of picking up the tab for others. If I were to extend the same analogy that I used for Greeks earlier (that of an unruly teenager), then Germany acts like the reluctant prudent parent; reluctant because in the past s/he used this power in a rather authoritarian manner but post-1945 was forced to take the back seat and watch numerous European ‘teenagers’ go about their business in unorthodox, quirky ways. Germany now pays the price for its spectacular success and prudence – and it is this position, as the undisputed powerhouse of contemporary Europe, that forces Germany to be more assertive in the context of the current crisis. In this new role, Germany is very much doomed – it will be loaded with all sorts of stereotypes about Bismarck and Hitler, about 1914 and 1939. It is very common in Greece to see Schaeuble presented in cartoons as a tank – and I know that this kind of populist, essentially insulting discourse is replicating itself in other countries too. Merkel has started shattering the taboo of German power in contemporary, euro-defined Europe – if the country is a giant, if it is the key to the success or rescue of the eurozone and the only prospect of kickstarting the economic fusion that leads to growth, then it has to act as one, it has to stop pretending that it should not and cannot. This kind of attitude will not go down well but there are few other alternatives.

The ‘Fourth Reich’ analogy is of course a hideous stereotype, steeped in prejudices and cliches about the past. It is also an idiotic argument that reduces a complex contemporary political and economic reality to a kind of mechanistic pattern of ‘history repeating’ – which of course it never does. But there is an element of universal truth in all this discourse: power translates itself in influence, responsibility, and hegemony, and disproportionate power does so disproportionately. Think of the USA in the post-1989 world; it is impossible to disguise this power and it is impossible to resist the temptation to wield it. In many ways, Germany’s attitude in the past two decades was the exception to this universal rule: there is probably no other example of such a mismatch between (real) power and refusal to wield it (in fear that others may invoke the imagery of WW2). What is happening now is a less palatable but more accurate correspondence between actual power and political behaviour. It was inevitable that Germany would be asked (or tempted) to assert this authority in the EU; it would have been better had this been done at a time of relative calm and growth but it had to happen in the midst of a debilitating economic crisis and social upheaval.

toonpool.com: Aristotle Onassis married the widow of a man who once said: Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country. Could that idea become an inspiration for Greece? And have rich men like Onassis done enough for their country?

Aristotle: Modern Greeks have grown up with a schizophrenic attitude to the Greek state and their country. On the one hand, they are in love with its stereotypical image of a slightly faded superpower of the past, a cultural giant that is falling apart but still maintains a large part of its veneer and commands the loyalties of others. On the other hand, they are deeply distrustful vis-a-vis the state, which they consider corrupt, inefficient, unsuitable etc. It is very difficult to convince Greeks today (as it was in the past) to accept a kind of collective, civic responsibility towards the state. Think of the attitude of Greeks to taxes: the way in which many Greeks evade taxation is a kind of bravado, an act of insubordination against an allegedly corrupt Greek state that they loathe. Think of their attitude to everyday corruption: laws are there to be disregarded because at the end of the day Greeks are fiercely individualistic, in a way that makes the notion of social responsibility a very vague concept to them. Generations of Greeks grew up with a sense of individual entitlement that did not include any sense of civic duty to the state and their country – the same ‘country’ that they putatively love and use emotively in their everyday language. This is a very comfortable, if bizarre and schizophrenic rationalisation: if the state is corrupt and inefficient, then people can individually benefit from a low-level corruption (anything from asking your friends in the police to cancel your fines for breaking the speed limit to bribing the urban planning office in order to bend regulations about your newly built house, etc) while at the same time castigate that same state for corruption and inefficiency to the point that their conveniently refuse to accept responsibility for it. When JFK was appealing to a well-embedded sense of emotional and constitutional patriotism among the Americans (a notion that remains very powerful even today), a Greek politician asking the same (as some have done…) will invoke the derision of his/her audience: who is he, the corrupt and discredited politician who is asking us for sacrifices? It is as if ‘the state’ is a kind of hostile estate of the politicians, the bankers, the proverbial rich, the global capitalists etc. etc. that has nothing to do with everyday Greek people. There is ‘a country’ out there that everyone vows that they love and respect; and ‘a state’ that is some kind of dictatorship ‘of others’ ruling this ‘country’, a dictatorship that deserves only derision and definitely no element of commitment from the Greek people. Unfortunately, this is a collective stance that has become even more powerful in the post-2008 period; the movement of the ‘indignant’ in Greece allowed many to scapegoat ‘the state’ as the only responsible for economic and social collapse.

Have rich people done enough? They never do – not only in Greece but in other countries too. Greece has a disproportionate share of very rich people – from shipowners who have taken their businesses abroad (not now; this has happened since the 1970s/1980s) to others with well-above-average income who have expended considerable energies in avoiding taxation and contributing as little as possible to the social welfare of the state. Some super-rich Greeks (Onassis is one; other shipowners and aristocrats too) have indeed contributed significant amounts of money to the Greek state – usually posthumously, it has to be added. I think that we should not just expect those very few people to solve the problem; it would have been nice but it will not happen – and probably cannot happen anyway. The problem remains, however – can contemporary Greece at last manage to devise a fair, transparent system of taxation for all its citizens, close loopholes, fight inefficiency and corruption, and thus allow the Greek state to claim that it is distributing the weight of contribution equitably across Greek society? I believe that a new kind of collective civic responsibility is what is sorely missed in Greece – and the economic crisis has strengthened the tendency towards a fiercely atomised and individualist society.

toonpool.com: Which Greece will the world see in five years?

Aristotle: Any prediction would be an exercise in science fiction. Could anyone have imagined the situation today five years ago (2007)? Absolutely not. I think that in five years time Greece will be a better place than it is today – not necessarily economically stronger or more prosperous (although I hope this is the case…) but more balanced, more aware of its position and shortcomings and fundamental flaws; more aware of its new position (even if it is a new, diminished position); more at ease with its new status (even if it is a status of a pariah or a second-tier European country). It is quite likely that the Greece of 2017 is a country outside a common European currency – or at least sharing the same currency with Germany. I fear that the coming year is the absolutely crucial test for Greece and Europe as a whole. The medium-term trajectory of the country will be largely decided in the coming twelve months or so.
I will evade a direct answer by sketching two scenarios. The good scenario is a Greece that has (or is about to do) hit rock-bottom before starting its difficult oath to some kind of recovery. It will be a country that discovers a new sense of position in Europe and is willing, after the trials of the past four years, to make the requisite sacrifices to be there, to restore its prestige and respect, to do things right in order to stop giving reasons to others to agonise about it (and give them reasons to intervene in the running of its everyday business). It will be a country with a new political class that will emerge from the ashes of the current wreck; with a new sense of patriotism derived from the same dreams of ‘Europeanisation’ and ‘modernisation’ that fuelled it in the 1970s and 1990s. It will be a Greece that is democratic and open to challenges, cooperative and at ease with its more diminished role, European but also proud of its complex history, welcoming to difference and open to hybrid identities of the future. It will be a Greece that, to use one of my favourite phrases by the former prime minister Konstantinos Simitis, will stop feeding itself with illusions of past greatness and look confidently to the future. This is a Greece that I could feel part of.

Then there is another Greece. It is the Greece of unfiltered populism – against immigrants, ‘Europeans’, ‘capitalists’ etc – and evasion of responsibility. It is the Greece that sleepwalks towards the abyss with tragic but infuriating abandon. It is the Greece of nationalism and racism, of indignation as an escape from reality and individual or collective responsibility. This Greece has no future to speak of. I cannot even begin to think what this country will look like in 2017: out of the euro, disoriented, with a society in a state of civil war, with a disorienting cultural pessimism, the kind of country that makes news for all the wrong reasons and the closest that an erstwhile ‘European country’ can come to a ‘failed state’. It is also a Greece of huge social problems – of poverty and degradation, of rapidly falling living standards, of criminality and racist attacks against immigrants, of populist parties commanding the support of many Greeks. It is a country without a future. This Greece means very little (if anything at all) to me – and I hope I will never have to confront it more than I do at the moment, when some of these forces are very much at play. Greece needs all the help she can get right now. Not just in economic terms but also in terms of shielding it from the latter kind of future.

Photos ©Aristotle Kallis

Her beautiful illustrations stand out because of the particularly stylish artistic view, full of mystery and wonderful chromatics! Check them out on Queenio’s Toonpool gallery!

Touch

01. Which fictional character are you?
The girl who chased a rabbit in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, I even can’t take my eyes off the rabbits and I get lost easily.
 
02. What’s in your refrigerator right now?
I have Green tea Chocolate, Coconut Chocolate and Black Chocolate. I bought them from   Malaysia.
 
03. What bothers you the most?
In the summer: I hate the mosquitoes. Hummm, and I always lose something when I need it and I waste a lot of time to find it….. and……
 
04. Do you like your place or would you like to live somewhere else?
I lived in New Zealand for 1.5 years. Now I am on the way to go back China. I like both New Zealand and China, but I will keep moving until I find out where is the best place for me that I would like to settle down in.
 
05. What are you able to do that Superman can’t do?
Well, all the things only for female I guess.
 
06. If you were sleep walking one night, where would you probably wake up the next day?
Swimming pool or airport.
 
07. What would you wear to be kicked out from a black tie cocktail party
Swim suit
 
08. Tell me the biggest prank you did on a friend.
My cousins and I made some weird dumplings for the Chinese New Year party filled with salt, pepper, strawberry leafs, sugar… … and mixed them with normal dumplings on the plate….
 
09. How to ruin your vacation?
You can ruin it by closing my bank account.
 
10. If I gave you a giraffe, where would you hide it?
I would paint it into pure white and leave it in the park as a moving-sculpture.
 

11. What do you do when you see the glass half empty!
It depends on what is in it.

Credits to Nicoleta Ionescu for
talking with Queenio

For this new issue of “Letter from” column, we asked toonpool artist Kim Maxine Frost about her life and begged for some photographs of her working place and the place she lives in – Seattle, also known as “the The Emerald City”. Kim (Frostyhut) joined toonpool on July, 2009 and she wishes to double her toonpool gallery by the end of the year. Kim works as a radio announcer at Classical KING FM 98.1 (have you seen her classical music inspired cartoons?).We are also proud that Kim writes for us, so we invite you to read her great review-interviews on toonpool’s blog!

Kim

01. Which movie/tv character you see yourself as
and why?

I am totally Lynn Redgrave in Georgy Girl. She’s awkward and kooky, but it all works out. And she gets to meet James Mason! She dislikes him in the film, but he’s the best thing in it.

02. What are your New Year’s resolutions?

To get 200 drawings posted to toonpool.com. And now (gulp), I guess I really have to!

03. What bores you the most?

In the past, the most boring thing was that my work life and my creative life were split up. That’s changing though. My job just commissioned some drawings, which is nice.  For the first time it’s all starting to blend together.

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

Yes, I’ve never traveled. I love Seattle, but I fantasize about being somewhere warmer. Or just different. The radio station where I work airs a piece called Nights in the Gardens of Spain by Manuel de Falla. Every time I hear it, I want to go there.

05. What are you able to do that Superman can’t do?

Draw Superman? That reminds me – a couple of years ago I heard German pianist Bernd Glemser when he toured the States. He inspired me to create a character called Bernd von Mimzer, a concert pianist with superpowers. He had nipples that could shoot deadly flames. I drew about sixty pages of the comic, and then I got a full time job. I need to carve out the time to get back to Bernd. I miss him!

06. If you were sleep walking one night, where would you probably wake up the next day?

Well I’m obsessed with accessories, so my unconscious mind would probably take me to some shop filled with shoes and handbags. I’d love to wake up inside a Hermès store!

07. What would you wear to be kicked out from a black tie cocktail party

In Seattle, it’s hard to shock because anything goes. I’ve seen kilts at the symphony, jorts (jean shorts) at the ballet. I’d probably try incongruity in the same outfit – a bikini with combat boots, maybe!

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

I can’t think of a prank I pulled on someone else, but I remember a trick someone played on me. At an office Christmas party that was held at a nice hotel, one of my co-workers grabbed some silverware from a table setting and stuck it in my purse. I walked around all night with this silverware sticking out of my bag, and nobody told me! That’s the part I still can’t believe!

09. How to ruin your vacation?

Hot tubs have never worked out for me on vacations. Either there’s no heat, or the jets aren’t working, or both – and then you find yourself sitting in a big tub of tepid bacteria. The bacteria should at least be, you know, moving around.

10. If I gave you a giraffe, where would you hide it?

That reminds me of a line from one of Donald Barthelme’s surreal short stories: “And the giraffe’s on fire in the kitchen, but you don’t care!” Good question. I’d try to recreate the giraffe’s natural habitat, and paint the entire area to look like a jungle. Maybe do one part of it in a giraffe pattern, so the giraffe could just blend in with the background when it wanted to.

11. What do you do when you see the glass half empty!

When the glass is half empty and I start to feel down, I just buy stuff. I love pens. Right now my favorite is the Dr. Grip gel pen by Pilot. I don’t draw with it, I just make tons of lists (that I instantly lose). But I love those pens. I have them in a bunch of colors – pink, purple, emerald green. I go online and buy refills for my pens, and I feel much better.

Credits to Nicoleta Ionescu for
talking with Kim Maxine Frost

English version see below.

toonpool.com: Herr Diekmann, kürzlich hat das Bild „Der Schrei“ von Edvard Munch für knapp 120 Millionen Dollar den Besitzer gewechselt. Sie selbst haben Karikaturen-Originale von toonpool.com-Künstlern angekauft. Setzen Sie in Zeiten der Euro-Krise persönlich auf Sachwerte?

Kai Diekmann: Selbstverständlich! Ich investiere schon immer mit Vorliebe in Sachwerte. Im Ernst: Ich war im Zusammenhang mit der Affäre um Christian Wulff überrascht und beeindruckt von den vielen kreativen Ideen der Karikaturisten. Häufig haben die Künstler in ihren Zeichnungen die Situation noch besser und eindrücklicher erfasst als manche politische Journalisten in ihren Texten. Das morgendliche Zeitunglesen hat mich oft zum Lachen gebracht. Und so entstand die Idee, die Karikaturen im Original zu kaufen, die sich mit BILD und Christian Wulff befasst haben, insbesondere auch mit seinem Anruf auf meiner Mailbox. Und inzwischen habe ich eine private Sammlung von über 25 Karikaturen – als Erinnerung an diese aufregenden Wochen.

toonpool.com: Karikaturen können den Karikierten verletzen. Früher wurden Künstler deswegen von den abgebildeten Mächtigen verhaftet oder verklagt (z.B. von Franz-Josef Strauß), was in einigen Ländern auch heute noch vorkommen kann. Müssen Politikerinnen und Politiker demgegenüber heute nicht froh sein, wenn sie Gegenstand von – auch sehr spöttischen – Karikaturen sind, weil sie andernfalls an Präsenz und Wichtigkeit verlieren?

Kai Diekmann: Es ist sicherlich auch ein Zeichen von Bedeutsamkeit, wenn Politiker in Karikaturen dargestellt werden. Die Künstler beschäftigen sich ja in den Zeichnungen mit den Themen, über die die Menschen sprechen, die die Menschen im Land interessieren. Und Themensetzung ist für die Politik wichtig. Sicherlich werden manche Politiker mitunter auch nicht glücklich sein, wenn sie karikiert werden – manchmal kann es auch hart sein, der Wahrheit und Wirklichkeit, wie Karikaturisten sie sehen, zu begegnen. Mich in jedem Fall faszinieren Karikaturen: Als leidenschaftlicher Zeitungsleser erkenne ich häufig den Strich eines Karikaturisten – vor allen Dingen von den Künstlern, die ich schätze und von denen ich eine besondere, kreative Botschaft erwarte. Leider müssen aber in manchen Ländern Karikaturisten nicht nur Probleme fürchten, in einigen Ländern werden Karikaturisten regelrecht bedroht, wenn Sie beispielsweise an die berühmten Mohammed-Karikaturen von Kurt Westergaard denken. Er erlebte nicht nur eine theoretische Drohung, er ist tatsächlich nur knapp einem Mordanschlag entkommen. Daher fand ich es so wichtig, dass Kurt Westergaard vor zwei Jahren im Rahmen der Medienkonferenz M100 in Potsdam von der Bundeskanzlerin und Joachim Gauck, der damals noch nicht Bundespräsident war, mit dem M100 Medien Preis ausgezeichnet wurde. Das war ein sehr richtiges und mutiges Zeichen

toonpool.com: Als gezeichneter Kommentar steht die Karikatur oft plakativ als Eyecatcher und Seitenaufmacher auf einer Meinungsseite. Haben die Zeichnerinnen und Zeichner damit mehr direkten Einfluss auf das Publikum als die schreibenden Kollegen, zugleich aber daher auch eine höhere Verantwortung?

Kai Diekmann: Ich weiß nicht, ob die Verantwortung höher ist oder der Einfluss größer – Karikaturen haben aber auf jeden Fall eine schnellere Wirkung auf den Betrachter. Über ein Bild oder eine Zeichnung ist eine Botschaft einfacher zu übermitteln als das durch einen Text möglich ist. Meine Zeitung heißt ja aus gutem Grund nicht „Text“ oder „Schlagzeile“, sondern „Bild“ – weil sich der Erfinder, der Verleger Axel Springer, etwas dabei gedacht hat. „Bild“ sollte die gedruckte Antwort auf das Fernsehen sein, Informationen einfacher zugänglich machen und mehr Menschen zum Zeitunglesen animieren. Das menschliche Gehirn ist für Buchstaben weniger empfänglich als für Bilder, Fotos oder Zeichnungen. Eine gute Karikatur macht einfach Spaß, zaubert ein Lächeln ins Gesicht und pflanzt einen Gedanken in das Gehirn der Betrachter. Und eine gute Karikatur funktioniert im Zweifelsfall auch ohne Bildunterschrift. Getreu dem Motto „Ein Bild sagt mehr als tausend Worte“ finde ich Karikaturen mitunter auch hintergründiger und noch mehr auf den Punkt als ein Text, weil natürlich auch ein emotionaler Aspekt hinzukommt.

toonpool.com: Bei Karikaturen und Cartoons ist der Übergang vom Journalismus zur unterhaltenden und ernsthaften Kunst fließend, zugleich verändert sich die Medienwelt rasant. Sind Karikaturen ein klassisches Old School-Element des Print-Bereichs, oder haben sie auch in anderen Medien eine fortlaufende Zukunft als wichtige Zeitdokumente?

Kai Diekmann: Ganz bestimmt haben Karikaturen eine Zukunft. Ihr erfolgreiches Portal zeigt ja, dass auch in der digitalen Welt der Bedarf nicht geringer, sondern größer wird. Am Ende interessieren sich die Leser für Inhalte und nicht für den Vertriebsweg. Ich sage meinen Kollegen immer: Wir sind keine Papierhändler, wir sind Journalisten, wir erstellen Inhalte. Auf welchem Weg wir unsere Konsumenten erreichen – ob auf gedrucktem Papier, im Internet oder auf dem Handy – ist letztlich zweitrangig. Bilder sind kompatibel für jedes Medium. Gerade in Zeiten des Informationsüberflusses spielen Bilder eine große Rolle – egal ob Fotos, Comics oder Karikaturen und unabhängig ob in der Zeitung oder Online. Viele Bilder wirken auf einer digitalen Oberfläche anders als auf gedrucktem Papier und darin bieten sich für die Zeichner große neue Chancen. Online oder auf dem Tablet und dem Smart-Phone kann ich die Karikatur, das Bild vergrößern und weitere Details entdecken. Ich liebe allerdings auch Papier. Eine Karikatur mit einem besonderen Strich auf Karton gescribbelt hat etwas Wunderschönes – deshalb habe ich die Originale ja auch erstanden.

toonpool.com: Es gibt Karikaturen, die sind inhaltlich sehr schnell verbrannt, nach wenigen Wochen weiß kaum noch jemand, worum es ging. Es gibt aber auch Zeichnungen, die stehen für den Zeitgeist einer Ära, sie werden zu Zeitdokumenten…

Kai Diekmann: Natürlich! Ich glaube, alle Karikaturen, die Sie hier vor sich sehen, sind Zeitdokumente – unabhängig davon, ob sie digitaler Herkunft oder direkt gezeichnet sind. Karikaturen behandeln ja per Definition ein Sujet, das – zumindest für den Moment – im kollektiven Gedächtnis ist. Und der Rücktritt eines Bundespräsidenten, vor allem mit den Ereignissen und Diskussionen im Vorfeld, bleibt sicherlich vielen Menschen noch lange im Gedächtnis.

toonpool.com: Und das liegt natürlich auch an der Wichtigkeit der Person…

Kai Diekmann: …und an der Wichtigkeit des Ereignisses, bei Karikaturen sind das meist politische Ereignisse. Mich wundert manchmal, dass sich die Karikatur in ihrer Mehrzahl fast ausschließlich mit Politik beschäftigt. Dabei gibt es doch so viele andere Bereiche und Personen, die eine Rolle spielen. Ich könnte mir beispielsweise auch Karikaturen zu Show-Größen wie Thomas Gottschalk oder Dieter Bohlen vorstellen. Aber die findet man – wenn überhaupt – nur ganz, ganz selten.

toonpool.com: Haben Sie selbst schon einmal eine Karikatur gezeichnet oder es versucht?

Kai Diekmann: Ja, als Schüler. Das ist grauenhaft in die Hose gegangen. Ich habe ein großes Faible für Kunst in allen Darstellungsformen: Malerei, Skulpturen, Fotografie – oder eben auch gute Karikaturen. Ich habe früher leidenschaftlich gern selbst fotografiert und als Schüler auch Fotowettbewerbe gewonnen. Und das Entwickeln von Filmen und Abzügen in Schwarzweiß hat mir riesigen Spaß gemacht. Aber was das Zeichnen angeht, bin ich – leider – völlig unbegabt. Wahrscheinlich kommt daher auch meine Bewunderung für die Kunst anderer.

toonpool.com: Von welchen Politikern haben Sie die Einschätzung, dass sie besonders viel Humor (und auch die Fähigkeit zur Selbstironie) haben?

Kai Diekmann: Da gibt es viele, parteiübergreifend: Angela Merkel, Gregor Gysi, Gerhard Schröder, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg fallen mir ganz spontan ein. Sie können wunderbar über sich selbst lachen. Mit seinem Humor könnte Rainer Brüderle – wenn er mal aufhört, Politik zu machen – eine eigene Talk-Show ins Leben rufen oder als Kabarettist auftreten. Unsere Politiker haben durchaus Humor, das haben sie oft bewiesen. Denken Sie nur an den Orden wider den tierischen Ernst oder den unzähligen Faschings- und Karnevalsveranstaltungen, in denen eben genau die Politiker, die im Publikum applaudieren, durch den Kakao gezogen werden. Ich bin der Meinung: Ein gutes Maß an Selbstironie ist wichtig – nicht nur für Politiker. Das ist das Schöne an Karikaturen: Karikaturen machen Spaß und transportieren dennoch Kritik – auf eine feine, künstlerische Art und Weise.

Bernd Pohlenz (toonpool.com) und Kai Diekmann

Mehr Wulff-Cartoons hier

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Interview with Kai Diekmann, editor in chief of „BILD“,
Germany’s No.1 newspaper in circulation and reach,
who has purchased original cartoons by artists
of toonpool.com…

(Diekmann and his mobile phone played key roles in the affair surrounding Christian Wulff, Federal President of Germany, who finally had to resign in February 2012. As an encroachment on press freedom, Wulff had tried to prevent the coverage concerning charges of nepotism).

toonpool.com: Mr. Diekmann, the painting ‚The Scream’ by Edvard Munch was recently auctioned for almost 120 million dollars. You yourself purchased original cartoons by artists of toonpool.com. Do you personally rely on material assets in times of the Euro crisis?

Kai Diekmann: Of course I do! I have always taken great delight in investing in material assets. No kidding: I was surprised at the cartoonists’ copious amounts of creative ideas regarding the affair surrounding Christian Wulff. Quite often I noticed that some cartoonist conveyed the situation more precisely and better with his drawings than some political journalist with his/her op-ed article. Reading the paper each morning often made me laugh. And that’s when the idea occurred to me to purchase the original cartoons dealing with BILD and Christian Wulff and especially his phone call on my voicemail. And by now, I have acquired a private collection of more than 25 cartoons – in memory of these exciting weeks.

toonpool.com: Cartoons can insult the person that is caricatured. In the past, artists were arrested or sued for this very reason by some of the depicted powerful people. And even today things like that still happen in some countries. However, shouldn’t politicians be glad and flattered when they are chosen as the subject of a cartoon– even if it’s very scornful – because otherwise they would lose presence and significance?

Kai Diekmann: It’s certainly a sign of importance when politicians are depicted in cartoons. In their drawings the artists clearly are working to portray the subjects people are talking about and are interested in nationwide. And determination of subjects is important to politics. Some politicians might dislike it when they become the subject of a cartoon – at times it even can be hard to face the truth and reality interpreted by cartoonists. I for one am truly fascinated by cartoons: as an avid reader of newspapers, I often recognize the drawing technique of a cartoonist – especially if it is an artist I really appreciate, someone I expect a special and creative message from. Unfortunately, cartoonists in some countries are not only faced with problems, but are downright threatened – think about Kurt Westergaard (Danish cartoonist/editor’s note) and his caricatures of Muhammad. What happened to Kurt Westergaard was not just a theoretical threat on his life – in reality, he just narrowly escaped an assassination. That’s why I was positively impressed and deemed it right that, two years ago, German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel honored Kurt Westergaard with the M100 Media Award at the M100 Media Conference in Potsdam, in attendance of Joachim Gauck (current Federal President of Germany and successor of Christian Wulff). An example had been set – a right and brave one.

toonpool.com: As a visual comment, a cartoon is often placed conspicuously as an eye catcher in the op-ed section of a paper. Does this mean that the artists have more direct impact (and therefore also more responsibility) on the audience compared to their writing colleagues?

Kai Diekmann: I don’t know whether the responsibility is higher or the influence larger – but it is certain that cartoons have a faster impact on the viewers. It’s easier to convey a message by using an image or a drawing than by using a text. My paper is called ‚BILD’ (image) and not ‚Text’ or ‚Headline’ for a very good reason – because its founder, publisher Axel Springer, had a precise idea concerning this. ‚Bild’ was intended to be the printed response to television, making information more accessible and enticing more people to read newspapers. The human brain is less receptive to letters than to pictures, photos or drawings. A good cartoon is simply fun, it leaves a smile on one’s face and plants an idea in the viewer’s mind. And a good cartoon even works without a caption. True to the motto ‚A picture is worth a thousand words’, I think cartoons are at times more profound and to the point than a text and of course joined by an emotional aspect.

toonpool.com: With caricatures and cartoons, the transition from journalism to entertaining and serious art is fluent, at the same time media world changes rapidly. Are cartoons a classic old-school element of print media, or do they also have a future in other media sections as important contemporary documents?

Kai Diekmann: Cartoons will most certainly have a future. Your successful internet portal is indeed demonstrating that even in the digital world demand is not going down but increasing. At the end of the day, readers are interested in contents and not in channels of distribution. I keep telling my staff: we are not paper merchants, we are journalists, we create contents. The way to capture our consumers – might it be on printed paper, in the internet or on mobile phone – is remaining secondary in the end. Images are compatible for every medium. Images are playing a central role, even more so in times of information overload – wether photos, comics or cartoons are concerned and regardless if on paper or online. Many images appear different on a digital display compared to printed paper – a fact which is providing great new opportunities for the artists. Online or on the tablet PC and on smart phone, I can enlarge a cartoon and discover more details. However, I love paper, too. A cartoon scribbled on paper with a unique drawing technique is really wonderful – that’s exactly why I acquired the originals.

toonpool.com: Some cartoons are quickly exhausted contentwise after a few weeks have elapsed, no one seems to remember what they were all about. But yet there are drawings that reflect the spirit of an era – they become contemporary documents…

Kai Diekmann: Positively! I believe all caricatures we see here are contemporary documents – regardless of whether they are of digital origin or directly hand-drawn. According to the definition, cartoons are covering a subject, which is – at least for a moment – remaining in collective memory. And the resignation of a Federal President is certain to be remembered for a long time by many people, especially with regard to the events and discussions leading to this decision.

toonpool.com: And that of course is also owing to the importance of a person…

Kai Diekmann: …and because of the significance of the event – taking into account that cartoons are most often dealing with political events. Sometimes I am surprised that the majority of cartoons almost exclusively deals with political subjects. On the other hand, there are so many other ambits and personalities which play a central role. For instance, I could well imagine caricatures about show legends like Thomas Gottschalk or Dieter Bohlen (German TV entertainers/editor’s note). But these kind of caricatures are very, very scarce.

toonpool.com: Did you ever draw or try to draw a cartoon yourself?

Kai Diekmann: Yes, in my school days but it went awfully bad. I have a huge passion for all kinds of art in all forms of expression: paintings, sculptures, photography – or good cartoons as well. I used to be a passionate photographer myself and even have won photography contests in my school days. And I really enjoyed developing black and white pictures. But speaking of drawing, I am – unfortunately – completely talentless. That’s also probably the reason why I admire the art of others.

toonpool.com: Which politicians do you think have a good sense of humor (and ability of self-irony)?

Kai Diekmann: There are so many, regardless of their parties: Angela Merkel (Federal Chancellor of Germany), Gregor Gysi (politician of left-wing party „Die Linke“), Gerhard Schröder (former German Federal Chancellor), Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (former German Secretary of Defense) come to my mind spontaneously. They can easily laugh at themselves. Because of his good sense of humor, Rainer Brüderle (parliamentary party leader of party FDP) could create his own talk show or establish himself as a cabaret artist in case he will ever decide to quit his political career. Our politicians do have a sense of humor and have often proved so. For example take the countless carnival festivities where the applauding politicians in the audience are mocked. I am of the opinion: a healthy dose of self-irony is important – not only for politicians. That’s the beautiful thing about cartoons: cartoons are fun and yet, they convey criticism – in a fine and artistic way.

Das Interview führte: Bernd Pohlenz (toonpool.com)
Fotos: ©Christian Spreitz

The Adda river nearby

01. Which movie/tv character you see yourself as and why?
There is a TV show, “Scrubs”, where the protagonist tends to imagine unreal situations to distract himself from reality. Sometimes I distract my attention from reality like that.

02. What was your New Year’s resolution?
I’m on a course for a new total different work..I hope to be promoted!

03. What bores you the most?
Listening to stupid politicians it’s what bores me the most. Berlusconi was the worst of all. But there are more… Monti and company aren’t different.

04. Do you like your place or would you like to live somewhere else?
I live in a small village in the countryside, a perfect place for children to grow “into the wild”, but I personally hope to move to a place just in front of the sea, somewhere, someday.

05. What are you able to do that Superman can’t do?
Superman can’t give people the intelligence to make this world the paradise that could be.

06. If you were sleep walking one night, where would you probably wake up the next day?
On a train…

07. What would you wear to be kicked out from a black tie cocktail party
No idea..perhaps a black sensual dress with tennis shoes

08. Tell me the biggest prank you did on a friend.
Usually the victim…is me! Maybe because I’m too ingenuous!

09. How to ruin your vacation?
Vacation…what does vacation mean?

10. If I gave you a giraffe, where would you hide it?
I would hide it among other giraffes.

11. What do you do when you see the glass half empty!
I go in front of the mirror and give a speech for the half full part!

More photos. Please click them to enlarge.

Credits to Nicoleta Ionescu for
talking with Cristina Bernazzani

toonpool.com artist Gerardo Llobet’s vision is so deeply held that he can’t draw a line without revealing it. His life-affirming spin on the world is encoded in the DNA of his cartoons. The humor and excitement, hubbub and catastrophe of social life his is subject, in his exquisitely realized bar scenes, street scenes, and beach scenes.

"Titus"

The flow of Gerardo’s breezy, fluid lines creates an almost audible buzz, particularly in his crowd scenarios. In Titus, gesture drawing reaches high art in this bar scene full of life, movement and character. A style like this one requires a dead-on technique. It looks effortless, but of course it isn’t. The ability to draw with this kind of freedom is the result of total self-assurance, technically and expressively. The organic curve is pre-eminent in Gerardo’s work. There are almost no straight lines, and where they exist, they show incredible variation – the same line can begin with a thick dark stroke, and end with a feathery, quivering edge.

Gerardo’s people are a true delight. The bodies and faces of his hilarious characters, their popping eyes and ecstatic grinning faces, their screwed-up foreheads and black-browed frowns, reveal every emotion. We do more than see these people – we know them on sight.
Their personalities bloom directly out of the gestural lines of their bodies, in an ideal fusion of form and character.

"Primadonna1"

In Gerardo’s cartoon portrait Primadona 1, we meet a blonde woman in mid-stride, naked except for the strip of her teal-blue swimsuit bottoms. She’s a squat, confident figure in motion, composed of layers. The heavy-lidded eyes surmount a gigantic potato-shaped nose, and the nose juts out from between the huge breasts. These breasts seem to be the Primadona’s real eyes – two ferocious organs that size up the landscape with piercing pink pupils. She’s balanced on her short right leg, while the other foot stabs the air with ecstatic toes, and waves at us like a hand. Her real hand and arm are flung outward like a tasseled cord. Though her face is submerged, we know she’s a beauty. What does she want, a sunnier spot on the beach? A hot dog swathed in mustard? A new man? Whatever it is, this Primadona has an intensely appealing quality. The tenderness of this portrait is characteristic of Gerardo’s affectionate depictions of his characters, male and female.

Here’s my recent interview with Gerardo

What inspires you the most?
The full moon, a little…and seeing the work of great artists.

When did you first become obsessed with bars?
This is how I get beer! I worked in a bar with my parents in my youth.

Which artists did you admire when you were younger?
Moebius, R. Crumb, Edika, Franquin…and lots more!

How do you get your amazing loose and fluid line?
I developed this technique to make quick notes while taking orders at the bar.

I’m interested in how you’ve combined pen and ink with digital – do you draw first, and then color?
I work on parts of drawings with china ink and watercolor, and I also do ballpoint sketches.
I scan them, and then use the magnetic loop. With the magic wand I select areas in which I use gradients, brushes, filters, and the clone stamp to get the same tone as watercolors.

How often do you draw from life, with something in front of you?
At all times I observe the girls around me. The rest is all imagination.

Are women’s boobs bigger in Spain?
Everything is bigger in Spain!

What would you say your philosophy of life is, if you have one?
Pursue gurus!

Please click on the images to enlarge.
The interview you find below the picture gallery.

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

Well, I never identified myself with those heroes-superheroes-antiheroes and their daring lives fraught with danger and emotions, too much stress…Who on earth lives like that in the real world?

Of course I would appreciate it if I slightly resembled the great Totoro or Ponyo or one of those Forest Spirits appearing in the movies by the great Miyazaki. I like that kind of character which is aloof from human morality, where nothing is good or bad in itself, where everything is small and big at the same time; they exist just like mother nature. They are little pagans who incarnate the rebirth of the savage „rewild“ and many other sentiments which the human being forgot about a long time ago, one last opportunity for humanity.

They are the primary harbingers of a new manner of understanding the relation between man and the planet, and with regard to this huge task, I like the idea that I have to put in my little grain of sand,too.

02. What are your New Year’s resolutions?

To keep on trying…which it not little. Trying not to lose ilusion and hope in this black future we’re bound to experience. Paraphrasing the great Robert Crumb: Keep on Trucking!

03. What bores you the most?

I’m bored with the discinlination to progress, the passivity of the society in view of the injustice and inequality. The arrogance and malice inherent to power make me despair.

And I’m terrified to live on a planet ruled by ignorance and the egoism of the Great System which is devouring us little by little without any prospect of us being able to or rather wanting to do something in order to avoid this process.

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

You are in many respects a reflection or product of the place where you live, with all its defects and virtues. Like a huge tree, firmly fixed to the soil with its roots to nurture it. No one can know himself without knowing his soil, no one can love himself without loving his soil and no one can hate himself without hating his soil.

If I had been born somewhere else, I wouldn’t be me. Therefore I’ve learned to cherish and enjoy this place. The landscape, the silence, the sunsets, the flatness and the holm oaks are the great gifts of La Mancha which I wouldn’t change for anything in this world.

05. What are you able to do that Superman can’t do?

I can eat Kriptonyte, join an anti-system group, dine with my family on Sundays, crap on the flag of the United States, I suppose a  lot of things, huh?

06. If you were sleep walking one night, where would you probably wake up the next day?

I would probably not go very far, I remember that one time as a child I woke up totally disoriented under the living room table and I was quite frightened, I much rather travel dreaming, that’s safer.

07. What would you wear to be kicked out from a black tie cocktail party?

A white tie? I prefer to avoid parties where I’m not well received, a penguin party would probably be a good example.

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

The biggest prank I did on a friend was convincing him of precisely translating all of my cartoons and comics to English – I have a slight problem in the language department-, I hope the effort and inconveniences will someday come to fruition and compensate for the work.

09. How to ruin your vacation?

The vacation is irretrievably ruined the moment someone begins to work.

10. If I gave you a giraffe, where would you hide it?

It would definitely be far away from man, and quite possibly in company with many other giraffes.

11. What do you do when you see the glass half empty!

Finish it and serve me another one.

Credits to Nicoleta Ionescu for talking with Mortimer

01. Which movie/tv character you see yourself as and why?

Kim Possible, she’s the most adorable super-heroine on TV.

02. Who’s Secret Santa would you like to be this year?

I would like to be Santa’s Secret Santa and jam all my small socks and jammies in his boots. If it weren’t for him, who would get the idea to serve you candy in used footwear?

03. What bores you the most?

The waiting rooms. They should have roller coasters, fireworks and cotton candy to make them more bearable.

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

Yes, almost anywhere else, but with internet facilities.

05. What are you able to do that Superman can’t do?

I can wear high hills and kryptonite earrings to a party.

06. If you were sleep walking one night, where would you probably wake up the next day?

On the milk box.

07. What would you wear to be kicked out from a black tie cocktail party

Two white ties or maybe that toilet paper wedding dress that seems to be awkwardly popular on the internet.

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

Not the biggest prank, but the only one I can tell: once, I called a classmate and put the loudest alarm clock on the phone even before she got to answer.

09. How to ruin your vacation?

By putting it to an end.

10. If I gave you a giraffe, where would you hide it?

I’d hide it in the following Two and a half man episodes.

11. What do you do when you see the glass half empty!

I would freeze it, not to evaporate (also increasing volume).