Last week on toonpool.com (September 27 – October 3 2009)

Paul — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 10:23:43 +0000

On Tuesday, toonpool.com introduced a new feature: the toonBattle. The idea is to post a question in terms of “Do you like A or B?” and have toonpool.com artists answer by sending in cartoons supporting either side. Visitors then can look at the cartoon “arguments” and vote for one side.
While “the grand debates of our times” may not be decided this way, I think it’s a fun thing to do. Until now, there are two problems that limit the full potential of the feature. First, there are lots of unrelated postings, probably more due to the uploading mechanism than to people doing this on purpose. Second, the number of cons sent in is … limited at best. The reason here obviously lies in the nature of the question posted. There just aren’t enough vocal supporters of Burkas on toonpool.com to make this a real debate. All in all, I think both problems will be solved in the near future, so you should keep participating.

Apart from the somewhat unpopular German national holiday on October 3 (check out these nice cartoons on East/West German relations), there has been a decision on the Olympic Games 2016. Congratulations to Rio de Janeiro! Cartoons on this topic have been posted by artists from the United States, Spain, Italy and Slovakia but, strangely so, no one from Brazil has contributed yet.

Introducing…

I would like to introduce new user Bill Abbott from Buffalo, NY. His art can best be described as “effective gag cartoons using a conveniently large font”. I am serious about the last part – it’s annoying to have to click on the enlarged version of a cartoon in order to get the joke. My favorite cartoons by Bill are the food network inspired witch and the one about one of the difficulties about living under water. All of Bill’s characters are wearing these nerdy glasses and seem have a serious lack of enthusiasm. Well, apart from the Lagasse witch.

Michael Scholl, too, is from the United States. He is more of an illustrator / caricaturist than a cartoonist, which is a shame because he has a cool and versatile style. Many of his works are portraits of women, ranging from pencil drawings like this Audrey Hepburn to vector graphics like this tattooed friend of his or this karate kid. I particularly like the funny yet mysterious “Bear VS Octopus” cartoon.

Cartoons of Interest

My favorite cartoon this week is a collage by Berlin-based Andreas Prüstel. “Olivia Bierhoff” shows a gender-ambiguous Bierhoff in the midst of exposing his body to the crowd. I love how Andreas saw the parallels between the standard pin-up pose and freeze-frame of the football player performing equally standardized moves of celebration and combined them in a slightly yellowed collage that could be from a 70s girlie magazine. The shirt-off mode of cheering will always be puzzling to me. Is it a substitute for dropping one’s pants? A displacement activity? Fan service? The cartoon seems to argue for the latter.

Paul Hellmich

toonNews » toonBattle

Last week on toonpool.com (September 27 – October 3 2009)