Herman creator Jim Unger dies at 75

"Your pulse is very, very weak!"

I met Jim Unger only once, at the 1989 National Cartoonist Society convention in Toronto. I had been making the rounds of the city for the last two days in search of a new publisher for Portfoolio: The Year in Canadian Caricature. It was Saturday May 20th, the eve of my 40th birthday, and I was ready to pack it in. I perked up somewhat at the Reuben Awards banquet when I found myself seated next to Sergio Aragones who turned out to speak fluent French and got the band to play "Happy Birthday" at midnight! I then met Jim Unger who introduced me to Doug Brown, his editor at Macmillan of Canada. Doug gave me his card and told me to call him on Monday. Portfoolio would then find a home with Macmillan for the next 11 years. I never got around to thank Jim.

Dutch Cartoonist Bert Witte 1943-2012

I just learned this morning of the passing of Bert Witte, third prize winner at the 3rd World Press Freedom International Editorial Cartoon Competition. Here was his winning entry:

Bert Witte was one of the most award-winning, published, prolific and versatile cartoonists in the world. He published 75 cartoon books, 6 calendars, provided illustrations for 51 books and won 26 international prizes. Witte drew a daily cartoon for De Telegraaf.

37° Salão Internacional de Humor de Piracicaba

I received, at long last, the catalogue of the 37th International Humor Exhibition of Piracicaba in Brazil.

And here is the cartoon I entered that was selected:

2012 Reuben Award Winners Sorel, Kanin and Ramirez

Edward Sorel (Magazine Illustration), Zach Kanin (Gag Cartoon) and Mike Ramirez (Editorial Cartoon) were winners in their respective categories at the 2012 Reuben Awards Banquet in Las Vegas last night.

Mike Ramirez, Investor's Business Daily

Save The American Prospect

From Brodner's Bicycle.

Below are some illustrations commissioned recently by The American Prospect.
Prospects for The American Prospect, a great magazine for politics and art, are looking dark. Now is the time for all good artists to come to the aid of their industry. This magazine weds journalism and illustration especially well because of its brilliant art director Mary Parsons. Many of us have worked with her at the Prospect as well as previously at The Atlantic and elsewhere. She understands the power of art and its place in print. As print shrinks we need to insist on a future where some publications can co-exist with web news. This is happening but not across the board. Print needs to survive because it communicates in a cohesive way that is different than on the web or in apps. It is a complete entity, designed with a beginning, middle and end. It has the potential (albeit sometimes unrealized) of being beautuiful and something to treasure, if only until the next issue. Mary and editor Bob Kuttner do that here. The journalism is top flight. Tough issues are explained with clarity and verve.
How can we help this magazine? By caring enough to contribute. The link is here. Please care about this. It's bigger than the Prospect. Bigger than any one of us alone.

Steve Brodner

New Yorker Cartoonist Mick Stevens

Here are some of my favourite Mike Stevens cartoons.

"I know what I said ten minutes ago. That was the old me talking."

Glob-All Mix: 30 Posters for a Sustainable World

Steven Heller in Imprint.

Glob-All Mix: 30 Posters for a Sustainable World, curated by the Brazilian designer Felipe Taborda, is a poster project designed to compliment Rio+20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, that includes as delegates many presidents, ministers, and monarchs. The Glob-All Mix posters (plus the catalog and postcards) are part of the official gift of the Brazilian government to all people attending Rio+20.

Comic art, trash or treasure?

Gerry Giovinco in CO2 Comics blog.

Ronald Searle Remembered

The Chris Beetles Gallery is hosting the exhibition Ronald Searle Remembered, in memory of the cartoonist who died in December.
The show, which starts today, features more than 400 works by Searle, who is widely regarded as the greatest cartoonist of the 20th century. It runs until June 9.
It includes some of the clandestine drawings he produced as an inmate of Changi Gaol, the notorious Japanese prisoner of war camp, Punch covers, such as the one above, plus book and magazine illustrations.
St Trinian’s and Molesworth are represented, of course, alongside adverts for Lemon Hart rum and Searle’s reportage on many issues of the day. Also included are unpublished letters that provide new insights into the life of the great man.

Political cartoonists go digital

From Need to Know on PBS.

Watch Meet cartoonist Steve Brodner on PBS. See more from Need To Know.

Video: Cartoonist Steve Brodner on creating political satire for the YouTube generation. Produced by Hannah Yi

"Comics: Philosophy & Practice" at the University of Chicago

From Steven Heller at Imprint.

On May 18-20, the University of Chicago is hosting a conference called "Comics: Philosophy & Practice" that will bring together 17 world-renowned graphic novelists for three days of lectures and public conversation at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts. Attendees include Alison Bechdel, Lynda Barry, Daniel Clowes, R. Crumb, Joe Sacco, Art Spiegelman, and Chris Ware. The conference was organized by Hillary Chute, an English professor at U. Chicago and a leading expert on graphic narrative.For those who cannot attend, it will be webcasted throughout the weekend. Information about the webcast can be found here.

Matt Bors, 2012 Herblock Prize Winner

Glenn Fleishman from Boing Boing:

Alt Cartoonist Receives High Praise from Establishment


Stereotypes abound of the political cartoonists found in so-called alternative papers: the weeklies full of escort ads in the back and snarky commentary in the front. Matt Bors, on the surface, seems to embody the characteristics.

He's scruffy, doesn't own a suit, and lives in Portland. He expresses withering contempt at politicians, mainstream media, and what he views as hypocrisy. He's never made more than $15,000 a year from his cartoons, and supplements that income with illustration, freelance editorial jobs, and, possibly, blood plasma—at least he did in college; he has the scar to prove it.

Earth Day Cartoon

After "The racist is the Other...", my drawing of Earth as an apple is the most reproduced.

New Yorker Cartoonist Edward Sorel

Mother's Day

Cartoon of the week (13)

Viewed 152 times on Twitpic.

Canada pulls out of the Kyoto Accord at the UN conference in Copenhagen and receives a damning report from the Environment Commissioner for not reaching it's lowered objectives.

My lunch with Fred

Fred Sebastian is an Ottawa cartoonist who has published in The New York Times Book Review.
We have lunch together every week and came up with this gag* last Tuesday, two day's after François Hollande's electoral victory.
Here is a sample of his work:

Iranian cartoonist's conviction condemned

Saeed Kamali Dehghan from The Guardian website.

Cartoonist Mahmoud Shokraye given a sentence of 25 lashes for drawing a caricature of a local MP that was deemed insulting.

Ahmad Lofti Ashtiani depicted dressed as a footballer, with a congratulatory letter in one hand and his foot resting on the ball. Photograph: Mahmoud Shokraye

Cartoonists have condemned the conviction of an Iranian colleague sentenced to 25 lashes for drawing a caricature of an MP that was deemed insulting.

Mahmoud Shokraye was put on trial after an Iranian MP, Ahmad Lotfi Ashtiani, took offence to a cartoon he drew of the parliamentarian in Nameye Amir, a city newspaper in Arak, the capital of Iran's central province of Markazi.

The Ilna semi-official news agency reported that a media law court in Markazi had found Shokraye guilty of insulting the MP, handing down the unprecedented punishment.

In the cartoon, Ashtiani is depicted in a football stadium, dressed as a footballer, with a congratulatory letter in one hand and his foot resting on the ball. The MP's forehead has a dark mark, said to be the sign of a pious Shia Muslim, caused (supposedly) by frequent prostration during prayer. The cartoon contains little exaggeration and Ashtiani's forehead has a prayer mark in reality.

Shokraye drew Ashtiani following widespread criticism in Iranian society towards a number of politicians who have been accused of interfering in the country's sports.

His sentence has sparked an outcry among cartoonists, with some calling on their colleagues to draw new caricatures of the MP in condemnation of the court's decision. Iran's online community has taken to social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook to express anger.

Ben Franklin Penned First American Editorial Cartoon

From The Cagle Post.

On this day back in 1754, Benjamin Franklin’s now-famous “Join or Die” woodcut cartoon was first published in his Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper. The cartoon, which showed a snaked severed into eight segments each representing a British American colony or region, was meant to inspire unity among the colonies before the French and Indian War. Later, it became an important symbol of colonial freedom during the Revolutionary War.

Françoise Mouly talks about Blown Covers in Imprint

Michael Silverberg interviews "Blown Covers" editor Françoise Mouly in Imprint.

12th World Press Freedom International Editorial Cartoon Competition-Results

The jury of the 12th World Press Freedom International Editorial Cartoon Competition, composed of Rod Macdonell, Gord McIntosh and myself, met last month to choose the winners.

Our picks were announced at the World Press Freedom Day Luncheon at the NAC in Ottawa today.

Grand Prize: Liz França (Brazil)

"Freedom in Broad Strokes" (2012)

Here is the additional panel with the winning cartoons of the 2012 contest.

On Press Freedom Day, concerns raised about Harper government 'clampdown'

Gemma Karstens-Smith, For Postmedia News

Published: Wednesday, May 02, 2012

A brightly coloured gang - fists raised in protest - use their smartphones as armour against a row of riot gear-clad police. Hiding behind his shield, one policeman stealthily checks his own device.

No one, it seems, can resist the allure of technology.

Françoise Mouly talks about Blown Covers on CBS Sunday Morning

You can read more about Blown Covers: New Yorker Covers You Were Never Meant to See here and here.

Swiss cartoonist Chappatte wins Thomas Nast Award

Swiss cartoonist Patrick Chappatte is the first non-American to be awarded the Thomas Nast Award since its creation over 40 years ago by the Overseas Press Club of America.
The award is recognition for his work for the International Herald Tribune, for which he has been a regular contributor for the past 11 years.
The prize, considered the most prestigious after the Pulitzers, also highlights the American roots of the International Herald Tribune and cements its place among the US media.
Chappatte also contributes to two Swiss dailies, Geneva’s Le Temps and Zurich’s Neue Zürcher Zeitung.