2024 Editorial Cartoonist Convention in Montreal

 

Canadian and American editorial cartoonists, as well as a few European guests, are meeting this weekend in Montreal for a conference on the digital future of the profession organized by the McCord Museum.

More details here.

Mike Peterson covered the event for The Daily Cartoonist:

Things began Friday night with a small get-together, a few speeches and a tribute to missing members Ed Hall and Pascal Élie.

Day Two of the AAEC/ACC Conference in Montreal began with the Americans conducting a business meeting while the Canadians held a panel on digitization and conservation, apparently in both languages, unless the Billy Ireland’s Jenny Robb is fluent en francais, since she was one of the presenters.

After lunch, we were reunited and began a full afternoon with a presentation by doctoral candidate Nancy Perron on images of French Canada, specifically centered on Alberic Bourgeois, who created this weekly feature with two main characters being rural French Canadians.

Another UQAM graduate student, John Harbour, then introduced the group to Raoul Barré, a multitalented artist who even produced posters for plays in which he designed sets and acted in the last years of the 19th Century.

We then leapt up to current day with a presentation by Jacques Goldstyn (Boris) of the Montreal Gazette, who introduced the issue of censorship with a reminder about Ali Farzat, a Syrian cartoonist who had both his hands broken in an attack after he criticized the government.

Goldstyn spoke of the feeling of having a variety of groups looking over the shoulder of a political cartoonist, waiting to pounce on any perceived slight or insult, including editors who don’t want to take angry phone calls and much prefer political cartoons about orange traffic construction cones than about more controversial topics.

At which point he provided an unintentional demonstration: He put up this unpublished and unpublishable cartoon, whose heading translates as “Kill Page One,” an equivalent phrase to “Stop the Presses,” and a reference to the Charlie Hebdo murders.

The piece brought cries of protest from some in the audience, including one walkout and a shout for him to take it down, on the basis that it was too harsh and insensitive, particularly for those who had known some of the cartoonists killed in the attack.

My own editorial opinion is that I agree with Goldstyn that it was harsh and unpublishable, but I found it an interesting example of how a cartoon envisioned from within the ivory tower can be theoretically protected, but is felt deeply by the people genuinely involved in the issue.

While he wasn’t looking to provoke the uproar, I heard a few people say afterward that there could have been a whole session simply to hash that out.

As it was, there were impassioned but less fraught conversations in the break following his presentation.

It was a good intro for Matt Wuerker of Cartoonists Rights and Patrick Chappatte of Freedom Cartoonists’ presentation on cartoonists’ rights to free expression. 

Their organizations, now working closely together, coordinate not simply lobbying but active intervention for cartoonists around the world who are threatened with jailing and violence for their views.

It was, however, nice to lighten up then, as AAEC President Jack Ohman interviewed cartoonist Joel Pett in an easy-going laugh-provoking exchange.

Lalo Alcaraz introduced himself as the most recently hired staff cartoonist in America, having landed a job at Calo, a Los Angeles regional publication emphasizing Chicano community matters.

Then Steve Brodner closed out the presentations with a selection of Trump caricatures he particularly admired.

The day, and the conference, ended with presentation of awards.

The AAEC’s Ink Bottle for service above and beyond was awarded to Wes Tyrell, president of the ACC, for his overall help in the past year plus his setting up of a conference several veterans said was the best in many years.

The Rex Babin Award, given for local cartooning, went to Dennis Draughon, who is charge of holding feet to the fire in North Carolina.

The Canadians then presented the Townsend Award, named for George Townsend, a British military commander who had a penchant for drawing funny pictures of his fellow officers and politicians and may have been the continent’s first political cartoonist.

The French-language winner was Marc Beaudet, while in English, the award went to Sue Dewar.

Marc Beaudet, Sue Dewar and Christian Vachon.

While the Brian Gable “Honorary Canuck Award” went to Scott Burns, who is parliamentarian for the AAEC and the National Cartoonists Society as well as having helped the ACC with a variety of topics, and the ACC also invented and awarded the “Golden Gable Award” to Christian Vachon, curator of the Musee McCord Stewart, who not only helped set up the conference but is a vast repository of comics culture.

Read also: 

¨2024 Cartoonist Convention" on Graeme Mackay's website.