Pulitzer Prize Cartoonists Pen Protest Letter to Pulitzer Board

From the AAEC website.

Ten days after the 2022 Pulitzer Prizes were announced, 33 cartoonists who have won or been finalists for the award signed an unprecedented open letter to the Pulitzer Board about recent changes to the prize.

After quietly expanding the parameters of the Editorial Cartoonist category in 2020 to include illustrators and graphic reporters, the Board that presides over the judging process for journalism’s biggest award renamed the category “Illustrated Reporting and Commentary” at the end of last year. 

This unannounced move came months after the Pulitzer Committee refused to pick a winner among the three qualified finalists in 2021, and 99 years after the Editorial Cartoonist” category was created.

Last week the AAEC sent a letter to the Pulitzer Board petitioning the restoration of the award, and now almost three dozen recipients of the Prize are collectively seeking the same thing. Here is their letter in its entirety.

Lalo Alcaraz profiled in The New Yorker

Graciela Mochkofsky in The New Yorker (excerpt).

Like many prestigious awards that recognize great accomplishment in this country, the Herblock Prize for editorial cartooning, created in 2004 to commemorate the legacy of the late Washington Post cartoonist Herb Block, had never been offered to a nonwhite person—until this year. 

While accepting the prize at the Library of Congress on the evening of April 27th, Lalo Alcaraz, a Chicano from San Diego, California, said what many of his friends and followers were posting on social media: “It’s about time.” 

Nominees of the 18th annual Doug Wright Awards

 From the Doug Wright Awards. 

The Doug Wright Awards is pleased to announce the nominees for its 18th annual honours, selected from works published by Canadian creators during the 2021 calendar year.

Celebrating Sparky

 From the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

Celebrating Sparky: Charles M. Schulz and Peanuts, an exhibition curated by Lucy Shelton Caswell, honors Schulz’s work and marks the centennial of his birth. 

I wish I'd drawn... (67)

 ... this beautiful illustration by Siri Dokken.

The drawing illustrates journalist Linn Stalsberg's comment in Dagsavisen about the men who must stay in Ukraine.

An Open Letter to the Pulitzer Prize Board

 From the AAEC website.

The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists would like to congratulate illustrator Fahmida Azim and the other contributors to the team that created the illustrated article, “I Escaped a Chinese Internment Camp,” which won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in the recently renamed category of Illustrated Reporting and Commentary. 

We would like to also congratulate the finalists, The New Yorker cartoonist Zoe Si, and Washington Post editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes. 

Cartooning, regardless of genre, is time intensive, often challenging, occasionally dangerous, but always rewarding work.

Exhibition on the 70 years of Queen Elizabeth II's reign

 From the Maison du Dessin de Presse Facebook page.

The back view of Queen Elizabeth II by Canadian press cartoonist Terry Mosher (Aislin) was chosen to illustrate the poster for the forthcoming exhibition on the 70 years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II at the Maison du Dessin de Presse, from June 4 to September 29, in Morges, Switzerland.

Ann Telnaes named Pulitzer Finalist for 2022

From AAEC website.

Washington Post editorial cartoonist (and past AAEC President) Ann Telnaes was selected as a finalist for this year’s Pulitzer Prize in the newly renamed “Illustrated Reporting and Commentary” category. 

The judges cited her portfolio for its “succinct and layered cartoons covering a wide range of social and political topics with immediacy and impact.”

Bruce MacKinnon wins National Newspaper Award 2021

From the NNA website.

Bruce MacKinnon of the Halifax Chronicle Herald was the winner in the Editorial Cartooning category at the 73nd edition of the National Newspaper Awards for the seventh time.

Counterpoint Media to Launch New Cartoon Syndication Platform

From Counterpoint. 

Counterpoint Media, an independent organization of political cartoonists of all perspectives, will represent former Washington Post syndicated editorial cartoonists and more beginning on June 1st. 

The initial list of cartoonists for licensing and syndication includes: Clay Bennett, Lisa Benson, Tim Campbell, Jeff Danziger, Jack Ohman, and current Counterpoint contributor Pedro X. Molina. 

Counterpoint will service each cartoonist’s existing clients while eventually expanding the roster of talent available.

The last few years have proven tough for political cartoonists – economic pressures on newsrooms have led to major publications eliminating the role of editorial cartoonists, and some have stopped printing cartoons entirely.

Great minds

 

Aislin's Thursday Montreal Gazette cartoon on the US Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade is uncannily similar to the one by Coco published in Libération. Or is it the other way around ?

22th World Press Freedom International Editorial Cartoon Competition (Results)

First Prize: Marilena Nardi, Italy

The jury, composed of the members of World Press Freedom Canada, met on April 14 to select the winners of the 22th World Press Freedom International Editorial Cartoon Competition.

The theme, this year, was "Silence is golden".

Matt Davies Wins 2022 National Headliner Award

 From The Daily Cartoonist.

Newsday’s Matt Davies has won the 2022 National Headliner Award for his 2021 editorial cartoons. He previously won the award in 2017 and finished second in 2007.

Stephen P. Breen (The San Diego Union Tribune) and Michael Ramirez (Las Vegas Review-Journal) came in second and third place.

The National Headliner Award honors the best journalism in the United States. The awards were founded in 1934 by the Press Club of Atlantic City.

World Press Cartoon 2022 in Caldas da Rainha

Once again, World Press Cartoon takes place in the city of Caldas da Rainha, thanks to the hospitality of its municipality, at a time of transition of ruling powers. 

The circumstances of this transition have meant that, in 2022, we did not have sufficient financial means to carry out the traditional prize-giving ceremony, forcing us to comply with only the minimum: the prizes, an exhibition and its' catalogue.

The exhibition will be open to the public on the 28th of May, at the Caldas da Rainha Centro Cultural e Congressos, until the 28th of August.

Neal Adams Dies at 80

 From the Hollywood Reporter.

Neal Adams, the legendary comic book artist who reinvigorated Batman and other superheroes with his photorealistic stylings and championed the rights of creators, has died. He was 80.

Adams died Thursday in New York of complications from sepsis, his wife, Marilyn Adams, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Adams jolted the world of comic books in the late 1960s and early ’70s with his toned and sinewy take on heroes, first at DC with a character named Deadman, then at Marvel with X-Men and The Avengers and then with his most lasting influence, Batman.

Say No to War: Political Cartoons by Ukrainian and Russian Artists

 From the Museum of Russian Art.

Valery Momot (Ukraine)

This pop-up show of anti-war political cartoons includes recent works by renowned cartoonists from Ukraine and Russia created in response to the Russian aggression in Ukraine. 

The exhibition is organized by The Museum of Russian Art (TMORA) in collaboration with Minnesota artist Andrey Feldshteyn, who has worked in the genre of political cartoons for four decades. 

At the beginning of the war, Andrey approached a number of artists with an invitation to share their works for this exhibition and they sent their amazing works to be displayed at TMORA.

ACC Honorary Member

 

 The 2022 Gable Award by our president Wes Tyrell.

The ACC is very pleased to welcome the great comedian John Cleese as an honorary member.

He performed in Toronto on April 26 and was delighted to be considered a colleague to all the terrific Canuck cartoonists.

The Kofi Annan Courage in Cartooning Award

From Cartoonists Rights Network International.

Freedom Cartoonists Foundation & Cartoonists Rights Network International announce their new international cartoon award partnership: “The Kofi Annan Courage in Cartooning Award” given by FCF to alternate with CRNI’s “Robert Russell Courage in Cartooning Award”.

The Kofi Annan  Courage in Cartooning Award will be inaugurated at noon, May 3 2022, World Press Freedom Day, at the Geneva Graduate Institute in the presence of 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, journalists Maria Ressa (Philippines) and Dmitry Muratov (Russia).

Marshall Arisman 1938-2022

From Wikipedia.

Photo by Dan Wagner

Born in Jamestown, New York, on October 14, 1938, illustrator, painter, storyteller, and educator Marshall Arisman passed away on April 22.

He studied advertising art at the Pratt Institute and received an Ida Gaskell Grant to travel and study in Europe after graduating in 1960. 

Clive Collins 1942-2022

 

I just heard the sad news that friend and fellow cartoonist Clive Collins has passed away. 

Born Clive Hugh Austin Collins in Weston-super-Mare on February 6, 1942, he had a long and successful career drawing for many publication including Punch, Playboy, The Oldie, Readers Digest, Daily Mail and Sun.

Steve Sack Retires

From The Star Tribune. 

It's with extremely mixed feelings that after 42 years, and some 10,000 cartoons, I have decided to retire from the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune.

I wish I was able to offer a farewell cartoon. I've been away from my drawing table in recent weeks, recovering from hand surgery for carpal tunnel and other nerve issues. 

I'll eventually regain use of my hand, but after difficult reflection I've decided that I'd like to change my focus. At 68, I have other interests and projects, artistic and otherwise, that I'd like to devote more time to.

Guy Lafleur in caricature

  On the Facebook page of Christian Vachon.

Guy Lafleur as seen by Aislin, Bado, McKinnon, Côté, Jean Isabelle, Chapleau, Pascal and Ygreck.

"Still...Racism in America: A Retrospective in Cartoons"

 From The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

Pioneering father/daughter cartoonists Brumsic Brandon, Jr. (1927– 2014) and Barbara Brandon-Croft (1958– ) chronicled the nation’s cultural landscape in their comic strips through the lens of racism. 

The elder Brandon, who created Luther in the late sixties, and was later syndicated by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate until 1986, was also known for his blistering editorial cartoons. 

Where I’m Coming From is the work of his youngest daughter, the nation’s first Black woman cartoonist in the mainstream press; it debuted in 1989 in the Detroit Free Press. Universal Press Syndicate later distributed her provocative feature until 2005. 

For six decades, their respective pens lay bare the truth: Nothing has changed. This retrospective reveals how vividly the specter of racism remains in America… STILL.

Still... Racism in America: A Retrospective in Cartoons

The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum 

May 21, 2022 - October 23, 2022

Robinson Gallery

Sullivant Hall 

Ohio State University

1813 North High Street

Columbus OH 43202

Nease cartoon stirs controversy

 From CBC News.

First Nations leaders in southern Ontario say the media has to do better at reconciliation after a newspaper ran an offensive cartoon depicting Indigenous people asking the Pope for financial compensation.

"You can't speak out of both sides of your mouth — to Indigenous people one way, and then what you print to the general Canadian population," said Laurie Carr, chief of Hiawatha First Nation.

Metroland Media's seven Simcoe County newspapers ran a cartoon last week that pictured the Pope saying "I'm sorry" to what appears to be an Indigenous woman and man, who respond "How $orry?"

Carr, who sits on one of Metroland Media's advisory councils in Peterborough, said "it's really disturbing" to see a cartoon published like that in 2022.

Ed Hall in "Le Monde" (take 3)

 

Ed Hall's cartoon of Vladimir Putin, contemplating the sinking of the Moskva, was published in today's Le Monde.

Previous cartoons by the Florida cartoonist were also published there in August and November 2021.

Political Cartoonist Sergei Elkin Flees Russia

 From The Moscow Times.

Russia’s most prominent political cartoonist Sergei Elkin announced Wednesday that he had left Russia amid a wartime crackdown on journalism. He is now in Bulgaria.

Over the years, Elkin has lampooned politicians, businessmen, and international elites in media outlets across the world — including The Moscow Times, who published his series, “Putin’s Russia” in print and online.

2021 Joe Shuster Awards

  From the Beat Comics Culture.

Over the weekend the 2021 Joe Shuster Awards finally announced its winners after significant delays. 

The nominees for the Canadian comics awards – which recognised work produced in 2020 – were released late last year, throughout the month of December 2021 and one category’s nominees weren’t even announced until January 1, 2022.

2022 World Press Photo Contest

From World Press Photo.

The jury of the 2022 Photo Contest selected Amber Bracken’s photograph Kamloops Residential School as the World Press Photo of the Year, and Saving Forests with Fire by Matthew Abbott as the World Press Photo Story of the Year.

Great minds

 

Danish cartoonist Niels Bo Bojesen posted the above cartoon on Twitter yesterday morning.

It so happens that I had a somewhat similar idea a few weeks ago:

"Streamink" by Boligán

 From Amazon.

The 127 illustrations composing Streamink: Drawings about ourselves delve into the most diverse situations of everyday life and portrait the effects the digital world has had in our collective dynamics. 

Through Boligán’s drawings filled with sensibility and insurpassable graphic talent, we can reflect, understand — and also laugh — about the complexities that we confront in our coexistence with technology and its diverse manifestations.

25th Gabrovo Biennial of Humor & Satire in Art - Exhibition Cartoons

From the Museum of Humor & Satire in Art.

80 cartoons were selected in the 25th Gabrovo Biennial of Humor & Satire in Art, by a jury chaired by Niels Bo Bojesen and composed of Alla Georgieva, Anne Derenne, Antonio Antunes and Rayma Suprani. 

The topic was Economy of Means.

My cartoon Still Life made the cut:

Cartoon Crossroads Columbus 2022

From Cartoon Crossroads Columbus.

After two years of virtual meetings, the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists will be gathering in person this year for their annual convention.

Cartoon Crossroads Columbus has invited the AAEC to join them again as part of the CXC Festival the first weekend of October. 

As they did in 2019, the political cartoonists will hold a joint confab with CXC in Columbus, Ohio, from Oct. 6-9, 2022.

Michael Ramirez Wins Overseas Press Club of America Cartoon Award

From The Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial cartoonist Michael Ramirez has won a top national honor again, this time the Best Cartoon Award from the Overseas Press Club of America for his work illustrating international affairs.

National Newspaper Awards 2021 Nominations

The Canadian Daily Newspaper Association announced today the finalists of the 73th National Newspaper Awards.

Julie Doucet awarded Angoulême Festival’s Grand Prix

 From Comics Beat.

Julie Doucet, 2022 Angoulême Grand Prix and her prédécessor, Chris Ware.
Photo: Didier Pasamonik (L’Agence DB

The 49th edition of the Angoulême International Comic Art Festival honoured Canadian artist Julie Doucet with its highest award, the Grand Prix. 

A career recognition award, Doucet becomes the third woman in the history of the festival to receive the prize – the last being Rumiko Takahashi in 2019.

Doucet won the favour of an electorate of 1,820 comic book authors and professionals, beating French cartoonists Catherine Meurisse and Pénélope Bagieu. 

At a French festival which has previously tended to favour their own creators on the ballot, this win comes as a great surprise.

"What's So Funny?: A Cartoonist's Memoir" by David Sipress

From David Sipress' web page. 

David Sipress, a dreamer and obsessive drawer living with his Upper West Side family in the age of JFK and Sputnik, goes hazy when it comes to the ceaselessly imparted lessons-on-life from his meticulous, secretive father and the angsty expectations of his migraine-prone mother. 

Sipress paints his hapless place in the family, from the time he is tricked by his unreliable older sister into rocketing his pet turtle out his twelfth-floor bedroom window, to the moment he walks away from a Harvard PhD program in Russian history to begin his life as a professional cartoonist. 

This poignant, compelling family story is also a meditation on creativity and the art of cartooning, and Sipress’s cartoons appear throughout What's so funny? with spot-on precision, inducing delightful Aha moments in answer to the perennial question aimed at cartoonists: Where do you get your ideas?

I wish I'd drawn... (66)

...this wonderful cartoon by Quebec cartoonist François Lapierre.

Lalo Alcaraz wins the 2022 Herblock Prize

From NBC News

Lalo Alcaraz, a Los Angeles-based political cartoonist, becomes the first Latino recipient of the prestigious 2022 Herblock Prize in recognition of his editorial cartooning and his "passion, dedication and brilliance" in covering civil rights and other issues impacting U.S. Latinos.

The $15,000 award announced Thursday by the Herb Block Foundation is named after the late Washington Post syndicated editorial cartoonist Herbert Lawrence “Herblock” Block, who for many years was best-known for his commentaries on domestic and foreign policy issues.

I wish I'd drawn... (65)

...this wonderful cartoon by Le Soleil cartoonist André-Philippe Côté.

"Putin’s Russia: The Rise of a Dictator"

 From The Tyee.

Vladimir Putin is purportedly the richest man in the world. Of course, much of his wealth is stolen from ordinary Russian people.

In Putin’s Russia: The Rise of a Dictator, cartoonist Darryl Cunningham recreates the life and times of Putin, from childhood to permanently installed ruler of Russia. 

Along the way, events like the war in Syria, the 2016 U.S. election, plenty of murder, injustice and corruption, and a seemingly endless list of dead journalists and jailed opponents unfold.

Ukraine invasion: Misleading claims continue to go viral

From BBC News. 

An image showing two children seeing off a convoy of Ukrainian forces into battle has generated millions of engagements - likes and shares.

But the image was first published in 2016.

It was taken by a volunteer photographer for the Ukrainian defence ministry who was later dismissed over allegations that he had staged some of his combat images.

22nd World Press Freedom Canada International Editorial Cartoon Competition

 

1. The theme for the 22nd International Editorial Cartoon Competition is:

Silence is golden

Cancel culture has become a source of our newest cultural cleavage.
Whether it be on social media or at live events, 'cancelling' someone has become a modern day version of excommunication and is being used as a weapon by political partisans both left and right to discourage civil discourse and media freedom.
In opposing systemic racism, misogyny and xenophobia, progressives feel the need to resort to extreme tactics in an attempt to be heard.
Fearing that history is being re-written, traditionalists, for their part, use cancel culture to silence critics and whitewash history's wrongs.

Bill Woodman (1939-2022)

 From Mike Lynch Cartoons.

Cartoonist Bill Woodman passed away on Saturday. He was 85 years old. 

Born in Bangor, Maine, upon high school graduation, he joined the Navy, serving on the USS Timmerman which patrolled the Rhine River.

Upon discharge, he took the next bus to New York, knowing that that was the place to start his cartooning career. 

Badiucao Collection Denounces Beijing Winter Olympics

From Cartooning for Peace. 

On 1 February 2022, Chinese cartoonist Badiucao launched the “Beijing 2022 Olympics” collection calling for a boycott of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics due to the Chinese government’s human rights violations.

Vale Hard Lay (1963-2022)

Phil Thornton from Karen News. 

Burma cartoonist Harn Lay died today in Taunggyi, Shan State. He passed peacefully surrounded by family and friends. He is survived by his wife, daughter and son.

Clay Bennett defends Art Spiegelman by lampooning the ‘Maus’ firestorm

 Michael Cavna in The Washington Post.

The battles over which books get taught is an ongoing national debate, but for Clay Bennett, the fresh skirmish in Tennessee especially hit home.

“This particular episode was a local story for me,” says Bennett, the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, meaning that the epicenter of last month’s controversy over the graphic novel “Maus” was “just up the road” from him in McMinn County.

That is where the school board unanimously voted Jan. 10 to remove “Maus” from its eighth-grade language arts curriculum, citing profanity, nudity and violence — eventually sparking a national conversation over why the seminal graphic memoir centered on the Holocaust was being removed from the classroom.

Arafat cartoon exhibition causes uproar in Palestine

 From The New Arab.

The Yasser Arafat Foundation announced on Monday the removal of all cartoons from a controversial exhibition it had organised in Ramallah.

The exhibition, titled "Palestine and Yasser Arafat", was inaugurated on Sunday by Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Ishtayeh at the Yasser Arafat Museum.

It included 104 artists from some 43 countries and some 350 works and was described as showing "solidarity with Palestine and the roots of Yasser Arafat’s memory in the international community".

The artworks represent the artists' depictions of Yasser Arafat "not the reality of who he was", the curators added.

Tennessee school board bans Holocaust graphic novel ‘Maus’

From CNBC. 

A Tennessee school board has voted to remove the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel “Maus” from an eighth-grade language arts curriculum due to concerns about profanity and an image of female nudity in its depiction of Polish Jews who survived the Holocaust.

Kurt Westergaard and the World's Most Notorious Cartoon

Mathias Wivel in The Comics Journal.

Kurt Westergaard by Thomas Thorhauge in the weekly Weekendavisen, July 22, 2021

In the past year, two protagonists of the cartoon controversies of the naughts passed away. 

The Dane Kurt Westergaard, who drew the infamous image of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban, died in July from long-standing illness, while the Swedish artist Lars Vilks (1946–2021), who among other things drew the face of the Prophet on the body of a dog, was killed in a car accident on 3 October, along with two police officers assigned to protect him against attacks. 

Written shortly after Westergaard’s death, this article focuses in part on his career and work, but also engages the more fundamental issues of multiculturalism, blasphemy, and free expression to which the two artists contributed.