We were present at the International Journalism Festival last week: cartoonists Stellina Chen from Taiwan and Tjeerd Royaards from the Netherlands gave a workshop on the role and impact of political cartoons.

Why are cartoonists so often targeted by dictators and how are cartoonists coping with the rising number of autocratic regimes in Europe and the world? Stellina and Tjeerd showcase the work of a number of cartoonists who are currently in trouble because of their work and, using examples of their own work, they also explain why cartoons can have such an impact and what tools a cartoonist uses to create an effective image.

You can watch a recording of the workshop here.

Charles Beyl is a cartoonist from the United States. For 20 years, his cartoons appeared in Lancaster Newspaper's Sunday News, Lancaster, PA. Check out his website to see more of his work.

Simon Banville is an illustrator and author from Canada with over 20 years of experience in comics strip and cartoons. Check out his website to see more of his work.

A lot of work has been done in the machinery of our website over the years, in an effort to keep things running as smoothly as possible, but there hasn’t been any major work done on the way the site works since its launch in 2020. Until now.

It’s still a work in progress, as we iron out the last bugs, but we are proud to present a number of new features, such as the ability to publish animated GIFs, showing related collections and improved navigation.

These are some of the new features we implemented.

The homepage slideshow shows likes and comments:

The latest collection tile on the homepage has a title, summary and date:

Latest news now also has a title, and comments have dates:

Our footer now includes links to our Bluesky and LinkedIn account:

Our cartoons overview page now also shows the likes and comments, showing you which cartoons are popular and what's being talked about:

And our cartoonists can now upload animated GIFs, like this one by Glen Le Lievre.

Our collections now have dates...

...and individual collections show related collections:

Individual cartoons show collections they are part of:

And finally, our cartoonists portfolio pages received an upgrade:

We hope you enjoy the upgrades, and that they make it easier to navigate through the website, and to find the cartoons you want. If you encounter anything that doesn't work properly, please send us an email.

We are excited to announce Cartoon Movement is part of a new research project! The project is named DELIAH, an acronym for Democratic Literacy and Humour. DELIAH examines the multifaceted role of humor in artistic forms, cultural spaces, and online and offline fora, identifying how humor can either support or undermine democratic participation and processes in Europe.

For the next four years, DELIAH will undertake research in Spain, Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Slovakia, Spain and the Netherlands. The research is done by a consortium of universities, lead by Ghent University. The other partners are the University of Groningen, the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Comenius University Bratislava, the University of Göttingen and the University of Tartu. Cartoon Movement is part of the consortium to provide a practical perspective. The project is funded by the European Union as part of the HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01-04.

Cartoon by Steve Bonello

At the core the project is academic research, but the output is meant to be usable not only for academics, but also for policy makers, NGOs, educators, satire professionals and the average European. Throughout its four year lifespan, the project will publish toolkits and white papers that will present the research results and translate them into clear insights, policy recommendations and educational tools.

Here are some of the things we'll be doing in the next four years:

-Provide an overview of how Europeans look at humor.

-Provide an analysis of how humor can foster democratic participation.

-Create tools to recognize humor that aims to undermine democracy.

-Provide guidelines for content moderation (when is moderation warranted and when should free speech prevail).

-How to recognize humor that aims to undermine democracy.

All the output will be made available on the project website deliah.eu, but if you want to be informed about the project from time to time, we recommend you subscribe to this Substack. There we'll provide the latest project updates, news about events, interviews and a weekly cartoon about democracy.

James Mellor is an award-winning freelance cartoonist based in the UK. His work has appeared in Private Eye Magazine, The Sunday Telegraph, The Spectator, The Critic Magazine, Charlie Hebdo and numerous other publications.

We are delighted to welcome Roar Hagen, a cartoonist from Norway working for Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang. He is also a member of Cartooning for Peace.

Cartoon by Zez Vaz

Our second monthly newsletter of the year is out! March 1st marks the start of an exciting new academic project for us; meanwhile, we are also busy preparing for the International Journalism Festival next month! You can read more about both in this issue.

Joining us from Canada, Scot Ritchie is an illustrator that does mostly children's books, but makes the occasional political cartoon as well. Check out his website to see more of his work.

We are happy to welcome GRETHEN, our first cartoonist from Luxembourg! GRETHEN took back his brushes and reassumed his drawing activity in 2022 after a break of over a decade dedicated to his job as a therapeutic counselor. Since then, he has been published, broadcasted on TV and was invited in several exhibitions. Since 2023, he is a member of Cartooning for Peace. Check out his website to see more of his work.