Cartoon Movement

Comics Journalism - Stories from South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo

This month we’ll be publishing two comics we have produced for The Politics of Return, a research project of the London School of Economics exploring the dynamics of return and reintegration of refugees in Central and Eastern Africa.

We have already published two comics earlier this year: Uganda's Forgotten Children, by Charity Atukunda and Displacement and Return in the Central African Republic, by Didier Kassai. Uganda's Forgotten Children focuses on the 30,000 children that were abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). What became of them when they returned to society? Displacement and Return in CAR is about the people (mainly Muslims) that fled the conflict. Now that the violence has ended, can they return and find a place in society?

In September we'll be publishing two further instalments in this series.

The first one, He Cannot Marry Her by Tom Dai and Naomi Pendle, is about marriage and identity in Both Sudan. By deciding who can marry who (and thus have children), chiefs' courts have a huge influence on identity politics in South Sudan, where even the dead can marry and have children.

The second one, Between Two Spaces by Victor Ndula and Koen Vlassenrroot, shows why disarming combatants in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been less than successful.

He Cannot Marry Her will be published on September 10 and Between Two Spaces will be published on September 17.

New Cartoonist: Nahid Maghsoudi

Nahid Maghsoudi is an award-winning cartoonist from Iran.

New Cartoonist: ROY

We are delighted that Chris 'ROY' Taylor has decided to join Cartoon Movement. ROY is an Australian cartoonist who has worked for the Herald Sun for years. He has also authored a number of (children's) books.

New Cartoonist: Galo Paredes

Galo Paredes is a journalist and cartoonist from Ecuador, who has previously worked for Revista Vistazo and Diario Hoy under the pseudonym Galop.

New Cartoonist: Becs

Alejandro Becares, better known by his pen name Becs is a cartoonist from Argentina, where his work is published in various publications.

Another Scary and Shortsighted Decision

On Friday, Canadian cartoonist Michael de Adder announced he was let go from several newspapers that are published in New Brunswick, Canada. The decision to stop publishing De Adder’s work comes right after one of his cartoons, featuring Trump and Oscar Alberto Martinez and Angie Valeria Martinez (the father and daughter  wdrowned in the Rio Grande) went viral last week.

Wes Tyrell, president of the Association of Canadian Cartoonists responds:

Cartoonist Michael de Adder was let go from his job drawing editorial cartoons for all the major New Brunswick newspapers 24 hours after his Donald Trump cartoon went viral on social media, a job he held for 17 years.  

Although he has stated there was no reason given for his firing, the timing was no coincidence. 
Michael told me once that not only were the J.D. Irving owned New Brunswick newspapers challenging to work for, but there were a series of taboo subjects he could not touch. One of these taboo subjects was Donald Trump. 

Brunswick News Inc. states their decision to stop publishing De Adder’s work is not in any way related to the Trump cartoon.

As for our own response, it is exactly the same as our reaction to the firing of Chappatte and Heng from the New York Times: silencing the voice of a brilliant and influential cartoonist in any publication is a scary and shortsighted decision.

Animating Historical Cartoons - Workshop Results

The Netherlands Sound and Vision Institute hosts the national media archive of the Netherlands. The archive also includes over 40,000 original political cartoons. Part of the mission of the Institute is to find new ways to use the contents of the archive.

One way to do this is to open up the archive to creative professionals. A lot of the cartoons in the archive can be used because their copyright has expired and they are now in the public domain. We developed a workshop for art academy students, teaching them how to use cartoons from the late 19th and early 20th century to create GIF animations that comment on issues in our time.

The language of cartoons isn’t just universal across borders and languages, it is also universal through time. Cartoons from 100 years ago use the same language as cartoons from today, and comment on similar issues such as inept politicians, power abuse and injustice.

The first workshop took place on Friday May 24 at the AKV|St. Joost in Breda. Here below you can see some of the results:

 

    

Albert Hahn.                                                                 Albert Hahn + Julia Windt.

 

Albert Hahn, 1908.

   

Albert Hahn + Noortje Schuurs.

 

Albert Hahn.

 

Albert Hahn + Cheyene Goudswaard. The AIVD is the Dutch secret service.

 

Johan Braakensiek.

 

Johan Braakensiek + Anne van Wingerden: the GIF refers top the win of Frans Timmermans  and the social democratic party in the EU elections, at the cost of the right-wing parties FvD (Thierry Baudet on the left) and VVD (Mark Rutte on the right).

A Scary and Shortsighted Decision

New York Times to Stop Publishing Political Cartoons

 

After the cartoon controversy in April, when the international edition of the New York Times ran a cartoon featuring Trump and Netanyahu that was widely criticized as being antisemitic, the NY Times decided to stop running cartoons from the CartoonArts International syndicate.

Now, they have decided to stop running political cartoons altogether, ending contracts with their two regular cartoonists, Heng and Chappatte. Chappatte has written an eloquent, thoughtful and insightful piece about this decision on his website, which we recommend you go read.

Although the NY Times says the decision to stop running cartoons has been in consideration for well over a year, Chappatte and many other cartoonists feel this decision can be directly linked to the publication of the Netanyahu cartoon.

That makes it a scary and shortsighted decision.

Cartoons provide valuable input for public debate by condensing complex issues into one single panel. And sometimes we mess up. We use stereotypes that go too far or symbols that are needlessly hateful or offensive. And arguably the Netanyahu cartoon, made by Portuguese cartoonist Antonio Antunes, crossed the line.

In a healthy public debate (which a newspaper like the NY Times should facilitate) what then follows is a discussion about why this cartoon crossed the line. Why do many people find this cartoon so offensive? What is allowed when we criticize Israel and what isn’t? Which symbols can we use, how far can we take a caricature of a Israeli politician? All meaningful questions that would foster a debate that would lead to stronger, better and less needlessly offensive (I include ‘needless’ because sometimes cartoons need to be offensive) cartoons.

What shouldn’t happen is a complete silencing of this branch of visual journalism. Because it takes away from the public debate. It is, for lack of a better word, censorship. I use the word censorship not because of the decision itself (it is every media outlet’s prerogative to decide what they will and will not publish, however strongly I may disagree with it), but the apparent argumentation behind it.

Chappatte writes: 'I’m afraid this is not just about cartoons, but about journalism and opinion in general. We are in a world where moralistic mobs gather on social media and rise like a storm, falling upon newsrooms in an overwhelming blow. This requires immediate counter-measures by publishers, leaving no room for ponderation or meaningful discussions.'

So it is a decision out of fear. And no good journalism ever came from fear. Democracy requires public debate. Media should have the courage to provide a platform for a broad range of opinions to be heard and discussed. In doing so, mistakes will happen, and sometimes a platform will be given to an opinion that does not deserve it. If this happens, we should cry foul, discuss it and hopefully learn from it. We should not use it as an excuse to silence all opinions.

Tjeerd Royaards

Image by Falco

Lands of Disobedience 2019 - The Winners

Announcing the winners of the Lands of Disobedience cartoon contest.

First prize goes to Li Xiaoyang from China:

 

Second Prize goes to Michel Moro Gomez from Cuba:

Third prize goes to Sergii Riabokon from Ukraine:

 

Honorable mention from Cartoon Home Network International to Marco de Angelis:

 

Honorable mention from Cartoon Movement to Emad Hajjaj:

Cartoon Movement at OltrEconomia Festival 2019

This weekend, CM editor Tjeerd Royaards will be in Trento, Italy, together with CM members Emanuele Del Rosso and Marco De Angelis and the Sputnik collective at the OltrEconomia Festival. On Saturday, the winners of the Lands of Disobedience cartoon contest will be announced. The contest initiated and organized by Italian cartoonist Emanuele Del Rosso. There will also be panel to discuss satire and how to use this as a tool for social change. More info here.