Human Scandals by Brad Holland

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One of the weirdest books I have, is this Human Scandals (1977) by Brad Holland. This version came to me from Iran (!).
The World Encyclopedia of Cartoons tells : a collection of his works has also been published under the title Human Scandals. This book is worth looking at, not only as art but as documentary evidence of the strange and wonderful visions that isolated, eccentric development can sometimes promote and as a testimony to innate human creativity. In this respect, Holland's achievement perhaps provides the best antidote to the bleak view of humanity frequently represented in his work.





Learn more:
Brad Holland on Wikipedia
Brad Holland official site
More Brad Holland drawings
Cartoonbook file

O-SEKOER

Hurrah! A new exhibition in the ECC: we proudly present to you: O-SEKOER (Luc Descheemaeker, Belgium)


Luc Descheemaeker was born in 1955 in Bruges. He teaches ‘Art and Culture’ in the Sint-Jozefinstitute in Torhout. He makes cartoons and humor photos and won more than 100 international prizes.His pseudonym is O-SEKOER ,on the French "au-secours" or the English "help".

recent O-Sekoer award-winning cartoon

O-SEKOER does not publish in newspapers or weeklies, nor does he do political cartoons. He chiefly draws with international cartoon festivals in mind. As such, he annually submits his work to some 30 major exhibitions worldwide. After a career that has spanned more than 2 decades, he is able to present a List of Achievements that is positively bulking with international success. Winning nominations, honorary mentions and first prizes from the most widely differing festivals as far as Japan, Bulgaria, Brazil, Turkey, Cuba and Spain.

read more...

You can visit the exhibition from 18th january till 5th april 2009 in the ECC in Kruishoutem, Belgium. Every sunday from 10 to 12am and 2 to 5pm.

dedication :
"to Jan for another 1000 years of cartoon pleasure"

I have this excellent O-SEKOER cartoon book (1998) to present to you. It offers a rundown of the many prizes O-Sekoer has drawn for his audiences over a 20 year time stretch, including fantastic humor photos. In addition it provides archive photos as well as an outline of his List of Achievements. The book was published in 1998 on the occasion of the "100 O-Sekoer Cartoon Awards" exhibition in his honour.
Other books of O-Sekoer are 'Hersenschimmen' (1983), 'De Katte Loog' (1988).
The book is available, price 10 eur. You can order the book here.
Original cartoons are for sale too: framed works (black wooden frame with passe partout) 50/60 cost 250. Not framed work costs 150 euros.

Awards, awards, award...

O-Sekoer is a master in humor photo too! A rare quality.
This is a photo from the 1998 album, but quite topical today with Obama's swearing-in!

Learn more:
O-Sekoer website !
O-Sekoer on Toonpool
O-Sekoer Gallery
More photocartoons, by photographer: René Maltête
Cartoonbook file:

Van Cartoonbooks Files

Funny Ladies - The New Yorker's Greatest Women Cartoonists and their cartoons by Liza Donnelly

Female cartoonists are heavily outnumbered by male ones. That's a fact.
In Funny Ladies, I read in the foreword by Jules Feiffer: "If Charles Addams was Charlotte Addams, would we still know her name?" Liza Donnelly has written this book about the, sometimes forgotten, woman's cartoonists who drew for The New Yorker, the famous American magazine with a long and distinct cartoon history. Liza mailed me she LOVED writing that book, but unfortunately, that kind of subject matter is not very "popular", but at least she got it published beautifully by Prometheus. Of course, for us, this is a nice book to have in our cartoon book collection. After Funny Ladies, Liza did a more mainstream book about women called Sex and Sensibility. It's in french now, too.


It is no secret that most New Yorker readers flip through the magazine to look at the cartoons before they ever ley eyes on the text. But what isn't generally known is that over the decades a growing group of woman artists has contributed to the witty,memorable cartoons that readers look forward to each week. Liza Donnelly, herself a renowned cartoonist with the New Yorker, has written an engaging, in-depth celebrating of the rich history of woman's humor and the woman cartoonists who have graced the pages of the famous magazine from the Roaring Twenties to the present day. (like Helen Hokinson, Alice Harvey, Nancy Fay, Mary Petty, Barbara Shermund, Dorothy McKay, Roberta MacDonald, Nurit Karlin, Roz Chast, Liza Donnelly, ...)



"An entirely new and much welcome take on the history of The New Yorker is provided in Funny Ladies (2005)... Liza Donnelly has dug deep into the magazine's archives and insightfully uncovered the ups and downs of the far-more-than-expected female practitioners of this art form... Virtually every page contains a surprise or two, and then, of course, there's also a large dose of nearly a century's worth of very funny and not always 'ladylike' drawings."
JACK ZIEGLER, New Yorker cartoonist

Liza Donnelly is married with New Yorker cartoonist Michael Maslin. They form a quite unique cartooning couple.
Their new book is due out this month: "Cartoon Marriage: Adventures in Matrimony with The New Yorker's Cartooning Couple" (Random House)

click for book details

Michael Maslin in The New Yorker June 9&16, 2008

Liza on YouTube - Sex and Sensibility at the Cartoon Art Museum:

Learn more:
Visit the site of Liza Donnelly
and her husband's site: cartoonist Michael Maslin
Liza Donnelly cartoons at Cartoonbank
Funny Ladies: Foreword Magazine book review

Funny Ladies: signed copies with drawings

The New Yorker official site
The New Yorker - wikipedia
Cartoonbook file:

Van Cartoonbooks Files

2009 political Calendars

Ben Heine political calendar - november

In spite of the fact that (most of) our blogs' articles deal with cartoon BOOKS, it may be interesting to mention some other cartoon publications: calendars for example.

Highly topical, but with a very different point of view than the next calendar, is the 2009 political illustrations calendar by Ben Heine (Belgium).
Take a look at Bens' blog for other political cartoons and illustrations on the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Ben also has an Artistic Photos calendar , Non-Political Illustrations calendar and a Portraits calendar.

Another calendar is a French political (naked) calendar, drawn by Roland Hours.
You can see al months here : choose dessins - calendrier. Search the naked French president...

Small is beautiful - Zandi Kiyarash Cartoons Album (Iran)

Cartoon books: there a big ones, small ones, thick, heavy, light ones. But there is one other category which I call original ones.
I received the Cartoons Album of Kiyarash Zandi. Zandi is an Iranian cartoonist born in 1971. With an imaginative use of carton he created a small handy album, containing 13 separate cartoons. On the back side of the cartoons, there is contact information of the cartoonist. In fact the cartoons are kind of business cards. Very well found! This is a real good idea. It's very practical too. The album fits in a pocket and on a reception you can surprise your friends with some nice cartoons.
And the cartoons: well, they are very nice indeed.

On the back side:
biography in English

Inside there is a biography in Persian:

On the back side of the cartoons
you find contact information

Thanks to JM!

Learn more:
Kiyarash Zandi biography
Cartoons by Kiyarash Zandi on Qoqnoos
"justice" cartoons by Kiyarash Zandi on Irancartoon