Parodies and pastiches

I really enjoyed this book. It's in the collection of the ECC library. Parodies & Pastiches aus der Sammlung Karikaturen & Cartoons Basel by Jürg Spahr (Basel, 1991, ISBN 3-856-16-043-4). Many cartoons are a parody and sometimes a pastiche, and in fact, that's what's cartooning is about. The book is a fine collection of parodies and  pastiches. It is published as a hommage by the Christoph Merian Stiftung to the founder of the caricature and cartoon collection in Basel (Swiss), Dieter Burckhardt (1914-1991).

What's the difference between a parody and a pastiche? Here are the definitions I found:


A parody is a humorous or satirical imitation of a serious piece of literature or writing.
It's also the genre of literary composition represented by such imitations.
A bit broader, it's any humorous, satirical, or burlesque imitation, as of a person, event, etc.

A pastiche is a literary, musical, or artistic piece consisting wholly or chiefly of motifs or techniques borrowed from one or more sources.Also, it is an incongruous combination of materials, forms, motifs, etc., taken from different sources; hodgepodge.
(source: dictionary.com)

Martial Leiter and Jean-Jacques Loup "Frankensteins dreams"

Arnold Roth - "I'm going to call it 'Oops' "

Wolf Barth - Loakoon - Feuerwehr

Jerzy Flisak  and GIN

Feggo - Mondrian's road sign

Napoleon, after J.L. David - Gradimir Smudja

Mondrians Palette and Begegnung mit Paul Klee, - Caulos

Pointillism parodie - Sergey Tunin

Vincent van Gogh  at the hairdresser

Venus von Milo - Jugoslav Vlahovic

Learn more:
Cartoonmuseum Basel