Zonder Woorden ? - Een Geschiedenis van België in spotprenten - Without Words ? - A history of Belgium in Cartoons

35 years after the publication of 'L'union fait la farce' by Jo Gérard and Daniel Polet, there's a brand new history of Belgium in cartoons. The books is a magnificent display of the history of our little country in caricatures. Historians Paul Van Damme (1959) and Stijn Van de Perre (1966) did an excellent job.

The first time I got informed of the book was when I saw the presentation in the news on television a time ago. Our members of parliament all  got this book and some politicians were allowed to choose their favourite cartoons.

This is the news item:

Zonder Woorden? Een geschiedenis van België in Spotprenten (Dutch, ISBN 978-90-289-5988-0, Pelckmans Le Cri édit., 49 eur)

Another history of Belgium in cartoons (1976):

Learn more : book reviews (use Google Translate)


De Standaard
Knack magazine
Standaard boekhandel

The foolish and evil Santa Clauses - Les Pères Noël bêtes et méchants

Ho ho ho...

Four of the most cruel and fun books I have, are the 'foolish and evil' (bêtes et méchants) series by Patrick Larme (Lyon, France) and Michel Monteil. I still remember the AH - AHA - HAHA Erlebnis I had , buying two of the four little books in Fnac Lille years ago.

The books aren't cartoon books as such, and the drawer is a comic strip artist and an illustrator, but the humor is universal and I really like artists who can make someone laugh without using (many) words in their cartoons, drawings or gags.

This time of year suites good to present "Les Pères Noel bêtes et méchants" with  its specific kind of humor.

Merry X-Mas to all our readers!
(with special thanks to Patrick Larme for his kind permission)

Other books in this series are:

Les Gobelins bêtes et méchants (goblins)

Les fantômes bêtes et méchants (ghosts)

Les Sorcières bêtes et méchants (witches)

Learn more:

Patrick Larme website

Patrick Larme blog

Like Patrick Larme on Facebook

Comic creator Patrick Larme on Lambiek.net

UK Political Cartoon - www.politicalcartoons.co.uk

Dr. Timothy Benson informed me about the renewed website of the UK Political Cartoon Society.
The site looks great and I'm fond of the Cartoon Books section. I'm  feelling like a kid in a candy shop when I'm seeing all those nice cartoon books!

On the site you can admire and buy new and used cartoon books. Some are rare to find. Here are some examples of books (I own) you can buy on the site:

Learn more:
The Political Cartoon Society

Football cartoon books

To be honest: I know almost nothing about football (soccer)  players, their clubs  and the competitions they play in. I know the rules of the game and it's only when the World Cup is played that I become an addict of the game.

Football cartoons are interesting me more. I saw on TV the UEFA Europa League is on now and I thought it's the moment to present some  football cartoon books you might enjoy.

In 'le foot' (football) by Mordillo, the legendary football player Pelé writes in the introduction: "...today I realise that football can be a source of humor..." The cartoons below prove this statement.

Mordillo 'Le Foot' (Glénat,  isbn 2-7234-3814-7, 2002):

Mordillo 'Le Foot' (Vents d'Ouest, isbn 2-8696-7591-7, 1997)

Faszinatiion Fussball - Cartoon und Karikatur - Stuttgart Award 2006  (Fifa World Cup Germany 2006)

Hat Trick - Zagreb 1998 - the 4th Biennal Internatioal cartoon exhibition:

In memoriam David Langdon (1914 - 2011)

Pics and info provided byJMB

British cartoonist David Langdon passed away aged 97 on 18 November 2011.
You can read the obituary on the site of The Guardian.

Below you can enjoy some work of the artist.

  "Home Front Lines",published in  1941 by  Methuen & Co.

from "Home Front Lines"

from "Meet Me Inside", published in  1946 by Hutchinson & Co

from"The Way I See It", published in  1947 by  Methuen & Co

from  "Look at You", pubished in 1952 by Methuen

The picture belows comes from a fascicule (Punch, 1991), entitled  "The Best of British Cartoonists. n° 1: David Langdon":

This page comes from "Paris Match" magazine, n°99, published 10 February 1951. Other cartoons by David Langdon, appeared in Paris Match in 1955, 1956 and 1959.

Read more:
David Langdon on Wikipedia
The British cartoon archive

One Night of Queen - Gary Mullen (as Freddy Mercury)

Sunday evening I attended the "One Night of Queen" concert in Ostend, performed by Gary Mullen and his band The Works. Wow! What an experience.

Freddy Mercury by Ben Heine

The public, even those aged over 65 in the hall  rocked and rolled whipped up by the rock music of Queen, one of the greatest rock bands ever. (Yes, I'm a fan)




What has this to do with cartoons? Well, it made me think about caricature.

"A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others. (Wikipedia)"


In the world of cartoons, there are caricaturists. Many caricaturists exaggerate and distort. For that reason I won't link to Freddy Mercury caricatures. You'll find them easily on the web. Only few caricaturists (a bad word, in fact they are artists) , the great ones,  are able the pay a tribute to the persons they draw. Karl Meersman is one of those artists who can draw tribute 'caricatures' as I call some work.Another artist is Sebastian Kruger. Unfortunately I didn't find art of them concerning Queen or Freddy Mercury.
Another artist is Ben Heine. From him I found a Freddy Mercury art work.

Tribute art, I like the word. The show I saw wasn't a caricature at all of the great rock band Queen. No, it was a tribute performed by professionals, sounding professional and they hit the heart of the public. Congratulations to Gary Mullen and The Works!

Learn more:
One Night of Queen official site
Gary Mullen videos on YouTube

One of my favourite Queen songs:

Armistice Day 2011 - De Oorlog in Prent by Jan Feith (The War in cartoons)

Is there a better day and a better place to buy an old book with political cartoons of the years preceding and the first year of World War 1? On 11 November 2011 about 11 o'clock and in Passchendaele I bought "De oorlog in Prent" by Jan Feith.

The book was published in Amsterdam in May 1915 (Scheltens & Giltay). As Holland was a neutral country during WWI, the author's point of view is "neutral" too. The subtitle of the book sounds "caricatures from the different countries". There are nine chapters in the book (190 pages): 1. The allegory of war 2. the history of the war 3. what one reproaches the other 4. ruined cities 5. their armed forces 6. war press in the caricature 7. sport as a motive of war 8. leaders of war 9. about neutrality and neutrals.

The book shows a selection of cartoons and caricatures published in newpapers and magazines in the different countries in Europe and the United States (Punch, Simplicissimus, Jugend, The Bystander, Kladderadatsch, Le Matin, Evening Sun, Avanti, Nebelspalter, etc. ) .
The coloured cover is a colour copy of another version of the book. The cover below, the original cover of this book is in black and white. I think this is the original edition of the book, but I am not sure. The edition with the yellow coloured cover can be a later one. If someone can help me find out, let me know.

Learn more:
Armistice Day 2010 - Brushes and Bayonets

Jan Feith on Wikipedia
Jan Feith on Lambiek.net
De Oorlog in Prent (info on Google Books)