Africa and Cartoons - Zemun 2008 catalogue

Jean-Marie recommends everybody the Zemun 2008 catalogue with Africa as theme, and sent us his cartoonbook file.


This is both a thematic cartoon catalogue and a reference book, as it also contains a detailed article, written by Branko Najhold (11 pages written in English & Serbian), titled: “A brief History of African Cartooning”. Such a knowledgeable and interesting book worth to be read.

Ross Thomson and Milenko Kosanovik

Damien Glez (Burkina Faso) and Yves Hemedi Tshianzi (DR Congo):
African cartoon talent

Learn more:
Zemun Cartoon

Cartoonbook file:

Olympic Book - Olymic Sports Cartoons

The Cartoon Aid Olympic Book (1988)

Beijing 2008! Olympics! Time to get familiar with some sports cartoon books.
The thick Cartoon Aid Olympic Book (1988, Cartoon Aid Ltd) is a collection of approximately 500 sports gag cartoons. Not all the cartoons are top quality, but most of it are quite funny. It's a collection of cartoons made by cartoonists form all over the world. No names of the cartoonists are mentioned, only a country flag above the cartoon. I know there are some other editions, one with yellow and one with black cover, but I have no information about this books.

cartoon by Adoni (Cartoon Aid, 1988)
Makes my think of Michael Phelps

cartoon by Roger Blachon (Blachon Sport, 1988)

Who likes sports cartoons, I recommend the book 'Le Sport' by the French cartoonist Claude Serre and of course, the very very funny sports cartoon books of Roger Blachon (who deceased in April), my favourite sports cartoonist!

Le Sport: a 1979 edition above and 1989 edition below

Roger Blachon: always top class sports cartoons:

Detailed info about this books:

The Guillermo Mordillo Books - part 2

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It took a bit of time, but the Mordillo Cartoonbook files now are available.
Every file provides information about the book such as title, publication year, ISBN, number of pages, number of cartoons, dimensions, weight, ...
The information can be helpful to find a book on the web, buy it, and add it to your cartoonbook collection. Happy bidding!

Read more:
The Guillermo Mordillo Books Part 1
Mordillo book covers
Mordillo cartoonbook files (detailed info on most Mordillo books)
Mordillo publications (official Mordillo website)
Other cartoon books you should know

Photocartoon -the great René Maltête

Are photocartoons cartoons? For me they are. In my collection I have some photocartoonbooks. This kind of books are rare. You don’t find them very easy. In “Le Furet du Nord”, one of the biggest bookshops in Europe, (Place Général De Gaulle, Lille, France) I discovered a delightful specimen: “Des yeux plein les poches” by René Maltête (1930-2000,France).

You can see most of the pictures in the book here.

And? Convinced?

Vagabond photographer, poet, humorist, environmentalist before that time, René Maltête had the talent to grab with his lens unusual situations of our daily lives. Funny, poetic, tender, the photos of René Maltête were published in the world press: Stern, Life, Epoca, Camera, Punch, and many exhibits and postcards helped popularize his work.
His photo-gags are for the first time braught together in this album which pays tribute to the work of this great master of photographic humor. He died Nov. 28, 2000.
So what's your opinion on the photo-gags?

Read more (you can use Google Translate):
Maltete on Glénatbd
Book review
Comments on some photo-gags of Maltete
[Des Yeux plein les Poches - Cartoonbook File]

Ha! LE SKI

It's quarter a century old (1982) but these cartoons are excellent, and as it is the theme of the season, it's time to talk about it.

This is the second thematic anthology published by the “Humorists Associated” -"Humoristes Associés", a group of self-managed cartoonists who published by themselves 8 collective cartoon books. Every cartoon has no caption and they all are high quality level. For this book, Mordillo joined in the group of the best French cartoonists, it is to say!

Read more:
Google search for "Humoristes associés"
[Le Ski - cartoonbooks file]

Alessandro Gatto

From Jan 6 untill March 18,2008 you can visit the Alessandro Gatto exhibition in the ECC. Don't forget the catalogue.

"Thousands of works arrive at the Satyrikon competition and those of Alessandro are always a surprise, I recognise his style immediately, magnificent ideas, transmitted with an excellent technique. Alessandro has preserved the soul an sensibility of a child. He is my "Italian" magician."
(Elzbieta Pietraszko, organiser Satyrikon Cartoon Festival Poland, on p.32)


Read more:
Alessandro Gatto website
The exhibition at the ECC
Some pictures of Alessandro
[Alessandro Gatto Cartoonbook File]

The Ten "New" Europeans

From october 7th till december 30th 2007 in the ECC Kruishoutem, there was the exhibition "10+2 New Europeans".
A fine exhibition deserves a fine catalogue. The Ten "New" Europeans - Zehn "Neue" für Europa wants to arouse interest and make "readers" or "visitors" enjoy new aspects and thus make sure that a bridging of East and West (Europe) will succeed.



Read more
10+2 New Europeans
[The Ten "New" Europeans - cartoonbook file]

Cartoon Puzzles

What’s nice about cartoonbooks collecting is that , over time, you have a very diverse collection. Many different styles, different book sizes, different countries, different artists…
This year, at “Boekenfestijn” in Kortrijk I discovered a cartoon puzzle book: “The New Yorker book of Cartoon Puzzles and Games”. The least I can say about the book is that it’s inventive and original!“It’s a puzzle book until you solve the puzzles – then it’s a book of New Yorker cartoons with pencil marks all over it.”
Some puzzles are quite difficult to solve, especially when you’re not a native English speaker. A few examples of my favourite games and puzzles in the book. (the puzzles that most people can solve with a little understanding of English).
“Once removed” – In some captionless cartoons some details have been removed and placed in a box. The game is to match each cartoon with the missing item in the box. Fun!
“Well-ordered” – put drawings from a multipanel cartoon in the prober order
“caption matching” – match a series of cartoons with its caption…

Afterwards I regretted not buying 2 copies of the book, the price was only 3,95 euro. One specimen to keep clean, and one to fill in the answers to the puzzles and games…

Read more:
Cartoonbank
The New Yorker Bookshop
Extended book review by forewordmagazine
[Cartoon Puzzles Cartoonbook File]

Joyeux Noël / Bonne Année

Even if this cartoon book is out of print, it should be - for obvious reasons - the right moment to mention it. This hardcover anthology was published in France by "editions Vents d'Ouest" in 1987 and, who knows, possibly available - as a second-hand book - on some websites like eBay. It's a kind of “two books in one”, as it is reversible: one can read the Christmas part, then one turns over the book and reads the New Year part. Most of these coloured cartoons have a (French) caption. They are drawn by 25 cartoonists. Among them are: Solé (both covers), Bélom, Dany, Pichon, Lerouge, Thomas, Hugot.
Well, it’s my way to wish a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to every reader of the ECC Cartoon Books Club.
Jean-Marie Bertin.

[Joyeux Noël / Bonne Année cartoonbook file ]

Very Important Paintings - Karl Meersman

It doesn’t happen so often to me, but my first reaction when I looked in the new book of Karl was really “wow! fantastic!” And I mean it. ‘Very Impressive Portraits’ (also VIP) that’s the least you can state.
In the introduction, Patrick Duynslaegher calls him ‘the last craftsman’. There are no computers involved! Very honorable is that Karl never wants to offend or scandalize the people he paints, that's to easy. That’s not his way to associate with people. For that reason Karl likes more talking about ‘portraits’ than ‘caricatures’.

Because there was the exhibition of Karl’s VIPS paintings in Gent, I took a look myself. Though I knew the paintings from the book, it was a real pleasure to see the originals. I asked the other people in the exhibition what their impression was. They all agreed: Karl Meersman is an extraordinary talented craftsman. They all enjoyed the exhibition. If the World Olympic Games in China had a discipline for illustrators, we should certainly send Karl. I’m sure, he’s a potential gold medal winner !

“VIP’s is the first collection of Karl Meersman’s remarkable drawings, based on the fascinating (and at times) Laughable world of film, music and television. With these ‘Very Important Paintings’ Karl manages to put into perspective the doings of the Great of the Earth and reduce them to the statue of small, anecdotal passers-by… Life on the red carpet, as revealed by more than 100 artistic gems. Karl Meersman is the artist in residence for Focus-Knack an Trends Magazine.” (Belgium)

Are you looking for an original present for under the X-mas tree or for New Year, VIPS is a good choice!

(with thanks to Roularta Books and Karl Meersman)

Read and learn more:

Visit the site of Karl Meersman (recommended!)
My photo report - pics with comments
The Exhibiton -ended dec 9- use Google Translate
Karl at Press Cartoon Belgium
Roulartabooks.be

[VIPS cartoonbook file]

Cattoonbook

Yes, I must admit: I am a cat lover. We have three cats at home and they are irresistable. A few years ago I found the book “Catdreams” by B. Kliban. A real nice “cattoonbook” in whitch I certainly recognize our cats characters. The Cat of Kliban is loved bij millions.

Cat dreams. Cat plays the trombone. Cat shops, eats spaghetti, and paint. Cat boxes and dances and wrestles.And, of course, Cat sleeps, sunbathes and goes fishing…
In 1970 Kliban introduced the now-classic book Cat.
Never before had we met a cat who could do human things and still seem like a cat.
CatDreams brings together the joyfully mesmerizing paintings Kliban executed for a series of calendars published between 1977 and 1986 and places them toghether with many of his irresistible cartoon drawings.

B. “Hap” Kliban (1935-1990) was an internationally known American cartoonist, humourist, and illustrator. He was a regular contributor to Playboy magazine for more than thirty years and he wrote and drew many books. Pomegranate publishes his paintings of Cat in calendars and in the book of postcards Kliban’s Cats.

Read more :
The official web site of the B. Kliban®Cats. It includes drawings, history and the latest information on the Kliban Cats and their products. www.eatmousies.com (an appropriate name! turn sound on)
B. Kliban at wikipedia
Pomegranate, publisher of Kliban books and calendars

[Cartoonbookfile]

Stamps Talking

As promised to the readers of Scherper, the cartoon magazine of ecc-Kruishoutem, hereby some more information about the little booklet where I wrote about: MAD's Talking Stamps.
Actually it is not a real cartoonbook, but nevertheless it’s funny and original. In the book stamps talk to each other or they give remarks or quote. Some are quite funny.
Some examples: a stamp of a viking ship says to a stamp of The Mayflower sailing to America “Don’t waste your time! The place is a big nothing!”. Or a stamp, showing the first man on the moon, saying “Tell mission control it’s Roquefort!”.

[Cartoonbook File]

The Cartoonbook Files

To inform our readers the best way about cartoonbooks I introduced the “cartoonbook file”.
Additional to a blog post, we can link to an appropriate file called “cartoonbook file” where you get information about the book’s features. Those features are: title, author, cartoonist(s), a picture of the book, ISBN, publication year, publisher, language, number of pages, cartoons, cartoons per page, themes, kind of book, kind of cartoons and so on. In fact it’s a screenprint of a template in my Access 2007 cartoonbook collection database.
In this way information is available in a consistent way.
Any suggestions about the file are welcome.
Important:
We are intended to publish a cartoonbook file for every book we are to review in the blog. For that reason we need of course those data. If you want to review a book, you’ll have to send us the book information. To make ik easy, we made a book review form. Just fill in all data and we’ll do the rest to publish the file. The review will be in the blog, the file on a linked location.

[Click to go to cartoonbook file directory and see some examples]