This weekend was really fun. Friday there was the opening of 3 new exhibitons in the ECC and Saturday, I attended the press conference and opening of the Knokke Heist Cartoon Festival. I had the opportunity to meet with and talk to some of the best artists in the world of cartooning... Kevin Kallaugher (US), Karl Meersman (B),
Allessandro Gatto (I),
Michel Bridenne (FR), Ludo Goderis (B), Riber Hansson(S)... For the weeks to come, I have stuff enough for our blog. Let's start with the Knokke Heist International Cartoon Festival 2009. First of all: congratulations to the organisers of this festival and exhibition for the high quality standard of the work and artists.
press kit
During the summer months, Knokke-Heist will be hosting the 48th cartoon festival, welcoming humoristic drawings, parodies of current situations or simply portrayals of something comic. It will come as no surprise that the political situation in Belgium in the last year provided plenty of fodder for the razor-sharp pens of cartoonists.
International guest cartoonists: Kevin Kallaugher (US) & Joep Bertrams (NE)
Kevin Kallaugher (KAL) is the editorial cartoonist for The Economist magazine of London. After graduating from Harvard College with honors in 1977, Kevin embarked on a bicycle tour of the British Isles, where he joined the Brighton Basketball Club as a player and coach. After the club hit financial difficulties, Kevin drew caricatures of tourists in Trafalgar Square and on Brighton Pier. In March 1978, The Economist recruited him to become their first resident cartoonist in their 145 year history.
with Kevin Kallaugher
I a later article, I'll present some books of KAL.
Dutch guest cartoonist,
Joep Bertrams (Roermond, 1946) originally worked as a political cartoonist with a series of animated cartoons for current affairs programme, NOVA, in the Netherlands. The International Cartoon Festival will be showing a selection of this cartoonist’s brilliant animations.
visitors enjoying the animated cartoons of Joep.
Karl Meersman
Karl Meersman (Temse, 1961) is a graphic artist who is strongly attracted by satiric drawings. Hereby the artist is influenced by the tradition of Felicien Rops, Honoré Daumier and Toulouse Lautrec. As a political drawer he was noticed first by Trends Magazine. From 2002 on het started to work for Focus Knack. The work of the artist is a comment on the socio-economic reality and the world of the showbiz.
The International Cartoonfestival of Knokke-Heist shows the short film Imagine. In the film the artist takes us for a walk through nature and cities and shows us how reality serves as inspiration for his drawings.
In the rock world, you have Sting, Bono, Mark Knopfler... in the cartoon world you have Karl Meersman, ... so you can think I was very happy to meet Karl personally for the first time in Knokke.
Michel Bridenne (left person) was very impressed
by the art of Karl. "So young and such level... he can
publish all over the world... every publisher will
love his work"
The 2009 international competition: the winners
winner Musa Gümüs on the cover of the catalogue 2009
the organisation committee and the winners
As was the case in previous years, the International Competition was a huge success. More than 372 participants from 72 countries submitted 2,595 cartoons. After lengthy consultation, the jury decided to award first prize, the Gouden Hoed, to Turkish cartoonist Musa Gümüs; Belgian cartoonist Ludo Goderis and the Italian Alessandro Gatto received the Zilveren Hoed and Bronzen Hoed respectively. The 2008 Public’s Prize went to the Belgian cartoonist, Rob Verdonck. Since 2004, the Davidsfonds also presents a prize to talented cartoonists. In 2009, the award went to Luc Vermeersch, who hails from Ypres.
Ludo Goderis (Belgium) - Silver Hat
Allessandro Gatto (Italy)
Luc Vermeersch (Belgium) - Davidsfonds Prize
Rob Verdonck (Belgium) - Public Prize
Press Cartoon Belgium (PCB) is this year celebrating its 10th anniversary.
PCB Winner Kroll
Press Cartoon Europe
The PCE (Press Cartoon Europe) is an initiative of PCB (Press Cartoon Belgium) in association with the International Cartoon Festival of Knokke-Heist (Belgium). This new award is to be presented annually for the best cartoons published in any European Union member state.
The competition is open to all press cartoonists who publish in any newspaper or magazine available to the general public in any EU member state. Participation is free of charge.
The PCE award is judged by a panel of journalists accredited to the European Parliament in Brussels, who will convene on Wednesday 18 February 2009 at the Brussels’ Royal Flemish Theatre to select one grand prize winner to be announced the same day.
mr Riber and I : I hope to present some work of this great Swedish
cartoonist in later articles
The PCE grand prize carries a cash prize of 10,000 euro and a bronze statue designed by the Belgian illustrator Ever Meulen.
Festival info:
Entrance tickets:
Adults €5
55+, students, Teacher’s card 4€
6 – 12 years, Uitpas, CJP, Knackclub, Davidsfonds, Groups (min. 10) € 2.5
Children (0-6): free
Information: Scharpoord Cultural Centre, Meerlaan 32, 8300 Knokke-Heist
Starting from 1999 Japunch publishes several cartoon books without captions in Japan; each book covering a specific theme. From the second book the editorial cartoonist Norio Yamanoi is replaced by the humour cartoonist Macoto Ayuzawa. The other Japunch members are: Kamakiri Uno, Kazuo Ozawa, Ryu Kumita, Kaz O. Kuroïwa, Yukiyoshi Tokoro and Kenji Morita.
Published in 1999, "Catoon." about cats.
Kamakiri Uno 
Kaz O. Kuroïwa 
Ryu Kumita 
Maco (Macoto Ayuzawa) 
Yao Ken (Kenkichi Yaoita)
Published in 2000, "Bbow Woww." about dogs 
Published in 2005, "I Love Sports." 
