Congratulations Pol Leurs!

Pol Leurs (Luxemburg) won the third prize "Bronze Hat" at the famous International Cartoon Festival Knokke-Heist 2008. Pol has also a cartoonbook collection and already joined our ECC Cartoonbooks club.
Please visit his brand new website Poleurscartoons and enjoy his cartoons.
Click to see award winning cartoon.

Valentine's Day: Say it with a cartoon(book)

I wish everybody a nice Valentine's Day. Here are two suggestions for those who want to "say it" with a cartoon (book).
Try "Love is ... " by Kim Grove
or, for those who like it more naughty "Paartijd" - "Saison des amours" by the French cartoonist Michel Bridenne.

Learn more:
Love is... official website
[Liefde is... cartoonbooksfile]
[Paartijd cartoonbooksfile]

In memoriam Testu Roger "Tetsu" (1913-2008)

Jean-Marie sent me a mail with the message the famous French cartoonist Tetsu died last week-end. He included 2 pictures of drawings out of his private collection. Tetsu was 94.
Tetsu (who was also a painter, illustrator and novelliste) started drawing in the French press in 1951 (in a total of sixty papers and magazines). He has also drawn in the foreign press: Le Soir (Belgium); Lui, Pardon (Germany); Il travaso (Italy).
In France, he has published 12 cartoon books. The last, in 2004, was entitled "Mauvais Desseins."

In Who's Who in Satire and Humour Band1, I found this information about Tetsu:
Testu's father was a railway inspector who had actually intended his son to become a professor. the son who, for his part, intended to become an artist, pursued both courses, graduating from the Lycee Condorcet and the Faculté des Lettres in Paris, whilst simultaneously studying painting from 1931-1933. The pre-war years were not very successful ones for Testu the artist and, after serving during the war and the period of occupation, he worked as a soap-boiler; becoming the first director of a soap factory, then a dealer in paintings with his own gallery and, finally, commercial director of a company supplying kitchen equipment. In 1953 he gave up his previous activities and began quite out of the blue to draw cartoons which were successful from the very outset. They first appeared in "Noir et Blanc" and soon afterwards also in "Le Figaro Magazine", "France-Dimanche", "Paris Match"... as well as in German and Suiss publications. Apart form his work as an artist and illustrator, he draws advertisements for some big companies. The artist belongs to the so-called Paris School which also includes illustrators as Chaval, Bosc, Trez and Mose. His popularity is founded on the fact that he never draws sex bombs and supermen, but rather Mr. an Mrs. Average types with whom we are all fimiliar.


Read more:
Tetsu article on the blog of cartoonist Mike Lynch
More "Tetsu" cartoons on the Mike Lynch blog
[Who's Who in Satire and Humour Band1 cartoonbook file]

Cartoonbooks in local public libraries 1

Once a month, at least, I visit our public library. It’s always a pleasant experience nosing around discovering new and old books.
It was in the library that I discovered, many years ago, that there existed other cartoonbooks than the Knokke-Heist catalogues, the single cartoonbooks I knew at that moment.
I can state that our library (Wevelgem and Moorsele,Belgium) has a fine book collection. They even have a modest cartoonbook collection. You find them under the categorization code (SISO) 738.8 . Recently a new categorization code is introduced. Now the category is named “About (comic) Strips and Cartoons”.
For the most part the cartoon books are Belgian and they are high-quality. (Knokke-Heist catalogue, Karl Meersman, Pil, O-Sekour, …).
Some foreign books and catalogues would certainly be a valuable extension for the current collection. I am thinking of books of Quino, Mordillo, Serre etc. Perhaps there is a role for us collectors.
Maybe we can deliver valuable suggestions for the development of the public library cartoonbook collections in our town.

What ‘s your opinion?
What cartoonbooks do you find in local public libraries in your country?

Learn more:
Seeking cartoonbooks in the public library of Wevelgem, Belgium (online)

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]

The Guillermo Mordillo Books - part 1

I am a fan of Guillermo Mordillo and I know many of our readers are Mordillo fans too. There are Mordillo books published in many countries: from Germany and France to Iran, China etc.
But how do all those funny books look like? What was the first real Mordillo book ever published? Where to find Mordillo books? In a series of articles to come, I hope, with your help, to make a list of all the Mordillo cartoonbooks ever published. I'll put a picture of the books online and make cartoonbook files of them if I have the information I need.

How to help? Mail a cover picture of your Mordillo book(s) to ecc.cartoonbooks@gmail.com if the book isn't mentioned in our Mordillo Book List

Click to see a list of all Mordillo book pictures we have for the moment. Later on I'll sort the book pictures by publication date.

See Mordillo Cartoonbook files for detailed information about the Mordillo books.

Learn more:
the Guillermo Mordillo Books Part 2Other cartoon books you should know

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]

21.780 cartoonbooks and a Happy New Year

One month after the start of the ECC Cartoonbooks Club, I am happy to tell that our first members have, all together, at least a collection of 18.780 cartoonbooks. When I consider the collection of the ECC, another 3.000 books, I come to a number of 21.780 cartoonbooks: 2 1 7 8 0 ! To be honest, I must admit that amongst our members there are some "big" and "very very big" collectors. If you only have a relative "small" collection or if you just started collecting: don't be overwhelmed by all these numbers.
It just tells us that, and that's the point, you can reckon on the expertise and help of our members and relations when you want to know anything about cartoonbooks. Just ask us any question about cartoonbooks or blog article, and we'll search for you the answer.

Above all I want to thank all the people I corresponded with the last months: collectors, especially JM Bertin, cartoonists, people of the ECC in Kruishoutem. Their friendship was and is is a genuine stimulus.

I hope that in 2008 more cartoonbook lovers will join our Club. Cartoonbooks collecting brings together people from many countries. We already have members in Cuba, Thailand, Turkey, France, Germany, Holland, Luxemburg, Belgium... and people from about 30 countries visited our blog.

So if you are a cartoon lover too, let us know and join the Club now!

Happy and Funny 2008!