Do-it-Yourself

I'll be busy with some work at my home for the next weeks...

Be fore starting I took a look at this do-it-yourself cartoon book edited by Mark Bryant (Exley, ISBN 1-85015-509-7, 1994). It's part a series "The world's greatest... cartoons" (businees, cats, rugby, dad, golf...)

To be honest, for me personally this aren't the greatest cartoons ever in their genre... but some are really funny. Most cartoons in the book have captions.

Roland Fiddy

Fleo

Daumier's Law and Paul McCartney

Jean-Marie recently asked me if I knew about the existance of the Bafta winning animated short film Daumier's Law, from 1992. It's a 15-minute animated film directed by Geoff Dunbar and a project by Paul and Linda McCartney. The film re-creates the drawings of French artist Honoré Daumier. Paul McCartney composed the music.

This is a masterpiece. Like it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-WlJ3ZXZc4

I found a German Wikipedia article about the movie.

Cahier de l'art mineur: William Hogarth (1697 - 1764)

In Lille, 2 weeks ago,  I accidentally found this small book: "Cahier de l'art mineur: W.Hogarth" (association LIMAGE, issn 0339-3429,1977, 54p.). It's a part of a series of "notebooks" (cahiers) about graphic artists as W.Busch, Steinlen, Albert Robida, etc.)

The book is a French introduction to the art of the great William Hogarth.

"William Hogarth (10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic, and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects". Knowledge of his work is so pervasive that satirical political illustrations in this style are often referred to as "Hogarthian".[1]" (Wikipedia)

Hogarth is one of the pioneers in caricature and fortunately there is an incredible amount of information available on the internet.

Here is a very interesting link to start your Hogarth trip:
http://www.william-hogarth.de

The bruiser

Some of the Principal Inhibitants of the moon

The Time smoking a picture

 To understand the drawings of Hogarth, you have to take a good look at the work...

Gin Lane

and then you can discover this:  (source: Web Gallery of Art)

Gin Lane - 1750-51 - Etching and line engraving, 359 x 341 mm

"Among the strong didactic pieces by Hogarth is Gin Lane, his graphic lecture on the evils of drinking gin. "Idleness, poverty, misery and distress, which drives even to madness and death" - this is the price one pays for indulgence in this poison. The companion print, Beer Street, encourages the use of this beverage, for, as Hogarth said, it is an "invigorating liquor" and on this street "all is joyous and thriving. Industry and jollity go hand in hand." No modern copywriter could produce a more persuasive argument.

In most of Hogarth's plates one does not look for expert handling, for he used his craft to tell a story rather than to demonstrate a technical skill - which he did not, in fact, possess. We "read" his pictures. We must examine every section of the plate, as we would read every page of a book to know everything that happens.

In the lower left-hand corner is the notorious gin cellar. Over the entrance is an inscription: Drunk for a Penny/Dead Drunk for Two Pence/Clean Straw for Nothing. On the lower right is a cadaverous itinerant ballad seller who also retails gin and obviously has imbibed more than he has sold. In the background, the buildings are empty or toppling - the area is rapidly becoming a slum. In one exposed room a man has hanged himself. In the right middle section there is some gaiety, some fighting, and much drinking.

In front of a pawnshop on the other side of the square, a carpenter is trying to pledge his tools, a housewife her pots. Their receipts will, of course, go for gin. The most horrible scene is in the foreground, where a woman, breasts exposed and a drunken grin on her face, reaches for a pinch of snuff. She has lost her grip on her child, who falls over the railing to the pavement below. Hogarth's point is well made."

In memoriam Professor Takasi Sekiguchi

On 12 June Takasi Sekiguchi, 52 years old, passed away because of lymph cancer. He was a professor of Tokyo Polytechnic University and a teacher of Tama Art University. He has been an outstanding member of the "MANGART" group, whose aim is to fuse the aesthetic and conceptual approach of manga (comics) and art into one genre, since 1986. He was also an editorial cartoonist as a regular collaborator of Asahi Shimbun, as well as an advertising artist. His cartoons and posters were awarded in several international contests.
Cartoon art will miss him; his colleagues expected him to lead Japan cartoon field as a next generation.

Here are three of his books: Black & White Humor. 1983-1992 ; Black & White Humor. Underground, both self-published in Yokohama in 1992 ; and Freeze!, published by Art Box in Tokyo in 2005.

JMB

Stefaan Provijn - STEF Cartoons

Last Friday Belgian cartoonist STEF (Stefaan Provijn) presented his brand new cartoon book  and exhibition in the beautiful village Sint-Martens-Latem (Belgium) where he lives. The guests were welcomed really kindly at the opening.

21 cm x 21 cm and 84 pages, 80 really funny cartoons

Cartoons of Stef can be just very witty, in other cartoons there is a deeper layer  and sometimes Stef is inspired by fairy tales. Enjoy a few examples and you'll notice why Stef is a top cartoonist.

Castle life

Revenge

Burka Fashion

Stefaan signing copy of his cartoon book

Stefaan is a freelance graphic designer, illustrator and cartoonist. As you see on the pictures below, Stefaan let the guests savour a new Belgian beer called Paljas, brewed by a nephew of the cartoonist.  Stefaan designed the logo with the happy chappie on it, as you can spot on the bottle and drinking glasses.

And yes, the beer tastes like the cartoons of Stef: excellent!

the logo Stefaan designed for the Paljas beer

I think this beer wil become one of my favourites... it tasted excellent

Learn more:
Stefaan Provijn's website
Paljas Blond - great new Belgian beer
Stefaan Provijn - ECC In-House cartoonist 2008

The book costs 15 euro and you can buy it by contacting STEF at stefaan.provijn@skynet.be

Sidney Harris : science and humour

Talking about scientific cartoons, Jean-Marie told me we surely should mention Sidney Harris.
He's a specialist of the scientific cartoon, not only in the field of physics and cosmology , but also in many other fields such as medicine, psychology, ecology, anthropology, biology, technology , paleontology, computer ...

 “No scientific topic is safe from Sidney Harris’s pen. Harris’s insightful cartoons, which grace bulletin boards and laboratory doors everywhere, have become every person’s window into the often baffling and weirdly funny side of science and scientists. Harris’s cartoons have appeared in publications as diverse as The New Yorker, Science, Saturday Review, American Scientist,Playboy, U.S. Medicine, Punch, The Chronicle of Higher Education, National Lampoon and Discover.”

Sidney Harris

Here are some cartoon books by the artist, with many thanks to Jean-Marie for the information:

Harris, Sidney	So Far, So Good		Playboy Press	Chicago		1971
Harris, Sidney	Savants en folie		Belin	Paris		1982
Harris, Sidney	What’s so Funny About Business?		Willliam Kaufmann	Los Altos		1986
Harris, Sidney	Een computer is ook maar een mens	{1984}	Mondria	Hazerswoude		1989
Harris, Sidney	Quoi ! C’est ça, le Big Bang ?		Le Seuil	Paris		1992
Harris, Sidney	From Personal Ads to Cloning Labs		W. H. Freeman and Co	New York		1993
Harris, Sidney	Stress Test. Cartoons on Medicine		Rutgers University Press	New Brunswick		1994
Harris, Sidney	The Interactive Toaster		Crisp Publications	Menlo Park		1996
Harris, Sidney	Einstein Atomized		Copernicus	New York		1996
Harris, Sidney	There Goes the Neighbourhood. Cartoons on the Environment		The University of Georgia Press	Athens, Georgia		1996
Harris, Sidney	Freudian Slips		Rutgers University Press	New Brunswick		1997

Learn more:
Sidney Harris (Wikipedia)