Friday, July 4, 2025

Cartoonists Deserve a Happy 4th of July, Too

 Happy 4th of July.

The 4th of July is just the right day to contemplate and celebrate freedom. That’s what I’ve been doing today.

We might as well kick off the celebration with this little clip by that freedom loving Republican president, Abraham Lincoln:

Letter to Joshua Speed, 1855

One moment to celebrate is that Turkish cartoonist Zehra Ömeroğlu, after five years of court hearings, doesn’t have to go to prison for drawing a cartoon. The Istanbul courts ruled that her cartoons were protected under the Intellectual and Artistic Works Act.

Good news for her, not so good news four other Turkish cartoonists and staff members of the Turkish satirical magazine, LeMan, who were just arrested this week and charged with “inciting public hatred”.

If anything, making cartoons has become an increasingly perilous activity.

In recent years, around the world, ink slingers have been censored, fired, arrested, imprisoned, and in some cases, tortured and killed.

Some make the news globally like the horrendous Charlie Hebdo magazine attack of a decade ago. But most travel under the mass media radar. 

The struggles of Ali Ferzat, Atena Farghadani, Pedro Xavier Molina and many others are rarely known beyond the borders of their own countries.

But beyond outright repression, more and more cartoons of edgy social and political content are disappearing simply because print media editors are backing away, fearful of upsetting one of their few precious remaining subscribers.

Walt Handelsman

In the US, the subtle threat is the incremental censorship and outright abandonment of cartoons.

And publishers aren’t just jettisoning cartoons but the staff cartoonists as well.

Editorial cartoonists are losing their jobs right and left (actually, I guess we could say more left than right).


One of the finest editorial cartoonists in this country,
Kal, (aka Kevin Kallaugher), was just dismissed from the Baltimore Sun (after a 31-year run with the paper!). The new publisher said he found Kal’s work “ultra-liberal’.

Ann Telnaes

Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonists like Ann Telnaes and Rob Rogers have left positions after conflicts over content with their home papers.

Of course it’s not just editorial cartoonists taking the heat.  Graphic novels/ Graphic Memoirs continually make the banned book lists around the country.

Books such as Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese, Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer --and amazingly Art Spiegelman’s Maus experienced a resurgence in repressive interest.

(If you’re wondering why cartoons get more heat, raise a greater ruckus, than the written word, I recommend reading The Art of Controversy by Victor S. Navasky).

If you’re interested in the plight of cartoonists and cartooning as an art form, here are a couple of sites you can check out:

Cartoonists for Peace

Cartoonists Rights

Freedom cartoonists Foundation

Happy 4th of July.

I leave you with this:  China has banned the use of puns.  The government is concerned that punning leads to “Cultural and linguistic chaos”.


Cartoons copyright by their respective holders


Tuesday, July 1, 2025

Molly's Turn: Robert Kingsbury--A Celebration of the Man and His Art


 Robert Kingsbury 

Oct 19, 1925 - June 25, 2025

R.I.P.


Loving, Amazing, Wonderful Man
Here are some images of his creations







     Kingsbury with then wife Linda and their daughter Megan (circa late 1960's)



Robert Kingsbury with Anne Lebowitz and Ben Fong-Torres
(courtesy of Ben and Diane Fong-Torres)








This life size lion and horse are stored in his basement, they are amazing to behold. 

 

One of Kingsbury's life's goal was to make it to 100 years of age. He daily walked Potereo Hill, played baseball with a developmentally disabled baseball team, and taped danced to keep in shape while also doing his daily N.Y.Times crossword puzzles to keep his mind sharpe. He was determined.  Here Kingsbury, his friend Linc, Larry and I are celebrating his 100th birthday with his favorite chocolate cake and wine.
He was so pleased to hear Megan's voice saying
" Happy Birthday Dad. "


I was very very lucky to have Kingsbury in my life from the age of one. He was my favorite "Uncle" all of my life. When the pandemic started to lift, I called his daughter Megan to see if it was okay to come by, she let me know that Kingsbury had developed dementia and most likely would not recognize me. It was one of my greatest delights to walk through the door and have him say "Molly Hagopian !, I haven't seen you in a long time!!'  He did say this over and over :-) as he explained and showed Larry and I many things of importance to him. I am so honored that he had not forgotten me and obviously looked upon me with joy. 
How lucky am I.

To see a full interview with Kingsbury about his life please go to the March 19th 2014 interview under Molly's Turn

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

RIP Al Ardelle circa 1934—2025

Early in his career, Al worked in graphic art and advertising and was a creative director in New York.

He later received a MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in video art.     Al was a photographer, printmaker, painter and videographer. 

He participated in probably a few dozen art shows during my time as visual arts coordinator at the San Geronimo Valley Community Center.  Al was a good guy. 

Here's a sampling of his diverse endeavors.

"Aiko". Woodcut

"Walt Whitman", Woodcut

"Anonymous", Multi-media

A flyer for one of the many documentaries Al worked on


Al with his work at a Spring Art Show opening.
(Photo courtesy of Donn DeAngelo)

Sunday, June 1, 2025

Psychedelic: Rock Posters and Fashion of the 1960's

 

Two posters, under alternating lights, by the masterful Victor Moscoso.

The Portland Art Museum's "Psychedlic: Rock Posters and Fashion of the 1960's" continues until June 15, 2025

Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Made by Human Hands

Now that I'm retired, I'm no longer Visual Arts Coordinator for the San Geronimo Valley Community Center's Maurice del Mue Galleries, but they're still letting me show in the annual Spring Art Show.

I decided to do a cartoon regarding something that is weighing on my mind--the status of hand made drawings.

I started with this doodle in my sketchbook.

After resketching and enlargements, I finally put it on a lightbox for transfer to Bristol Board.


You would think it's one simple cartoon (maybe I'm feeling a bit rusty) but I even did a sample wash rough before applying an India ink wash to the original.




"Made by Human Hands" is hanging in the 35th annual Spring Art Show until May 25.



c Rippee 2025

Monday, May 5, 2025

Happy National Cartoonist Day

 Yes, it’s National Cartoonist Day.

It always seems best to celebrate National Cartoonist Day with the great B. Kliban's classic cartoon.


There's never been a tougher time (or perhaps a better time) to be a cartoonist.

Newspapers in this country are running scared, editors and publishers are dumping cartoonist's work and eliminating staff cartoonist positions. (Or in the case of renowned Washington Post cartoonist Ann Telnaes, quitting in protest over censorship).

This May in London, bizarrely and apparently with no sense of irony, the 'License to Offend' cartoon exhibition was cancelled because of concern that the show might offend. Contributors included cartoonists Morten Morland (of The Times), Mac and Pugh (The Mail), Patrick Blower (The Daily Telegraph) and Martin Rowson (The Guardian).

Morland stated in the press that "These weren’t offensive cartoons. They were cartoons that had already been printed in national newspapers. I’ve never experienced anything like it. It’s an idiotic decision on so many levels.”

Here's the article:

Around the planet we've seen that drawing a cartoon can lead to threats-- and prison. In years past it was cartoonists such as Ali Frezat or Pedro X. Molina. Currently, it includes Atena Farghadani, Zehra Omuraglu, Fahmi Reza and handfuls of other cartoonists in China, Russia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America  (And if you're a British cartoonist don't plan on backpacking around in this country).

And let's not forget the domestic book banning of graphic novels from Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe to Maus by Art Spiegelman.

But cartoonists continue to amuse and annoy...so Happy National Cartoonist Day

Zim

Here's just a few Hall-of-Famers:

The great Golden Age comic book artist, Lily Renee, and magazine cartoonist, Eric Peters (aka Eric Gold/ Goltz). Both of these artists fled the Nazi's during World War II. They met and married in the United States.

One of America's greatest cartoonists, Art Young

Editorial cartoonist Etta Hulme

Jon Kennedy

A. John Kaunus

The wildly creative George Carlson

Harry Lambert, the original artist of "The Flash"

Herb Roth

'Teena' creator Hilda Terry

Magazine cartoonist Mary Gibson

Disney gagman, Roy Williams

Leo Salkin

Curtis Swan

Ed Nofziger

Tom Zib

Magazine cartoonist Merrylen Townsend

Barney Tobey

Husband and wife team "Corka" (Jon Cornin & Zena Kavin).
Both talented artists in their own right.

New Yorker cartoonist Richard Taylor

Helen Hokinson as drawn by cartoonist Chuck Thorndike

Dorothy McKay

Bill O'Malley

Peggy Bacon

Caricaturist Aline Fruhauf
Obit cartoon for Rube Goldberg by Karl Hubenthal

Virgil (Vip) Partch

'Cap Stubbs and Tippie' cartoonist Edwina



'Winnie Winkle' creator Marin Branner 

Ed Wheelan

Gustavo A. Bronstrup

Ray Rohn drawn by H.T. Webster

Pinto Colvig

A. E. Hayward

Fay King


Charles R. Macauley

Billy DeBeck

Gaar Williams
J.R. Williams

Everett Lowry



Copyright the respective copyright holders