Cartoonists killed in France

If you've been listening to the news, then you know that twelve people at the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo were killed today. They included five cartoonists, including the magazine's editor. At least eleven others were wounded.

The cartoonists were Charb (editor Stéphane Charbonnier), Cabu (Jean Cabut), Georges Wolinski, Tignous (Bernard Verlhac), and Honoré (Philippe Honoré).

Wolinski received the Grand Prix of Angoulême in 2005. There's a great article about him, and about cartooning in France, here. I didn't know about him. According to a quick Google search, his cartoons seem to be mostly just really racy.

The always-edgy magazine took pride in knocking over revered figures of all stripes, but its treatment of Islam is probably the most controversial. In 2012, the magazine courted outrage among Muslims by publishing cartoons of Muhammad, causing France to close embassies and schools in over 20 countries out of fear of reprisals (and causing the editor to be guarded by a police officer, who was also killed today). The cartoons were derisive, insulting and in at least one case obscene. And even if they hadn't been, just depicting the face of Muhammad is not done by observant Muslims.

But injunctions like that are to Charlie Hebdo like a red rag to a bull -- particularly where Islam is concerned. France (the white part, that is) has a long and problematic relationship with Islam and Muslims (see "The Battle of Algiers" and the entire 20th century).

The shooting has done little to stir sympathy for anyone offended by the cartoons. Both the French and American governments have condemned the shooting as an act of terrorism and as a doomed attempt to stifle free speech. Thousands of people have chanted or posted "Je suis Charlie!" ("I am Charlie!") in solidarity.

There's a big conversation we could have about the role of cartoonists in liberal democracies. Is a cartoonist meant to knock down anything that someone else puts on a pedestal, out of spite for pedestals? Or does there need to be more to it than that? If a cartoonist doesn't take a swing when she sees an opening, even or especially when it would cause an outcry, is she allowing herself to be censored?

Without excusing the slaughter in any way, I think that Charlie Hebdo (and before them, the Dutch magazine Jyllands-Posten) acted in a childish and oppositional way. Someone said "Don't draw Muhammad," and so they drew the most disgusting cartoons of Muhammad they could think of. Yeah, it's their right, but it's happening in a larger context of French people saying Muslims suck, and that French Muslims aren't altogether French. You don't have to hurl insults in someone's face to establish your freedom of expression. And publishing the cartoons didn't exactly advance the conversation between moderates and extremists -- in France or anywhere else.

But that's academic now. Now, things have gone tragic. Now, twelve people are dead -- including four cartoonists. The world is poorer without them.

Akron Ohio in the Comics News again

Ohio native Derf (John Backderf), author of My Friend Dahmer (yes, that Dahmer) and the alt comic strip The City, has recently been getting a fair amount of attention from both the comics press and mainstream news for his latest book, Punk Rock and Trailer Parks. If you're up in the Akron area visit Square Records (824 W. Market St.) on Friday from 6-8p and maybe you can get Derf to sign your Winnebago.

What is an "arform?"

From About.com Spotlight: Edward Steichen, born on this date in 1879, was a pictorialist photographer at a time when photography was not universally respected as an art form. Steichen worked with his close friend, Alfred Stieglitz, to found Photo-Secession, a group that strived to have photography recognized as a fine art. As curator of NY's Museum of Modern Art, Steichen created the Family of Man exhibition. The collection of 503 photos taken by some 270 photographers in 68 countries was a depiction of the human experience. It was turned into a book, with a forward written by Steichen's brother-in-law, Carl Sandburg.

Quote: "Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man." — Edward Steichen

I know this has nothing to do with comics (so to speak), but when I read blurbs like the one above, it gives me hope for the future of comics (as perceived by the mainstream culture). Maybe Sunday Comix will one day be written about in the same light as Photo-Secession... who knows?

What do Cincinnati Schools, Mainstream Press & Cartooning Have in Common?

There's an AP article about an art class at the University of Cincinnati making the rounds in newspapers & TV outlets. I always find it interesting to read how various outlets of the mainstream press present their reports on various aspects of the comics/cartooning community. They tend to believe their readers/viewers do not accept the art form a "legitimate" one.

For instance, up in Toledo (at the local CBS affiliate, WTOL), they present the report in this way: "CINCINNATI (AP) - For a long time, comic books and comic strips weren't considered college material. But now, things are changing. " And it goes on from there. Whereas in Friday's USA Today and Sunday's Canton (Ohio) Rep, Associate Press writer Lisa Cornwell gives that same conceit a more personal, softer approach, "As a fine arts graduate student in the early 1980s, Carol Tyler felt she had to hide her interest in cartoon drawing from teachers. An art form associated with comic books and comic strips wasn't considered college material."

Ms. Cornwell continues with a broader scope of comics in the classroom:

Now a professional cartoonist and graphic novelist, Tyler began teaching the University of Cincinnati's first comics art class last year.

Other colleges also have started such classes as critical and academic respect for comics has grown. Courses that began in 2005 at the University of Alaska Fairbanks are starting to draw professional artists and public schoolteachers. Monroe Community College in Rochester, N.Y., will start its first course this spring.

Applications have increased by at least 50% at The Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vt., which was founded two years ago and won state approval this year for a master in fine arts degree.

It's nice that the article quickly details all the various opportunities students now have to learn the specifics of this wonderful art form.

The "Once upon a time, comics were only for outcasts... but now, things are different" shtick used to irritate me but I've grown so accustomed to most mainstream reporters hiding behind that conceit, it's kind of blended into the background. I imagine (or, at least hope) that the media will let go of that security blanket in a decade or so.

Anyway, it's nice that I'm provided with another opportunity to give the thumbs up to Carol Tyler. In doing a little background web surfing search for this post, I found that she's the faculty advisor to an interesting student organization down there at UC.