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Disappointment in France

I was saddened to learn that the highly anticipated, new, national center for editorial cartoons in France was granted to the city of Paris, rather than the village of St. Just le Martel in the French countryside. Cartoonists from around the world have been writing letters and drawing cartoons, in support of St. Just’s bid for the new “Maison” or “House” of editorial cartoons, which will be a combination of a museum and center for events and lectures about “press cartoons.” St Just le Martel is the home of the only museum dedicated to editorial cartoons –and the home of a wonderful, annual “Salon” where international cartoonists have built friendships with a charming local community of fans that chose to support our profession decades ago.  Clearly, what the world’s cartoonists wanted wasn’t important to the decision makers in France. I’m putting cartoonists’ protest cartoons at the bottom of the page.  Scroll down.

French president Emmanuel Macron announced the selection of Paris this week. There isn’t any other nation with a national center for editorial cartooning, and our troubled profession should appreciate that anything is being built at all.  Still, what should be a happy day is a sad day for us. The fear is that a much bigger and better funded “Maison” will overshadow our beloved Salon in St. Just le Martel.

Here’s a statement from our friends in St. Just le Martel, followed by a statement by my friend and CagleCartoonist, Pierre Ballouhey, who is the president of “France Cartoons,” the professional organization for cartoonists in France.

INTERNATIONAL CARTOONING CENTER – SAINT JUST LE MARTEL – France – Press Statement January 2022.

The management of the Center is stunned by the notification of French President Emmanuel Macron to refuse the implantation of the European Cartooning House in Limousin area. Paris localisation was prefered was preferred, even though the infrastructure already exists in Limousin, and had many advantages, of security, experience, and recognized legitimacy.

It is a feeling of contempt and injustice that prevails here at the Caricature Center among all the volunteers. Seeing over 40 years of investing in the defense of Freedom of Expression through the cartoonish swept away by political choice without any justification leaves you speechless.

This choice goes against all the announcements, all the considerable assets, know-how, memory, commitment of the population of Saint Just Le Martel and local elected representatives of Limousin, to defend what already existed since 1982.
It is also a slap in the face to the 250 cartoonists who every year are travelling in september to Saint Just Le Martel for the International Festival, and who where mobilized in their large majority in favor of this place of meeting and celebration of Freedom of Expression.

The management of the Center dispute this decision because it fundamentally contravenes the interests of this project, in particular through a decentralization supposedly promised in the general policy speech of the Prime Minister.

We contest this project, because it goes against the flow of cultural opening up, even though Saint-Just Le Martel is easily and quickly accessible being at 1 hour from Paris by plane, or 3 hours by train or road.

We contest this project, because it discredits and denies all the experience of organizing exhibitions, and the very strong link that binds the community of designers to the International Center of Saint Just Le Martel, with more than 2,500 partners through the five continents.

Finally, we dispute it, because it goes against all the previous investments, made jointly, by European funds, the state, the Region, the Department, the Municipality in 2011. All had testified to the recognition and legitimacy of this place to make it the sanctuary of the defense of Freedom of Expression through satirical drawing.

________________________

Here’s the call for cartoonists to submit drawings protesting President Macron’s decision, by France Cartoons’ president, Pierre Ballouhey.

Dear Colleagues,

The javelin was thrown by Macron and it was stuck in his feet. The famous Maison du Dessin de Presse et de la Satire will be in Paris, not in Saint-Just. One more cultural space in the Capital.

It’s a pity, the usual franchouillard jacobinism, a foot in the nose of decentralization, contempt for the regions.

Disappointment for most of the cartoonists from all over the world who would have preferred Saint-Just-le-Martel-Limoges. They will continue to meet every autumn in their natural habitat of Limousin…

Send your drawings of disapproval and support to the Center [email protected]. They will be printed and exhibited in an event in Saint-Just, France-Cartoons will be represented by Placide.

Pierre BALLOUHEY
Président de France-Cartoons

Here’s Pierre’s cartoon and more from some other disappointed cartoons. (Note that St Just le Martel is in an area that is known for its cows, and the Salon is represented by a cow mascot, “Justine”.)Pierre Ballouhey

 

Laurent Battistini

 

Rainer Hachfeld

Biz

Batti Babache

 

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Cagle Cartoonists in France!

I just got back from our big convention at the editorial cartooning festival in the little village of St Just le Martel, France.

The French call editorial cartoons “press cartoons” and editorial cartoonists are “dessinateurs de presse.”  It was a struggle to get our dessinateurs de presse together for a group Cagle photo this year! Here’s one attempt.

CagleCartoonists above, standing from left to right are Iranian exile and new Cagle.com cartoonist, Hasan Kareimsdeh, Pierre Ballouhey from France, Manny Francisco from the Philippines, Gatis Sluka from Latvia, on top of the cow in the red hat is Cristina Sampaio from Portugal, standing below her is David Fitzsimmons, Ed Wexler, Steve Sack, Adam Zyglis and Pat Bagley. Kneeling or sitting from left to right are Christo Komarnitsky from Bulgaria, Jeff Koterba, me (Daryl Cagle), Emad Hajjaj from Jordan and Gary McCoy.

And here’s another attempt about fifteen minutes later with two new French CagleCartoonists added on the left, Robert Rousso and Jean-Michel Renault. Others wandered off. We missed seven or eight of our CagleCartoonists who were in St Just and didn’t show up for either photo. The cats just won’t stay in one place, and they don’t come when called.

This short video shows about half of our CagleCartoons Trump vs. Iran exhibit at St Just. We also participated in two other exhibits there, one bashing The New York Times for dropping editorial cartoons, and another, of memorial cartoons for the festival’s beloved founder, Gerard Vandenbroucke, who passed away in the last year.

https://youtu.be/54vreTdaJQ4

My charming and generous St. Just family, Greg and Geraldine Decoster, who hosted us, in the cartoon museum with me and my cartoonist/musician son, Michael.

I’ve been coming to St Just for seven or eight years now and it has grown into an effective Cagle Cartoons convention for us. There is no other festival for editorial cartoons in the world that is anything like it. All the folks in the little village turn out to welcome the cartoonists, who they host in their homes. The cartoonists bond with their local host families and stay with the same family year after year. The charming and generous St. Just family, Greg and Geraldine Decoster, who hosted me and my cartoonist/musician son Michael, are shown in the photo at the right, in the cartoon museum.

The town’s teenagers are waiters at the huge, impressive dinners for the many editorial cartoonists from around the world. The video below was created by our CagleCartoonist, David Fitzsimmons, which shows the dinner scene, along with showing the cool editorial cartoon museum, the cute little town, St Just’s medieval church, the presentation of the cow to the cartoonist of the year (Swiss cartoonist, Thierry Barrigue) and more. (See my son, Michael drawing on the table at dinnertime in the video.)

 

Here are a bunch of Americans drinking and carousing at the home of Steve Sack‘s lovely St Just family (who prefers to remain anonymous).

Who are we?  From the bottom going clockwise: in the red shirt there’s Jeff Koterba, in the lower left is my cartoonist/musician son, Michael, moving up and around the table, there’s Ed Wexler, Gary McCoy, Steve Sack‘s son and daughter-in-law Adam and Mandy, Dave Fitzsimmons, Ed Wexler‘s daughter Sarah, Adam Zyglis, Dave’s wife Ellen, Pat Bagley‘s girlfriend Kate and Pat, Steve Sack, and Ed Wexler‘s wife Toni. I’m missing from the photo. (Maybe I’m taking the picture, holding that mysterious glass of red wine.)

The festival (or “salon” as they call it) is growing and this was their biggest year out of nearly 40 years in existence, and they are taking on an increasingly important role for our troubled profession. St Just le Martel is much appreciated!  Thanks everyone!

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Trump and Iran

I’ve been working on putting together cartoons for a CagleCartoons exhibition in St Just le Martel’s lovely cartoon museum on the topic of Trump and Iran. Here’s my cartoon from yesterday …

I got the idea for my cartoon while mulling over this wonderful, new cartoon by Pierre Ballouhey, which makes a point that is rather different …

 

I’d like to welcome Canadian cartoonist Guy Parsons, who recently joined Cagle.com and PoliticalCartoons.com with this cartoon poking the Trump-hive …

 

These two cartoons about the Straits of Hormuz by Arend van Dam made me laugh …

Here’s Steve Sack‘s take on the Straits of Hormuz …

 

And here’s Stephane Peray‘s take on the Straits of Hormuz …

 

Here’s my last one on Trump and Iran …

Our photo-realistic cartoonist, Bart van Leeuwen drew this Trump and Iran cartoon …

We’ve got a lot of great Trump and Iran cartoons. It will be a great exhibition – starting the last weekend in September and running for a while.

 

 

 

 

 

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CagleCartoonists Meet in France

Every year, CagleCartoonists get together at the big editorial cartoons (they call them “Press Cartoons”) convention in St Just le Martel, France. The small village has dedicated itself to our art form, building a grand cartoon museum and hosting a great party for us. The museum is run by local volunteers; the townsfolk put most of the cartoonists up in their homes and they cook for us, and give us an open bar, and the teenagers in town are our waiters! I can’t imagine anything like that happening in the USA.

It is a delight to visit St Just and see our profession held in such high esteem.  Because of the generosity and support of the village, it is actually cheaper for the cartoonists to come to the convention in St Just than to go to our own, American cartoonist conventions.

This year we had 17 CagleCartoonists from around the world at St Just –you can see 14 of them in the group photo above. That’s our bovine Statue of Liberty looking us over, in the cartoon museum, at our “Trump: Nine Months Later” exhibit.

Our own Angel Boligan went home with the cow –the big annual prize in St Just. Congratulations to Angel!

The CagleCartoonists above are, from left to right: Manny Francisco (Singapore), Angel Boligan (Mexico), Christina Sampaio (Portugal), Pierre Balouhey (France), Pat Bagley (Utah), Gatis Šļūka (Latvia), Steve Sack (Minnesota), Osmani Simanca (Brazil), Monte Wolverton (Washington), Bill Schorr (California); Ed Wexler (California); Jeff Koterba (Nebraska) and Emad Hajjaj (Jordan). I’m seated in the front. Missing from our group photo (and probably hiding in the museum’s bathroom) are Rainer Hachfeld (Germany), Jos Colignon (Holland), and Christo Komarnitski (Bulgaria).

 

 

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My Exhibition in Belgium

I’ll be having an exhibition of my work in Ville de Virton, Belgium. If you’ll be around – come and meet me! The exhibition opening is May 18th at 6:30pm at the Caves de l’Hotel de Ville de Virton.

I’m a guest of the excellent Festival International de la Caricature de la BD du Dessin de Press et d’Humour in Rouvroy-Virton Belgium, near Luxembourg, May 19, 20 and 21. I’ll be sitting around doing drawings for folks and I’ll probably give a couple of lectures. This festival is organized by France-Cartoons, the association of French cartoonists that I got to know from the editorial cartoonists Salon in St Just le Martel, so it is my old buddies I travel to hang with. It is cool, and it looks like they have a Trump theme this year! heir poster is funny.