I’m saddened to write that our dear friend, brilliant CagleCartoonist, and founder of France Cartoons, Robert Rousso, has died. Many of our CagleCartoonists remember Robert from our trips to France. I’ve attached a few of the cartoons he drew for us at the bottom of this email. I miss Robert. I can still hear him singing “Old Man River.”
Robert started working for the press in 1969. He illustrated with humor science stories in the Courrier de l’Environnement de l’INRA. His cartoons were published among other publications, in Siné Hebdo, La Mèche, Charlie Hebdo, Kamikaze, Barricade, Siné Mensuel, Zélium, and in Corsican press with the pseudonym “Pincu”. Read more on Robert’s career.
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.
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!
Robert is an editorial cartoonist and a longtime contributor to our Cagle.com site and our syndication package; he’s the beloved “dean” of the French political cartoonists. (Although some may call him the “titan,” I prefer the “dean.”
Every cartoon fan should make a contribution to get Robert’s book, and to make sure the book is published! At this time, Robert has reached half of his modest fundraising goal.
Robert has a unique quirk where he draws with little curly-cues depicting details that typical cartoonists would not see as curly-cues, like ears and nostrils. Sometimes I think that Robert doesn’t like for his pen to leave the paper. I’ve studied some of Robert’s drawings where I think he actually never lifted his pen. Here’s is Robert’s archive on Cagle.com.
Robert is 82 years old and although he’s been drawing editorial cartoons for many decades, this is his first book! The excellent, French satirical magazine “Zelium” is managing this campaign for Robert, who wrote this note:
It is no wonder that a 82 old timer like me has not yet released an album when we see the job that it represents!
Fortunately Cesare, of the excellent review Zélium, takes care of everything with efficiency and patience.
The most extraordinary thing is that Cesare manages to support me (whereas I do not know how to do it).But there is also something else, and I’ m not talking about the book, and that’ s the outpouring of sympathy and your encouragements, dear colleaguesand dear former strangers (as they are no longer)I want to tell you that only for that, it was worth it –even if it had to stop now. Although, if it continues I will not see any problem!
See you very soon, Robert Rousso
Cartoonists around the world are drawing memorial tribute cartoons for our dear, departed friend Gérard Vandenbroucke, the founder and president of the Salon at St Just le Martel and long time champion of our editorial cartooning profession. Read my obit here. I’ll post new cartoons as they come in.
Gérard was also a politician who rose from being the mayor of the tiny village of St Just le Martel to being the president of the Limousin region of France, famous for their brown cows that are an icon of the cartoon museum – that’s why there are so many cows in the cartoons.
This one by Bob Englehart may require some explanation. Gérard was the mayor of St Just le Martel and he championed the cartoon museum and Salon in the tiny village. St Just le Martel translates to “Saint Just the Hammer.” As the story goes, God told Saint Just to throw his hammer and build a church where it landed; Bob’s cartoon puts Gérard in the St Just role, throwing his hammer to decide where to build the cartoon museum/festival.
Pierre Ballouhey drew Gérard on the left, resuming a conversation with his two deceased pals on a cloud. In the middle is the priest of the lovely, little, medieval church of St Just le Martel. At the right is the late, chain-smoking, French cartoonist Jean-Jacques Loup, a talented cartoonist who curated the exhibitions at the museum for many years.
Here’s another by Pierre, the Limousin cows paint themselves black with grief.
This charming cartoon is by the charming French cartoonist, Placide. The village of St Just le Martel is behind the statue of Gérard, with the cartoon museum in the middle and the medieval church on the right.
The riots in France have been fascinating to watch. The “Giletes Jaunes” (Yellow Vest) protests were triggered by increases in gasoline taxes that French President Emmanuel Macron implemented to discourage people from driving, as part of his battle against Climate Change. The protest movement sees Macron, a rich, former investment banker, as an aloof elite. Those yellow vesters can go “eat cake.”
I love those crazy, historic, giant French hair-doos with depictions of ships and birds and crazy, coiffed, exotic stuff.
Poor and rural “Gilets Jaunes” who must drive to work, donned the yellow vests that they are required by law to keep in their cars for roadside emergencies, as a theme for their protests against Macron and the rich elite that they see as out of touch with their reality. Here’s a class warfare cartoon by my buddy Robert Rousso, the dean of the French cartoonists (“jaune” or yellow, rhymes with “Jones” in French.)
Marie Antoinette is a great cartoon cliché. Here’s a “TRUE!” cartoon I drew back in 1995. This really is true.
Here’s Marie Antoinette as a cow, in a poster I drew for the Press Cartoon Festival in St Just le Martel, France, side by side with a cow sculpture that festival organizer, Blanche Vandenbroucke, dressed to match my poster. I think Blanche did an impressive job!
I’m saddened to write that our dear friend, brilliant CagleCartoonist, and founder of France Cartoons, Robert Rousso, has died. Many of our CagleCartoonists remember Robert from our trips to France. I’ve attached a few of the cartoons he drew for us at the bottom of this email. I miss Robert. I can still hear him singing “Old Man River.”
Robert is an editorial cartoonist and a longtime contributor to our 
Robert is 82 years old and although he’s been drawing editorial cartoons for many decades, this is his first book! The excellent, French satirical magazine “Zelium” is managing this campaign for Robert, who wrote this note:
