From: "Ana von Rebeur" <anatinta@yahoo.com.ar>
Subject: Repeated ideas in cartoons
To: dq-cartooncommittee@yahoogroups.com
Dear Committee:
I am very glad at reading all the interesting opinions of the last days .
I just come from Piracicaba Cartoon Competition in Brasil, were I was jury member and they got more than 1100 cartoons from 45 different countries. They have made a preselection , were the jury had to vote for the last 273 selected cartoons. This was a good experience for this debate because we talked with the cartoonists who did the pre-selection, and they said they were fed up with hundreds of identical cartoons ( not the technique, but the same subject) , and they tried to leave only the best of each similar " subject" for us to choose on the final round . But even though we had to make a selection of a limited portion of the total ammount of cartoons sent, we, the members of the jury ( among them was Marlene Pohle, FECO general president and commader in chief) noticed some cartoons that were not selected because they are repeating subject we already saw hundreds of times before . To see the same idea over and over again is boring and nobody wants to award that idea. So, you shouldn´t be preocuppied that jury members will award a copìed or repeated cartoon , except they don´t have experience as jury members . I was a jury member 8 times befores and I have seen all kind of cartoons already , and most jury members recognise a repeated one .
I am not saying that everybody copies everybody. On the contrary, I think that sometimes, several cartoonists have the same idea, simultaneously or over the years. It even happened to me that I made a cartoon about a laberynth or maze full of tiny humans and giant mouses looking them and saying " It seems that they will not find the exit!" . And two years later , a cartoonist accused me of copying his cartoons, that had an identical idea with different composition of the drawing .He was offended while I was delighted of seeing that two people in two differnet continents can have such a sincronization of thoughts to have the same idea . I felt he was my soul mate, and he didnt felt that way!
In fact, when I thought of the laberynth for humans , I though it was an original idea, though it was not hard to do because it is a tipical "transposition" ( change of places) kind of joke...
I also remember a great cartoon made by Ucranian Oleg Dergatchov who was published in Tanz - O - Caricatuire Iranian magazine together with identical idea made by an Iranian cartoonist: It was a lighted match inclined towards a group of non - lighted matches that seem to hear the one that is on fire . just a second befores putting on fire the heads of the rest of the matches. Oleg is full of ideas I am sure he doesnt need to copy nobody, and that was another happy coincidence .
But if you want to win awards in intrenational cartoon contests , you should avoid certain subjects beacuse jury members are already tired of seeing them.
So, I suggest that instead of comparing repeated cartoons that may offend well intentioned cartoonists that think on the same wavelength , we should put a list of cartoons not to be drawn for the next 20 years ( then, when everybody forgot them, you may draw them again!)
This is my list, you can add your own " taboo cartoons" to it! :
- Evolution of man ( you know , from monkey to homo erectus to what you like ...man with remote control, to woman in high heels, to man with oxigen mask, or to monkey again)
- Penguins in peril because of global warming
- Fishes with oxygen mask in poluted water
- Soldiers marching and changing the direction because there is a banana peel on the road.
- Peace doves ( peace pidgeon with olive branch on the beak)
- Noahs Arks
- Moses dividing waters
- Human uses of animal parts ( elephant trunks or jiraffe necks )
- Humans in a laberynth with mice looking at them .
-A lighted match inclined towards a group of non - lighted matches that seem to hear the one that is on fire . just a second befores putting on fire the heads of the rest of the matches. ( ha, ha !)
Note 1 : Jury members priorize the joke that is really funny and makes us laugh, not so much the technique or poetic idea. Humor must be funny in the first place.
Note 2: Castaways in dessert islands , a much repeated cliche in past times, are now luckily not seen anymore...
Maybe is time to draw "dessert island" cartoons again ?
Best regards
Ana von Rebeur
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