Post by JD on Oct 2, 2004 10:02:40 GMT -5
Howdy, all,
I'm back from my week long excursion into France, the first half spent at the expo of cartoonists known as the Salon de St. Just le Martel.
What a trip! What a life changing experience! It was like my first NCN Con all over again, but on a global scale.
In my experience, the NCN cons attract about %5 international attendees (mostly the strong Japanese contingent with a sprinkling of Canadians & Brits -- yo Steve, my bruthaman!).
At St. Just, the majority were French, naturellement, since this thing happens smack dab in the middle of nowhere in France. St. Just le Martel is a tiny cow town near Limoges ,(which is much easier to find on a map than SJlM). The town has 2000 inhabitants. and yet, the
population must triple or more for this event, which takes place on two
successive weekends in September & October.
So I'd guess about 65% of the attending cartoonists, & caricaturists were
French, with the rest from all over. I met Japanese, Brits, Czechs, Indian, Portuguese, Brazilian, Roumanian, Belgian, German, Argentine, Syrian, Greek & Morrocan attendees.
Some new true giants of a our art form were present: a guy named Antonio from Portugal is a new (to me) colossus. I became friendly with a sardonic (drop dead) Lou Reed lookalike from France who goes by Loup. You may well have seen his work: he does two famous types:
1.) these mind boggling, intricate, huge scale puzzles that show astounding
detail , of scenes such as a medieval fortress being sacked, or a colosseum, or a haunted castle.
Each square incha has a lovingly rendered cartoon showing some aspect of the of the absurdist folly of humanity. Imagine "Where's Waldo?" if it was all very well rendered, fascinating & funny as hell.
2.) a great book I had to pick up in which he deals with one theme: artists &
their work.
Many work off the same set up: do a comic riff on a famous artist's work. He
has homages to Picasso, to Christo, to Magritte, and many others. They are all fantastic, and true to the original artist's vision.
I became Jeff Danziger's "new best friend" ;-), as we were the only two
Americans present.
If the name sounds familiar, but you can't place the style, here's a profound
recent caricature from this current Great American Editorial Cartoonist :
www.msnbc.com/comics/editorial_content.asp?sFile=jd040924
Looking at this cartoon, it's easy to understand that Danziger's personal
history includes a stretch as a grunt in Nam.
My mind still reels... more later , to come in an article for Caricature mag...
JD
I'm back from my week long excursion into France, the first half spent at the expo of cartoonists known as the Salon de St. Just le Martel.
What a trip! What a life changing experience! It was like my first NCN Con all over again, but on a global scale.
In my experience, the NCN cons attract about %5 international attendees (mostly the strong Japanese contingent with a sprinkling of Canadians & Brits -- yo Steve, my bruthaman!).
At St. Just, the majority were French, naturellement, since this thing happens smack dab in the middle of nowhere in France. St. Just le Martel is a tiny cow town near Limoges ,(which is much easier to find on a map than SJlM). The town has 2000 inhabitants. and yet, the
population must triple or more for this event, which takes place on two
successive weekends in September & October.
So I'd guess about 65% of the attending cartoonists, & caricaturists were
French, with the rest from all over. I met Japanese, Brits, Czechs, Indian, Portuguese, Brazilian, Roumanian, Belgian, German, Argentine, Syrian, Greek & Morrocan attendees.
Some new true giants of a our art form were present: a guy named Antonio from Portugal is a new (to me) colossus. I became friendly with a sardonic (drop dead) Lou Reed lookalike from France who goes by Loup. You may well have seen his work: he does two famous types:
1.) these mind boggling, intricate, huge scale puzzles that show astounding
detail , of scenes such as a medieval fortress being sacked, or a colosseum, or a haunted castle.
Each square incha has a lovingly rendered cartoon showing some aspect of the of the absurdist folly of humanity. Imagine "Where's Waldo?" if it was all very well rendered, fascinating & funny as hell.
2.) a great book I had to pick up in which he deals with one theme: artists &
their work.
Many work off the same set up: do a comic riff on a famous artist's work. He
has homages to Picasso, to Christo, to Magritte, and many others. They are all fantastic, and true to the original artist's vision.
I became Jeff Danziger's "new best friend" ;-), as we were the only two
Americans present.
If the name sounds familiar, but you can't place the style, here's a profound
recent caricature from this current Great American Editorial Cartoonist :
www.msnbc.com/comics/editorial_content.asp?sFile=jd040924
Looking at this cartoon, it's easy to understand that Danziger's personal
history includes a stretch as a grunt in Nam.
My mind still reels... more later , to come in an article for Caricature mag...
JD