Tuesday, January 13, 2015

News Round-Up: Charlie Hebdo

Cover of The New Yorker, by Ana Juan

January 19th Cover of The New Yorker drawn by Ana Juan
The New Yorker has always had extremely topical covers under Mouly’s art direction, and this is a prime example.  Juan's use of red sponged like blood over the street level to draw attention to the fact that the top of the tower is drawn as a pencil is inspired.
Interview: The cartoonist Luz, who’s on staff at Charlie Hebdo but was late to the fateful meeting, says the cartoons have taken on a significance they were never intended to have: “In the end, the symbolic weight is exactly what Charlie has always worked against: destroying symbols, breaking down taboos, bursting bubbles of fantasy. It’s wonderful that people are giving us their support but it’s going against Charlie’s cartoons.”

Interview: MAD Editor John Ficarra's appearance on CBS's Sunday morning news

Interview: Robert Crumb, who lives in France and drew a cartoon about the Prophet Muhammad for the newspaper Libération, gives his take on Charlie Hebdo, which he compares to the underground comics of the 1970s.

Interview: Robert Crumb’s old publisher Ron Turner, stands up for satire’s right to be offensive.

Interview: Ruben Bolling responds to Joe Sacco’s comic about the murders, cautioning that it’s difficult to understand the satire of another culture

Interview: Satirist Karl Sharro, who often takes the Middle East as his subject, discusses the modern tendency toward self-censorship.

Interview: Sometime Hebdo contributor Dutch cartoonist Willem came out with a very colorful reaction: “We vomit on all these people who suddenly say they are our friends.”

News: The crowd at Sunday’s rally in honor of the slain Charlie Hebdo cartoonists was estimated at 1.6 million, and leaders of more than 40 nations were there as well.

News: The Istanbul-based satirical magazine Leman, which is planning a tribute issue commemorating its Charlie Hebdo colleagues, received a tweet saying “The number of heads to be taken out in Leman magazine is more than 12.”
News: The Malaysian cartoonist Zunar has called for January 7 to be World Cartoonists Day to honor the slain Charlie Hebdo cartoonists.  He added, “as a Muslim myself, I would like to challenge the Muslim authorities around the world to work closer with cartoonists to produce cartoons that can show the true image of Islam: a religion of peace, tolerance and moderation.”

News: A newspaper in Germany which had reprinted several of the controversial Charlie Hebdo cartoons was firebombed Sunday January 11 in possible retaliation.
 
News: People are threatening mosques as a direct result of both the news event itself and the frenzy into which people work themselves into when issues of religion arise.

News: In Turkey, journalist Pinar Tremblay of Al-Monitor reports of threats referencing the Hebdo killings targeting that country’s cartoonists and satirical magazines. One satirist reports being told to watch the news coverage of Charlie Hebdo’s slain cartoonists “to take a sneak peak at my own future.”

Albert Uderzo releases two cartoons in support.

The Angouleme Festival is putting memorial cartoons on their site.


Chad Parkhill looks at the politics behind the Charlie Hebdo cartoons and explains a few of the more puzzling ones, cautioning that most of us outside France are missing a lot of context.

Cynthia Rose was visiting Paris last week and has a moving account of her experiences. 

Fareed Zakaria writes about the history of blasphemy and the political uses of accusations of blasphemy.  He points out that the only sacred book that proscribes blasphemy is the Christian Bible.

French satirist Olivier Tonneau writes a long but very informative post on the history of Muslims, Arabs and North Africans in France, as well as the place of Charlie Hebdo in the French political scene for those of us who don’t quite get now it fits in to the very active place of intellectualism in French life and politics.

Georges Wolinski or at least the Wolinski family have / had an instagram account. It includes a lot of family stuff, including posts from his widow (married 44 years), and a final, heart-breaking shot of Wolinski's empty work space.

Here’s a fascinating look at the staff at work, planning their first Prophet Muhammad cartoon issue. This five-minute video not only shows the slain cartoonists at work, it provides valuable context for everything that follows.

Here's a radio snippet where a host crushes a guy for the suggestion that Muslims need apologize for the actions of the Charlie Hebdo killers.

Here’s a roundup of cartoons responding to the shootings from Arab newspapers.

In a paper published in 2009, Jane Weston delves into the history of Charlie Hebdo and puts it into context in terms of French comics and that country’s long history of satire.

Jeet Heer writes about the tradition of French satire and Charlie Hebdo‘s place in it.

Joe Sacco’s cartoon in the Guardian warning against the dangers of reinforcing bigotry through satire has been widely seen and quoted. It’s a powerful argument against the anything goes attitude that Charlie Hebdo engaged in—an attitude which make many uncomfortable with the “Je suis Charlie” line.

Jonathan Freedland pushes back on the notion that periodicals should publish the Prophet Muhammad cartoon just to show that they can.

Milo Manara remembers his friend Georges Wolinski, and shares his opinion on what happened.

Pinar Tremblay writes about the responses to the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Turkey, where some cartoonists have also been threatened.

Ruben Bolling's Tom The Dancing Bug strip in response to last week's news.

The Shittiest Editorial Cartoon Of The Moment is using the Hebdo story as a jumping off point to beat on U.S. editorial cartoonists for seeking safety and trying not to offend anyone.  I don't entirely agree with the editorial.  I think U.S. and French cartoonists simply come from different traditions, but I'm including it in the discussion for the sake of neutrality.

A short video piece about those who chose not to march in the Charlie Hebdo demonstrations.

Splitting the difference between defense and condemnation, here’s an overview called The Problem With #JeSuisCharlie by Chad Parkhill.

Steve Bell cartoons about the killings. (1, 2) and then one from Martin Rowson.

There have been several articles about various cartoons in newspapers that serve Muslim communities and from Muslim cartoonists condeming the attacks.

Tom Spurgeon of The Comics Reporter has a a round-up of videos related to the killings.

The website On Islam rounded up comments from a number of Muslim scholars denouncing the killings and pointing out neither the Koran nor Islamic tradition prescribes the death penalty, or indeed any harsh punishment, for blasphemy. 
While everyone is now a defender of free speech, many calling for it have spotty track records in their own countries.


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