stonesoup

For Titane

While I was in Algiers at FIBDA, I met a very funny cartoonist named Titane Laurent. She is truly a world citizen... born in Morocco, grew up in Belgium, is now a citizen of New Zealand but also a permanent resident of Australia, and currently lives in Mauritius with her husband and two children.

Titane was interested in my work process, but it was difficult to explain to her without being in the studio and with a mild language barrier. (She speaks multiple languages, of course, but English is not her first language. Nonetheless, I was again put to shame for my lack of language beyond English...)

Anyway, I promised her pictures, and in creating them I thought that readers might be interested too. I am always fascinated by how others work, so, here —

We begin with the usual messy, cluttered studio.

 

The work begins with the ruled pad, where I write little dialogues or scripts. I write more than I need so that I can throw away weaker ideas. I spend much of one day writing, trying to write a week or two at a time.

For drawing, I work on a light table. This wonderful table was built for me in the 80s when I worked for a computer software company (Perfect Software) as art director. Note coffee. Or maybe Soy Chai.

 

On my Mac I created a grid for ruling the boxes of the strip and for lettering. The multi-colored vertical lines are for the different formats I might choose... 4 frames, 3, 5... whatever. The horizontal rules not only define consistent letter height, but the spacing between the lines as well (leading).

You can see my pencils just above the ruled paper. After writing and editing ideas, I spend a chunk of time sketching them all up. Since I tend to write stories that continue for a bit, it helps to write and sketch the entire week or two at a time.

Some cartoonists literally do one a day. Brian Crane of Pickles does this. But I seem to need to work in batches. It's helpful when wanting time off...

The paper I ink on is unusual for cartoonists... I use printer papers like 80-100# cover Productolith 0r Vintage Velvet... acid-free papers with a light clay coat that leaves a slick, clean line and allows me to shave off small inking errors with a sharp exacto. It's an acquired taste, I think, but what I'm used to. Again, back to those graphic design days...

 

After the lettering is done, I slip out the grid and slip in the pencil sketch I've done for this particular strip. The sketch is fairly complete, so that I don't have to make a lot of decisions while inking. However, I don't worry the sketch too much, because I want the inking to be more spontaneous than tracing.

 

I use a Gillott 303 pen nib, dipped in an ink that is half Higgins and half FW. FW has gotten kind of plasticky over the years, too sticky, but I love how BLACK it is. Higgins is easier to work with, but thinner. So, I mix.

You have to learn to work top left to bottom right on your drawing, so that you don't smear. The nib is very flexible, so that I get a lively, thick thin line. I would have loved to master the brush, but the pen came easier to me. Zits and Calvin & Hobbes are done with a brush... such beautiful control.

Finally, studio muses... everyone needs them. You can see in the window a little statue. This is a pit-fired "goddess" who has been with me since her creator, Marya, showed up on my doorstep with a "Vince my stepdad said you'd put me up" introduction. I'd been in school with her stepdad, she was coming to Eugene for graduate work in ceramics at UO. She stayed with me until she found a place... and later I bought this inspiring creation at one of her student shows.

 

And then there are the cartoon muses... my walls are littered with the work of cartoonists and artists I love. Lynn Johnston, Charles Schulz, Mike Peters, Garry Trudeau, Jules Feiffer, Michael Gilbert, Dale Messick, Paul Ollswang, Sergio Aragones, Eldon Dedini, Claire Bretecher, Edwina Dumm, Janosch... plus a smattering of other things I've collected. 

The large piece is from Delphi, Greece. It's Marilyn Monroe looking toward a classic Greek figure of the Minoan era. I suppose the Minoan woman is contemplating Marilyn... the future woman? (Minoan society, based on Crete, was matrilineal and they worshipped female dieties. One might assume that the women were in charge.)

 

Well, there it is, studio life. Back to the drawing board!

On to Morocco

Refreshed by all the kind posts to my last entry, I'm putting up the stories and pics from Morocco. Having left Algiers via 5 or 6 checkpoints in the airport (witnessing one man being led away by a security agent who was saying "you will not be flying today"... never a good thing) I was relieved to land in the more relaxed, security-wise, country of Morocco. Met in baggage claim by an embassy driver, delivered to a really nice hotel, life was pretty good.

While in Morocco, I had the tremendous honor of meeting with our the US Ambassador to Morocco, Ambassador Samuel Kaplan and his wife Sylvia. But no photos were allowed inside the Embassy, so you'll have to believe me. I gave them a copy of my book "Desperate Households". They are originally from Minneapolis, and therefore knew Stone Soup from the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Casablanca has an extremely romantic association for Americans, thanks to Hollywood... and it is a great place, but not necessarily what you think. While "Rick's Bar" does exist...

 

... and it is on the waterfront, the Atlantic Ocean is off to the right... Rick's located at the far end of the line of buildings, center.

But Casablanca itself is a economic center and not much of a tourist destination.  There is a beach...

 

And there are modern neighborhoods and downtown...although you still see donkey carts hauling trash and landscaping waste. And Morocco, for all it's progress, still has a 50% illiteracy rate.

 

Throughout Morocco, I had a great time with the consulate staff who set and kept my itinerary. Below... our driver and Cultural Affairs Specialist Raddadi in Casablanca taking me for coffee by the seaside.

 

The Cultural Affairs office at the US Embassy had arranged for me to visit art schools and meet journalists and cartoonists in Casablanca, Rabat, Tangiers and Tetouan. I was extremely impressed with the schools, which ranged from Fine Arts (Beaux Arts) to Graphic Design to Advertising Design and PR. 

The Fine Arts school in Tetouan also featured an American Fullbright scholar, Eric, who teaches printmaking and paper making and paper sculpture. I met 3 other Fullbright scholars who were working in the vicinity... Tetouan made me want to go back to art school and live the life of a student!

Here is a collection of photos from those visits...

 

Above, a meeting with the editor of Canal Libere, a satirical weekly in Casablanca, and the editorial cartoonist. Editor Abdellah Chenkou on right, cartoonist Naji Bennaji on left. I started my career at a newspaper similar to this, so it was a real treat to meet with them. 

Note: A local cartoonist was, that day, in trouble for an offensive (subjective) cartoon he did about the Prince's marriage to a German woman. "Trouble" in the rest of the world can mean jail time. A lively discussion of censorship ensued.

Below, celebrated Moroccan political cartoonist Belaid Bouimid met me at my hotel, and flattered me with two cartoons...

 

 

Above, the monkey represents a local voter who does not understand politics outside his region.

Below... well, the three guys represent a Muslim, a Jew and a Christian... and the extent of their willingness to compromise and co-exist.

 

Below, students from L'Ecole des Beaux Arts in Casablanca...

The school grounds... complete with resident sculptures...

from the Com Sup School (Graphic Design). These were some of my favorite students to visit, very lively and appreciative. Very down to earth.

 

 

I included the following cartoon (from Veterans Day a couple of years ago) in my presentation, and these great students not only GOT it, but applauded. I was very touched. 

From IHB Art Media...

From the Artcom School...

I didn't make a presentation here :-), but I had to capture the cartoon influence on a daycare center in Rabat...

 

And capture what the consulate staff referred to as "satellite farming"...

 

Scenes from outside the palace walls in Rabat...

And the old city market, called the Medina...

 

 

Above... lanterns. I would have brought home a trunkload if I could have!

Then, the whirlwind continues. On to Tangier.

Below... I spoke at an amazing place called the "American Legation" (TALIM)...

 

This was a fascinating place, and truthfully deserves its own post. 

BUT, life is short and deadlines are shorter and more demanding. So I have clipped a bit of info from their site for you... but visit their site yourself. You'll be dreaming up ways to visit in person by the time you are done.

From Wikipedia:

The American Legation, located in the old city of Tangier, Kingdom of Morocco, commemorates the historic cultural and diplomatic relations between the United States of America and the Kingdom of Morocco.

The museum serves as a cultural center for the study of Morocco and a museum on Moroccan-American relations and artists of Tangier. It includes a room devoted to the expatriate writer and composer Paul Bowles. The museum also features a library and conference center. Thor Kuniholm is the current museum director. 

Kenneth Lisenbee recently emailed me with some corrections to this post, and let me know that the Paul Bowles official site has even better information than Wikipedia, I recommend it. There is also information about many other writers, contemporaries of Bowles, including his wife Jane.

I genuinely hope to get back here some day...

From the American Legation Site:

 http://www.legation.org/

The Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM) is the only historic landmark of the United States located abroad, designated as such by the U.S. Department of the Interior. From 1821 until 1956, the U.S. diplomatic mission to Morocco was located here in the old walled Medina of Tangier. With the end of the French and Spanish Protectorates in 1956, all diplomatic missions moved from Tangier to the capital, Rabat. The American Legation building continued as the Consulate General for another five years until a new Consulate General was built outside the old Medina...The Society has since operated a museum and cultural center at the Legation with one American employee, the Director/Curator. The Tangier American Legation Museum Society (TALMS) changed its name in 2008 to Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM). 

http://www.legation.org/

Signing the guestbook... what an honor.

Below... 

A gin and tonic on the rooftop of the American Legation, provided by Thor Kuniholm, Resident Director of TALIM... Tangier and the port were behind me but not visible in this snapshot. Trust me, it was extremely memorable. Thanks Thor! (And Matthew Long, right, Cultural Affairs Officer, who made it happen).

With regret for not having more time in Tangier, and vowing to return, I travelled to Tetouan and was greeted at the School of Fine Arts by this amazing banner.

 

 

Above... the director of the school, me, Eric the printmaking Fullbright, and a school professor. By this time in the trip the edges of my brain were getting fuzzy and my record-keeping lax, so my apologies for not having names. This school was in a wonderful bright, airy building, filled with amazing sculpture (some of it by the accomplished director) and a lot of lucky students.

The director gave me a print of one of his pieces, and I left my remaining travel copy of "This Might Not Be Pretty", book 7, with him for the school library.

Reviewing student work... these students were all extremely talented with amazing drawing skills.

 

I have since received more student work to review from members of this class, including the young women who were a bit shy and did not want to wrestle the men for table space. Women Artists of the World Unite and elbow your way in!

Below... hearts getting broken in art school? Losing your heart to art?

The work of two women ...Sarah el Ghouan:

And Batoul Badr Essaf...

 

And from Batoule Alimam...

There is really no equivalent for what I do, the newspaper comic strip on a daily funny page, in Morocco. I believe these artists will pursue fine art, advertising art, comic books they self publish or maybe find a publisher for in France... but by the same token their work can then be very free and inventive. Rather than the "hard line" common to comics in the US, they use a "soft line" also common in European cartoons. 

Our "hard line" makes our work more suitable for licensing... you know, toys and lunch boxes and such. But the soft line is fun to look at ... I hope to see more.

Finally, after too short a visit...scenes from Tetouan. The view from the art school, and downtown...

 

 

 

Well, that's all. My amazing adventure to North Africa ends.

After this, a long ride back to Rabat and Casablanca during which I learned a lot more about the workings of our state department abroad, and the upcoming visit of Madam Secretary (Hillary Clinton) to Marakkesh (a frantic time for all staff and some cancelled Halloween parties)... 

...and a VERY long trip home from Casablanca to Frankfurt to San Francisco to Eugene, and back to work.

Thanks to all who made this trip possible. I hope I've made some lifelong contacts, and will be sending creative wishes to all the artists I met. And creative freedom.

-----------------------------------------

Since I've returned, I've received work from artists I met. This, from the Institut National des Beaux Arts  in Tetouan, courtesy of Said Nali. It references me saying I can't work without coffee... here thestudents are on coffee, drawing coffee, affected by coffee:

Now... 10 days to work and catch up before we head to Thailand and the Women Build for Habitat for Humanity.

Who planned this??? 

Secretly? I love it.

The Great Volunteerism Conspiracy

I received an odd message from a reader who calls himself Normal Norm. He objects to the storyline I'm doing about Gramma heading off to work for Habitat for Humanity Int'l. in Thailand.

From Norm:

"Since you became political and Obama's mouthpiece on "volunteering" you are no longer entertaining. Perhaps you yourself should go build a house somewhere international for Habitat and leave you (sic) characters alone."

(Well, Norm, I am, in two weeks. But enough about me...)

Add to that a message received from Greg Evans (Luann) regarding a unified effort on the part of cartoonists this month to depict volunteerism, and I'm beginning to wonder about the quality of the character of some of my fellow Americans. 

From Greg regarding our week of volunteerism cartoons in mid-October:

 I want to apologize to any of you who got the kind of irate email I got last week. It never occurred to me that this effort would be viewed with a political skew and that it would be perceived as "kowtowing to Big Government." I just thought we were doing a good thing, not being "commies." So sorry.

Being part of a generation often criticized for being selfish, I'm mystified to now be called a political mouthpiece and a commie. But hey, it's a free country...

 

Helping Kids and Women in Algiers

One of the great things about the trip to the cartoon exhibition in Algiers was having the Cultural Affairs office at the US Embassy set up opportunities for us to visit an orphanage, a troubled child center, and a women's shelter.

My day of food poisoning left me out of the visit to the child center, but I did have a great trip to the orphanage and women's shelter. I don't have pics of the orphanage yet, but it was called SOS-KINDERDORF INTERNATIONAL. They have orphanages in 46 countries and a really great model... the orphanage permanently adopts the kids so that they are not in limbo. They live in sweet little houses, about 8 kids and their "mom", in a green walled compound with a school. They can live there until age 27 and will forever consider their "mom" and the other staffers and kids as their family.

Allan Cavanagh, a caricaturist from Ireland, visited SOS KINDERDORF with me and we drew with the kids. When we drew scenes that called for houses, they drew tents, a common abode in rural Algeria.

Next, I visited an amazing women's shelter, called SOS FEMMES EN DESTRESSE. They offer shelter, psychological help, and training to women in dire straits... from battered women to poor women to women who have made their way as refugees from Sudan and Somalia. These women may end up as prostitutes, so SOS seeks to intervene.

To make their services known they use posters. Recently, they met a young woman trying to escape a forced marriage. She also happened to be a budding cartoonist. They used her to create a poster that informs both men and women of the newly updated Family Laws, designed to offer more protection for women.

 

I really enjoyed meeting the staff of this great organization. Thanks to Wassila (center) from the US Embassy for arranging it. 

Below, the staff of SOS Femme en Detresse who made time in their day to see me. From left to right:

Ms. Benyala Meriem, President of the Association; Ms. Wared Sabrina, Secretary General; Wassila Silarbi from the American Consulate; Moi; Ms. Oudil Rabaiaa, Director.

For some women, computer training is available. As both Algeria and Morocco have low literacy rates, they also offer traditional handcraft training (weaving, basketry) for women as well.

Their computer instructor... Farid Belkedid —

 

All my best wishes to the many great organizations devoted to improving the lives of women and children everywhere.

Cartoonist Party in Algiers

Wherever cartoonists go, they find a way to party and grab a mike. Note the guy who comes in to try and quiet us down. Ha. By the way, all that music is coming from the guy in the right corner with a keyboard.

These cartoonists are mostly from the continent of Africa... Congo, Burkina Faso, Algeria, Madagascar, Kenya... as well as the Middle East, Turkey, France, Belgium, Ireland, Canada and 2 of us from the U.S.

Media in North Africa

We (Daryl Cagle was the other American cartoonist who went to the Exhibiton in Algiers) were lucky enough to get some press while there. We weren't sure if they'd be interested in two Americans, but we had a great press conference with a capable translator. The most difficult thing to translate is a discussion about censorship, a BIG topic there, but between our bits of French, our translator, and the reporters knowing some English, I think we did well.

At the main press conference I found myself without a way to give electronic images to the media... but had a load of stickers in my pocket. (Made for me a few years ago by a Stone Soup fan and all-around great guy Rick Cricow.) I took these along to give to kids and art students... but it worked amazingly well for the journalists, too... El Watan scanned the stickers!

And from the Arabic Daily El Khabar (no I can't read it either, but it's just too cool)

And then from L'Opinon in Morocco ...

 

Note that I am in the above article "Jean Eliot". Apparently "Jan" does not translate well, and have accepted often being called "Jane" or  "Jean". 

C'est la vie.

Oh, by the way, I only speak a minimal smattering of French. And when tired, well... one night in the Hotel D'Aljazair I ordered room service. When the kitchen guy said "Oui, Madam, tout de suite" I gave him my room number. (He was saying yes, madam, immediately).

Well, I got a laugh.

Home from North Africa

Well, looking over my previous posts from ALgiers I now see the danger of 

1) blogging late at night after drinking with cartoonists

2) said blogging from an iPhone

So, sorry for the late night spelling impaired blathering.

Now that I'm home with a real keyboard, I find myself without words. It was incredible, absolutely incredible, to meet cartoonists from all over the world, largely from the African continent.

To set the scene a bit, here's a few of pictures of Algiers:

 

Lower Casbah...

 

Casbah marketplace

I went to Algiers to attend the 2eme Festival International de la Bande Dessinee... and international cartoon festival that drew from all over the African continent, the Middle East, Europe, Canada, New Zealand... but mostly from countries in Africa.

(for more on this festival, go to www.bdalger.net)

As part of the exhibition, I served on a panel of women cartoonists, each of us talking through translators about our careers. Some of the women speak 3 or 4 languages... so they helped out the linguistically deficient American.

 

From left, Gihen Ben Mahmoud from Tunisia (writes romance/adventure comics and speaks French, Italian, Arabic and English); Marwa Kamel from Egypt (TV Animation / programs and magazines for kids); Jussi Lamathd, comics, and the first and only woman cartoonist of Congo Brazzaville; me, Titane Laurent from New Zealand (comic strips); Gea Ferraris from Italy (comics) and Lena I. Merhej, animator, illustrator and designer, and winner in the juried competition.

It was a real honor to meet these and other women cartoonists at the exhibition. It was an honor to meet all the other cartoonists as well... all with their own version of cartooning, most of it politcally driven. Comic strips for amusement and social comment, like Stone Soup, are not very common there.

Cartooning is serious business in places where civil war reigns, leaders are despots, rights are trampled, censorship is everyday and jail is not at all out of the question. Many of these cartoonists do not live in their home countries because there are warrants out for their arrest... or because they simply can't function there. This was true for several of the cartoonists I met. Gihen from Tunisia lives in Rome. Tayo lives in Britain. Many take flight to Paris, or Italy, or Spain.

Communication was not always so easy, since French was the local language (along with Arabic). We English speakers were in a big minority. 

But... there's always drawing on a cocktail napkin (universal cartoonist's language). When I asked Masin from Yemin what people dress like in his hometown, here's what he drew:

The women's outfits vary and I think the percentages were to note how common each is... but a couple of beers and 24 hours of plane travel later I don't remember. Note that despite the seemingly retro outfits, Mazin has a hotmail address. 

We cartoonists were treated to a little touring... here are some pictures from a trip to Tipasa, a Roman ruin on the Mediterranean Sea. I'll just float some images here so you can see a variety of people and scenery. Everyone you see is a cartoonist.

Tayo Fatunla (Nigeria / residing in Great Britain)

Eventually, there's a trip to a fishing wharf and lunch...

Where cartoonists of course draw on the paper table cloth...

Gihen of Tunisia and Simon Dupuis, a French Canadian illustrator.

 

Ersin Karabulut of Istanbul...

 

Days end, a late night party that ends up with a cartoonist (from Congo) grabbing the mike. Of course.

 

No meeting of cartoonists is complete without a great bar to meet in (and bar napkins to draw on). For those of us staying at the hotel El D'jazair (frequented by Edith Piaf, Hemmingway, Camus, de Beauvoir and more once upon a time) this great bar was waiting.

Finally, on Algiers... a photo of our guide parking. He was convinced that we should not change money at the hotel, that we could get a better rate "in the street".

You think that's a "Currency Exchange" window of some kind? Guess again. Observe guy out window with wad of cash.

We passed.

Tomorrow or so... the trip to Morocco.

More fun in Algiers

Today we were treated to the discovery that 5 Algerian newspapers have done articles about the two American Cartoonists here in Algier, Jan Eliot and Daryl Cagle. Both French and Arabic newspapers, with good-sized articles about our visit here, our work, our impressions of Algeria, and of course, questions about censorship in the US. It is difficult to explain the difference between the "censorship of the market" and government cencorship. In the US, the greatest consequence of doing a cartoon that is objectionable, either politically or in bad taste, would be that you wouldn't sell it to publications that object to what you are doing.

You might be able to read it at this website...www.elwatan.com.

Now, I am off to visit a women's resource center. More late!

Hello from Algiers

As you know if you've read previous posts, I'm at a cartoon exhibition in Algiers. "2eme Festival Bande Dessinee" in French, which is what's spoken here. I'm posting from an iPhone so I am not going to list all the attending cartoonists names... But meeting cartoonists from all over the African continent is amazing. And from Europe, Canada, the Middle East as well.

You can't get more different from Kansas than Algeria. The air smells like jasmine and oranges at night... I hear the call to prayer from the minorets five times a day...my cartoonist friend from Yemen has offered to wake me up at 4am for the first call.

Today we were treated to a tour of an old Roman city called Tipaza. It is on the edge of the meditteranean... Imagine 30 or so cartoonists being expected to listen to the tour guide when all they wanted to do was take pictures of each other against the backdrop of the ruins and the sea.

In the middle of all this I had a break and checked my email. Anne from New Jersey was on her commute to NY, reading the comics. She read that my character Gramma has been invited to join a Habitat for Humanity Intl Build in Thailand. The real me is going next month as well. Anne wrote to say that she will be on the same build in Thailand, and that she Is looking forward to meeting me there.

So... I am in Algiers reading an email from a fan in NJ who is going to be in Thailand on a Habitat build when I'm there next month...

The world is a wondrous place.

Meanwhile, the exhibition here in Algiers is wonderful, our hosts are wonderful, the cartoonists are incredible... And it's only just begun!

After that long ramble... Goodnight!

Looking For Calvin And Hobbes

There's a great new book out by Nevin Martell, titled "Looking For Calvin And Hobbes".

Nevin interviewed many cartoonists and industry people for his book, including me. I was honored to talk about someone I so thoroughly admire...Bill Watterson is an idol for many cartoonists, someone we have all been inspired by and learned from. Few have met him, however, since he is extremely private. This may be the next best thing. I think it should be a great read for all.