Dear Ismail,
hope you are well.
I am sending you my brend new article "Cartoons: the art of dissenters".
This article is about the ways of development of modern cartoon art.
I am very interested in your opinion. 
Sorry for troubling you.
Best wishes,
Vladimir

Cartoons: the Art of Dissenters

by Vladimir Kazanevsky
This article attempts to demonstrate the new trends of modern cartoons "without captions". To do this, we must consider the stages of emergence, formation and development of this genre of art up to the present day. Has the imaginative world of cartoons changed? Did the emergence of personal computers and the Internet influence the visual embodiment of cartoons? Have the "spirit of the absurd" and  philosophical foundations of cartoons changed? And finally, what is the place of cartoon art in today's society?

Modern cartoons "without captions" have existed for almost a century. These cartoons appeared in the 1930s in France and the United States under the influence of innovative ideas in the visual arts, literature, theater and philosophy.  Cartoons "without captions" are fundamentally different from the traditional centuries-old comic and from satirical graphics, which still exist today, for example in the form of political cartoons. This essay deals exclusively with the cartoon "without captions", leaving aside other forms of cartoon art, which were developed under different laws. In this essay, we will refer to the cartoon "without captions" simply as cartoon.

First of all we are interested in whether the art of cartoons has changed during its existence. Are "grotesque, ironic, buffoonery" and a "humor of paradoxes, oddities and quirks" still the characteristics of cartoons in the present day? These properties were given to cartoons by researcher Nina Dmitrieva at the time of their emergence in the 1930s [1, 256]. 
Not only the visual representations, but also the semantic contents of  cartoons  has changed almost imperceptibly in recent decades. This is primarily caused by a variety of radical social phenomena, as well as the emergence of new technical possibilities and means of communication.
Of course, the core of a cartoon is the semantic content. It is here that we find the "comic charge", the philosophical and other conscious or subconscious ideas of the author, or the lack of them. What happened to "humor of paradoxes, oddities and quirks"?
The lonely man on a small island decorated by a symbolic palm tree is almost gone from cartoons. There were simply too many such men, a whole army, and they did not seem quite so lonely anymore. They filled the magazines, newspapers and the digital space of the Internet. Viewers no longer believed in the lonely men on their desolate islands. However, this did not end the notion of existential loneliness as a subject for cartoons. Other, modern, symbols have come in place of the islets, which we will discuss later.
The blow by a bat or stick on the head of someone coming around a corner has ceased to be unexpected. The artists understand this and do not hide their insidious characters around corners anymore. Instead, they began to look for other ways to "blow" the viewer. Roughly the same thing happened with the act of slipping on a banana peel. Heroes of cartoons began to get around this obstacle invented by artists. Another cartoon cliche which has become outdated is the "cake in the face". However, even now there are some cases where the cartoon hero suddenly throws a cake in the face of someone. It looks like the work of an artist without inspiration. Instead of coming up with a new idea, the artists decided to throw a stale cake to the viewer. Is this not "strange humor, full of the grotesque and of oddities"?
The leaning tower of Pisa will fall down only when cartoonists are tired of drawing this image.
The eternal creative "helpers" of cartoonists, the characters of Don Quixote and Sancho Pаnzа, have become less likely to feature in the graphic works of satirical artists. Maybe finally cartoonists  became ashamed for using Miguel de Cervantes' famous characters in vain?
In cartoons, the ostrich continues to bury his head in the sand. But he does this ever more infrequently  and reluctantly. Are cartoonists aware that in real life, ostriches never do this? When these birds are scared of something they just run away. And so another cartoon myth gradually disappears.
The most persistent fighter for peace is still the white dove. This image was drawn by Pablo Picasso for the First World Peace Congress in 1949. Almost immediately after the appearance of white bird as the emblem of peace, it playfully migrated to cartoons. So far, the dove with an olive branch in its beak is the most loyal supporter of pacifism, a fighter against militarists of all stripes.
In antiquity, Death was already portrayed as a gaunt old woman in a black cloak and with a scythe. The old women which  is depicted in the ancient frescoes, in the engravings by Albrech Dürer and in other works is strikingly similar. There is a feeling that artists have always drawn the same mysterious lady. Death did not escape the attention of cartoonists. For them there is no detail of life, even the most tragic, that would not be subject to reflection and witty ridicule. They believe that, as Arthur Schopenhauer said, "death does not interrupt the eternal becoming, it kills only the individual." Illustrations of this philosophic statement can serve numerous cartoons, which show the coitus of a mortal man with old bony woman. And the apotheosis of "eternal becoming" are cartoon images of pregnant Death (Fig.1).

There are a lot of cartoons that are somehow connected with death. They depict executions, suicides, war, murder, and so on. Basically, these cartoons are in the area of black humor, the main purpose of which, according to Freud, is "to avoid dissatisfaction from internal sources" [2]. By resorting to black humor, cartoonists try to overcome the great tragic irony that is life. As noted by Boris Tsigulevsky, the artist's position in this case is "not a mockery and  pretense (this is on the side of life) and not a game or humor, but his serious concern about their fate, effort, or even heroism" [3]. The Boston World Dictionary of Literary Terms defines black humor as  "humor meant to overturn moral values, causing a grim smile." It also says that black humor is a cynical way to respond to evil and the absurdity of life. According to supporters of black humor, it "has a psychotherapeutic effect". Black humor is a “way to laugh where every other way of describing the evil will just evoke crying" [4]. Black humor confidently settled in the cartoon world.
Grim Sisyphus continues to roll his eternal stone to the top of the mountain, a Trojan horse can always be found near the gate, Rodin's thinker continues to pose for artists intent on mocking him. A lot of funny, sad, proud and evil characters of literature, film, animation, painting, sculpture and theaters have settled in cartoons. Alas, many of these "comfortable" images for cartoonists have become stereotypes, and some of them irrevocably obsolete.
Use of the same images, use of common methods to achieve comic effects, in the end, led to cartoonists involuntarily repeating predecessors. The "heuristicity" of cartoons began to fade. Plenty of cartoon clones began to appear regularly on the pages of newspapers and magazines at the end of the twentieth century. It was not a problem of direct plagiarism or imitation, but  a problem of cartoonists thinking in stereotypes.
The cartoon myths" of the past began to gradually dissipate. Naturally, their place was occupied by something new.
Skyjackings by armed terrorists became frequent at the end of the last millennium. Subsequently, the press was filled with cartoons in which the main characters were hijackers. The terrorists in cartoons  hijacked everything in the air, on the ground or in the water.
Airplanes hijacked by terrorists crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City in the beginning of this century. And then a cartoon appeared which depicts two planes crashing into giant sizes pencils...
The wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, the "color revolutions" in Africa, Asia, Europe and numerous of terrorist attacks have created new characters in cartoons, for example armed men in camouflage uniforms. One of the most important characters in modern cartoons became the armed terrorist hiding his face under an evil black mask. The forces of peace, embodied either by children or  by the dove of peace are fighting against this terrible character in cartoons. And they win often. But more often they are defeated. Black humor reigns in cartoons. A terrorist cuts an unfortunate pencil with a knife like a victim's throat (Fig.2). This is a new myth in the world of cartooning.

Refugees fleeing from the terrorist evil have also become new favorite characters of cartoonists. cartoonists are sympathetic to the refugees, condemning those who prevent them in their struggle to find a new life.
Supermarket trolleys confidently settled in the minds of cartoonists. This image has become a compelling symbol of the consumer society.
Cartoonists have also turned their critical gaze to the Internet. Cartoon computers and the symbols associated with the Internet have not only filled the Internet, but also the pages of still existing print media. Modern cartoonists became friends with the symbol of the social network Facebook in the form of the letter F. This popular means of communication once again forced artists to recall the existential loneliness of man in the world. On the one hand, formally being a sign of communication between people, this symbol only emphasizes the loneliness of a real personality. Facebook and other similar means of communication deny direct human interaction. Existential anguish that came from the cartoons which depicted a lonely little man on a desert island, are embodied in the modern symbol now. A tiny island, a man sitting on the sand, burying his gaze to the screen of a laptop, tablet or smart phone. And a huge symbol of social network F, which is vaguely reminiscent of a palm tree rises above them (Fig.3).

Contemporary cartoonists draw their inspiration from brand new subjects, images and symbols. However, this refers only to the myths on which the semantic content of cartoons is built. Has the "spirit" of semantic content of cartoons changed? Can we still characterize cartoons as "humor of paradoxes, oddities and quirks"? This will be discussed later after we contemplate what happened to the visual embodiment of the cartoons or, speaking with the words of Sigmund Freud, with their "façade formations."
Cartoons mostly came in the form of graphic drawings in the first half of the last century . Cartoons had an inherently  "linear" style”; "naive" and "simplistic", styled to look like children's drawings. The thin vibrating line, easily showing space and form, suddenly nervously formed a dark mass, or broke off, leaving a place for "air". Alternatively, the line can was strong, tearing out shapes from flat space by short rapid movements of the pen... Thus was the art of cartoonists who can be considered the pioneers of cartoons. Nina Dmitrieva mentions cartoonists George Fischer, Saul Steinberg, James Thurber, Maurice Sinet, Albert Dubou, Jean Effel, Jean-Jacques Sempé, Andre Francois, Jean-Maurice Bosc, Chaval and Sam Gross. Drawings of these artists have published in the magazine The New Yorker. Many researchers, such as Jacques Lefev, believe that  the modern cartoon originated here and was developed by the creative team of this magazine [1, 256].
The first twenty-five years of The New Yorker's existence has been called a "golden age". The method of selection of cartoons for publication in the magazine was complicated. Art editors of the magazine made a preliminary selection of cartoons. Then the Editorial Board selected the best.  Editor-in-chief Harold Ross, who had unquestionable authority, made the final decision [5].  Mr. Ross constantly asked artists to make captions under the cartoons shorter and shorter, until there appeared cartoons "without captions". Harold Ross said jokingly, "Everybody talks of The New Yorker’s art - that is, its illustrations - and it has been described as the best magazine in the world for someone who cannot read" [5].
A "corporate" style of comic art of The New Yorker magazine gradually formed. William Hewison  somewhat tendentiously wrote: "The team of Ross tore up the old formula of cartoons into pieces and threw a lot of them in the trash, because those were hard, naturalistic, overloaded. They strove for simplicity, focus and movement.  Essentially, they gave preference to light and visual humor. It can be assumed that each of the cartoons, which is created today in the UK, Europe or anywhere else, is a direct inheritance of graphic humor of the magazine The New Yorker of this period " [6].
The cartoons first appeared to the public in Europe in the comic magazine l'Os à Moëlle, which had the subtitle "The official organ of daffy people" in 1938 [1, 255].
The "Linear" style has dominated in the world of cartoons until a few decades ago.
Here we can recall the works of Jean-Jacques Sempe, Jeans Maurice Bosc, Jacques-Armand Cardon,  Maurice Sinet , Henry Buttner, Claud Serre, Ronald Topor ...( Fig.4).

"Some people don`t like when I show what`s in their mind,"  said Ronald Topor, who preached a philosophy of "escape from boredom" [7, 33]. This master of cartoon art said, "A society is driven by fear. I have fear too, but I am trying to get rid of unnecessary fears " [7, 37]. Editor of The World Encyclopedia of Cartoons, Maurice Horn, said that "R. Topor is a master of black humor who blends the most far-out and disturbing images into a deceptively classical style" [7, 33]. This  statement is useful to us when we will talk about the semantic content of the cartoons.
Black and white cartoons continued to dominate after the Second World War. However, cartoonists also used "color" in their work. Often, they did this on purpose, because sometimes "color" is the essence of humor in cartoons. Color can be a kind of communication in cartoon art. For example, one of the main "color" characters in cartoons is a chameleon. The coloring of the skin of this lizard is changed by the color of the environment. Another frequenter of cartoons is a street light. For example, cartoonist can designate the "existential ban without a shadow of hope" by the red color on street light (Fig.5). In addition, the red color symbolizes the vitality, passion, energy, enterprise and sexuality. And as you know, sexuality is tempting for creation of cartoonist. All that is "below the belt" is amusing, funny and entertaining to  spectators.

How can I draw a black and white rainbow? Or the artist's palette on which the paints are mixed? There are cartoons, in which "color" becomes absolute semantic content, a landmark instrument that represents a violation of the expected stereotypes of color relations.  Cartoons which are the based on well-known paintings, such as The Festival of Fools and The Tower of Babel by Pieter Brueghel, The Scream by Edvard Munch,  Leonardo da Vinci`s Mona Lisa etc. will be not spectacular without colors for viewers.
Color is used in cartoons as an auxiliary element. For example, to attract the attention of the viewer to the main component of the cartoon, on which a comic effect is based. In this case, artists use basically complimentary color combinations, or just one additional color. Sometimes the color is introduced to create  an emotional and psychological effect in the cartoon.
Of course, at the time when in cartoons the "line" dimnated, there were artists who preferred "colored" drawings and paintings. Among these artists were Rene Magritte, Jean-Jacques Folon, Vlasta Zabransky, Ronald Searle, Miroslav Bartak, Guillermo Mordillo and others. But the "scenic color" cartoons at this time was rather rare.
By the end of the last millennium "color" gradually began to prevail in cartoon art. Cartoon paintings have become increasingly more common, and now share space with "linear" cartoons in the pages of magazines and newspapers, international exhibitions and on the Internet. There are brilliant cartoonists-painters, such as Alessandro Gatto, Jerzy Gluszek, Pawel Kuczynski, Grzegorz Szumowski, Konstantin Sunnerberg, Muhittin Koroglu, Gerhard  Gepp, Peter Nieuwendijk, Florian Doru Crihana, Dahuan Xia, Mahmoudi Houmayoun, Cau Gomez... ( Fig.6).

There are a few reasons why "colors" began to dominate in cartoons. One such reason is the emergence in the late twentieth century the personal computers and the Internet. A magician appeared for the cartoonists named Photoshop. The artists no longer only used traditional paint but also successfully began to employ virtual painting techniques. The possibility has appeared to spread the cartoons free on the Internet with no visible restrictions, without censorship. A "colored" cartoons look much more attractive to viewers. After heated debate, the international cartoon community agreed to give the same status to cartoons that have been created with the computer as to hand-drawn artwork. Computer-created cartoons  began to coexist with original works at various exhibitions. Some cartoonists have become literally virtuosos of computer cartoon art, such as the Colombian artists Elena Ospina.
In addition, the Internet gave artistseasy access to photographs of objects and subjects of the world. This helped to saturate the cartoons of detailing by using the technique of "photographic accuracy." "Façade formations" of cartoons becoming more approximate to the real world. Artists such as Pawel Kuczynski, Agim Sulaj, Paolo Dalponte and others began to create a more compelling reality of the cartoon world (Fig.7).

In the last decades there has been a tendency of saturation in cartoons by "colors", as well as a barely perceptible drift from graphics to paintings. In addition, the cartoons have moved closer to realism. In this context, we can talk also about the metamorphoses of the semantic contents of the cartoons. We will not talking about the plots of cartoons, new cartoon characters, myths of the cartoons, which we have already discussed. More interesting for us is the essence of cartoons.
The process of creating cartoons is subject to certain laws. In his discussion about the "comic" effects  Arthur Koestler wrote: "Unexpected lateral ideas or events with two normally incompatible matrices produces a comic effect..." [8]. This model of "comic" effects is easily applicable in the art of cartoon.   For example, in the article "Why is it so funny?: conceptual integration in humorous examples" Seana Coulson made the attempt to analyze the cartoons, in particular political cartoons [9]. He used the theory of "conceptual integration" of Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner, as well as the ideas of Douglas Hofstadter and Liane Gabora about mixing frameworks of abstract structures [10,11]. Very interesting for us is "An Affordance Theory Analysis of Cartoon Humor" by Dean H. Owen [12] and "A two-stage model for the appreciation of jokes and cartoons" by Jerry M. Suls [13]. Recall also the sentence by Maurice Horn: "R. Topor is a master of black humor who blends the most far-out and disturbing images into a deceptively classical style". So, we see that creative methods of cartoons are quite universal. It is by such methods were created cartoons, which we can define as"grotesque, ironic, buffoonery".
Albert Camus believed that the absurd is born from the comparison of not comparable, alternative, antinomic or conflicting concepts, and "the wider the gap between the members of the comparisons, the higher the degree of absurdity" [14, 37]. Thus arose the absurd world of cartoons which deny common sense. The absurd cartoons, as well as humor in general, appears when mixing two different concepts. These are the roots of the  "humor of paradoxes, oddities and quirks." That is, a cartoons is a reflection of the  philosophy of the absurd. No wonder the brightest hero of many cartoons became Sisyphus,   pushing his eternal stone to the top of the mountain. The foot of the mountain, a huge rock, a solitary figure Sisyphus and the top of the mountain create many opportunities for graphic jokes. However, foremost cartoonists are interested in the tragic fate of the hero, his despair and self-affirmation. Such absurdity is desirable for critical minds. Here is what wrote Albert Camus in his treatise,  "His gaunt face barely distinguishable from the stone. I see this man coming down heavy, but at a steady pace to the torment  that has no end. At this time, consciousness returned to him with the breath, inevitable as his suffering. And in every moment, as he descends from the top down into the lair of the gods, it is above its destiny. He`s more solid than his stone "[15].  Sisyphus is the hero of absurd (Fig.8).

Recall also the social absurd phenomenon of depersonalizing people. Arthur Schopenhauer believed that human history is presented as a world where "there always is the same person with the same intentions and the same destiny" [16]. In such a world "each other becomes like the other..." as noted by Martin Heidegger [17]. The personification of society is a "crowd" and its representative is "small, miserable, gray man in the crowd who lost the spirit, seeking for equality," by Friedrich Nietzsche [18]. Gustave Le Bon in his work "The Psychology of the masses" characterized the crowd as follows: "Strange in the psychology of masses is following: ... only by one fact of the transformation into the mass they acquire a collective soul" [19]. In addition, Le Bon noted a decline of intellectual achievements of a man by his dissolving in mass. William McDougall said, that "a slight intelligences decrease a higher intelligences to their level..." [20]. Wilfred Trotter in the tendency to unite people towards the mass in general has seen "a continuation of biological multicellular all higher organisms" [21]. Around the same time, in the first half of the twentieth century, the individual leveling process of persons is reflected in the different genres of art, including the cartoons. 

Characters of traditional cartoons of the past always had pronounced individual traits. Artists of the past  reflected the grotesque images of the "carnival world". In the 1930s, cartoonists began to treat their heroes quite differently. Increasingly, they began to resort to stylization of images using methods of "naive art". Heroes of cartoons turned into primitive little men in the crowd, the symbols of the absurd world,  portrayed as herd animals, duplicates traveling from one cartoon to the next. They came not from the real world but slipped out of the absurd subconscious of artists. These heroes like to exist in the impersonal world.

The depersonalization of man in cartoons is especially convincing where the crowd is present. Cartoonists mostly have represented the accumulation of people as the mass of men with "downmix" intelligence. Artists depicted "the faces of psychological masses" having  "collective souls" to reflect the masks of "higher multi-cellular organisms," as absurd monstrosities (Fig.9).

Once again, we can notice that much in a cartoon is close to the philosophy of existentialism, which is saturated with the spirit of absurdity. And many of the cartoons can be considered as the illustrations of the statements of philosophers. But what about surrealism, which in fact was born by the absurd? How close is surrealism to the art of cartoons? A precursor of surrealism I. Bosch already used the "oddities and quirks" with paradoxical forms of mixing in his mysterious paintings. The same methods were used by Salvador Dali, Paul Delvaux, Yves  Tanguy, Max Ernst, Rene  Magritte...  The competition between surrealism and absurdity in the world of cartoons was won by the last. Probably absurdity has a relationship with the real world; it recognizes the laws of the real world but denies these, thus creating its own laws. Surrealism does not recognize any laws and exists by itself.

However, as we noted above, painting cartoons gradually began to conquer the space of comics in the late twentieth century. It is in these works that manifestations of surrealism can be seen. Such cartoons are not constructed according to the laws of humor. Semantic contents of these works are based on a mixing of concepts. This does not make talking about these cartoons that they do not have "grotesque, ironic, buffoonery". From this perspective, we can recall some cartoons by artists such as Alessandro Gatto, Andrej Popov, Erzy Glushek, Muhittin Koroglu, Florian Doru Crihana, Mahmoudi Houmayoun and others. In the works of these masters of cartoons we can easily discern echoes of surrealism (Fig. 10, 11).

It's time to talk about the place of cartoons in society. Since the existence of cartoon art humanity has plunged into the abyss of war, has made scientific and technological leaps, has  detonated nuclear bombs, and has ventured out into cosmic space and plunged headlong into Internet space... It can be expected that in our day cartoon art has moved in the scale of human values.
Let's go back to the time of occurrence and becoming a cartoon art. Speaking about the pros and cons of humor, including cartoons, which developed "in all areas, including politics, art, mass communications, advertising, promotion of knowledge", Nina Dmitrieva said, "Cons can be found in the exsanguination of satire, which is dissolved and dispersed in a continuous stream of humor and in lowering the value of the laughter as the strong weapons hitting exactly the goal that is worthy of strike" [1, 261]. In other words, satire gave way to the absurd, with its own specific sense of humor and irony. Cartoonists have started to show an abstract collective man and a generalized absurd world. There was no the place for satire in this world. The mural by artist Saul Steinberg can be considered the apotheosis of the triumph of the cartoons. It shows an ironic panorama of American society at the World Exhibition in Brussels in 1958. Saul Steinberg was very popular at the time in the world.  Around a hundred solo exhibitions of the artist  were organized in New York, Washington, Chicago, Rome, Milan, Paris, Zurich, Hamburg, Vienna, Amsterdam and other cities. This great cartoonist was not only the author of graphic works, but also frescoes, opera scenes, posters [22].
The art of cartoons starts to win hearts of people in the second half of the twentieth century. The cartoons confidently settled in Central and Western Europe in the late forties - early fifties. From there this kind of art migrated to Eastern Europe and began to conquer the Soviet Union in the early sixties. The "wave" of cartoons has swept Turkey and later Iran, after the revolution. As a result of the easing of censorship and the actual opening of the borders, a "cartoon explosion" occurred in China. Cartoons appeared in Japan and South Korea, of course, influenced by American artists. So, "the cartoon tsunami" swept across the globe from the West to the East for half a century, excluding Japan and South Korea, where it arrived across the Pacific Ocean from the East. This striking march of the cartoon art suggests that humanity needs an extraordinary ironic view of the world. And cartoons fully meet these expectations.

Notable events in the world of cartoons are international competitions and festivals, that emerged in the sixties of the last century. The most popular, for example, are CARTOONFESTIVAL in the Belgian resort town of Knokke - Heist, SATYRYCON in the Polish town of Legnica, DICACO (2013 - SICACO) in the Korean city of Daejeon, INTERNATIONAL HUMOR EXHIBITION in the Brazilian town of Piracicaba, PORTO CARTOON WORLD FESTIVAL in the city of Porto and a lot of others. These cartoon contests have their internal laws, codes, customs, habits and heroes. In over half a century, they have been in touch with a whole generation of artists. 

One of the oldest and most famous cartoon contests is organized by the team of Japanese newspaper The Yomiuri Shimbun. It  existed 29 years and was closed in 2008. A total of 289554 cartoons were sent  to this competition. The organizers had declared the official reason for the closure of the competition was that the "contest has already made quite a significant contribution to the art of cartoons." Around this time, the interest to the art of cartoon in Japan began to fade noticeably, says Ayako Saito, press drawing teacher of Kyoto Seika University.
A whole galaxy of new cartoons competitions have been organized in recent years that mainly exist in virtual space. These competitions have served as a good stimulus for the development of cartoon art.
Of special note is  one phenomenon. As noted by many researchers, cartoon art originated in New York city and later in Paris in the thirties of the last century. But which kind of cartoons are popular in these cities today? It's amazing, but, although cartoons are very popular in the world, namely in France and the US, this art has lost its position. In recent decades, in these countries the public has not been interested in political cartoons or in traditional humorous drawings, which have verbal support. Why? Cartoon art is popular in Turkey, Iran, China, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, countries of the former Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe countries... That is, in those countries where there exist acute socio-political and economic problems and there are many people who dissent with the social injustice. Recall that cartoon art originated and developed in the US and in France during the global economic crisis of 1929 - 1939. This means that cartoons thrive in a social environment where the dissatisfaction of the majority creates the need to release the energy of social discontent. From this point of view, the art of cartoon can be called "art of dissenters".
Totalitarian regimes and tyranny are fertile breeding ground for the creation of  cartoons. For example,  cartoons penetrated the Soviet Union from across the relatively liberal countries of Eastern Europe, in spite of the "iron curtain".  It should be recalled that the method of socialist realism dominated in those days in  Soviet art. Official cartoons had to praise the party leaders and had to criticize the external and internal enemies of socialism. Just such official cartoons were published in the communist party press without exception, and the only press was party press. But the shoots of free thought appeared in the Soviet Union in the early sixties of the last century, during the Khrushchev "thaw". "Informal" cartoons began to be published in the newspaper Literaturnaya Gazeta, magazines Smena, Tourist and other publications in these years. The art of cartoons became very popular among the "dissent" intelligentsia.  Party functionaries called these "informal" cartoons "the humor of young" [23]. In addition to the novelty of the paradoxical nature and philosophical ideas of cartoons, the intellectuals liked the allegory of this kind of art. Published cartoons allegorically criticized the existing socialist system. When in the seventies of last century Brezhnev regime tightened censorship, it was too late. Nonconformist artist Sergej Tunin described the works of cartoonists as "fuck off in the pocket". "The allegory is universal because it is similar to a mathematical formula, if it is accurate and elegant, it is applicable anywhere, anytime. Any value can be substituted into the "formula" to enjoy the wit of the artist as their own",  he noted [24].

Cartoon art became firmly entrenched in Soviet society. Cartoonists - nonconformists began to send their works to international competitions illegally. The artists Valentin Rozantsev, Sergej Tunin, Mikhail Zlatkovsky, Garif Basyrov, Leonid Tishkov and others were honored with awards at many international festivals of cartoons. Cartoonists began to organize underground exhibitions of cartoons, and grouped together in informal amateur clubs [25]. Censorship eased with the coming to power of Mikhail Gorbachev and cartoons migrated to the pages of Mass Media.

"There are times when satire has to restore that which was destroyed by pathos", so noted Stanisław Jerzy Lec. After the fall of the "pathos" regime of the Communist Party, cartoonists began to worry about new symbols and images in the former Soviet Union. For example, one of the main characters of cartoons became the flag. Obviously, because the flag was "untouchable" for artists in Soviet times. A strong symbol of power turned into a dirty doormat in the cartoons. Ruthless cartoonists allowed their heroes to cut off the pieces of flag cloth to sew to sew on pants and other clothing, or allowed them to clean their shoes with this fabric... A headless man carries a flag that resembles an ax, that was apparently used to cut off his head. This is one of the most famous cartoon with the hero-flag construction, made by artist Mikhail Zlatkovsky. For cartoonists the flag has become a convenient tool for the expression of their social ideas (Fig.12).

Another object of ridicule  used by cartoonists in the countries of the former Soviet Union was the ballot box, the ephemeral symbol of totalitarian power. The political elections in Soviet times were formal acts where results were a foregone conclusion. The people of the former Soviet Union began to think about the elections quite differently . Political elections became real, although often accompanied by fraud. The ballot box has taken a worthy place in cartoons. Restless cartoonists began to draw keyholes on ballot boxes, made them as into hats of magicians, etc.

Thus, the irony in the art of cartoons in countries of the former Soviet Union began to get a satirical coloring.

Continuing the conversation about the role of cartoons in today's society, we must recall religion. How do believers relate to the art of cartoons and, conversely, what do the ironic artists think about religion?  There were times in history when church leaders have hated satirical drawings, but sometimes they asked artists to help in the fight against religious opponents (for example, the struggle between Catholics and Huguenots in France became a kind of "duel" between satirical artists in the time of the Reformation). It has happened that the secular authorities officially called for the satirical artists to criticize religion (for example, in an atheistic state of the USSR). On the contrary, the authority forbade artists to create cartoons of religious subjects in some cases. Korean professor Cheong San Lim called his dissertation "Christian education utilizing cartoon and animation". This project  is based on the fact that in the Bible is widely used “containing elements that are inherent in cartoon art, i.e. parable, symbol, dream, vision, satire, humor and allegory" [26]. Professor tried to build a bridge between the art of cartoons and religion by the using cartoons in a Christian education.

In the thirties of the last century formally religious cartoons emerged. These were not anticlerical drawings. In such cartoons Bible stories have helped the artists to convey a "secular" message. For example, in many cartoons Noah's Ark  has served as an allegory of the protection of the environment from pollution . Or cartoonists adorn a scene of the execution of Jesus Christ with consumer advertising. They do not criticize religion, but the dominance of inappropriate advertising. Cartoonists  liked to depict the Last Supper on the eve of Jesus' execution as well, often parodying the famous fresco by Leonardo da Vinci... Many other characters of Bible became the heroes of cartoons by artists from around the world. Jean Effel has created a series of comical parodies of biblical scenes.

Cartoonists have not only exploited Christian religious imagery. Hindu god Shiva who embodies the masculine universe frequently has appeared in cartoons as well. One of the seven gods of happiness, communication, joy and prosperity, Hotei, who was nicknamed "Canvas Bag", was not only one of the characters of netsuke in Japan and China. `Cartoonists like to depict this funny fat man.

The cartoons that depicted the Prophet Mohammed were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September 2005. These publications have denoted the cross-cultural conflict between the Muslim Arab world and the Western cultural tradition. The confrontation escalated even more after the tragedy in the office of the French satirical magazine Charlier Hebdo in January 2015. We leave aside the essence of this conflict, its ethical and social aspects. We are interested here how this influenced the art of cartoons. We distinguish here only the fact that the international community has given special attention to the art of cartoons in the aftermath of these events. Many people who have never been lovers and connoisseurs of this genre turned their eyes tо cartoons. The role of cartoon art  has become more visible in society.
Thus, cartoon art has become more popular in the world. Did this affect the art of cartoons? Did cartoons changed under the influence of social expectations? Recall that in the recent years the main characters of cartoons have been terrorist and refugees, who are the victims of terror and war criminals. A huge set of drawings on similar themes was created by the cartoonists in the  last years. Such cartoons can be attributed more to satire than to humor. Cartoons have become increasingly filled with sarcasm and irony. For example, the sad photos of Syrian refugee boy thrown out on the beach in the Turkish town of Bodrum have appeared in the global Mass Media on the 2nd of September 2015. Cartoonists from all  over the world  responded briskly. Several hundreds of cartoons based on this photo were published on the Internet and in print media within a few days. Although the photo was so convincing that it did not require interpretation. This once again tells us that the emphasis of cartoons has shifted towards satire. "Exsanguenations of satire" in the cartoons and its "dissolving and dispersing in a continuous stream of humor" in the time of occurrence and development of the cartoons, about which Nina Dmitrieva wrote, seems to have stopped. There has even been a reverse process.

So, cartoons "without captions" have fascinated mankind for almost a century. Responding to the expectations of the people who have been disagreed with social injustice, it originated during the Great Depression under the influence of innovative ideas in the visual arts, literature, theater, philosophy. The hitherto fertile breeding ground for cartoons serves not only social disadvantages, but also progress. Some popular cartoon characters and plots became obsolete with time, and new ones appeared. In recent decades there were noticeable changes in visual representation of cartoons, as well as in their semantic contents. Cartoons began to be filled by colors, became more persuasive in terms of realism. Increasingly, there are picturesque cartoons, in some of which are visible manifestations of surrealism. However, cartoons remains to gravitate toward the spirit of the absurd. And finally, the cartoons have become increasingly filled by sarcasm and satire. The art of cartoons is still ironic, a witty manifestation of  a rebellious spirit.

References

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Cartoons Mentioned
Fig.1 М. Zlatkovsky. "No captions",  Шутки в сторону! Или время улыбнуться всерьез,     Прогресс, Moscow, p. 8, 1990.
Fig. 2 Ares. "No captions", Internet: click here- tıklayın
Fig.3. P. Kuczynski. "No captions", Internet: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=187772041640200&set=a.100573893693349.1073741828.100012222150502&type=3&theater, 2016.
Fig.4. R. Topor. "No captions", International Cartoon Magazine Witty World, № 17, 35, 1994

Fig. 5.  B.B. Ghaith. "No captions", Internet: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154399324991810&set=a.10151227318136810.516054.594766809&type=3&theater, 2016.

Fig. 6. C. Gomez. GRAFICA. ARTE/INTERNACIONAL, Ano25/61, Brasil, 2007-2008 
Fig. 7. A.Sulaj. "No captions", Catalogue of 1.International Bursa Cartoon Biennial, p. 39. 2007.
Fig. 8. P. Klucik.  "No captions", International Cartoon Magazine, Witty World, № 19, p. 37, 1995.
Fig. 9.  J.-J. Sempe. "No captions", Sauve Qui Peut, Denoel, p. 91, 1968.
Fig. 10. J. Gluszek, "No captions", Catalogue of International exhibition Satyrycon, Legnica, p.85, 2012.
Fig. 11. M. Houmayoun, Catalogue of International exhibition Satyrycon, Legnica, p.43, 2012.
Fig. 12. M. Zlatkovsky. "No captions",  Михаил Златковский, Галерея мастеров карикатуры, Выпуск №5, Гликон Плюс, Санкт-Петербург, p. 9, 2009.

12 Eylül 2016 07:50 / vladimirkazanevsky

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