Artists Need to Reflect And Shine A Light

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Daumier, Donald Trump, illustration, innovation, political cartoonist, politics, POTUS, Ronald Searle, Thomas Nast

What is going on in our country? This isn’t the America I grew up in or at least it doesn’t seem that way. The present leader (I use the term very loosely) of our country is a tragic and distorted abomination of our country’s obsession with winner take all mentality. Somehow he has normalized behavior that is appalling and amoral. As an artist and a citizen I feel compelled to speak out verbally and visually. Hence,..Arnold Grump, gross pig leader of the “United Farmlands”.
Arnold grew out of my daily conversations with my wife, Havi who used to be Tom Hayden’s right hand woman and knows her politics. Our combined frustration gave birth to a character we could use as our voice. There is no other intent other than to show resistance and let other people vent along with us.

Protest artists come from a long line of political satirists (Daumier, Thomas
Nast, James Gillray, Ronald Searle, Conrad, David Levine and Art Spiegelman) To get how powerful an artist can be in the political universe consider Napoleon’s comment about English caricaturist James Gillray , “He did more than all the armies in Europe to bring me down.”

The importance of your own voice cannot be minimized and it is incumbent for every American to study, listen and research what you’re hearing reading and being told. Do not just accept things at face value. This President has made promises to the American public and his base that are not being met and probably never will. That is my opinion and so I ask anyone who reads this to consider being thoughtful and mindful about what is happening and where you stand.

To not comment or to remain neutral is to agree with what is happening.

You have a voice , use it even if you only share it with family. We are free in America to express ourselves. So I implore you speak your truth.

Cartoonist Gerald Scarfe Takes No Prisoners!

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British cartoonist, Donald Trump, Gerald Scarfe, illustration, illustrator, illustrators journal, innovation, levinland, marijuana, satire

There’s really nothing I can say about Gerald that can match his work. It speaks for itself. He’s prolific, original and unafraid to show his visual opinions. His recent prints of Donald Trump are brilliant and without any apologies. He tells like it is and as he’s been doing for decades.

 

About Gerald Scarfe

Gerald Scarfe was born in London. After a brief period at the Royal College of Art in London, he established himself as a satirical cartoonist, working for Punch magazine and Private Eye during the early sixties, and in 1967 he began a long association with the Sunday Times as their political cartoonist, also carrying out reportage assignments in Vietnam, the Middle East, India and Northern Ireland.

TV & Film Work

Gerald’s film work includes Walt Disney’s Hercules, and he designed and directed the animation sequences for the film of Pink Floyd’s The Wall, as well as the live concerts. He recently collaborated with Roger Waters once again, for the new live tour of The Wall. On television Gerald created the opening title sequences for the classic comedy series, Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister.

He has written, directed and appeared in many live action and documentary films for the BBC and Channel 4 and has published a number of books of his work.

Political Cartoons

Gerald Scarfe has now been political cartoonist for the London Sunday Times for 44 years, and has also worked for The New Yorker magazine for 21 years. His work regularly appears in many periodicals in the UK and worldwide.

Gerald Scarfe was made a CBE in the 2008 Queen’s Birthday Honours. He has also received Honorary Degrees from the University of Dundee and University of Kent, is an Honorary Professor of the University of Dundee and an Honorary Fellow of the London Institute.  He has been a member of the Royal Designers for Industry since 1989. Gerald Scarfe regularly gives illustrated talks about his life and work in the UK and around the world.

Millenials Like Their Comics, Graphic Novels and Gaming

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comic books, digital painting, Donald Trump, graphic novel, illustration, innovation, levinland, millenials, superman

Now that I have your attention I’ll admit that this photo I took has nothing to do with whether Millenials are hooked on Comics or Graphic Novels.  However, it is in line with what captures their eyes and appeals to their “hit me with your best shot” sensibility.

The explosion of imagery in our society in the last 25 years via internet and mass media has made it difficult to capture the interest of anyone without assaulting their senses. Colorful, disturbing and fantastical art or photography is king.

Perhaps it’s always been this way and only now with access to seemingly everything from around the world at lightening speed we are seeing things that were only available to those who scoured libraries, museums or newsstands.

This is the world Millenials have grown up in. This is normal. Is it any different for Boomers who grew up hooked on TV, who see the role as if it’s a TV series unfolding before there eyes. Perhaps this is the reason Donald Trump is so appealing. He’s reality star who has cast himself in the biggest reality series now on TV, The Presidential Election!

So, is Millenial fascination with with popular culture pastimes a problem or merely part of the progression of our society? As an artist I think anyone who spends part of their time reading comics, graphic novels or playing X-Box is healthy as long as their time is balanced out between this activity and the rest of life. If they’re sitting in front of a computer screen dressed in pajamas all day and eating Cheetos™ by the handful then perhaps they have a problem.

Below is an article that gives insight into Millenial behavior when it comes to popular culture…

Saul DeGrew (Mother Jones) surveys the various complaints people have about the Millennial generation. Here’s one:

Another part of the Millennial complaint brigade is complaining about how they are still into videogames, comic books, and other activities from their childhood….I admit that I find this aspect of the Millennials staying Kids debate to be a bit troublesome but that is probably my own snobbery and cultural elitism coming in more than anything else. I don’t quite understand how explosion and bang wow movies are still big among a good chunk of the over-30 set.

Forget videogames: that’s a huge industry that spans all generations these days. Their popularity says nothing about arrested adulthood. But I was curious: just how many Millennials are still reading comic books? Not just “interested” in comics or willing to see the latest X-Men movie. DeGrew may not like “bang wow” movies, but they’ve been a pretty standard part of Hollywood’s product mix forever, and the current fad for superhero bang wow movies doesn’t say much of anything about Millennial culture in particular.

So: how many actual readers of comic books are there among Millennials? I don’t know, but here’s a guess:

1. Diamond Comic Distributors sold about 84 million comics in 2013. Diamond is damn near a monopoly, but it’s not a total monopoly, and that number is only for the top 300 titles anyway. So let’s round up to 100 million.
2. That’s about 8 million per month. Some comic fans buy two or three titles a month, others buy 20 or 30. A horseback guess suggests that the average fan buys 5-10 per month.
3. That’s maybe 1.5 million regular fans, give or take. If we figure that two-thirds are Millennials, that’s a million readers.
4. The total size of the Millennial generation is 70 million. But let’s be generous and assume that no one cares if teenagers and college kids are still reading comics. Counting only those over 22, the adult Millennial population is about 48 million.
5. So that means about 2 percent of adult Millennials are regular comic book readers. (If you just browse through your roomie’s stash sporadically without actually buying comics, you don’t count.)

I dunno. I’d say that 2 percent really isn’t much. Sure, superheroes pervade popular culture in a way they haven’t before, though they’ve always been popular. Adults watched Superman on TV in the 50s, Batman on TV in 60s, and Superman again on the big screen in the 80s. But the rise of superhero movies in the 90s and aughts has as much to do with the evolution of special effects as with superheroes themselves. Older productions couldn’t help but look cheesy. Modern movies actually make superheroes look believable. Science fiction movies have benefited in the same way.

In any case, superheroes may be a cultural phenomenon of the moment—just ask anyone who tries to brave the San Diego Comic-Con these days—but even if you accept the argument that reading comics is ipso facto a marker of delayed adulthood¹, the actual number of Millennials who do this is pretty small. So chill out on the comics, Millennial haters.