Cartoon; the black irony in disguise

Cartoons in revolutionary years and during the war shared a common purpose and that was enmity to nepotism. Cartoonists active in those years of revolution and war were creating their work in disguise. They were encouraged by people at that time. After the revolution cartoons appeared in the press such as Kayhan and Etela’at newspapers.

News ID: ۲۰۶۱۷۷

سه‌شنبه - ۲۹ تير ۲۰۰۹ / 2009 29 April

Writer: Sayed Masoud Shojaei Tabatabaee
Abstract
Cartoons in revolutionary years and during the war shared a common purpose and that was enmity to nepotism. Cartoonists active in those years of revolution and war were creating their work in disguise. They were encouraged by people at that time. After the revolution cartoons appeared in the press such as Kayhan and Etela’at newspapers. They are in a sense, chroniclers of a nation. Cartoonists, by their language of peace, ask the warmongering countries to be responsible for their misdeeds, but these questions remains unanswered and the questioners under pressure for their commitments.
Forward
Seyyed masood shojaie tabatabaie was born in 1962. He got a diploma in Mathematics in 1982 in Tehran. Then he went on his studies in painting in the faculty of fine arts, Tehran University. During eight years of sacred defense he was on hand out to the fronts, following his experiments with painting and cartoons. After the war, he graduated with an MSc in graphic arts from Tarbiat e Modarres University. He is the present editor-in-chief of cartoonists’ kayhan magazine and general manager of the house for caricature. He has attended to as jury member in international molla nasroddin cartoon contest (1999), San Antonio in Cuba (2001), china (2004) and Aydin DoÇ§an in Turkey (2005). He has also been the general director of Tehran biennial of cartoons. He has also been the first-prize winner in Press Festival in cartoons module. He is the first-prize winner in the press festival in cartoons module (1996), book designing (1997), second-prize winner for international cartoon festival entitled fall of the communism (1993), third-prize winner for international cartoon festival of bicycles in Lithuania (1993) and special prize-winner in Aydin DoÇ§an in Turkey (1997), fannoni in Italy (2001) and zin min festival of cars in china (2004). In 2006, he was successful to attend in Greek cartoon contest and for his controversial subject matter, holocaust, was very interesting to the Greek and sought special press coverage. This artist has held many contests in the house for cartoon, all of whose titles have been the Palestinian intifada.
Introduction
Cartoon is a kind of ironical element that depicts social problems. Cartoons will be thrived if there is no stop to the ugliness, filth, injustices and suppression. It is a kind of painting that makes the nuances seem clearer and magnifies it along with its embedded irony. This art is the art of giving the ironic view of the elements of possible feature of the subjects’ appearance that can be exaggerated. Usually the exaggeration is made on the unusual feature of the person’s portrait or the subjects’ appearance. Among the variety of cartoons, the one that has been exploited most by our cartoonists of the revolution and the war is messenger cartoons that are used to magnify the events and themes of the war. It is a public-oriented art that explains its artists thinking in an ironic way. It is not the expression of an emotion and the cartoonist, in adding the ironic feature to the themes of social life, creates an art which is popular among the people.
Cartoons during the revolution and war
The art of the revolution and war, in its form and structure, was based on the believes of a nation and was welcomed by society. The revolutionary element was so powerful that art had to just follow it. The artist, unbound by any sublunary issue, soars to the sublime and the ideal. The cartoonist is not an exception in this regard. Not only did they make the war symbolized, but also they depicted it ironically. Cartoon, symbolically, rendered the believes of a committed artist directly. They had been for the people during the war years and the revolution and by their works; they managed to depict our people’s hatred toward the enemies of the revolution. They, following the guidelines of Imam Khomeini and also their own zest and interest, lambasted the enemies in the scenes of their cartoons and also on the city walls. In the first stage, any artist must view others human and worthy of attention. Of course, in this regard, cartoonists show the social evils along their ironic look at the matters. The arts in Iran, after the revolution and especially during the sacred defense, flourished. Along with it, so did the cartoons. Cartoons in revolutionary years and during the war shared a common purpose and that was enmity to nepotism. Cartoonists active in those years of revolution and war were creating their work in disguise. They were encouraged by people at that time. After the revolution cartoons appeared in the press such as Kayhan and Etela’at newspapers. Actually, the pictorial irony or cartoon was very popular during the war years in press. In this period, cartoonist’s kayhan was born. With people’s welcome to this new phenomenon, they gradually moved to city walls and entered to a new stage in its development. Because of their valor and hard work, the works of cartoonists of that age was very valuable. They was specially were successful on the one hand, in depicting saddam’s crimes in fronts and, on the other, they managed to make people laugh at the internal factions of political groups who was against the revolution. They presented their work with added boldness and valor. This was a source of hope for people, since they became aware of the identity of the conflicting groups. There were many examples of cartoonists which were in trouble when they were working on the wall paintings, even one of them was martyred by the shooting of the insurgent groups. For that reason, among the turbulence and chaos, we chose a place for working in at the airport, and for our security, one of the Basij troops was present there to defend us in case of any threat that was likely any time of the day. Many of the cartoonists worked hard and their hard work did much to inform the public. They were especially good for the troopers fighting the enemy in fronts. The humorous nature of cartoons brought some happiness to the face of the soldiers. Cartoons belong to the press but unfortunately, it has been ignored by the responsible authorities and today it is only helpful to make the homepage of the newspapers more colorful and spectacular for the public. It should be remembered that as a result of such neglects, the cartoonists has not been fully recognized and appreciated in terms of their contribution to this art.
Cartoons and the concept of sacrifice
Cartoon is a candid art, so those cartoonists who encouraged the people to fight and victory, were subject to a variety of threats and, hence, it can be said that, they magnified the black scenes for the society in the revolution and war years. During the war, cartoonist had the chance to go to fronts and have a first-hand experience of what was actually happening. They did many act of valor and displayed such a great sacrifice in creating their artistic works for the people to read and see in the newspapers. Cartoonists of the period, at the same time being in war fronts, created many important works that helped the trooper discover the humor and irony of the situation and use it to topple the emotional problems. They depicted saddam’s portrait as a cartoon that influenced the soldiers in the fronts and made them more determined in their defense of the country and improved their spiritual level. Cartoons are among the most popular arts because it concerns with the daily problems of people and closely related to their perception of humor in society. In depicting the evils of society and other dark elements, cartoonists are actually doing sacrifice to their fellow people. Today the duty of a cartoonist is to exaggerate the social evils in order that this side of the story, popularity, is evident. So far this art has been ignored and for this reason, the third generation of after the revolution has been completely aloof to many historical events. Cartoonist must depict the subject matters by their alarming pictures. Their outcry is often silent. It must be an outcry of pictures showing discomfort to the neglect of revolutionary atmosphere and values. Not until the formation of such an atmosphere, cartoonists will not do their duty well. We can contribute to the formation of proper situation by holding book and other kinds of festivals. There have been some festivals about these works, but they need more attention and support of authorities. There are many professional cartoonists whose considerable success in international events is worth mentioning. Today our cartoonists are not helped by any organization and some of the veteran cartoonists have not yet received any appreciation.
World cartoonists and the war
Cartoon is a world-wide art of depicting the war in an ironic language and exposing the injustices. It will be the most beautiful expression of the spirit of serving God if it is in the service of the oppressed and the marginalized people of the world. Man is a citizen of the world. Regardless of their language, religion or color of their skin, they are the same. The question is that what is actually behind these wars, more than two hundred thousand casualties and prisons such as Abu ghoraib and Guantanamo? Cartoonists, by their language of peace, ask the warmongering countries to be responsible for their misdeeds, but these questions remains unanswered and the questioners under pressure for their commitments. In view of any committed artist, war is the greatest tragedy that man has ever acted in the nature, a complete folly. Cartoon is in permanent conflict with this and sheds light in its dark side. I believe that technology is the most viable and easy way to communicate effectively. If in the service of promoting peace, one can express his opinion freely, make people laugh, even when they are in trouble of making life. Cartoonists are in a sense, chroniclers of a nation. They have managed to challenge the war politicians and to expose the tragic fate they have brought to the world people.