cartoonists

2016 Cartoonist Convention

ACC2016Cartoonists from across Canada and the United States are gathering in Toronto for a weekend convention celebrating, obsessing, and worrying about the future of their craft. We’ve done this every two years in almost every major city in Canada, including my hosting in Hamilton. The last one in 2014 was our first foray outside the mainland when we touched down in Havana Cuba. While it’ll be tall order to top the palm trees and salsa dancing of Cuba, the charm and skills of Wes Tyrell, the event organizer, is sure to please all in attendance. Wes is depicted in the above drawing in the bottom right hand corner. He single handedly organized our Cuba visit, and now herds the people who’ll host cartoonists in the centre of the universe.

We cartoonists are a solitary breed, and while social media has kept many of us in close contact outside of these conferences, nothing quite matches the benefits and camaraderie that comes with these rare get-togethers. It’s impossible not to notice how our numbers have shrunk with every passing convention as colleagues lose their jobs, retire, or pass away. There will be those forecasting the death of the newspaper industry within the next 5 years, as has always been stated with every convention I’ve attended for the last 2 decades. Old faces will make appearances, new people will be introduced, the association will persevere, and after we wrap up we’ll all go home energized and optimistic about the work we do.

For a look at our schedule of events surf on by the website of the Association of Canadian Cartoonists.

ACC2016

The Latest Social Media Donkey Award unveiled…

It has become very apparent in recent years how social media, particularly during election campaigns, has empowered the wing-nut body politic. It used to be kept at a certain level of decorum and higher standard in the days before the Internet when letters editors separated the readable public commentary from the rantings of idiots. Social media, many argue, has democratized free speech by giving everyone with the ability to type words on a keyboard or into a “smart” phone a voice. Problem is, the idiot voices on social media now overwhelm the sophisticated commentary making it next to impossible to find any worthy substance in it. It is a forum for throwing around opinions and insults, a place to promote bigotry and accusing people of racism (and every ism for that matter). Where the wild frontier of unregulated virtual freedom of expression gives amnesty to pirates of intellectual property. It has become by default, a zone for which polite engagement is automatically greeted by rude and boorish behaviour. Pssst, there’s a soft-spoken mantra in newsrooms when it comes to dealing with this sort of aggressive online agitator: Don’t engage with them. In the vastness of cyberspace, the warning is don’t feed the trolls.

CanadianTruthNews

Some of our chat

Some of our chat

Introducing James Stewart, not the famous Hollywood actor, but “Teflon Jim”, as he goes by on Facebook. I had an interesting encounter with him on Facebook today that I’d love to share with my readers. Bottom line is, Jim doesn’t think it’s wrong to download cartoons or any image from the Internet and slice and dice those images and repost them on his many Facebook pages for his adoring audiences. He claims he’s got the captains of Big Social Media backing him up on this copyright free-for-all. While he denies altering my image, he says he downloaded the cartoon in some state, refusing to remove it at my request, and adding that I should be grateful he’s giving me the exposure to his FB audiences. Yeah, shame not on him, but shame on me for asking to remove my vandalized intellectual property. In this case it’s the artist defending his work who’s the troll in Jimmy’s world.

His view of artists, I found, is not very glowing, particularly for a card carrying member of the Green Party. Here’s some of James’ messages to us regarding our work:

If you post something on Facebook, it becomes public domain. People can do with it as they please. Those are the rules, please learn them. And whether or not you get your “Panties in a Knot” over it, the situation will always be the same.

You should be proud if someone shares your stuff my friend. If they go further to download it and send it out as something special, you should be more proud.

Yet nobody is going to put up with your whining and complaining “Mine Mine Mine” on Facebook. Just a fact. Also the rules.

It turns out he’s had other run-ins with others who’ve stumbled on their own work modified on his page:

I got the same crap over the artist who made this photo for a group he was in. Excellent Photo and very relevant to my group. This I did alter, taking his group name out of it, and it has been the front photo on my most popular video.

He demanded I quit using it, and even complained to Facebook after I told him to shove it! They sided with me, and I am glad: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10201925658244310&set=o.202199749840008&type=1&theater

After I mentioned to him that I found it quite rich when people who are first to scream out against the unethical behaviour of those in authority prove themselves to be unethical, James answered back:

No in fact this has been discussed at great length and decided upon. The only people who give a rats ass about it are the artists.

*Note for Artists*

Do not share your art on Facebook if you get your “Panties in a Knot” if someone crops it or changes it or uses it in any way.

Those are the rules. You signed them when you signed up to Facebook, and the same is true on all Social Media. NO Social Media is on your side on this issue.

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Click for context

He even used the opportunity to compare intellectual property with his green energy passion:

…it is kinda like arguing over Oil Jobs and how many people would be put out of work by Alternative Energy. It would actually increase the work, but less profit for the Elite.

Artists make art to be seen. They have a tie to it as they made it, and that I understand. Yet it is either kept in a closet or seen. You cannot help what people do with art. Best it be seen, rather than not, and as I said, if you are so insecure about it… keep it in your closet.

That’s Art in the Social Media World according to James Stewart. Social Media’s got his back, and if you’re an artist who likes posting work on the Internet, James will be there ready to carve it up and do with it what ever he wants to. You may recall the last time I asked someone to remove altered editorial cartoons. He took his time, but I think in the end he learned his lesson. Thing is, we never got to know the actual name behind the Twitter account.

A man with a hat

A man with a hat

But we know who James (not the actor) Stewart is! According to his Linkedin page he’s into Marketing and Advertising, and used to be a newspaper guy working at the two big dailies in Saskatchewan, the page goes into great blah blah blah about how things didn’t go right. He now  sells vehicles online (yeah, I know, not so green) using his vast knowledge of advertising. His summary reads, “Now to retire comfortably, but always open to advice, new ideas, and possibilities.” It seems his new ideas today involve managing a host of Facebook pages. In his own words they included “Free Energy, RBE, Occupy, Liberty, Canadian Truth and more.” Canadian Truth News Eh, is the page I came across my altered cartoon. I’ve been since blocked from viewing the page, but it’s filled with an abundance of left leaning, environmental content, plus a lot of usual anti Harper stuff that there’s no shortage of on social media.

SocialMediaJackAssIf you’ve got nothing better to do with your time, why not visit James Stewart on his many Facebook Pages. Surely you’ll find quite a range of Canadian offerings he’s decided look better reworded his way instead of what editorial cartoonists originally had in place. Editorial Cartoonists can report their defaced artwork, such as the examples shown below, to Facebook admin. And don’t forget to thank James (Teflon Jim) Stewart, not the famous one but the man with a hat, who calls himself, in his own words “someone who does stuff unselfishly for humanity…”

Updates (September 24, 2015, 12 hours after complaint made) on James Stewart’s refusal to remove intellectual property. This email letter to me from Facebook admin:

Hi,

Thanks for bringing this matter to our attention. We removed or disabled access to the content you reported for violating the Facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. We understand this action to resolve your intellectual property issue.

This is a no-reply email. If you’d like to report something else, or if you don’t believe this action resolved your issue, please fill out this form:

https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/208282075858952

If you have any additional questions, please visit the Intellectual Property section of our Help Center:

https://www.facebook.com/help/intellectual_property

Thanks,

The Facebook Team

(October 1, 2015) James Stewart might want to think again about returning to his habit of reposting altered intellectual property.  Artists are going beyond the sort of shame tactics one sees above that is the precursor to having their work forcefully removed by social media admin.  Stubborn, bullheaded behaviour like that exercised by James Stewart is being dealt with in the legal courts. While having images quietly removed from Facebook users pages might not school copyright pirates, I’m pretty sure if people are having to reach into their bank accounts to cover damages a lesson will learned the costly way.

 

No Jimmy Stewart, you can’t modify #cartoons & repost them on Facebook. That’s called #plagiarism and it violates…

Posted by Graeme MacKay – editorial cartoonist on Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Are we really Charlie?

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – January 8, 2015

This morning, after a day of reading the news and world reaction to the bloody attack on the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, my emotions as a fellow editorial cartoonist continue to be mixed with sadness, anger, and worry. France is a nation that prides itself in its history and tradition of advancing modern democratic principles.  For people to be assassinated for merely expressing themselves under the basic protections enshrined in constitutions and typified in similar charters throughout the western world is jarring and worrisome to everyone in the field of producing satire.

In Solidarity with Charlie Hebdo

In today’s full page spread in the Globe & Mail

Charlie Hebdo delivers a very different breed of satire than what audiences in the mainstream media are served up, especially here in North America. In general, the boundaries that cartoonists work with are far broader in Europe than they are here. In some respects, cartoonists working in the developing world may be forbidden to criticize their politicians, but are given more liberty to go after religion and other sacred cows that would cause tremendous outrage here in North America. At the gutsy Charlie Hebdo magazine, among many of the social targets sought after are any kind of radicalized, conservative, or orthodox religion. Many of the cartoons are illustrative of and perfectly represent the same radical oral messages everyday normal people have in everyday water cooler conversations in any western civilization, yet they’ll never make it to print.

While I worry about what happens next in a France full of tensions between free expressionist defenders and an agitated community of Muslim community and immigrants, I can’t help but think of the chilling effect this particular incident will have on worldwide satire in general. While the silver lining in this tragedy is a refresher course on the value and importance of free expression and the fraternal declaration of “Je suis Charlie”, I worry about the sustainability of my craft.

Here at the Hamilton Spectator, I’m proud to be part of a line of great editorial cartoonists, and I love what I do. However, the hard truth about mainstream media in North America is that we are NOT Charlie. While some argue that running free expressionist cartoons of any degree of offence is a representation of a mature civilized state, we have to remember that society is and always will be made up of a mix of progressive and barbaric people. Freedom of expression therefore needs to be delicately balanced, and I can only hope that eventually the barbarians get crushed. Only then, can we boldly declare, “Je suis Charlie”.

Daryl Cagle Cartoonists index

Brian Gable on the importance of free expression

Globe & Mail Gallery of cartoons in solidarity with Charlie Hebdo

Hamilton Spectator storify 

Havana Here We Come

HavanaACEC

Today, I’m heading to Havana, Cuba with a crew of 15 or so Canadian editorial cartoonists and illustrators for the next week and a bit. We’ll be accompanied by a few cartoon experts and some family and friends. As with any cartoonist convention there’ll be much laughter, music, and booze intake. We’re not destined for a Canadian-operated compound in Veradero full of other alcohol fuelled Mississaugaites hovering over all you can eat buffets, or rotund folks from Trois-Rivières in their poor fitting Speedos. No, we are headed for the Cuban capital to hang out with actual Cubans. Cuban cartoonists! We’ll talk shop, and let each other know a little bit our techniques and cultures. This is the first time the Association of Canadian Editorial Cartoonists has ever coordinated a convention beyond the borders of Canada. While we’ve gone together in contingents of 10 or so to gatherings of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists in the USA, nothing has been embarked upon like this one.

Not everyone is impressed with our choice to go to a country that according to Amnesty International has one of the worst records regarding freedom of expression. It is a ranking that our association is not impressed with either, and we are sure to see how it impacts the very artists we will convene with.

Like any country Canadians have the good fortune to be a guest in, we plan to visit Cuba with very open minds and to use the opportunity to learn and have fun doing so. If all goes to plan, that will happen, and our Cuban colleagues will experience the very same thing from us.

GraemeJournal-February1992-smThe first and only time I’ve ever been to Cuba was half a lifetime ago for me, 22 years ago. I was just out of University and a pretty staunch defender of the capitalist system. I kept a journal of that trip and when I recently read what I wrote it was interesting to see how the entry could have been written anytime including now. Trying to put my feet into the shoes of someone writing in 1992 and all the events that were taking place and what has happened ever since it’s fascinating to see how Cuba has endured.

Canada and Cuba are fortunate enough to have enjoyed very good relations going back for decades. It’s a relationship that no doubt irks our American friends and while attempts have been made to convince Canada to side with U.S. embargoes and sanctions, our sovereignty and right to set our own foreign policy has been mostly respected by Uncle Sam.

No longer is the tension between the U.S. and Cuba a consequence of cold war jousting by the American superpower and a Soviet Union. Even with the renewed semblance of a cool war between the economy weary USA and Putin’s Russia the old money pipeline feeding Cuba is long gone. Consequently, Canada sends one million tourists to Cuba each year, boosting the revenues of the beleaguered island country to levels that allow it to continue on its stubborn, dusty, Marxist path.

If ideology continues to be one of the primary reasons the US remains staunchly opposed to the regime in Havana it’s pretty easy to see the hypocrisy of it all when full diplomatic relations go on with the mother of all “Communist” countries, that being China. Beijing finances the U.S. Treasury, and the U.S. keeps the Chinese factories chugging along at full speed, stocking the shelves of Targets and Wal-Marts and keeping its executives comfortably topping the 1% in worldwide wealth. A splendid menage of capitalism and socialism!

The biggest thing that seems to keep the embargo going is the pressure from a small group of Cuban exiles based in Miami waiting to pounce when the right time comes and to claim their great grand-parents’ properties. It’s all rather unseemly, and a reminder of the sort of entitlement and greed that spurred the very revolution that brought that system to an end. Still, the old and hereditary casino barons and rum runners waiting to return are small potatoes compared with the captains of box stores that keep US-China relations. Why the U.S. keeps giving in to the anti-Castro lobby is beyond me so many decades after the revolution.

In my final observation summing up my 1992 trip, I made a bit of a prophecy when I wrote, “How many Canadians know that we are Cuba’s biggest trading partner now? Not many because that image of tyranny and abuse comes to one’s mind when hearing about Cuba – What would Canadians think if our trade arrangement becomes more known? More knowledge, and more Canadians going to Cuba will sway Canadians. You know, wouldn’t it be funny if Cuba were to become a Canadian province? You could say it is right now, and it is one of Canada’s best kept secrets.”

With more than a million Canadians visiting Cuba, in 2014, it’s no longer a secret.