Political cartooning has been a significant form of social and political commentary for centuries. It took off in the 18th century when artists like James Gillray in Britain and Honoré Daumier in France used their drawings to call out political corruption, social injustices, and the ridiculousness of leaders. Their cartoons made complicated issues easy to understand and got people talking. Over the years, political cartoons became a regular feature in newspapers everywhere, using humor and sharp commentary to influence public opinion and keep folks engaged with important issues. However, recent years have declined due to many factors, like the shift to digital media and changes in how people engage with news.
We’re interested in reviving this important form of commentary. So, in collaboration with CityHallWatch, Spacing Vancouver is happy to launch a collaborative new syndicated cartoon series called the Urban Cartoon Syndicate.
So, how is it going to work?
Well…much like our standard online contributions that are donated. Anybody interested in contributing their cartoons will give Spacing Vancouver and CityHallWatch non-exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, and display their cartoons on our platforms, with a focus on civic themes. So, illustrators will retain all copyright and ownership of their work.
As always, we want to capture a diversity of “voices” through the cartooning, so we welcome all submissions. We reserve the right to accept or reject any submission based on internal criteria for appropriateness.
If a cartoon is selected, we will not publish the illustrator’s identity to ensure that Illustrators’ identities remain anonymous unless we get permission to publish their names. If you don’t want your name to be connected to the cartoon, for whatever reason, we will put it under “Urban Cartoon Syndicate”.
Since strong political cartooning always gets attention, if a different media organization requests permission to reprint a cartoon, either for free or for payment, Spacing Vancouver and CityHallWatch will contact the cartoonist immediately to mutually determine the best course of action, considering the interests of all parties involved.
Sound good?
If interested, please contact erick@spacing.ca (Spacing Vancouver) and/or citizenYVR@gmail.com (CityHallWatch Media Foundation).
We look forward to hearing from you…and stay tooned!
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