American cartoonist declines Iranian cartoon contest award

© Clay Jones The award winning cartoon spoofs Time magazine’s 2016 selection of Trump as “person of the year” by drawing a comparison to Hitler, whom Time named its “man of the year” in 1938

Political cartoonist Clay Jones’ initial delight upon receiving a citation in Iran’s House of Cartoon “Trumpism Cartoon and Caricature Contest” rapidly diminished as he learned more about the organisers’ track record.

“[House of Cartoon] may have good intentions, but I don’t want to be associated with them,” Jones told The Washington Post’s Comic Riffs.

“I have an issue with a contest sponsored by the government of Iran that’s critical of free speech in the United States when they don’t allow freedom of speech, or freedom for the press in their nation,” Jones writes on his blog. “I have an issue with a contest that was a wolf whistle for anti-Semitism.

“Though the Trumpism contest wasn’t about any of that, it’s not a party I would accept an invitation to. If the Ku Klux Klan held a cartoon contest on economics, I wouldn’t want to enter, and I don’t want to be involved with a group that engages in anti-Semitism, no matter how their denial may be worded.”

The anti-Semitism Jones refers to is Iran’s House of Cartoon Holocaust cartoon contest. Despite the completely unacceptable nature of this competition FECO (Federation of Cartoonists Organisation) continued to collaborate with Iran’s House of Cartoon, causing the PCO, along with France-Cartoons, to terminate our membership.

Read Michael Cavna’s article here on The Washington Post’s Comic Riffs website page.

With thanks to Nathan Ariss for drawing this to the Blog’s attention.

 

 

  • Latest Posts

  • Categories

  • Archives