Kasia Kowalska writes:
Jen Sorensen, cartoonist for the Austin Chronicle and other US papers, has become the first woman to win the coveted Herblock Prize for editorial cartooning.
The annual award was created to recognise editorial cartooning as an essential vehicle for freedom of speech and the right of expression. Meanwhile Emlly Carroll, creator of the horror comic Out of Skin, won the Cartoonist Studio Prize for the best web comic.
Chris Ware, the cartoonist behind Building Stories, talks about the devaluation of drawing in an age dominated by visual images in an interview with Chip Kidd at Salon.com. He says that the schools curriculum in the US does not allow much time for drawing, a problem echoed in the UK that we have covered on this blog.
Talking of our visual culture, Getty Images has announced that everyone can now use their images online for free. But not everyone is impressed, as Brian Krogsgard explains.
The Guardian cartoonists Joe Berger and Pascal Wyse have an exhibition called Sense of Fun at Creation Fine Arts in Beverley, the East Yorkshire town where Wyse was born. The Hull Daily Mail has more. Meanwhile, Birmingham Museum has announced the opening in May of a must-see exhibition: Marvellous Machines: The Wonderful World of Rowland Emett.
Great news for comic strip aficionados, Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes, has published his first new work in 19 years: it’s this poster for a documentary on the future of comic strips.
On a more sombre note, cartoonists used International Women’s Day last weekend to draw attention to issues that affect women: Alexsandro Palombo focused on domestic violence, Touka Neyestani on the curtailment of women’s rights in Iran, and Damien Glez on violence against women in Africa. Also, an exhibition of cartoons portraying Korean sex slaves during the Second World War goes on display in Seoul.
In Málaga, the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo is celebrating the work of Andrés Rabago, the El País cartoonist known as El Roto. His work has been likened to Goya by the critic Matthew Clayfield.
Finally, the Procartoonists.org member Steve “Brighty” Bright, co-creator of Bananaman, was tickled by this stag night photo that made it to the BBC news site.