“It can be a bit of a loner’s business all this doodling” jokes cartoonist Jim Cogan. “We’re just sitting at home in our studios. At least a festival gets us out to look at each other.”
From Mad magazine to the Ukraine war, to Artificial Intelligence, this week’s 2023 Galway Cartoon Festival brings cartoonists and fans together to look at a host of topical issues.
Now in its seventh edition, the 2023 festival runs Friday, September 29, to Wednesday, October 4, across seven city centre locations, and even on Inis Oírr. All events are free, and the full programme is available at www.galwaycartoonfestival.ie Featuring international exhibitions, fascinating talks, public interviews, film screenings, art trails, workshops and competitions, GCF23 is a full showcase for what the French call ‘the ninth art’.
“We’ve never had the respect in Ireland that cartoonists have in – say – France or Belguim,” says Cogan. “Besides a golden era of cartoons in Ireland in the 1990s, there are not many full-time employed cartoonists now,” he adds. Cogan believes festivals are an important lifeline for the pop art.
Cogan’s banner image for the festival includes names of some its headline attendees, but with the cartoonist drawn plugged in, it’s also a swipe at the currently fashionable idea that Artificial Intelligence will provide all humanity’s answers.
“Where are we going with AI?” asks Cogan. “Where does it end? When something or someone becomes so powerful that they become full of pomp, that’s when a cartoon is important as it brings it all back down to a real level again.”
Cogan is best known for his long association with the Sunday Independent, Farmers Journal, and Phoenix magazine.
Other luminaries visiting Galway this year include Ed Steckley, vice president of the American Cartoon Society and contributor to the legendary MAD magazine; the Guardian and Daily Mirror’s Martin Rowson, chair of the British Cartoonists’ Association; renowned French caricaturist Jean-Michel Renault; and award-winning Portuguese artist Cristina Sampaio.
Although unable to travel because of the war, Ukrainian cartoonist Vladimir Kazanevsky – of the international group Cartooning for Peace – will be participating remotely.
These famous pencil-slingers will be joined by some of Ireland’s leading cartoonists like Tom Mathews (Hot Press, Irish Times, Sunday Independent ), Harry Burton (Irish Examiner ), Dean Patterson (Private Eye ), and Irish language cartoonist Caoimhe Lavelle. Iconic water safety cartoons by the late Terry Willers will also be on show.
Most events will be happening in venues throughout the city – including the new PorterShed, Portershed a Dó, the Town Hall Theatre, An Taibhdhearc, Pálás Cinema, Galway City Library, and the Galway City Museum.
Beyond the city, Áras Éanna Arts Centre on Inis Oírr is hosting Irish language cartoons and drawing demonstrations in local schools.
“We’re not a dieing breed,” argues Cogan, “but receding. If a child growing up now wants to be a cartoonist they need praise from their parents. But they also need to stumble across cartoons. I see fewer young people than ever now reading newspapers and magazines. I can’t wait to see them looking at the cartoons in Galway.”
