A WORD TO MY FELLOW CARTOONISTS IN FRANCE In the aftermath of the recent terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical publication, in which several cartoonists were murdered for their cartoons depicting the so-called prophet Muhammad, Id like to offer my help. As a widely published, retired cartoonist, I know I offended a lot of people. Unfortunately, I never had to deal with barbaric, blood thirsty critics with small penises and rocket launchers. Therefore my heart and prayers go out to the families of those murdered in the name of pen and ink. In defiance, I would love to demonstrate to these murderous pricks that we will not be silenced, and will happily contribute Muhammad cartoons to Charlie Hebdo at any time if they wish to continue doing so. Ill be contacting them when the smoke clears. I will gladly sacrifice my life, if need be, to show appreciation for gift of free expression that has been bestowed upon me for all these years. One of my fellow cartoonists from Cuba once expressed to me the dangers of cartooning under the Castro regime. He explained how he got around directly criticizing the government by doing medieval cartoons of Kings and Queens to represent what was really going on. It was obvious what he was doing, but he was courageous and managed to escape imprisonment and eventually moved to Miami. Ill never forget how he would always sign his emails Cartoonist for Life, though Im sure what he really meant was Cartoonist to the Death. Once again, bravo to all the cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo. May their deaths not be in vain, but rather help to illuminate, and eventually eliminate the evil we are up against.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 19:55:17 +0000