IN THE LINE OF FIRE

Giselle Borg Olivier speaks to renowned local cartoonists Steve Bonello and Ġorġ Mallia about their thoughts and role within this animated setting.

Steve Bonello | Preferred medium: Ink/digital (newspaper work almost exclusively digital) | Drawing since: 1980s, political cartooning since 1991

Photo by Mikela Zerafa

Ġorġ Mallia (signing Ġorġ) | Preferred medium: Pen and ink drawing, scanned and coloured/finished on Photoshop using a Cintiq tablet | Drawing since: 1977

The genre of the political cartoon dwells in satire, humour, and art – an often-singular image that conveys a powerful message usually without the need for words, and therefore able to be understood by many regardless of language barriers.

The message of this art is often hard-hitting as cartoonists tackle socio-political issues occurring in the country, or world, at the time. Internationally, one would remember the uproar caused by the ‘Mohammed cartoons’ commission by Danish daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2005. The cartoons sparked protests and riots worldwide with many Middle Eastern states boycotting Danish products.

Sadly, this was followed by another uproar 10 years later, also involving the prophet Mohammed, which resulted in the fatal shooting of 12 members of staff at the French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo.

Historically there have been many striking cartoons that have angered, shocked, and delighted readers, with cartoons being a very important message during war time – regardless of the war.

Benjamin Franklin had published what is regarded as the first political cartoon of the US, Join or Die, in The Pennsylvania Gazette in 1754. The cartoon emphasised the importance of the colonies of the time coming together to fight the threat of French expansion and Native Americans. It became a symbol of colonial unity and freedom at the time, and re-emerged as a message of solidarity during the American Revolutionary War.

On this side of the pond, British caricaturist James Gillray is regarded as the father of the political cartoon, with his political and social satires about George III, prime ministers and generals. These were mainly published between 1792 and 1810; many can now be found at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

On a local front, political cartoons are a firm feature in newspapers with politicians and the socio-political landscape often being the punchline. I interviewed two renowned local cartoonists, Steve Bonello and Ġorġ Mallia, about their thoughts and role within this animated setting.

Ġorġ Mallia

Political cartoons are largely based on satire. What is the message that your political/social cartoons aim to give?

SB: Message? Seriously, I don't think I do 'messages' - the very thought scares me. It sounds too much like preaching... A cartoon is a cartoon. It either hits or it misses. It's either good or abysmal. It's either black or white with hardly any space for grey.

ĠM: Satire is definitely an intrinsic part of the philosophy behind socio-political cartooning, and this is based on the very concept of the genre, which seeks to pinpoint aspects of society and/or politics and highlight defects, problems, anomalies in them. And since another core of cartooning is visual exaggeration, then putting a ridiculing magnifying glass to those defects highlights them in ways that are immediately impacting and memorable. Some cartoons are intentionally destructive, and the genre lends itself quite well to this; others are corrective… meaning the ultimate intention is positive. But the route to both is the same, with satire at the core of it.

You often have a platform and audience that is not available to the public. Do you feel a sense of responsibility when you draw cartoons that are published?

SB: Yes – funnily enough I do feel a sense of responsibility which is probably more than most politicians can say with a straight face. When I recently drew a cartoon on abortion – or more precisely the discussion (or lack of) on the subject – I got my fair share of flak and accusations of baby killing intentions and such blah. It goes with the territory I guess...

ĠM: The inspiration and execution of a cartoon remain the same no matter what the platform used for transmission, though some platforms are 1) more diffused than others; 2) have specific audiences; 3) have intrinsic restrictions based on editorial policy. Each of these can make me tweak how the message is treated. Once the cartoon has been drawn (and the angst externalised, if you will) then logically it needs to reach an audience. Like all journalists (and cartoonists are definitely journalists as well as visual artists), the sense of ownership and responsibility for that ownership, is always there.

But once there is conviction about what is being communicated, that responsibility stops short of any reaction by the audience. For example, whenever I post a cartoon on my own Facebook page, I refuse to react on any of the comments about it, because for me the cartoon is all I want to say, and I do not need to justify it or explain my reasoning to anyone.

Steve Bonello

Have there been any cartoons that you have regretted drawing?

SB: If there are cartoons that I have regretted drawing, it is because they were poor in execution or carried little or no punch. I do not consciously court controversy and am also highly conscious of the society I am working in and (by extension), what that society might tolerate or not tolerate.

ĠM: A cartoon always goes for instant impact. In other words, it can’t really say “on the other hand”. It needs to punch hard and directly. This is very intransigent, and there are times when I have been too intransigent, and the effect went beyond what I had wanted. At other times, because of the “one message” necessity of a cartoon, and because communicating with one visual+text caption is not effusive, cartoons I have drawn might have given the wrong impression, and there were no thousand word articles to go into the permutation of the subject. So, yes, there have been a (very) few times when I was sorry that I chose to communicate my point in quite the way I did. But most of the time, the impact is the one I am aiming for.

Ġorġ Mallia

Cartoons are no longer found solely in printed media but are largely available online across various platforms. Has the message of political cartoons changed with the development of technology?

SB: Cartoons are now much more accessible because of social media. Memes and suchlike have also 'eaten' into political cartoons. One worrying factor is that the printed political cartoon (sadly much like the printed media which carries it) is on the retreat and, in the US especially, cartoonists are more and more being made to follow an editorial line that they may be at odds with. I have always looked at cartoonists as opinion makers (never mind that they are at the bottom of that particular heap) rather than the artist who carries out an editor's idea of a cartoon.

ĠM: Well, the essential difference between legacy media and social media is that the first has a gatekeeper (normally in the form of an editor, or publisher) while the second doesn’t. In other words, while cartoons published in legacy media are vetted, checked, sometimes limited according to policy (so there’s the positive and negative there), cartoons published on social media have none of that and are at the discretion of the cartoonist him or herself. An unscrupulous cartoonist who has no ethical boundaries can do a lot of damage with this very direct medium in this way. Because the cartoon is a loaded weapon, and it really depends on the user whether it is used violently, subtly, etc.

Ġorġ Mallia

Steve Bonello

Politicians are always in the line of fire for any cartoonist. Who is your favourite political person to draw?

SB: I do not have a particular 'favourite' – people in power should be held to account and part of a cartoonist's job is just that.

I DO NOT HAVE A PARTICULAR ‘FAVOURITE’ –PEOPLE IN POWER SHOULD BE HELD TO ACCOUNT AND PART OF A CARTOONIST'S JOB IS JUST THAT

ĠM: Ah, but there are so many! Logically, the people in power are the people one aims at the most, if for no other reason, it’s because they are the ones doing something… and that something can often be punched full of satirical holes. So, I suppose, I have to say the upper echelons of government are my main target… and that is the way it has always been with me. Logically, I don’t try to balance my cartoons between parties… that is artificial and silly. I shoot at whoever irks my ire or tickles my funny bone. And they’ve all got a bit of shot over the years.

Steve Bonello