George Fisher would cry… with laughter

The winners of the 13th International Cartoon Competition “Independence” have been announced in Kyiv. “Knight’s Move” was chosen as the topic of the event by its organizers, the Association of Cartoonists of Ukraine. In their pictures, the competing artists contemplated on games, mostly political. The jury had to choose the best works out 497 pictures submitted this year by 133 artists from 39 countries. Visitors are welcome to see them at the exhibit launched at the Bilshovyk shopping mall.

“‘Political chess’ is the favorite game played by millions of people, who watch television and are unable to tear themselves away from it. They find it more interesting than their own lives,” the organizer of the event, Head of the Association of Cartoonists of Ukraine Kostiantyn KAZANCHEV explains the choice of the topic. “This year’s winner is a very good artist Vasyl Vozniuk, a well-known cartoonist in the country and a winner of numerous international competitions. A separate exposition at the exhibit shows a series of his political cartoons created during the Shuster LIVE TV show. In my opinion, Ukrainian cartoonists are on about fifth or sixth place in conditional international ranking: they win awards at almost every international competition. Unfortunately, the number of cartoons published in printed mass media is gradually decreasing. At the same time you cannot say they have moved to online publications. Usual funny cartoons have practically disappeared from newspapers and preference is given to satirical sketches. They are used mostly as illustrations to articles, not as a separate column. By my estimations, nearly 30-35 professional cartoonists and about 100 amateurs are working in Ukraine at the moment.”

Anyone, even children, can take part in the Independence Competition.

“The plot you can see in my picture is the first thing I came up with when I heard the topic of the competition,” Vasyl VOZNIUK shared the story of his success with The Day. “It seems to me, cartoonists are born, they cannot be trained. It is not without a reason that members of our association are people of various occupations, with professional artists being the fewest. Every educational institution in Ukraine is training cartoonists. There is a different situation in the West, which has special educational programs. In spite of this, I have always said that namely cartoons are the most competitive Ukrainian product. Unfortunately, the demand in the press in Ukraine has lately decreased, except for a few periodicals. Incidentally, the latter include The Day, which has always had employed good cartoonists. I am positive about this, because I have worked at your newspaper for a while (laughing). As far as I can remember, it was in 1999, when the newspaper announced a contest for vacancy to replace the deceased legendary Ukrainian cartoonist Anatolii Kazansky, who had worked in The Day. His sketches were a kind of a textbook for us.”