Category: International

Middle Eastern Comics Battle Terrorist Ideologies

In light of increasingly successful terrorist recruitment tactics which are now drawing disaffected young people from around the world to join ISIL in the Middle East, one Jordanian man firmly believes that the solution may lie in comic books. For…

Malaysian Government Seeks Details on Zunar Customers

Zunar

The trouble continues for Malaysian political cartoonist Zunar, who is now dealing with a government effort to intimidate customers who bought his most recent book, Komplot Penjarakan Anwar. Unlike most of the rest of Zunar’s books, Komplot Penjarakan Anwar has…

Allegedly Harmful: UK Injunction Patrols the Fine Line Between Freedom of Speech and Child Welfare

In early October the Court of Appeals in the UK issued an injunction, halting the publication of an unnamed memoir on the grounds that if distributed its “allegedly harmful” content could be “likely to exert a catastrophic effect on [the…

Indie Comics Reborn in Egypt

Shakmagia

Egypt has no shortage of political cartoonists, although they must walk a fine line to get their work out to the widest possible audience. But in the past few years, the country has also seen a resurgence of independent long-form…

Did a Polish Town Ban Winnie the Pooh?

This much is certain: council members in the Polish town of Tuszyn earlier this month declined to name a local playground after Winnie the Pooh. And yes, one member said the Bear of Very Little Brain is “half-naked,” while another…

Danish Editor Reflects on Muhammad Cartoon Controversy in New Book

Flemming Rose

Nearly a decade after the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten printed 12 controversial cartoons on the theme of Islam and free expression, a book by the editor who commissioned the illustrations has finally made its way into print in the United States.…

Malaysian Human Rights Group Supports Zunar

Following yesterday’s news that Malaysian political cartoonist Zunar and several business associates are again under investigation by government authorities for sedition, the human rights organization Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM) today issued a statement demanding an end to the “unrelenting harassment…

Zunar Assistants Arrested for Selling Cartoon Books

Zunar cartoon

Just over a month after a Malaysian appeals court lifted a ban on two of political cartoonist Zunar’s books, the artist and his employees are again facing harassment and intimidation from police. As the sensational trial of an opposition leader…

Turkish Cartoonist Acquitted of Insulting President

Musa Kart cartoon

Turkish political cartoonist Musa Kart was recently acquitted of insulting his country’s president and former prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan via cartoon, but Kart says the repression of journalists in Turkey is only getting worse. In February of this year,…