8 February 2016
Episode 226
28 minutes
Photo: Alex Stapleton
A picture’s worth a thousand words, they say, so how do political and topical cartoonists drill down into the core of a news story, a scandal or a cover-up to reveal its essence? How do they transform the news into something worthy of a laugh? We sit down with cartoonist Nick Newman, whose work appears in ‘The Sunday Times’, ‘Private Eye’ and ‘The Spectator’, and we find out why ABC in Australia has decided to commission a comic that tells the story of Isis and why getting caught being funny in Lebanon can land you in the slammer.
8 February 2016
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Nick Newman is a cartoonist and satirist who has long mocked the trials, tribulations and silliness attendant in politics, popular culture and sport. He is an avuncular master with a wry touch for spearing the villains of the day. So what’s his working day like? Tune in to find out whether he ever suffers from a flaccid funny bone and which subjects he just loves to lampoon.
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When you think about comics it’s probably fictional characters that come to mind: Superman, Wonder Woman or Tin Tin. Isis couldn’t be further from the world of superheroes but it’s this confronting topic that artist and journalist Eleri Mai Harris, who works in the world of comic journalism, is tackling for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. James Vyver meets her in Canberra.
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We’ve seen what happens when cartoonists try to tackle religious subjects in Europe but what about the Middle East? One comic-book magazine in Lebanon did just that and quickly found itself on the sharp end of the law. Cartoonists have been getting into trouble since the early 18th century and this story brings that right up to date. Monocle’s Beirut correspondent Venetia Rainey reports.
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