Categories | Cartoon, Magazine, Online newspaper |
---|---|
Publisher | Arifur Rahman |
Founder | Arifur Rahman |
Founded | 2009 |
First issue | 1 November 2009 |
Country | Norway |
Based in | Drøbak |
Language | English, Bengali, Hindi, Spanish, Arabic |
Website | toonsmag |
ISSN | 2535-7492 |
Toons Mag is a cartoon magazine that offers a global online platform for publishing editorial cartoons, comics, caricatures, illustrations, and related news. It is a multilingual publication and organizer of an international cartoon contest and exhibitions. It was founded in 2009 by cartoonist Arifur Rahman, based in Drøbak, Norway.
In 2007, Cartoonist Arifur Rahman started drawing for a Bangladeshi satirical magazine called Alpin. [1] [2] It was a fun supplementary publication by Prothom Alo.
In Alpin, one of his cartoons that made a joke about adding Mohammad to the beginning of a person's name. The cartoon culminates in a young boy introducing his cat as Mohammad Cat. [3] [4] The cartoon, which was published during the Islamic holiday of Ramadan, ignited protests across Bangladesh and led to Arifur Rahman's arrest. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
On 18 September 2007, Alpin was banned permanently and the editor of Alpin was suspended. [11] Bangladeshi newspaper editors decided that they will never be published his cartoons in the future. In prison, Arifur Rahman wished that when he was freed, he would be able to start a magazine like Alpin. On 20 March 2008, after six months and two days in prison for "hurting religious sentiments," he was freed but found himself unable to publish his work. [12] [13] [14] [15]
One year later, some newspapers published his cartoons but all of them were published anonymously. Arifur Rahman was not happy to publish his cartoon anonymously. He always wished to publish his cartoons under his own name. So, he tried to start a printed cartoon magazine but did not have enough money. Then, he decided to publish on the internet, a cheap and easy way to get a global audience. In 2009, he started, Toons Mag Online Cartoon Magazine. [13]
In 2015, Toons won "Best of online activism awards" in the people's choice category in Deutsche Welle, Germany. [16] [17]
Toons promotes freedom of expression through cartoons, comics, caricatures and articles. It is published in English, Bengali, Arabic, Spanish and Hindi languages. [13]
Since 2015, Toons has organized the International Cartoon Contest and Exhibitions to support children's rights, women's rights, freedom of expression, gender equality.
In 2015, Toons organized the International Cartoon Contest and Exhibition "Children in War" to focus on the suffering of children in war and conflict areas, such as in Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq. It was a moving exhibition, which was exhibited in multiple places in Norway and Sweden. One hundred and twenty-eight cartoonists participated from 51 different countries. [18] On 10 September 2015, The exhibition was opened by Bishop Atle Sommerfeldt in Avistegnernes Hus, Drøbak. After the opening, was exhibited in Oslo, Nesodden, Bergen, Stavanger, Haugesund, Kristiansand and in Norrköping in Sweden. The event was supported by The Norwegian Cartoonist Gallery and Fritt Ord. [19] [20]
The cartoon competition was organized by Arifur Rahman and Toons Mag and received 1,625 drawings by 567 cartoonists from 79 different countries. [21] A selection were represented in the Women's Rights exhibitions, which opened in Drøbak, Bangalore and Uttar Pradesh for International Women's Day, 8 March 2016. The drawings in the exhibitions deal with women's rights and limitations; the lack of education, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, violence, discrimination, legal protection and workload. [22] [23]
On 10 December 2016, it was exhibited in the Brain Sneezing Gallery in the Prešov Wave Club, Slovakia. [24] [25]
The event was supported by The Norwegian Cartoonist Gallery, Fritt Ord, Indian Institute of Cartoonist, Brain Sneezing Gallery, Prešov Wave club, EEA funds and the Slovak Republic.
Name | Introduction | Country |
---|---|---|
Siri Dokken | Norwegian Cartoonist and Illustrator | Norway |
Sabine Voigt | German Cartoonist and Illustrator | Germany |
Saadet Demir Yalçın | Turkish Cartoonist | Turkey |
Nigar Nazar | The first Pakistani female cartoonist. | Pakistan |
Ahsan Habib | Bangladeshi Cartoonist and Editor of Unmad | Bangladesh |
Borislav Stankovic | Serbian Cartoonist | Serbia |
Jan-Erik Ander | Swedish Cartoonist and Illustrator | Sweden |
Matt Wuerker | A Pulitzer Prize-winning American political cartoonist and founding staff member of Politico . | United States |
12 cartoonist was won the award out of 567 cartoonists.
Name | Country | Award |
---|---|---|
Marcin Bondarowicz | Poland | First Prize |
Nenad Ostojic | Croatia | Second Prize |
Reza Mokhtarjozani | United States | Third Prize |
Zygmunt Zaradkiewicz | Poland | Honorable Mention |
Zlatkovsky Mikhail | Russia | Honorable Mention |
Osama Hajjaj | Jordan | Honorable Mention |
Sahar Ajami | Iran | Honorable Mention |
Sajad Rafeei | Iran | Honorable Mention |
Selói Peters | Brazil | Honorable Mention |
Afri Diyansyah | Indonesia | Honorable Mention |
Michel Kichka | Israel | Honorable Mention |
Plantu | France | Honorable Mention |
This exhibition was organized in collaboration with cartoonist Arifur Rahman from Bangladesh, who has himself been a victim of torture and imprisonment for his drawings. Five hundred and eighteen cartoonists participated from 83 countries, submitting 1,556 cartoons.
The exhibition opening was in three countries. Per Edgard Kokkvold, writer, and chairman of the Norwegian Broadcasting Council, former newspaper editor and secretary general of the Norwegian Press Association and leader of the Press Complaints Commission inaugurated the exhibition. Moddi Knutsen, Norwegian musician, inaugurated the exhibition and Roar Hagen, Norwegian political cartoonist, announced the award winner. [26]
In the Indian Institute of Cartoonists, Bangalore, India, Dr. Sathyabhama Badhreenath, director of the National Gallery of Modern Art inaugurated the exhibition. [27] [28]
It was also exhibited in Kýchanie mozgu – Brain Sneezing gallery, Prešov, and Košice, Slovakia, as well as in the Slovak embassy in Oslo, Norway.
The event was supported by The Norwegian Cartoonist Gallery, Fritt Ord, Norwegian Festival of Literature in Lillehammer, Brain Sneezing Gallery, Prešov, and Indian Institute of Cartoonist. Later on, it was exhibited on Eidsvoll. [26] [29] [30]
Name | Occupation | Country |
---|---|---|
Ann Telnaes | Winner of Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. She is the president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists | United States |
Liza Donnelly | An American cartoonist and writer, best known for her work in The New Yorker and is resident cartoonist of CBS News | United States |
Roar Hagen | Norwegian cartoonist and illustrator, cartoonist for Norwegian Newspaper Verdens Gang (VG) | Norway |
Egil Nyhus | Norwegian Cartoonist and illustrator, editorial cartoonist for Romerikes Blad | Norway |
Carina Milde | Curator of Museum of Work, Sweden | Sweden |
Nenad Ostojic | Croatian Cartoonist | Croatia |
Cintia Bolio | Mexican Cartoonist and illustrator | México |
Atiqullah Shahid | Afghan Cartoonist | Afghanistan |
Judy Nadin | Australian cartoonist and caricaturist | Australia |
John Curtis | South African Cartoonist | South Africa |
12 cartoonist was won the award out of 518 cartoonists.
Name | Country | Award |
---|---|---|
José Antonio Rodríguez García | Mexico | First Prize |
Bruno Hamzagic | Brazil | Second Prize |
Aristides E. Hernandez | Cuba | Third Prize |
Miro Stefanović | Serbia | Honorable Mention |
Angel Boligan | Mexico | Honorable Mention |
Firuz Kutal | Norway | Honorable Mention |
Galym Boranbayev | Kazakhstan | Honorable Mention |
Walter Gastaldo | Argentina | Honorable Mention |
Andrei Popov | Russia | Honorable Mention |
Yihenew Worku | Ethiopia | Honorable Mention |
Julio Carrión Cueva | Peru | Honorable Mention |
Jitet Kustana | Indonesia | Honorable Mention |
An annual award to appreciate and motivate cartoonists for their best cartoons.
Year | Cartoonist | Country | Introduction |
---|---|---|---|
2016/17 | José Antonio Rodríguez García | Mexico | Political Cartoonist and illustrator from Mexico |
2018 | Arcadio Esquivel | Costa Rica | Cartoonist and Professor of Department of Fine Arts at the School of General Studies, University of Costa Rica |
Frogn is a municipality in Akershus county, Norway. It is part of the Follo traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Drøbak. Frogn was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838. The city of Drøbak was merged with Frogn on 1 January 1962.
A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons or comics. Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the literary and graphic components of the work as part of their practice.
Ivan Brunetti is an Italian and American cartoonist and comics scholar based in Chicago.
Flemming Rose is a Danish journalist, author and Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. He previously served as foreign affairs editor at the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. As culture editor of the same newspaper, he was principally responsible for the September 2005 publication of the cartoons that initiated the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy early the next year, and since then he has been an international advocate of the freedom of speech.
Lars Roar Langslet was the Norwegian Minister of Education and Church Affairs in 1981, and Minister of Culture and Science from 1982 until 1986 for the Conservative Party.
The Daily Prothom Alo is a Bengali-language daily newspaper in Bangladesh, published from Dhaka. It is the largest circulated newspaper in Bangladesh.
Fritt Ord is a Norwegian private foundation, whose aim is to support freedom of expression and a free press. It was established on 7 June 1974 by Narvesen Kioskkompani's leaders Jens Henrik Nordlie and Finn Skedsmo as well as the lawyer Jens Christian Hauge.
Vebjørn Selbekk is a Norwegian newspaper editor and author. Selbekk became widely known in Norway and abroad after he in 2006 reprinted a facsimile of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons as editor of the Christian newspaper Magazinet, sparking a major incident and ensuing controversy. He has since been awarded by the free press organization Fritt Ord for his "firm defence of freedom of expression". Since 2015 he has been a member of the Broadcasting Council of the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.
Arifur Rahman is a Bangladeshi-Norwegian political cartoonist, illustrator and animator. He is a self-taught cartoonist who is renowned for his contribution to cartoons both on the internet and in print media. In Bangladesh, he is best known as Cartoonist Arif for anti-corruption cartoons. He's won multiple awards for Anti-Corruption cartoons from Transparency International Bangladesh and the Daily Star. He was the first and former guest cartoonist of International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN). He is a publisher of cartoon magazine Toons Mag and the organizer of international cartoon contests and exhibitions.
The 2007 Bangladesh cartoon controversy began after an editorial cartoon was published in the 431st edition of Alpin, a featured supplement of the Bangladeshi newspaper Prothom Alo, on 17 September 2007. The cartoon featured a conversation between an elderly man and a boy culminating in the boy making a joke using the name of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
The People's Republic of Bangladesh went from being a secular state in 1971 to having Islam as the state religion in 1988. Despite its state religion, Bangladesh uses a secular penal code dating from 1860—the time of the British occupation. The penal code discourages blasphemy by a section that forbids "hurting religious sentiments." Other laws permit the government to confiscate and to ban the publication of blasphemous material. Government officials, police, soldiers, and security forces may have discouraged blasphemy by extrajudicial actions including torture. Schools run by the government have Religious Studies in the curriculum.
Fritt Ord Award consists of two prizes awarded by the Fritt Ord Foundation. Two prizes are awarded in support of freedom of speech and freedom of expression; the Fritt Ord Award and the Fritt Ord Honorary Award . These are awards are distributed annually during the month of May in connection with the anniversary of the liberation of Norway at the end of World War II in May 1945. Prizes are awarded to one or more persons or organizations that have contributed to areas where the organization works, especially in the work of freedom of expression. In addition to a monetary reward, the award includes a statue by sculptor Nils Aas.
Ali Divandari is an Iranian cartoonist, painter, graphic designer, sculptor and journalist.
The Indian Institute of Cartoonists (IIC) is an organisation based in Bangalore that serves to promote and preserve cartooning and cartoonists in India. Founded in 2001, the institute hosts the Indian Cartoon Gallery with rotating exhibits focusing on different artists. It has organised more than one hundred exhibitions of cartoons.
Per Edgar Kokkvold is a Norwegian journalist, former editor and secretary-general of the Norwegian Press Association, and current chair of the Norwegian Broadcasting Council.
Francis Cleetus is an American cartoonist, painter, and sculptor. He is also a creative director, graphic designer, and copywriter, who has worked at various ad agencies including Foote, Cone & Belding, Ogilvy & Mather, J. Walter Thompson and Doe-Anderson in India, Hong Kong and the US.
Khalil Rahman is a Bangladeshi political cartoonist. His cartoons have been appearing on the front page of some leading Bengali dailies including Prothom Alo, Jugantor, and Samakal.
Olaug Nilssen is a Norwegian novelist, playwright, children's writer, essayist and magazine editor.
Behzad Ghafarizadeh, is an Iranian - Canadian cartoonist and illustrator. He was born in 1983 in Tehran, and grew up in an art-centered family. He graduated from the University of Tehran and received his master's degree in materials engineering. He continued his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at École de technologie supérieure, Université du Québec, in Montreal, Quebec.
Ahmed Kabir Kishore is a Bangladeshi cartoonist. He was accused of drawing cartoons and held in pre-trial detention in Bangladesh under the country's infamous Digital Security Act for 10 months since May 2, 2020. Cartoonists Rights Network International, Cartooning for Peace, various international organizations and common people of Bangladesh raised concerns over the detention and custodial torture on Kishore.
Reporters Without Borders calls for the immediately release of Arifur Rahman, a cartoonist with Aalpin, the daily newspaper Prothom Alo's weekly satirical supplement.
Rahman tegner ofte ut fra fantasien. Illustrasjon Arifur Rahman Kunne ikke bruke navnet sitt
Utstillingen er en av vandreutstillingene i regi av Avistegnernes Hus, og tilbys via nettet til institusjoner over hele verden. Den er også støttet av «Fritt Ord».