The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Tabriz Cartoons has details up for the Dong-A LG International Digital Cartoon Competition 2008; as the title suggests this competition is only open to digitally created cartoons and caricatures, not scans of more traditionally created art. I’m sure some might throw up their hands in horror and mutter about how such works can’t be ‘real’ cartoons, but the fact is digital artwork is here to stay, from still images to animated films and some of it is extremely good (just have a look at some of the brilliant digital art books from Ballistic we have on our site, for example, which I’ve praised on here several times), while many more traditional cartoonists and comics artists makes use of digital technology like Photoshop regularly in their work. And here’s another reason you may not want to sniff at this competition – there is a top prize of 5, 000 dollars (US). That’s a fair old bit of dosh (even at the dollar’s current woeful exchange rate), so any digitally-inclined artists out there might want to consider putting in an entry or two – there are two themes, Cartoons of the Olympics or Caricatures of Sports Players; the closing date is April 30th, check Tabriz for the full details. (link via Neorama)

(one of the entries you can see in the gallery for the Tabriz cartoon competition; this one which made me smile came from Maria Jose Mosquera of Spain)

And while I’m at it I should mention the deadline for 7th Tabriz International Cartoon Contest closes this Friday. While late entries are still coming in and the actual judging is still to come the site has already been busy creating a gallery of some of the entries for this year, most of them up at a decent size and resolution too, so you can enjoy them. And boy howdy is it living up to the ‘international’ part of its title – a quick look down some of the entrants currently being shown in the gallery include entrants from Iran, Iraq, India, Brazil, Italy, Germany, Egypt, Chile, Romania, France, Britain, China, Turkey, Spain, Poland, Indonesia, Russia and more. I don’t know about you, but I find that pleasantly encouraging, especially after relentless bad stories about the impact of some cartoons – go and have a good browse.

(one of the entries from Abedin Mohammadi of Iran for the Tabriz cartoon competition)