Cartoonist Zapiro, who has just released his 20th annual collection, Rhodes Rage, talks about making caricatures and how famous faces can mutate, writes Shaun de Waal.
South Africa’s leading political cartoonist, Jonathan Shapiro, who signs himself Zapiro, was recently in Jo’burg to “tour” his new collection of the year’s cartoons, Rhodes Rage (Jacana).
The works in the book are drawn from his cartoons for the Sunday Times, the Times and of course the Mail & Guardian.
Zapiro showed me his new mini-sculpture, a figure of President Jacob Zuma, which he has developed with sculptor and animator Judd Simontov. It’s a follow-up to their popular Madiba figure, and is soon to be joined by Julius Malema and Desmond Tutu. “It’s so exciting seeing these things come out in 3D,” said Zapiro, while confessing that Zuma’s showerhead did give them some technical trouble.
He reminisced about his two decades of cartooning for newspapers, including the time one editor changed the words in that day’s Zapiro cartoon to make it less offensive and “made it unintelligible”. The editor, though, laughs Zapiro, obviously thought it was successful, because “he did it a second time! And then after that he wouldn’t take my calls.”
Another year, another Zapiro annual?
I’ve done this every year since 1996. So this is the 20th one.
For full interview by Shaun de Waal with Zapiro, see Mail & Guardian
Zapiro’s new collection, Rhodes Rage, published by Jacana
