Interview with Mr.Kambiz Derambakhsh
the Cartoonist of the year in Iran

1. Why cartoon?
“Because drawing cartoon is part of my life. I grew up with it, and have continued with it. I have always thought of nothing but cartoon”.

2. What was your first cartoon which was published?
“It was a cartoon which was published in a monthly owned by the army. The cartoon showed two sergeants one in the police force and the other in the army (worth to mention that the rank of a sergeant in the army consists of three Vs placed on top of one another representing three 8s in Farsi, and the rank of a sergeant in the police force consists of three inverted Vs placed on top of one another representing three 7s). Although they were both sergeants, the former said to the latter, “I have three 8s(^),but you have three 7s(invers), so you must salute me.”

3. Who has had the greatest influence on your cartoon?
“Bosc and Chaval.”

4. Could you name the best Iranian and foreign cartoonists?
“We’ve got the best cartoonists in Iran, and every one of them is characteristically unique, Anyway among Iranians I can exemplify Touka Neyestani and among foreign ones Bartak.

5. What’s the best cartoon you’ve ever drawn?
“I have drawn numerous good cartoons, I can’t give an example.”

6. Your best Iranian and foreign cartoonist friends?
Hassan Karimzadeh & Bartak.”

7. What would you have done if you hadn’t become a cartoonist?
“I would become either a film maker or decorator.”

8. What’s the difference between a joke and a cartoon?
Joke is a verbal humor, but cartoon, without exception, is the only language you can use to define it.”

9. What are the most important prizes you’ve ever won?
“The first prize I won was in a cartoon contest on Mexican Olympics in Canada in 1968. I took sixth place. The most significant one is Yumiuri Shimbon Grand prize. Mohsen Davallou was the only Iranian cartoonist who had won a foreign prize before I did.”

10. How do subjects come to your mind?
To seek inspiration you need to keep looking at other cartoons and written humor or satire, working hard, and even watching comedies. You can find the subject or be inspired generally in three different ways:

1. Cogitating on the subject

2. being inspired

3. drawing lines on a piece of paper and finding the subject by chance.

11. Have you ever had trouble creating a cartoon out of subject?
I avoid drawing confused cartoons, because my style is always simple.

12. Have you ever thought of teaching?
Teaching (how to draw cartoons) is a very difficult job. Being able how to teach is a divine blessing that not many people have been given, but whose rudiments can even be found in some books and be learned. It’s based on hard work, great effort, and learning from other cartoonist’s experiences.

13. Is there anything for you to learn regarding your great experience?
Yes. Art, especially the art of drawing cartoon, will never reach the peak of perfection. I know people who work and draw cartoons better than I do. I’m never satisfied with my own works, so I try to work harder and better than before.

14. What do you think of lines?
Lines are one of the main parts of my cartoons. They are very important to me.

15. What if lines are not the ones you like?
I draw a cartoon again and again even ten times to have my favorite line or lines drawn. I never stop until I make sure lines are the ones I’ve been trying to get drawn.

16. The lines you draw are amazingly solid. How have you reached this solidity?
Definitely  through hard work. I have always looked up to Steinberg and Folon, whose inspiration help me draw cartoons solidly and in a simple way.

17. Once in an interview you said you had invented a language for drawing cartoons?
This invention of mine is going to be published in a two – hundred – page book soon. I’m completing the book these days. Briefly I can say that having done a lot of research, I created a design which helped me use English alphabet (letters) and turn them to human figures or objects while drawing cartoons.

18. Would you tell us about your unique coloring style?
I started coloring when I was abroad. My black and white works were not often published in their journals because they mostly used color in their works, so I started drawing colorful cartoons in 1980 and decided to have my own specific style. To achieve this goal I scraped a pastel using a razor blade, and got some powder. I put some on a cotton ball and applied it on the paper (my work). When I needed whiteness and brightness I used an eraser. It was interestingly a discovery, too because you can use a cheap material. but get a great result. Even some great cartoonists from around the world asked me if I used an airbrush. When I explained they were surprised. In fact I knew pastels had a new use.

19. What do you think of “eraser”?
Everything has their own use. I needed it a lot when I first started drawing cartoons, but now I don’t need it very much. I have drawn around ten thousand cartoons on paper but not in pencil. To reach this stage I have worked really hard.

20. How much should a cartoonist keep him or herself up-to-date?
It depends. If a cartoonist is an editorial one he/she must constantly keep themselves up - to - date. A daily cartoon has an expiry date, and will be forgotten after a while, so I always look for subjects with no expiration like Charlie Chaplin’s movies which still make us laugh or cry after so many years since their were produced.

21. What’s a good cartoon like?
A good cartoon must be simple, without words, able to convey its message simply, and communicate with all the people around the world.

22. How is it possible to be someone like Kambiz Derambakhsh?Kambiz Derambakhsh is well - known because of hard work. It’s a name people have had communication with for years. The are a lot of good cartoonist who are unknown just because of a small supply of works There of a small supply of works. One of the reasons why I’m successful is that I’m hard - working and draw a lot of cartoons.

23. Would you briefly say what kambiz Derambakhsh is like?
People should tell.

24. You’ve got a pen which has become burnished, how has this happened?
Once you buy any tool it’s a bit difficult to use it at first, but little by little you learn how to use it as easily as possible through getting to know its both good features and bad ones , so it will be easy to use. I call the movement of my pen on the paper “Dance of the pen”.

25. What if you lose your pen?
I have no choice but to start all over again. In fact, I have drawn all my colorful cartoons in pencil. If you push your pencil on the paper, you’ll get lines like the ones you get from a pen. When Aydin Aghdashloo had a look at my works he asked me what kind of pen I ha to draw those cartoons and he was surprised when I said, “In pencil.”

26. How long doen it take for the new pen to draw the lines you like?Two or three months.

27. Would you tell me a little about your black miniatures?
I had drawn those black miniatures before Islamic Revolution got victory in Iran. They were a combination of traditional painting and black humor. I was widely criticized at the time that I had been influenced by western cartoonist. So, in order to disprove this I did a research on Iranian miniatures for tow years. Being two - dimensional and lacking perspective are characters of miniatures. Ninety-five percent of the characters are in profile in miniatures. After I had done the research. I combined miniature and black humor to make criticisms cleverly and have them shown in my works. It was entirely a political work. Ayandegan - e - Adabi, a journal in which my works had been being published, was banned to be published and I was prohibited to work twice. Although in Iranian miniatures shah was always positioned in the center and bigger than any  other characters, instead I drew on showing a stomach and intestines in the center which ate and excreted and there were servants who were.  looking after the thing. There  used to be an eagle on shah’s arm in Iranian miniatures, but I drew one with Donald Duck on his to show that Iranian kings had been following the West’s polices, and influenced by American Politicians.

28. Is it possible to have all these miniatures published in a book?Now, there are fifty of them, but none of the publishers has talked to me about this yet.

29. Why did you decide to get your son to animate your works?Because my son has studied this field academically and is able to bring my thoughts to life and pass on to others. It has always been my great wish to do this. Some great cartoonists such as Bosc, Topor, and Mordillo are also producing animations to present their works. Unfortunately, none of the distinguished animators have come to me for this. I have some ideas which can even be on the international market through producing animations. Since most people do not read newspaper but watch TV more often, I think I ought to have my cartoons animated in order to be seen widely. After my son had animated some of my cartoons I saw that they could keep up with other animations because there was an original idea behind every one of them. I’d like to aks officials to help me get my cartoons animated. These ideas can even be used for educational and better purposes. I’m already old. Some of my friends are dead now. How long do expect to live? Many of my ideas haven’t come to anything yet.

30. How many exhibitions have you held so far?
I don’t really know how many I’ve had so far. Perhaps more than sixty. But I’ve had nine since I came back to Iran. The  last one was held in mina Art Gallery.

31. What are you doing these days?
Two books containing my cartoons have been published so far. I have published two calendars at my own expense this year. I keep drawing cartoons for future exhibitions. I have two books being published presently, and ten more ready to be published.

32. Have you ever been disappointed with you?
No, not at all. Having been always hopeful is a moral virtue of mine. I have always repeated this to myself “It will be ok if God wants.”

33. Have you ever been disappointed at your works?
No, I haven’t. I’ve lived for my works. If hadn’t had this job, I would have gone crazy years ago. I have always amused myself drawing cartoons.

34. What do you think of the Iranian House of cartoon (IHC)?
When I first saw the name (IHC) in one of the Persian journals outside Iran I was really delighted and said, “at last cartoon has got a house.” I was so happy that I asked Mr. Ali Divandarri, who was heading for Iran, to give some expensive and priceless books of mine by Mordillo, Quino, and Stedman to the house as a gift on my behalf. I was warmly welcomed by people frame the Iranian House of Cartoon when I came to Iran. I’ll never forget that. I have always been respectfully welcomed by
 Mr. shojai. I really thank him The House is doing a great job, and has internationally promoted Iranian cartoon, esp. by holding cartoon biennials. When I compare the catalog of Tehran cartoon biennial with the ones of the most famous international festivals, I see former is really better than latter. A group of tourists came to visit me when I had an exhibition in Gabro Museum some years ago. When they had finished visiting the exhibition, they surprisingly said, “We never knew Iran hadn’t had the Iranian House of Cartoon and keyhan caricature, Iranian cartoon would still be unknown in the world. I remember the time we had trouble finding some addresses of many of the festivals.

35. Would you care to express your opinion about Irancartoon magazine?
As I have told Mr. Shojai before, it can even take the place of journals such as Nebelspalter, Punch, and Mad. Not only can it introduce Iranian cartoonists to the world, but also be read by cartoonists around the world. When I received the 10tn issue of Irancartoon, I saw it was really good. If it receives more attention, it will be a good international magazine.

36. What’s your opinion about the 7tn biennial?
One of the reasons It was held  better than the ones before was because they had finally found a suitable well - known place to show the artworks. The reason that I participated in it was I wanted people to see my works especially the colorful ones.

37. What’s your best memory of the 7tn biennial?
As I entered Saba Art - Culture Center on the day of the inauguration of the 7tn biennial and saw the crowd tears of happiness rolled down my cheeks. I was happy to see all those cartoon lovers.

38. What’s your worst memory of the 7tn biennial?
None!

39. What do you have to tell us about the 8tn biennial?
I think more attention must be paid to quality of the works as well as judgment. Although Mr. Shojai did his best to frame all the works, it could be done better. We should avoid printing artists’ names and putting their national flags on their works because this ruins the composition of the artwork.

40. It is said that a cartoonist’s characters in his/her works look like they them selves?
As far as appearance is concerned, not, but mentally yes .

41. What do you think of working for the press?
Journals have always been a base for cartoons, and it’s a shame we have only two or three humor magazines. A country with almost seventy million people needs more humor magazines.

42. Which part of your life is similar to cartoon?
All of my life. Walking in the street you can see cartoons in succession. But cartoonists see them much earlier.

43. How important is it for a cartoonist to have a sense of humor?Humor is the essence of cartoon. A cartoon without humor is an illustration. Unfortunately most Iranian cartoonists prefer beauty and technique to theme.

44. What’s your everyday life dream?
I’d love everyone to live a happy and peaceful life, freely, and in a friendly way.

46. What theme would you like your last cartoon to have?
I’d love it to be poetical and soothing.

47. Is there a question you think I should ask you?
No, there isn’t.

48. And the final word?
I hope all Iranian cartoonists will promote and get the position they deserve. Of course they need to work hard.