Cartoons: the art of dissenters

by Vladimir Kazanevsky

The purpose of this article is the attempt to demonstrate the new trends of modern cartoons "without captions". To do this, we must consider the stages of emergence, formation and development of this genre of art up to the present day. Did the imaginative world of cartoons has changed? Did the emergence of personal computers and the Internet has influenced at the visual embodiment of cartoons? Did the "spirit of the absurd" and philosophical foundations of cartoons have transfigured? And finally, which is the place of cartoon art in today's society?

Modern cartoons "without captions" have existed almost one hundred years. Well known that this cartoons appeared in the thirties of the last century in France and the United States in a relatively short period of time under the influence of innovative ideas in the visual arts, literature, theater, philosophy. Cartoons "without captions" are fundamentally different from the traditional centuries-old comic and satirical graphics, which still exist today, for example in the form of a political cartoons. Immediately, we note that we will continue to talk about the cartoon "without captions", leaving aside the traditional art of cartoon, which is developed under other laws. So, we agree that referring to the cartoon "without captions" inside this article we will call it just a cartoon.

First of all we are interested in whether the art of cartoon has changed during its existence. Are "grotesque, ironic, buffoonery", "humor of paradoxes, oddities and quirks" the characteristic of this kind of art till now? These properties had endowed to cartoons by researcher Nina Dmitrieva on the stage of occurrence and formation of this kind of art [1, 256].

Not only the visual representations, but also the semantic contents of the cartoons began to change almost imperceptibly in recent decades. Primarily this was because of the variety of radical social phenomena, as well as the emergence of new technical possibilities and means of communication.

Of course, the main thing in the cartoon is a semantic content. It was there that lays the "comic charge", philosophical and other conscious or subconscious ideas of the author, or the lack of them. What happened to "humor of paradoxes, oddities and quirks"?

Lonely man on the small island decorated by symbolic palm tree almost gone out from cartoons. There were simply too many such men, the whole army, and they did not seem quite so lonely already. They filled the magazines, newspapers and Internet space. Viewers no longer believe in the lonely men near palm tree. However, this did not the end of existential anguish of loneliness artists. Other modern symbols come in place of the islets, which we will discuss later.

The blow by a stick on the head of a passerby around a corner has ceased to be so unexpected. The artists understand this and hide no their insidious characters around the corners already. They began to look for other ways to "blow" viewer. Roughly the same thing happened with the banana peel on which slips passersby. Heroes of cartoons began to get round this obstacle invented by artists. Another cartoons which used to be "kick the cake in the face" become outdated. However, even now there are some cases where the cartoon hero suddenly throws a cake in the face to someone. It is look like a tired artist, worn out of looking for a cartoon ideas. He gave up on the new idea, could not resist and suddenly threw the stale cake in the viewer. Are this not a "strange humor, the grotesque and the oddities"?

Leaning tower of Pisa will fall down only when cartoonists be tired of to draw this image.

Eternal creative "helpers" of cartoonists Don Quixote and Sancho Pаnzа have become less likely to be promoted over the graphic works of satirical artists. Maybe finally cartoonists became ashamed of Miguel Cervantes for the using of his famous characters in vain?

Ostrich in cartoons continues to bury his head in the sand. But he makes it all the more rarely and reluctantly. Are the cartoonists aware of that the ostriches never did it? When these birds are scared something they just run away rapidly. This is only the filmmakers can dig a hole, fill it by delicacies and while the ostrich absorb food, film him allegedly "buried his head in the sand." So gradually disappearing behind the horizon another ancient cartoon myth.

Persistent fighter for peace remains a white dove. This image have drawn by Pablo Picasso for the First World Peace Congress in 1949. Almost immediately after the appearance of white bird as emblems of peace, he playfully migrated to the cartoons. So far, the dove with an olive branch in its beak is the most loyal supporter of pacifism, a fighter against the militarists of all stripes. However, sometimes cartoonists look out for the vile hypocrisy in this tender image. They are arming the bird secretly and openly in his works, thus hinting that the peace does not depend on a dove but from the people.

Already in antiquity a Death portrayed as a gaunt old woman in a black cloak and with a scythe. The old women which have depicted in the ancient frescoes, in the engravings by Albrech Dürer and in other works is strikingly similar. There is a feeling that the artist has always posed the same mysterious lady. The Death did not escape attention of cartoonists. For them there is no detail of life, even the most tragic, that would not be subject to reflection and witty ridicule. The cartoonists, these skeptical scoffers stand above the illusion of human being. At the same time they believe that, as Arthur Schopenhauer said, "death does not interrupt the eternal becoming, it kills only the individual." Illustrations of this philosophic statement can serve numerous cartoons, which show the coitus of a mortal man with old bony woman. And the apotheosis of "eternal becoming" are cartoon images of pregnant Death (Fig.1).

There are a lot of cartoons that are somehow connected with death. They depict the executions, suicides, war, murder, and so on. Basically, these cartoons are in the area of black humor, the main purpose of which, according to Freud, "to avoid dissatisfaction from internal sources" [2]. By resorting to the black humor, cartoonists trying to overcome of the great tragic ironist, which is the life itself. As noted by Boris Tsigulevsky, artists position in this case is "not a mockery and pretense (this is on the side of life) and not a game and humor, but his serious concern about their fate, effort, or even heroism" [3]. "Boston World Dictionary of Literary Terms" defines black humor as "humor, discovering thing of its fun to overturn moral values, causing a grim smile." It says also that black humor is a cynical way to respond to evil and absurdity of life. According to supporters of black humor, it "has a psychotherapeutic effect". The black humor is a way to laughter where every other way to describe the evil will just awaken crying" [4]. Black humor confidently settled in the cartoon world.

Grim Sisyphus continue to roll his eternal stone to the top of the mountain, a Trojan horse are staying near the gate, Rodin thinker pose to ironic artists ... A lot of funny, sad, proud and evil characters of literature, films, animations, paintings, sculptures, theaters... settled in cartoons. Alas, the "comfortable" for cartoonists images have become stereotypes, and some of them irrevocably obsolete.

Exploitation of the same images, the use of common methods to achieve comic effects, in the end, led to the fact that the cartoonists involuntarily started repeating predecessors. "Heuristicity" of cartoons began to fade. Plenty of cartoon clones have began to appear regularly on the pages of newspapers and magazines at the end of the twentieth century. It are not a direct plagiarism or imitation, but means the stereotyped thinking of cartoonists.

"Cartoon myths" of the past began dissipate gradually. Their place naturally began to occupy new.

The cases of skyjackings by the armed terrorists have become frequent at the end of the last millennium around the world. The press have been filled by cartoons in which the main characters were the hijackers. The terrorists in cartoons had hijacked everything that could not only fly, but also move.

The airplanes hijacked by terrorists crashed into the New York's Two World Trade Center towers at the beginning of this century. And then appeared cartoon which depicted two planes had crashed into the giant sizes pencils standing vertically...

The wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, the "color revolutions" in Africa, Asia, Europe and numerous of terrorist attacks have created a new heroes of cartoons, for example armed men in camouflage uniforms. One of the most important hero of modern cartoons became the armed terrible Terrorist hided his face under the evil black mask. The forces of peace, which embody either by the children or the "dove of peace" are fighting against this terrible hero in cartoons... And they win often. But more often defeats the pessimism. The black humor reigns in cartoons. A Terrorist cuts unfortunate pencil by the knife like a prisoner's throat (Fig.2). This is a new myth in cartoon world.

The favorite characters of cartoonists have become also refugees fleeing from the Terrorist evil. The cartoonists are sympathetic to the refugees, condemning those who prevent them to find a new life.

Trolleys for products from supermarkets confidently settled in the minds of the cartoonists. This image has become a compelling symbol of the consumer society.

Cartoonists also have turned his critical gaze on the World Internet. Drawn PC and symbols associated with it, have filled not only the space of the Internet, but also the pages of still existing Mass Media prints. Modern cartoonists became the friends of the symbol of the social network of Facebook in the form of the letter F. This popular means of communication once again forced artists to recall existential loneliness of man in the world. On the one hand, formally being a sign of communication between people, this symbol emphasizes only the loneliness of a real personality. Facebook and other similar means of communication deny direct human interaction. Existential anguish that came from the cartoons which depicted a lonely little man on a desert island, are embodied in the modern symbol now. This looks as a tiny island, a man sitting on the sand, burying his gaze to the screen of a personal computer. And a huge symbol of social network F, which is vaguely reminiscent of a palm tree rises above them (Fig.3).

Contemporary cartoonists draw their inspiration from brand new fashionable subjects, images and symbols. However, this refers only to the myths on which the semantic contents of the cartoons are built. Did the "spirit" of semantic contents of the cartoons has changed? Can we characterize cartoons as "humor of paradoxes, oddities and quirks" now? This will be discussed later after we contemplate what happened to the visual embodiment of the cartoons or speaking by the words of Sigmund Freud with their "façade formations."

Cartoons mostly incarnated by graphic drawings in the first half of the last century . Cartoons was inherent "linear" style. It was "naive", "simplistic", styled to look like a children's drawings. The thin vibrating line, easily showing the space and form, suddenly nervously formed a dark mass, or broke off, leaving a place for the "air". Alternatively, the line can was strong. The artists as if have torn out shapes from flat space by short rapid movements of the pen... Thus was the art of cartoonists who can be considered the pioneers of the cartoons. Nina Dmitrieva have mentioned cartoonists George Fischer, Saul Steinberg, James Thurber, Maurice Sinet, Albert Dubou, Jean Effel, Jean-Jacques Sempé, Andre Francois, Jean-Maurice Bosc, Chaval, Sam Gross. Drawings of this artists have published in the magazine The New Yorker. Many researchers, such as Jacques Lefev, believe that the modern cartoon originated and developed by the creative team of this magazine [1, 256].

The first twenty-five years existence of the magazine The New Yorker have called "golden age". The method of selection of cartoons for publication in the magazine was complicated. Art editors of the magazine have made a preliminary selection of the cartoons. Then the Editorial Board have selected the best. Editor in chief Harold Ross, who had unquestionable authority had taken the last decision [5]. Mr. Ross had asked constantly the artists to make captions under the cartoons shorter and shorter, until appeared drawings "without captions". Harold Ross said jokingly, "Everybody talks of The New Yorker’s art - that is, its illustrations - and it has been described as the best magazine in the world for someone who cannot read" [5].

So a "corporate" style of comic art of The New Yorker magazine gradually have formed. William Hewison somewhat tendentiously wrote: "Boys of Ross tore up the old formula of cartoons into pieces and threw a lot of them in the trash, because those were hard, naturalistic, overloaded. They strove for simplicity, focusing and movement. Essentially, they gave preference to light and visual humor. It can be assumed that each of the cartoons, which is created today in the UK, Europe or anywhere else, is a direct inheritance of graphic humor of the magazine The New Yorker of this period " [6].

The cartoons first appeared to the public in Europe in the comic magazine l'Os à Moëlle, which had the subtitle "The official organ of daffy people" in 1938 [1, 255].

"Linear" style has dominated in the world of cartoons until a few decades yet.

Here we can recall the works of Jean-Jacques Sempe, Jeans Maurice Bosc, Jacques-Armand Cardon, Maurice Sinet , Henry Buttner, Claud Serre, Ronald Topor ...( Fig.4).

"Some people don`t like when I show what`s in their mind," so liked to speak Ronald Topor, who preached a philosophy of "escape from boredom" [7, 33]. This master of cartoon art said, "A society that is driven by fear. I have fear too, but I am trying to get rid of the unnecessary fears " [7, 37]. Editor of The World Encyclopedia of Cartoons Maurice Horn, sad that "R. Topor is a master of black humor who blends the most far-out and disturbing images into a deceptively classical style" [7, 33]. This statement of editor is useful to us when we will talk about the semantic content of the cartoons.

The "black and white" cartoons continued to dominate after the Second World War. However, the cartoonists also used the "color" in their work. Often, they did it on purpose, because sometimes "color" is the essence of humor in cartoons. The "color" is a kind of "talking" in cartoon art. For example, one of the main "color" characters in cartoons is a chameleon. The coloring of the skin of this lizard is changed by the environment color. Another frequenter of cartoons is a street light. For example, cartoonist can designate the "existential ban without a shadow of hope" by the red color on street light (Fig.5). In addition, the red color symbolizes the vitality, passion, energy, enterprise and sexuality. And as you know, sexuality is tempting for creation of cartoonist. All what are "below the belt" particularly used to be amusing, funny and entertaining to the spectators.

How can I draw a "black and white" rainbow? Or the artist's canvas on which are mixing the paints? There are cartoons, in which "color" becomes absolute semantic content, a landmark instrument that represents a violation of the expected stereotypes of color relations. Cartoons which are the based on well-known paintings, such as The Festival of Fools and The Tower of Babel by Pieter Brueghel, The Scream by Edvard Munch, Leonardo da Vinci`s Mona Lisa etc. will be not spectacular without colors for the viewers.

However, the "color" is used in the cartoon and as an auxiliary element. For example, to attract the attention of the viewer to the main component of the cartoon, on which is based a comic effect. In this case, the artists use basically complimentary color combinations, or one additional color. Sometimes the color is introduced to create emotional and psychological background of cartoon.

Of course, at the time when in cartoons dominated "line" were the artists who preferred "colored" drawings and paintings. Among these artists can be called Rene Magritte, Jean-Jacques Folon, Vlasta Zabransky, Ronald Searle, Miroslav Bartak, Guillermo Mordillo and others. But the "scenic color" cartoons at that time were rather rare.

By the end of the last millennium the "color" gradually began to prevail in cartoon art. Cartoon paintings have become increasingly side by side with "linear" cartoons in the pages of magazines and newspapers, international exhibitions, on the Internet. There are brilliant cartoonists-painters, such as Alessandro Gatto, Jerzy Gluszek, Pawel Kuczynski, Grzegorz Szumowski, Konstantin Sunnerberg, Muhittin Koroglu, Gerhard Gepp, Florian Doru Crihana, Dahuan Xia, Mahmoudi Houmayoun, Cau Gomez... ( Fig.6).

There are a few reasons that the "colors" began to dominate in the cartoons. One such reason is the emergence in the late twentieth century the personal computers and Internet. A magician appeared for the cartoonists named Photoshop. The artists began to use not only the traditional paint but also successfully operate by virtual painting technique. The possibility have appeared also to spread the cartoons free on the Internet with no visible restrictions, without censorship. A "colored" cartoons look much more attractive to viewers. The international cartoon community after heated debate agreed to consider printouts cartoons which have been created using computer as the artwork. Such cartoons equipped with "wet" signature of the authors began to coexist with original works at various exhibitions. Some cartoonists have become literally virtuosos of computer cartoon art, such as Colombian Elena Ospina.

In addition, the artists got easy access in the Internet to photographs of objects and subjects of the world. This helped to saturate the cartoons of detailing by using the technique of "photographic accuracy." "Façade formations" of cartoons becoming more approximate to the real world. Artists such as Pawel Kuczynski, Agim Sulaj, Paolo Dalponte and others began to create more compelling reality of cartoon world (Fig.7).

So, in the last decades there was a tendency of saturation cartoons by "colors", as well as barely perceptible drift from graphics to paintings. In addition, the cartoons smoothly approached closer to realism. In this context, we can talk also about the metamorphoses of the semantic contents of the cartoons. We will not talking about the plots of cartoons, new cartoon characters, myths of the cartoons, which we have already discussed. More interesting for us is the essence of the cartoons.

The process of creating cartoons is subject to certain laws. In his discussion about the "comic" effects Arthur Koestler wrote: "Unexpected lateral ideas or events with two normally incompatible matrices produces a comic effect..." [8]. This model of "comic" effects is easily applicable in the art of cartoon. For example, in the article "Why is it so funny?: conceptual integration in humorous examples" Seana Coulson made the attempt to analyze the cartoons, in particular political [9]. He used the theory of "conceptual integration" of Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner, as well as the ideas of Douglas Hofstadter and Liane Gabora about mixing frameworks of abstract structures [10,11]. Very interesting for us is "An Affordance Theory Analysis of Cartoon Humor" by Dean H. Owen [12] and "A two-stage model for the appreciation of jokes and cartoons" by Jerry M. Suls [13]. Recall also the sentence by Maurice Horn: "R. Topor is a master of black humor who blends the most far-out and disturbing images into a deceptively classical style". So, we see that creative methods of cartoons are quite universal. It is by such methods were created cartoons, which we can call as "grotesque, ironic, buffoonery".

Albert Camus believed that the absurd is born from the comparison of not comparable, alternative, antinomic or conflicting concepts, and "the wider the gap between the members of the comparisons, the higher the degree of absurdity" [14, 37]. Thus arose the absurd world of cartoons which deny common sense. The absurd cartoons, as well as humor in general, appears when mixing two different concepts. This are the roots of "humor of paradoxes, oddities and quirks." That is, a cartoons is a reflection of the philosophy of absurd. No wonder the brightest hero of many cartoons became greedy robber Sisyphus, which pushing the eternal stone to the top of the mountain. The foot of the mountain, a huge rock, a solitary figure Sisyphus, the top of the mountain are the suggesting opportunities for the creation of graphic jokes. However, foremost cartoonists interested in the tragic fate of the hero, his despair and self-affirmation. Such absurdity is desirable for critical minds. Here is what wrote Albert Camus in his treatise, "His gaunt face barely distinguishable from the stone. I see this man coming down heavy, but at a steady pace to the torment that has no end. At this time, consciousness returned to him with the breath, inevitable as his suffering. And in every moment, as he descends from the top down into the lair of the gods, it is above its destiny. He`s more solid than his stone "[15]. Sisyphus is the hero of absurd (Fig.8).

Recall also the social absurd phenomenon of depersonalization of people. Arthur Schopenhauer believed that human history is presented as a world where "always are the same person with the same intentions and the same destiny" [16]. In such a world "each other becomes like the other..." as noted by Martin Heidegger [17]. The personification of society is a "crowd" and its representative is "small, miserable, gray man of crowd who lost the spirit, seeking for equality," by Friedrich Nietzsche [18]. Gustave Le Bon in his work "The Psychology of the masses" characterized the crowd as follows: "Strange in the psychology of masses is following: ... only by one fact of the transformation into the mass they acquire a collective soul" [19]. In addition, Le Bon noted a decline of intellectual achievements of a man by his dissolving in mass. William McDougall said, that "a slight intelligences decrease a higher intelligences to their level..." [20]. Wilfred Trotter in the tendency to unite people towards the mass in general has seen "a continuation of biological multicellular all higher organisms" [21]. Around the same time, in the first half of the twentieth century, the individual leveling process of persons is reflected in the different genres of art, including the cartoons.

Characters of traditional cartoons of the past had always pronounced individual traits. Artists of the past had reflected the grotesque images of the "carnival world". Quite different began to treat the cartoonists to their heroes from the thirties of the last century. Increasingly, they began to resort to stylization of images using methods of "naive art". Heroes of cartoons turned into a primitive little men in crowd, the symbols of absurd world, "herd animals" man", "twins", which traveling from one cartoon to the next. They all came not from the real world but slipped out of the absurd subconscious of artists. This heroes like to exist in the impersonal world.

The depersonalization of man in cartoons can seen especially convincing, where the crowd is present. The cartoonists mostly have represented the accumulation of people as the mass of men with "downmix" intelligence. Artists depicted "the faces of psychological masses" having a "collective souls" to reflect the masks of "higher multi-cellular organisms," this the absurd monstrosities (Fig.9).

Once again, we can notice that much of a cartoons are close to the philosophy of existentialism, which is saturated with the spirit of absurdity. And many of the cartoons can be considered as the illustrations of the statements of philosophers. But what about the surrealism, which in fact was born by the absurd? As far as surrealism is close to the art of cartoon? A precursor of surrealism I. Bosch already used the "oddities and quirks" with paradoxical forms of mixing in his mysterious paintings. The same methods were used by Salvador Dali, Paul Delvaux, Yves Tanguy, Max Ernst, Rene Magritte... Competition between surrealism and absurdity in the world of cartoons won the last. Probably the absurdity, as a cartoons, have mediated relationship with the real world. Can be only because an absurdity recognizes the laws of real world but deny their, thus creating their own laws. Surrealism did not recognize any laws and exist by itself.

However, as we noted above, painting cartoons gradually began to conquer the comic space in the late twentieth century. It is in these works can be seen manifestations of surrealism. Such cartoons are not built according to the laws of humor. Semantic contents of this works are based on a mixing of the set of concepts, but not two. This does not make talking about these cartoons that they do not have "grotesque, ironic, buffoonery". From this perspective, we can recall some cartoons by artists such as Alessandro Gatto, Andrej Popov, Erzy Glushek, Muhittin Koroglu, Florian Doru Crihana, Mahmoudi Houmayoun and others. In the works of these masters of cartoon can easily discern echoes of surrealism (Fig. 10, 11).

It's time to talk about the place of cartoons in society. During the existence of cartoon art the humanity had plunged into the abyss of wars, making scientific and technological leaps, had already detonated a nuclear bombs, got out into the cosmic space and plunged headlong into the Internet space... It can be expected that in our day cartoon art moved in the scale of human values.

Let's go back to the time of occurrence and becoming a cartoon art. Speaking about the pros and cons of humor, including cartoons, which developed "in all areas, including politics, art, mass communications, advertising, promotion of knowledge", Nina Dmitrieva said, "Cons is in the exsanguination of satire, which is dissolved and dispersed in a continuous stream of humor and in lowering the value of the laughter as the strong weapons hitting exactly the goal that is worthy of strike" [1, 261]. In other words, the satire gave the place to the absurd, with its own specific sense of humor and irony. The cartoonists have started to show an abstract collective man and generalized absurd world. There was no the place for the satire in this world. The apotheosis of the triumph of the cartoons can be considered the mural by artist Saul Steinberg, which had shown an ironic panorama of American society at the World Exhibition in Brussels in 1958. Saul Steinberg was very popular at the time in the world. Around a hundred solo exhibitions of the artist were organized in New York, Washington, Chicago, Rome, Milan, Paris, Zurich, Hamburg, Vienna, Amsterdam and other cities. This great cartoonist was not only the author of graphic works, but also frescoes, opera scenes, posters [22].

Art of cartoon start to win hearts of people of a planet in the second half of the twentieth century. The cartoons confidently settled in Central and Western Europe in the late forties - early fifties. From there this kind of art migrated to Eastern Europe and began to conquer the Soviet Union in the early sixties. The "wave" of cartoons has swept Turkey and later Iran, after the revolution. As a result of the easing of censorship and the actual opening of the borders, "cartoon explosion" occurred in China. The cartoons appeared in Japan and South Korea, of course, influenced by American artists. So, "the cartoon tsunami" swept across the globe from the West to the East for half a century, excluding Japan and South Korea, where it passed the Pacific Ocean from the East. This striking march of the cartoon art suggests that a humanity have needed an extraordinary ironic view of the world. And the cartoons fully meet these expectations.

Quite a notable events in the world of cartoons are international competitions and festivals, that emerged in the sixties of the last century. The most popular, for example, are CARTOONFESTIVAL in the Belgian resort town of Knokke - Heist, SATYRYCON in the Polish city of Legnica, DICACO (2013 - SICACO) in the Korean city of Daejeon, INTERNATIONAL HUMOR EXHIBITION in the Brazilian town of Piracicaba, PORTO CARTOON WORLD FESTIVAL in city of Porto and a lot others. This cartoon contests have its internal laws, codes, customs, habits and heroes. For more than half a century of their existence with them have been in touch a whole generation of artists.

One of the oldest and most famous in the world of cartoons contest organized by the team of Japanese newspaper The Yomiuri Shimbun had existed 29 years and was closed in 2008. A total of 289554 cartoons were sent to this competition. The organizers had declared the official reason for the closure of the competition as "contest has already made quite a significant contribution to the art of cartoon." Around this time, the interest to the art of cartoon in Japan began to fade noticeably, as said press drawing teacher of Kyoto Seika University Ayako Saito.

A whole galaxy of new cartoons competitions have organized in recent years that mainly exist in the virtual space. These competitions have served as a good stimulus for the development of cartoon art.

Of special note one phenomenon. As noted by many researchers, cartoon art originated in New York city and later in Paris city in the thirties of the last century. But which kind of cartoons are popular in these cities in our days? It's amazing, but, although cartoons are very popular in the world, namely in France and the US, this art lost its position. In recent decades, in these countries the public have interested in political cartoons, as well as in traditional humorous drawings, which have verbal support. Why? The cartoon art is popular in Turkey, Iran, China, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, countries of the former Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe countries... That is, in those countries where exist acute socio-political and economic problems and there are many people who dissent with the social injustice. Recall that cartoon art originated and developed in the US and in France during the global economic crisis of 1929 - 1939 years. This means that cartoons thrive in a social environment where the dissatisfaction of the majority "rolls over" when people need to release the energy of social discontent. From this point of view, the art of cartoon can be called "art of dissenters".

Great fertile breeding ground for creation cartoons have been totalitarian regimes and tyranny. For example, the cartoons penetrated to the Soviet Union across the relatively liberal countries of Eastern Europe, in spite of the "iron curtain". It should be recalled that the method of socialist realism dominated in those days in the Soviet art. Official cartoons had to praise the party leaders and had to criticize the external and internal enemies of socialism. Just such official cartoons without exception have published in the communist party press, and the press was party totally. But the shoots of freethinking have appeared in the Soviet Union in the early sixties of the last century, during the Khrushchev "thaw". "Informal" cartoons began to publish in the newspaper Literaturnaya Gazeta, magazines Smena, Tourist and other publications in this years. Art of cartoon has become very popular among the "dissent" intelligentsia. Party functionaries have called this "informal" cartoons as "the humor of young" [23]. In addition to the novelty of the paradoxical nature and philosophical ideas of cartoons the intellectuals liked the allegory of this kind of art. Published cartoons allegorically had criticized the existing socialist system. When in the seventies of last century Brezhnev regime has tightened censorship, it was too late. Nonconformist artist Sergej Tunin described the works of cartoonists as "fuck off in the pocket". "The allegory is universal because it is similar to a mathematical formula, if it is accurate and elegant, it is applicable anywhere, anytime. Any value can be substituted into the "formula" and enjoy the wit of the artist as their own", he noted [24].

Cartoon art firmly entrenched in Soviet society. Cartoonists - nonconformists began to send illegally their works at international competitions. The artists Valentin Rozantsev, Sergej Tunin, Mikhail Zlatkovsky, Garif Basyrov, Leonid Tishkov and others were honored with awards at many international festivals of cartoons. The cartoonists began to organize underground exhibitions of cartoons, had grouped together in informal amateur clubs [25]. The censorship have gotten the easing with the coming to power of Mikhail Gorbachev and cartoons have migrated to the pages of Mass Media.

"There are the times when satire has to restore that destroyed by pathos", so noted Stanisław Jerzy Lec. After the fall of the "pathos" regime of the Communist Party the cartoonists began to worry about new symbols and images in the former Soviet Union. For example, one of the main character of cartoons became the flag. Obviously, because the flag was "untouchable" for artists in Soviet times. And strong symbol of power turned into a dirty doormat in the cartoons. Ruthless cartoonists allowed to cut off the pieces of flag cloth to sew from her pants and other clothing, or allowed to clean the shoes by this fabric ... Headless man carries a flag that resembles an ax, by which was apparently cut off his head. This is one of the most famous cartoon with the hero-flag by artist Mikhail Zlatkovsky. For cartoonists flag has become a convenient tool for the expression of their social ideas (Fig.12).

Another object of ridicule cartoonists in the countries of the former Soviet Union was the ballot box, the ephemeral symbol of totalitarian power. The political elections in Soviet times were formal acts whose results were a foregone conclusion. Quite differently began to think about the elections the people of the former Soviet Union. Political elections become real, although often accompanied by fraud. The ballot boxes have taken a worthy place in the cartoons. Restless cartoonists began to draw the keyholes on ballot boxes, made them as the hats of magicians, etc.

Thus, the irony in the art of cartoon in the countries of the former Soviet Union began to get a satirical coloring.

Continuing the conversation about the role of cartoons in today's society, we must recall religion. How believers relate to the art of cartoon and, conversely, what the ironic artists think about religion? There were times in the history when church leaders have hated satirical drawings, but sometimes they asked artists to help in the fight against religious opponents (for example, the struggle between Catholics and Huguenots in France has become a kind of "duel" between satirical artists in the time of the Reformation). It had happened that the secular authorities officially called for the satirical artists to criticize religion (for example, in an atheistic state of the USSR). On the contrary, the authority forbade to the artists to create cartoons of religious subjects in some cases. Korean professor Cheong San Lim called his dissertation "Christian education utilizing cartoon and animation". This project based on the fact that in the Bible is widely used "the content elements that are inherent in cartoon art, i.e. parable, symbol, dream, vision, satire, humor and allegory" [26]. Professor like if have tried to make friendship between the art of cartoon and religion by the using cartoons in a Christian education.

In the thirties of the last century emerged formally religious cartoons. It was not the anticlerical drawings. In such cartoons the Bible stories have helped to the artists to hit into the "secular" purpose. For example, Noah's Ark have served as allegory of the protection of the environment from pollution for the creation of cartoonists mostly. Or the cartoonists adorned a scene of execution of Jesus Christ by the consumer advertising. They have not criticized a religion, but the dominance of inappropriate advertising. The cartoonists liked to depict the Last Supper on the eve of Jesus' execution also, often parodied the famous fresco by Leonardo da Vinci... Many other characters of Bible became the heroes of cartoons by artists from around the world. Jean Effel has created a series of comical parodies of biblical scenes.

The cartoonists have exploited not only Christian religious imagery. Hindu god Shiva who embodying the masculine universe frequently have appeared in the cartoons also. One of the seven gods of happiness, communication, joy and prosperity Hotei who was nicknamed "Canvas Bag" was not only one the characters of netsuke in Japan and China. The cartoonists like to depict this funny fat man.

The cartoons depicted the Prophet Mohammed have published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September 2005. These publications have denoted cross-cultural conflict between the Muslim Arab world and the Western cultural tradition. The confrontation escalated even more after the tragedy in the office of the French satirical magazine Charlier Hebdo in January 2015. We leave aside the essence of this conflict, its ethical and social aspects. We are interested here how developed the art of cartoon. We distinguish here only the fact that the international community have given special attention to the art of cartoon in those time. Many of those people who have never been lovers and connoisseurs of this genre turned their eyes tо the cartoons. The role of the cartoon art has become more visible in society.

Thus, the cartoon art has become more popular in the world. Did it was affected on the art of cartoon? Did cartoons have changed under the influence of social expectations? Recall that in the recent years one of the main characters of cartoons were the terrorists, refugees who are the creatures of terror and war criminals. A huge set of drawings on similar themes was created by the cartoonists in last years. Such cartoons can be attributed more to satire than to humor. The cartoons have become increasingly filled with sarcasm and irony. For example, the sad photos of Syrian refugee boy thrown out on the beach in the Turkish town of Bodrum have appeared in the global Mass Media on 2nd of September 2015. The cartoonists from all over the world responded briskly. Few hundred of cartoons based on this photos were published on the Internet and in the print media within a few days. Although the photo was so convincing that did not require interpretation. This once again tells us that the emphasis of cartoons has shifted towards satire. "Exsanguinations of satire" in the cartoons and its "dissolving and dispersing in a continuous stream of humor" in the time of occurrence and development of the cartoons, about which have said Nina Dmitrieva seems to have stopped. Even there has been a reverse process.

So, cartoons "without captions" have fascinated mankind soon a hundred years. Responding to the expectations of the people who have been disagreed with social injustice, it originated during the Great Depression under the influence of innovative ideas in the visual arts, literature, theater, philosophy. The hitherto fertile breeding ground for cartoons serve not only social disadvantages, but also the progress. Some popular cartoon characters and plots obsoleted in time, and appeared any new ones. In recent decades became noticeable changes in visual representation of cartoons, as well as in their semantic contents. Cartoons began to be filled by colors, become more persuasive in terms of realism. Increasingly, there are picturesque cartoons, in some of which are visible manifestations of surrealism. However, cartoons remains to gravitate toward the absurd spirit. And finally, the cartoons have become increasingly filled by sarcasm and satire. The art of cartoon is still ironic, witty manifestation of rebellious spirit.

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