O&D cartoon (De Volkskrant, 5 March 2011), depicting the Dutch army sending troops to help the Libyan population rise against colonel Muammar Ghadaffi, but unknowingly getting themselves into a lot of unforeseen trouble.
Jos Collignon is a Dutch political cartoonist. Between 1977 and 1980, he published in NRC Handelsblad and from 1980 until 2024, he was the house cartoonist of the newspaper De Volkskrant. He is additionally one of the few Dutch political cartoonists, whose work was translated and syndicated across the globe. His razor-sharp, dynamic cartoons are characterized by their flexible brushwork, heavy contour lines, sober colors and psychological insights. Several of his drawings also caused controversy among readers and some of his targets. In addition to his editorial cartoons, Collignon also created a political-satirical comic, 'EB' (1993), printed in FNV Magazine.
Early life and career
Jos Collignon was born in 1950 in Maartensdijk in the province of Utrecht. His father was a carpenter of French-Belgian descent. Collignon originally studied International Law at the University of Utrecht, graduating in 1977. During his student years, he wrote articles and drew cartoons for his university paper, the Utrechts Universiteitsblad (U-Blad). This motivated him to pursue a career in political cartooning instead. Among his graphic influences were Cabu, Jeff MacNelly, Pat Oliphant and Mike Peters. In 1977, Collignon heard that the editors of NRC Handelsblad wanted somebody to make a drawing of Minister of Education Jos van Kemenade. He took the offer and was promptly hired to draw cartoons three times a week for them, staying with NRC Handelsblad until 1980.
In January 1982, Collignon was co-founder of the Flemish-Dutch satirical magazine De Opstoot, along with Lex van Almelo and Hans van Laarhoven. De Opstoot featured articles by Herbert Blankesteijn, Theodor Holman, Martin Šimek (using the pseudonym AnoNe) and comedian Harrie Jekkers. Apart from Collignon, they printed cartoons by Šimek, Kamagurka, Len Munnik and Willem. Stylistically, De Opstoot modeled itself after the abrasive French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. The cover of its first issue, drawn by Šimek, instantly caused controversy. It depicted a Russian Jew happy about the prospect of being able to use a Russian gas pipe to flee to the West. The editors of De Opstoot were promptly accused of anti-Semitism and sued by the Amsterdam higher court, but won their case in court, even in higher appeal. Nevertheless, the contributors of De Opstoot were already realistic that their magazine wouldn't last long. They even used it as an advertising slogan: "Een satirisch blad: dat lukt nooit in Nederland" ("A satirical magazine: it is bound to fail in The Netherlands"). Indeed, in July of that same year, after 13 issues, De Opstoot was discontinued.
Collignon cartoon of 30 November 1998, referencing the real-life visit of the widow of Chilean socialist president Salvador Allende to Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok that same day. Kok talks about how he joined union protests in Utrecht in 1978, shouting "their battle, our battle... international....", but can't remember what word came next. Allende's widow recalls that she understood it as 'zomertijd' ("daylight saving time") and Kok confirms that this was the word he was looking for, "or it at least sounded like it." In reality, the word was 'solidariteit' ("solidarity"), something Kok clearly doesn't understand in this cartoon.
De Volkskrant and other publications
In November 1980, Collignon left NRC Handelsblad, because their new editor of the opinion page was a former Roman Catholic nun, who was quite censor-crazy. He recalled that she withdrew many of his cartoons, putting them in a "special file", which, according to her, was intended for drawings that "may someday be useful." Collignon didn't like this condescending tone, nor the censorship, and joined another paper, De Volkskrant, for which he had already been a correspondent during his university years. By 1992, he became the illustrator of their opinion pages, titled 'Open Forum'. For a long time, he made three drawings a week for the paper, and two in the later years of his career. Until 1990, Collignon was also a regular contributor to the newspaper De Tijd. Since 1993, his work can additionally be seen in the union member magazine FNV Magazine and, starting in 1998, in FEM Business, De Journalist and I.S., a publication about development, distributed by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Collignon has additionally been the house cartoonist for the Algemene Vereniging van Schoolleiders ("General Association of School Leaders"). Collignon's cartoons were translated into English and featured on the American website Cagle Cartoons. Between 1997 and 2024, his cartoons were compiled annually into book format.
E.B.
In 1993, Collignon was asked by the editors of FNV Magazine to create a political-satirical gag comic for them. He was reluctant at first, but eventually he tried it out. The comic revolved around the members of the Christian-democratic party CDA and was originally named 'E.B.', after the initials of their party leader Elco Brinkman. Brinkman was a publicity-hungry politician and therefore perfect material for a satirical gag comic. Unfortunately, Brinkman didn't stay in power for long. He was soon succeeded by Enneus Heerma, who lacked the comedic potential of his predecessor. Collignon therefore came up with a fictional side character, Dirk, the leader of the youth department of the party and a simple-minded racist and football hooligan. The six-panel gag comics were compiled in the 1998 comic book 'Maar Daarom Niet Getreurd'.
Collignon cartoon, 28 September 2017. The comic references the fact that women in Saudi Arabia were only legally allowed to learn driving in 2017. In the cartoon the Saudi government is depicted as a group of mean dog owners, exploiting Saudi women, portrayed as a powerless dog.
Controversy
On a couple of occasions, Collignon's cartoons have caused controversy. Early in his career, he drew a household where a man, his child, dog and parrot start throwing up because Prime Minister Dries van Agt is interviewed on TV. In the background, a framed picture of the Dutch queen was also seen vomiting. Collignon's editors didn't print this cartoon, since it could be regarded as offensive to Her Majesty.
In 1995, Collignon depicted Joop van der Reijden, head of commercial TV station Veronica, in garters and stockings, as a commentary on the exploitation of sexuality on his channel. Van der Reijden wasn't amused by this cartoon, since his "children and 94-year old mother" could also see him portrayed like this. Interviewed by Harmen Bockma for The Volkskrant, Collignon defended himself by stating: "I don’t take somebody's feelings or his 94-year old mother in account. I attack them for their personal ideology. Van der Reijden also constantly bothers me with his sleazy media sex. There's always somebody hurt or someone who doesn't understand the drawing. If I have to take all this into consideration, then I better quit." In another interview, Collignon explained that "A cartoon has to be grating and if it succeeds in that, it's a hit."
In March 2012, rumors went about that the Dutch far-right party PVV had received financial support from Jewish-Israeli-U.S. groups, who supported their islamophobic viewpoints. However, the PVV refused to make their annual donations reports public. Collignon made a cartoon of party leader Geert Wilders thanking a mysterious donor by speaking Hebrew. A caption translates the phrase as: "Thank you very much and don't worry." Journalist Martin Niemöller and Robber Klopuit, member of the Jewish Broadcasting Company, accused Collignon of anti-Semitism. Klopuit went so far as to file an official complaint, but the case was dismissed by the Journalistic Council as not being prosecutable.
On 28 November 2019, Collignon depicted British Labour politician Jeremy Corbyn telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," while Netanyahu holds several rocks marked as "allegations of anti-Semitism" and an indictment for corruption. The cartoon offended several people who felt that anti-Semitism within Labour is indeed a serious problem that should not be taken lightly. Corbyn phrasing a saying by Jesus threw even more proverbial oil on the fire.
Early 2022, former football player Marc Overmars was fired as director from F.C. Ajax for sending "dick pics" to several female colleagues. Nevertheless, he was still named sports director of the Belgian football club Royal Antwerp afterwards. Columnist Aaf Brandt Corstius criticized Ajax fans who were more saddened by the fact that they lost one of their beloved director than feeling offended by his sexual harassment of women. On 10 February 2022, Collignon drew a cartoon depicting Brandt Corstius as a high priest, while she and other women castrate Overmars. The real-life Brandt Corstius and her husband Gijs Groenteman reposted the cartoon on their Twitter accounts and expressed their disgust over this offensive cartoon. Groenteman called Collignon an "embittered, 75-year old left-wing wanker". While they went public about being offended, they did stress out that they didn't want him to be fired or sued.
In late 2022, Morocco became fourth during the World Championships Football in Qatar. However, the FIFA was accused of a lot of internal corruption. On 15 December 2022, Collignon made a cartoon depicting two Moroccan young adults stealing the World Cup from Gianni Infantino, head of the FIFA. Some people felt the drawing was stigmatizing towards Moroccans. Out of precaution, De Volkskrant removed the drawing from their website the very same day.
On 9 November 2023, Collignon commented on the then-recent Israeli-Palestinian war. A couple watches TV, expressing outrage over the numerous atrocities committed by the Israeli army in the Gaza strip. A man holding a Palestinian flag comments: "The world protests". Next to them, a gigantic arm with the Star of David can be seen, stretching out a huge thumb and claiming that "antisemitism revives everywhere." The text underneath the cartoon reads: "The big thumb on the long arm", with Collignons signature commenting: "Oh dear, I forgot to condemn Hamas first!". Collignon's cartoon instantly sparked controversy. Dutch politician Lodewijk Asscher and Minister of Housing and Spatial Planning Hugo de Jonge were particularly outraged, feeling that the Volkskrant "crossed a line". The paper's chief editor, Pieter Klok, defended the cartoon, stating that "people often speak too quickly about antisemitism, while in reality Israel as a state is criticized." He also felt that Collignon had a rightful point to make, just like Asscher had a right to criticize that same point.
Collignon cartoon of 20 February 2019. U.S. President Donald Trump tramples on German chancellor Angela Merkel, French president Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Theresa May and other European Prime Ministers to force them to get their jihadi warriors back from Syria, "to do him a favor."
Graphic and other contributions
On 9 February 1998, the educational children's TV show 'Het Klokhuis' devoted an episode to political cartooning, interviewing Collignon. He also paid homage to Marten Toonder in the tribute book 'Was Tom Poes Maar Hier - Een Hommage aan Marten Toonder' (De Bezige Bij, 2006).
Recognition
On 3 October 2009, Collignon drew a cartoon about the bankruptcy of the Dutch bank DSB Bank. He spoofed their logo, depicting their ice skater advertising character slipping on the ground. On 12 January 2010, the drawing received the Inktspot Prize for "Best Dutch Political Drawing". On 23 February 2012, Collignon was also honored with the Grand Prize of the Press Cartoon Europe, which he received for a drawing about the bank crisis, originally published on 25 October 2011. The drawing depicts banks and countries stealing money from each other's pockets in an endless loop. On 9 June 2017, the British journalist Fraser Nelson of The Spectator posted one of Collignon's Brexit crisis cartoons on Twitter. It depicted Prime Minister Theresa May at the negotiation table hitting herself repeatedly on the head. Nelson described the cartoon as "all too accurate and sums up the reaction in European papers this morning."
In September 2010, Collignon’s cartoons were exhibited in the Utrecht Town Hall. During the summer of 2011, he exhibited in the Press Museum in Amsterdam. Between 22 October and 18 November 2024, his work was on display in the Hall of Nieuwpoort.
Recent years
Collignon works alternatively in the Dutch town Utrecht and in the French Northern Province Normandy. On 6 February 2024, Jos Collignon announced in a radio interview that newspaper De Volkskrant had let him go because they wanted to give new voices and styles a chance. His final drawing saw print on 14 June of that year.
Cartoon by Jos Collignon for Forum (13 October 2009), depicting far-right politician Geert Wilders as a vampire dancing by midnight with union leader Agnes Jongerius. Translation: "You danse terrificly, Mrs. Jongerius. Do you come here often?" - "Only to dance, Mr. Wilders."