Gulf News humour wins top honours

Dubai: Gulf News has made a habit of it — winning that is, especially at the World Press Cartoon (WPC). The prestigious annual event recognises the best in the world when it comes to newspaper caricatures, illustrations and editorial cartoons.

The competition is sharp and being awarded is no funny feat.

“For the past 10 years, Gulf News has been regularly honoured in this contest. A clear recognition of the qualitative standards of the newspaper’s Design section, especially because we are, by far, the news organisation with most World Press Cartoon awards in the GCC region,” Miguel Angel Gomez, Gulf News Design Director, said.

Immigration, terrorism and US President Donald Trump were recurring themes in this year’s submissions, which were reflected in entries of all the three categories of the WPC – editorial, gag and caricature. The Grand Prix this year went to Etemad in Iran, for their work on the immigrant issue. Other top winners included Serbia and Brazil.

We spoke to some of the Gulf News winners…

Nigel Farage by Ramachandra Babu

Senior illustrator Ramachandra Babu who won for his caricature of Nigel Farage and editorial cartoon titled Sem Título, said: “It is always encouraging to achieve internationally, because you are competing with the talent of the world.”

Is there life after Trump?, by Luis Vazquez

Luis Vazquez who won for the editorial cartoon Is there life after Trump? and a caricature of Hillary Clinton, said: “The Gulf News Design team and I have been honoured several times over the past years. It is an honour and privilege to collaborate with one of the best teams of illustrators in the Middle East – Gulf News. And this award confirms it!”

A sentiment shared by all the other winners from Gulf News including Nino Jose Heredia, Dwynn Ronald V. Trazo, Hugo A. Sanchez and José Luis Barros Chaparro.

So, what inspires the team?

Heredia said: “I usually get inspired by watching movies and reading comics. I think comics can be very useful sometimes to be more imaginative.”

It doesn’t stop there but also stems from the need to keep pushing the boundaries, to evolve and to innovate.

Sanchez added: “It’s always been about as much as possible to stay out of the comfort zone and never to stop studying and to keep growing, evolving all the time.”