A weekend of graphic storytelling, animation and music took place in the Sydney Opera House on the 21st and 22nd of August. American illustrator Robert Crumb was supposed to be one of the main attractions of the festival, but he decided not to come to Sydney after The Daily Telegraph and Hetty Johnston described Crumbs work as “perverted images emanating from what is clearly a sick mind“, and instigated nothing less than a moral crusade against Robert Crumb and his work.
A crusade against an artist that draws images. That sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Kurt Westergaard can testify of what upheaval a drawing can cause. His drawing of Mohammed with a bomb in his turban caused Islamic protests, some of which escalated into violence, including the bombing of the Danish embassy in Pakistan and setting fire to the Danish Embassies in Syria, Lebanon and Iran, which resulted in a total of more than 100 reported deaths. In addition several people were arrested plotting to kill Westergaard or do him harm, including a man who made his way into Westergaard’s home with an axe and a knife. Continue reading Meeting the myth makers of the modern world (but not Robert Crumb)