United Nations organises “Gender Equality: Picture It!” Comic Competition

By John Freeman on March 24, 2015

UN Women, together with the European Commission, the Belgian Development Cooperation, and the United Nations Regional Information Centre have organised a comic and cartoon competition on Gender Equality, “Picture It”, which closes on 20th April 2015.

Conducted by the UN Women Brussels Office, the Competition is open to comic and cartoon artists and art students, from 18 to 28 years old, who are residents of an EU member state and invites them to create wordless cartoons that show what comes to your mind when you reflect on women’s rights and empowerment and on the relationship between women and men.

Entrants should take a look at the Beijing Conference (held in 1995) and its outcome document, the Beijing Declaration and its Platform for Action before starting work, and are advised to seek inspiration for your drawings in the 12 Critical Areas of Concern of the Platform.

The first prize is €1000 EUR and the five finalists will be invited to Brussels to the Competition awards ceremony in summer 2015. The costs for travel and stay will be borne by the Organising Entities. In addition, the finalists’ and semi-finalists’ drawings will be published in a booklet and may be considered for exhibition as well as for further publication.

Finalists will be selected by a jury composed of professional comic artists, gender equality experts and communication experts: Pierre Kroll, Belgian Comic Artist and a member of Cartooning for Peace; comic artist Marlène Pohle, Vice-President of Federation of Cartoonists Organisations; Salla Saastamoinen, Director for Equality at the European Commission; Alexander de Croo, Minister of Development Cooperation of Belgium; Sylvie Braibant, Editor-in-Chief TV5MONDE; and Nanette Braun, Chief of Communications and Advocacy, UN Women.

• For more information on the “Picture It” competition, including its full terms and conditions, please see the briefing note below (available in all official EU languages). The English language version and a link for where to submit entries is here: http://beijing20.unwomen.org/en/get-involved/comic-competition

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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.