'you got your blood on my cartoons!'
'you got your cartoons in my blood!'

this is really freaking disturbing.

No sir, I don't like it. There's something seriously disturbing about blood invading the world of indestructible toons.

A bit of trivia: the artist, Jimi Cauty, used to be one half of the KLF. And if you don't know who the KLF were, shame on you!

And we wonder why we are such a screwed up culture? Because we laugh at blood and dismemberment. and now kids, it's time for the Itchy and Scatchy show! Yeah!

And if our children were drawing pictures like this we would take them to a therapist, ASAP. Or should.

The Reform party of Canada once glorified the bronze life size sculpture of a few cows laying in the field as great Art. They were scrupulously realist, exquisitely crafted and totally meaningless.
Same here.
These 'extremes' are indeed neighbors.

Jean

@4--I think many of us here are glad our folks didn't send us to a shrink every time we crayoned blood to construction paper. I wonder what mind-numbing meds I would have been prescribed to keep my doodle aggression at bay.

Damn near every one of these pictures caused me to rejoice: "finally, retribution!"

The Reform party of Canada once glorified the bronze life size sculpture of a few cows laying in the field as great Art.

Joe Fafard is pretty darn cool, though.

I wouldn't put these prints on my wall (however, I have some Sin City comic panels blown up that Ghandi would probably not approve of), but it's interesting that absolutely typical looney toon violence is suddenly unpalatable only by adding blood.

Instant background pic.

@ SEKINO

Well, he is a great caricaturist and a skilled craftman and both are not without merits, although none of it touches me very deeply.
Now this is something else, totally devoid of any of these qualities :
http://www.joefafard.com/joe%20web%20page/publicworks/pasture.html
He bowed before the powers that be, that's pretty much the story.

I feel the same void in these cartoon images : I see a sort of glorification of another power, extreme violence, with a hope that if one surrenders to it one may not have to fear it so much.

My 6 and 8 year olds are laughing like hyenas now looking at them all.

Who DIDN'T doodle stuff like this in their notebooks as a kid?

Apparently #1, #2, and #4 didn't... my guess is they are over 35 and they didn't grow up with Itchy & Scratchy, Ren & Stimpy, Happy Tree Friends, etc etc ... this kind of cartoon violence isn't even that original let alone shocking.

Me and half the kids I knew celebrated cartoon violence like this, and let me tell you, not one of them has yet to turn into a danger to themselves or others. Our parents didn't drag us to a therapist over it either. (HELLO OVERREACTION)

And it is really nice to see the victims of constant, horrific (albeit bloodless) cartoon violence on Looney Toons finally have some revenge.

Well, he is a great caricaturist and a skilled craftman and both are not without merits, although none of it touches me very deeply.
Now this is something else, totally devoid of any of these qualities :
http://www.joefafard.com/joe%20web%20page/publicworks/pasture.html
He bowed before the powers that be, that's pretty much the story.

Hmm... We could agree to disagee: I think making realistic, life-sized bovines out of bronze must require quite a bit of skill. And I personally find it a lot more attractive than all the abstract, geometric or bulbous shapes usually found on city buildings' lawns. Even with titles like Innovation or Community, I don't feel it.

Of course, it's totally a matter of taste, but I found stumbling upon sleepy cows on a patch of grass in downtown Toronto amusing and peaceful. I don't always want art that screams something at me (but other times I do).

#6 and #11: I admit I also felt a pang of giddy at Tweety and Jerry finally getting caught. It's like... closure or something. Now if I could be absolutely certain that it's really the Roadrunner under that weight... ;)

@11 The thing is, Itchy and Scratchy are a parody of the violence in "classic" cartoons. A notch below that would be the hyper-violent (but bloodless) parody of the same classic cartoons in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" in which a baby is threatened with drowning, burns, and knives and the title rabbit is threatened with vivisection, electrocuted, set on fire and crushed with a refrigerator. If you grew up on the source material, you are in on the joke.

"Classic" cartoon violence is palatable because it is not rooted in reality. If something dies -and dies violently at that- in this cartoon world, then it is no longer innocent. Blood and gore just don't mix for me in this world. Call me overly sensitive, but I can't stomach the one-note "Happy Tree Friends" and am disturbed that they are able to be viewed by kids on YouTube.

@10, If your 6 and 8 year old kids are laughing at this then, congratulations they've crossed over from this innocence.

The Tom and Jerry ones are really satisfying. I hate that effin' mouse.

Hmm... We could agree to disagee

I would agree to that if you didn't make it so difficult. LOL

Anyway, I can see what you mean. I guess that I just find that the financiers of this world don't deserve so much, if any, peace and quiet.

For the record I always despised Tweety Bird but he should have been served with, at the very least, a good Bordeau.

:)

Dang, I thought you meant Sam (An Elephant is Soft and Mushy) Gross cartoons.

What a thin and pointless exercise.

I guess that I just find that the financiers of this world don't deserve so much, if any, peace and quiet.

Oh, I see. Well, in that case, he could have added a few piles of manure and still not ruin the theme. ;)

@ JUSTONEGUY

I realize that the violent cartoons/games/comics debate is an absolutely dreadful minefield. I guess that I just find that the financiers of this world don't deserve so much, if any, peace and quiet.

Oh, I see. Well, in that case, he could have added a few piles of manure and still not ruin the theme. ;)

@ JUSTONEGUY

I realize that the violent cartoons/games/comics debate is an absolutely dreadful minefield.

But from what I remember of both my own mind and the 1970's school yard, children ar not quite as blithfully 'innocent' as adults seem to doggedly portray them.

I never understood why this form of art was so appealing, and still don't. I visited a gallery showing of a grad student at my local university a year or two after I graduated, to find similar topics addressed: children with big happy smiles on their faces whilst chopping up the family cat, who also had a smile on its face. I found it most wretchedly loathesome and sorely distasteful, and frankly am very very much turned off that BoingBoing likes it. As in, de-bookmarking type of turned off.

@18 "But from what I remember of both my own mind and the 1970's school yard, children ar not quite as blithfully 'innocent' as adults seem to doggedly portray them."

True, but aren't adults feeding the flames with this kind of stuff?

I'm not really sure what I believe here (especially when treading on free speech issues and the like), I'm playing devil's advocate mainly.

These are awesome

Feeding what what flames justoneguy? All I know is they are artistic prints, not a television show. I see many scenes of violence in paintings in the National Art Gallery where I take my kids. Only an ignorant would think that is a problem.

Justoneguy? Crossed over what line? I can vouch for the fact that a near majority of boys (and many girls) that are 9-12 would think this is hilarious and draw comics like this.

These cartoons are full of violence anyway... The posters just make them more real... Characters hitting each other with a hammer in the head may be fun in a cartoon, but kids may not understand the real consequences of hitting their play mates. IMHO opinion is not the posters to be blamed but the fact that, even in this sort of cartoons for small kids, violence equals fun.