Toon out

Armand Homsi has spent the better part of his life speaking out through cartoons. Known mostly for his contributions to An Nahar, he never shies away from speaking his mind.

How long have you been drawing?

I’ve worked at An Nahar for 13 years and before that I was in France – but I wasn’t drawing much there. In the ’80s I worked in Commerce du Liban for about four years. I worked there while I was in college and as far as first experiences go it was great. Before that it was the school newspaper, if that really counts.

You didn’t draw in France?

In Paris I worked as an interior designer, which is my actual field. I came back because of a competition that An Nahar held – I entered from Paris – and the prize was a job here. I initially started in Nahar el Shabeb but soon moved to An Nahar.

You left Paris for a competition? That’s a bit romantic.

It’s more that I left Lebanon in a bad way. I left in ’89, and that ought to ring a bell. The war had become especially violent then and I had a job opportunity. But at some point I needed to come back, I knew all along I would. It’s nice out there, for the first couple of years, a paradise perhaps. A button turns on a light, streets are clean, neat and no one thinks of politics. No one cares about politics. It’s a different world, but you’re never really at ease.

So you’re back here, but why drawing?

It’s a daily cartoon and it’s fun. A lot happens around here and you always have topics. What I usually do, if the headline of the day isn’t a good start for an idea, is disregard it. Someone shook someone else’s hand, great news, bad cartoon. I try to be close to the news. If the big story is dull, I might use the second best, or something completely different. I keep myself in the loop with news and that’s how I can draw. The topics are fun to come up with and they keep me entertained.

So does the satire I’ll bet…

Well, yeah, when you draw you don’t think of your audience; the drawing reflects me. I’m not a preacher. I’m expressing myself. Like the Christian reconciliation theme, you could just say something like: ‘Oh, Christians unite,’ and that’s fine. But I saw it as two kids fighting in a school, play fighting and calling the game ‘a Christian reconciliation.’ It makes you laugh and explains what’s happening. It makes sense, comes together. My opinion is in there somewhere and this is the way I see it, in a very light way.

You’re not preaching, are you trying to help though?

I don’t try to preach at all. This is what I feel at that moment. When you start with ‘I want to do this for some reason or another,’ I don’t think you do much. I just try to highlight what’s going wrong and from that point on the readers will get it in their own way.

Right to left: high minister, service minister, regular minister, government minister, citizen

Letting your characters do the dirty work…
I don’t actually have a trademark character. I don’t have a favorite anything in cartoons. Every cartoon is different.

How do you draw for 13 years and not get an emerging character?

Because characters are there to say something, to articulate. My cartoons are mute, mostly. Most of them have no characters involved whatsoever. It could be a shape, an object, a chair; who knows.

Do you tackle everything equally, or do you shy away from the edgier topics?

When I started here Jubran Tweini explicitly gave me carte blanche, and I went with it. If it’s not local, I’ll look to regional. In 2005 you couldn’t do anything but internal politics for instance. It would just look wrong because it was everywhere. You can’t have a large protest on television and draw a comic about the Israeli-Palestinian struggle.

Have you ever gotten yourself into any serious trouble?

A couple of times. I had some trouble with an embassy once… but it’s usually a misunderstanding. You don’t mean to attack, but people misread. My cartoons are everywhere because I don’t let them take sides. They are undeniably true.

And you yourself don’t take sides?

I try to be on the side of the citizen. Politicians take too much of the spotlight. OK, two politicians kiss and make up tomorrow morning, fantastic, but what about the people who died last night? What about their families? I mean, what do you really get from your politicians? They’re just players in an unstable game. I’m on the citizen’s side. Many cartoonists are.

Any of those you like in particular?

I like what Stavro does. This overlaps between friendship and admiration but you can tell he loves to draw. This is what makes a good cartoonist. I like Saad Hajo from Al Safir, you can see that he puts effort into his work.

Do you have a personal favorite work?

Among my own? Quite a few. You always feel happy while you’re drawing them and you know they’ll become favorites before you finish them. They just feel right.

Well we’ll wrap this up. What is your favorite place in Beirut?

Gemmayzeh. All of it. Hands down. Beirut is a place where I find myself.