The Cartoon-Selfie man

I must have been on my anger trip on social media and in anger I write acidic posts ridiculing even myself. Well it is always better to make fun of yourself then others. I had no idea that ‘Cartoon-Selfie man’ was watching me.

He never interacted with me on social media but one day he dropped a line on my FB inbox asking for my email. I must have replied, ‘What is it?’ I had no idea who is this guy or what he wants. Next moment, he send me a cartoon of himself. It was a surprise. I saw it…laughed and shared it on FB.

Then I went on to see who is this man who made my cartoon. It was Ashok Adepal, a cartoonist who was working with DNA newspaper at that point. Later he launched a magazine Wah Bhai Wah and his latest venture is Cartoon- Selfie.

 

We talked a bit in the inbox and I realized that he is not a man of words. He told me that he wanted to make some more cartoons of mine and would like to send them but I have to be OPEN about them. I said, ‘Do Whatever you want to do.’ That follows few more in next six to seven months.

One of the cartoon had me threatening to block everyone with books on my back- Kafka and Gandhi. My two favorites at that point of time. It was very subtle to place them in the background. I loved it.

It was that period of my life when we had started work on Artologue and for the first time I requested Ashok to make something for it. We (me and MEE-JEY talked to Ashok bhai) He listened to us for a while without saying a thing and in three four days, he sent one of the best cartoon of us.

He made another next year. We wanted to pay for it. He refused saying, ‘You guys are artist and you are doing a wonderful thing by painting with underprivileged kids. I am doing my bit for you.’

He became a virtual partner with us. He painted three cartoons for the ‘I in Togetherness’ series as well. Imagine this- Mee Jey (Meenakshi my partner) is still to meet Ashok bhai. I have met him after three years and several cartoons he made.

A lot of people wanted to get cartoons made by him as his cartoons are edgy and they convey something about the personality. He is not your run of the mill cartoonist. He takes his time, studies the character and then makes something out of it.

Few years back Ashok made a series of 80 cartoons of his own….and named them Cartoon-Selfie. A satirical take on the whole idea of Selfie. They are not only self portraits but also a comment on the selfie-generation, art of cartooning, laughing on oneself and a commentary on the contemporary society.

Ashok has made a website after lot of requests to make cartoons and if you want to get your cartoon made you can get that done here. DrawMyCartoon.com

If you really want Ashok to invest time and make your cartoon. He can do that but that might cost a bit more. His cartoons are art pieces and I can say that we have many from him which is a privilege. Don’t wait then. Go to his website and get your cartoon made.

The cartoons Ashok made of me and aRtologue are as follows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note- Recently he made two cartoons of Sabad, our son.