Polyp With Words
Article published: Thursday, May 7th 2009
Manchesters most famous political cartoonist, Polyp (alias Paul Fitz) will soon release his second book. Here he talks to Mule about the book, influences and love for his adopted city.
Q:What brought you to this great city of Manchester?
Im an Essex boy, second generation Irish but Ive lived in Manchester about 25 years. I just drifted here when I was younger, though Ive lived my entire adult life up north. Once I arrived I just knew this was where I wanted to settle. Its a fucking brilliant place, isnt it? And who wants to live in London?
Q:Did you always want to be a cartoonist?
Sure did. On a good day Im still sometimes utterly gobsmacked that I actually am one – like right now, answering these questions, I just thought Fucking hell! I earn my living drawing political cartoons! What a jammy bastard!
Q:What inspired you to get involved in politics / social justice issues?
Watching [popular science author] Carl Sagan talk about nuclear war, and seeing Arthur Millers The Crucible. I ended up thinking OK, we look back on the witch hunts with appalled moral outrage but what will we be judged for by future generations..? The answer was obvious: global poverty. We have the resources to end it, and yet we still let children die of malnutrition. So I decided to learn about it and try and help end it.
Q:Who has influenced your thinking?
Studying the history and philosophy of science was a massive influence. It taught me to try and see the world for what it actually is. Carl Sagan was another and Bill Hicks. But of course its ordinary people who risk their lives for justice who are the real inspiration.
Q:What campaigns have you been involved with in the past?
Debt Crisis and anti-consumerism are the ones I feel Ive really had some impact with.
Q:Do you feel that your cartoons have the power to change things or do you see them as entertainment?
You tell me! I hope they do, but…
Q:Are you pessimistic about the future?
Some days its like the end of The Terminator where Sarah Conner is told A storm is coming and she replies Yes, I know. Or Charlton Heston in front of the ruined Statue of Liberty in Planet of the Apes… We finally really did it. You maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell! But on a good day I think were evolving into Homo Ethicus… though even if we are, I think there are troubled times ahead that well have to pass through, and difficult decisions to make. Climate change has something of the Sword of Damoclese about it, huh?
Q:Tell us about your new book
Its called Speechless / Sin Palabras / Sans Mots : World History Without Words. Its actually two books in one, both telling the same story in very different ways, and with very different endings… or perhaps you’d want to call them futures? They try to describe quite complex ideas about how the global political system arose and operates but the most striking thing is neither contains a single word of written dialogue. The main book (inspired by that viral email, see www.miniature-earth.com) shows a spherical, semi realistic Earth from prehistory to the present day. The small book (One Tree Island) is a much more allegorical affair, with a tiny island floating in space, inhabited by just ten very strange looking semi-human creatures. I wouldnt call them alien, as I think the reader will probably find their behaviour very familiar. Me and the publishers (New Internationalist and Friends of the Earth International) are hoping the whole language-free approach will give it a real international appeal. The characters in the main book speak a kind of graphic esperanto that we hope anyone in the world will be able to understand. Of course one of the key assumptions is that the kind of behaviours we describe in the book are
so outrageous and blatant that anyone can recognise whats being described without words.
Q:Why dedicate it to those killed in the Peterloo massacre?
The main thread of the story is the long battle to level power between ordinary people and their self appointed kings including their latest manifestation in the form of corporate rule. Peterloo was so crucial in that struggle that it seemed natural.
Q:How long has it taken you?
Im told Ive been going on about it for 15 years! But its been about a year since I did the deal with FoEI and NI. I am hugely grateful to both of them for this fantastic opportunity.
Q:Has it been an enjoyable process?
Writing it was an exhilarating roller coaster full of vivid moments of inspiration and problem solving – some of the happiest and most electrifying moments of my life. Drawing it is a fucking pain in the arse, Im shitting bricks right now re. the deadline. No fun. I live and work in the same place- Homes for Change Co-Op, and so havent left the postcode for months on end. How are things going out there in the real world of late?
Without Words is coming out this summer.
Youll be able to buy it from
www.newint.org and www.foei.org
or order it from book shops.
To see Polyps work visit www.polyp.org.uk
or www.foei.org/livemore.
More: Culture, Exhibition
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