Published on May 16 Concerto Books a 48-page hardcover album (14.99 euros) containing cartoons of Peter de Wit about death. There is no better representation of this unique cartoon collection than Peter’s words himself to share:
“One man’s death, another man’s bread. This well-known expression certainly applies to me. I have been making cartoons for more than twenty-five years Relevant, the magazine of the Dutch Association for Voluntary Euthanasia. And my cartoon character Sigmund de Volkskrant is so concerned about his patients that he regularly puts them out of their misery. We prefer not to talk about death. It is not popular among the people. Although each of us knows that this earthly life is finite, many of us remain stubbornly in denial until the very end. By exercising fanatically and taking vitamin preparations, by having cosmetic surgery and having new hips and knees fitted, we are determined to avoid the inevitable. But in this case, postponement does not lead to adjustment. We’re going there. All. One day I started drawing about death. Just like that. Grim cartoons and funny cartoons about dying. About funerals and cremations. Dying involves emotions. Not infrequently intense and uncontrolled. A great subject for a cartoonist. And I used a new approach. I usually come up with an idea and develop it. Now in many cases I just started sketching and let the lines on the paper surprise me. In addition to a number of mistakes, this led to exciting and unexpected results. Have fun with death.”
