Cartoonist finds thought bubble mightier than the sword

“Jack and Jill went up the hill/ to fetch a pail of water,” the sweetly drawn panels say. Then tragedy strikes: “Jack fell down and broke his crown,” and we see said young man plunging headfirst down the slope.

But the last panel has a surprise: A pert “Jill,” with outlandishly long eyelashes and wearing a polka-dot dress, places a resolute hand on her hip. “Wait a minute,” she says, “Why should I come tumbling after?”

Meet Gogi, the alter-ego of Nigar (rhymes with “cigar”) Nazar, the first woman cartoonist of Pakistan, who is in residence at Colorado College this month and gives a talk today at the Fine Arts Center, which is running an exhibition of her work. The character of Gogi has been commenting on male-female relations and other social issues in newspapers around the world since 1970.

Nazar fell in love with cartoons as a child, but she realized they were her true calling only when doodles began taking over her medical school notebooks. A switch to fine arts and a degree from Punjab University landed her a job with the Pakistan Sun, which launched her career.

Nazar says she’s never experienced discrimination due to her sex but has devoted rivers of ink to fighting for those who have. She also takes aim at ills ranging from government corruption to littering, often in hard-hitting editorial cartoons.

In Islamabad and Lahore, the sides of city buses feature social messages from Gogi.

“I consider myself an art activist who is trying to bring about a positive change in society, and if I can do it through my cartoons, then I am blessed,” Nazar says.

Nazar has published numerous books and regularly offers workshops to children and disadvantaged groups. She is active in the Cartoonists Rights Network, seeking to secure the safety of political cartoonists worldwide. When in the company of other cartoonists, though, she laments that she is almost always the only woman. Speculating on the reason, Nazar is stumped: “Women can draw. They’re as funny as men — it’s a mystery.”

DETAILS
An exhibit of Nazar’s cartoons at the Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St., runs through Wednesday.
Nazar will give a public gallery talk there at 2 p.m. today. The event is free and open to the public.