Remembering Massis Araratian

Vahe H Apelian

His literary two volume opus: "The Smile is Light". Massis Araratian by Massis Araratian. 
Massis Araratian passport size picture

Political cartoon, and cartoon in general, have been inherent in journalism. The Armenians have been fortunate to have a few such gifted giants in their midst, such as Sarukhan, Diran Ajemian and Massis Araratian. They also became well-known if not famous in their greater host societies. 

Facebook reminded that today is the second anniversary of Massis Araratian’s death. We were friends. The last time I met him was at mother’s funeral, which took place on February 9, 2017. He passed away on a few years later, on Thursdays, January 19, 2023 at the ripe age of 93. 

Massis Araratian served the Armenian community throughout his life starting from Aleppo, to Beirut and then to Los Angeles. Massis and his wife Maro, née Der Ghougassian, were married in Beirut in 1965.  They  are the proud parents of two sons and four grandchildren

We all know that Ararat is also a well-known mountain in Christendom.. It might be less known that the Armenians call its twin peaks Big Massis and Little Massis. When these two names came together as Massis Araradian, they formed an unforgettable combination  for the legendary Diaspora Armenian cartoonist and caricaturist baptized as the moutnain's namesake.

The naming of the family name is no less legendary. It was upon the urging of Catholicos Megerdich Kefsizian (1871-1894) of the Sis (Cilician) Catholicosate that Massis’ ardently patriotic grandfather Khacher had changed his family name to Araradian. Khacher was outspoken in the closely-knit Aintab Armenian community and was unconcerned that Turkish officials would look with suspicion his hosting of Simon Zavarian, one of the founders of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (A.R.F). Years later, Khacher's son Megerdich, who had survived the Genocide and lived in Aleppo,  named his firstborn-son and seventh child, Massis. Khachig Araradian, a cousin of Massis, was a noted stage actor and a solo reciter.

A few years ago, when I was in Glendale, California, I purchased from Abril Bookstore its last copies of the two-volume “The Smile is Light”  (Ժպիտը լոյս է), Massis Araradian's massive opus.  The set measures 11x8.5 inches in landscape. The first volume is 544 pages and the second 399. Together they weigh a hefty 6 pounds and 14 ounces. Each contains an index under almost all the 39 Armenian alphabet characters. Save for the few pages of introduction and testimonials, the two volumes are "wall-to-wall" cartoons and caricatures. They are not only a pleasure to view but are also educational because the Armenian Diaspora of the last six decades, with its denizens and events, unfolds right in the lap of the reader.

Massis was born in Aleppo on December 29, 1929. As a young boy he found out that not only could he draw but also had an uncanny ability to observe and distill a person’s character and the essence of events and present them with his agile pen. He started drawing on the margins of his textbooks, to the chagrin of his teachers who noticed they were often the subject of his acute pencil. But his well-meaning parents were  concerned that their son had an obsession with drawing, and was totally disinterest in learning a trade, to be able to make a living .

But Massis found encouragement too. During the Second World War, when paper was scarce, his family and relatives collected the 3 by 4 inch daily sheets of their calendars that were blank at the back and gave them to Massis to draw on. Thus was born his life-long habit of drawing on similar size pads, he says while standing, sitting and kneeling.

But the gift, nature had bestowed upon the young man did not go unnoticed. Aleppo Arabic newspapers soon invited him to draw for their pages. In 1953 he  moved to Beirut where he worked  for Antranig Dzarougian’s "Nairi” weekly and “Aztag” daily. From 1955 to 1975 Massis was employed by now-defunct U.S. Information Service (USIS) where he worked his way up to its art director. The USIS shuttered its operations after its American directors were kidnapped. Massis recalls fondly and in appreciation his time with the American service.  A year later, in 1976, he immigrated to the United States with his family and settled in Los Angeles where the family still resides. Right after his arrival he was hired by the "Los Angeles Herald-Examiner” and contributed to “Asbarez” daily. Within a few years he was promoted art director of the "Herald-Examiner's" California Living section. After the daily folded in November 1989, Massis continued to draw for the "Asbarez” daily.

Along with his cartoons and caricatures, Massis has designed more than 35 Armenian and Arabic fonts. The soul of his cartoons, caricatures and art works remain Armenian. His daring  cartoon depictions continue to stir emotions, such as his rdrawing of President Serzh Sargsyan which depicted Armenia's third president with a comfortable girth in military fatigue and holding a sling shot, post April 1, 2016 Nakorno-Karabagh Four-Day War, or the April War. 

Massis continued to draw at a prodigious rate. His latest drawings can be seen on his Facebook page and on his website. He pointed out that while his hair, age, milieu, social circumstance and everything else around him had changed since he started drawing, the only things he claimed were not changed in his life were  the pencil he held with his right hand and the 3x4 inch size pads in his left hand, much like the calendar sheets his family and relatives gave him when he was a lad. He reminished and said that he continued to draw as he had done, while standing, sitting and kneeling.

75 years drawing, kneeling, sitting or standing. From 1942 to 1943, as a student at Zavarian School in Aleppo, Massis illustrated, his “hero” teachers and instructors on the margins of his books and notebooks, with innocent cartoons of a child. Those were the oppressing days of the war. There was famine. There was no bread, water, smile and paper. Looking for notebooks to draw was an impossible task.  A discovery came about. It was the palm size 365 daily calander sheets. One side was printed the day’s date, but the other side was blank. That blank side served its purpose well to Massis to draw. His relatives saved and gifted to the little boy the past daily calendar sheets. Massis could not get rid of that discovery to have a small notebook in his left palm and a pen in his right hand. And for the next 75 years, as a child, young man, an adult and then in his later years, Massis continued to draw. Massis’ hair, age, milieu, status and everything else changed. Only the pen and palm size notebook in his hands remained unchanged. A- at the age of 13. B. at the age of 63. C. at the age of 83. (noted in 2012)

 

 

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