Eastern European Comics

Marzena Sowa

Thamara — Thu, 13 May 2010 17:13:49 +0000

Marzena Sowa was born in Stalowa Wola in 1979, and studied at the University of Krakow. Then she went to Bordeaux and met her partner Sylvain Savoia. Marzena has written five successful volumes about her youth during the Jaruzelski-regime, Sylvain made the drawings.

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Irena Jukic

Thamara — Mon, 03 May 2010 15:22:01 +0000

Irena Jukic graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Croatia. She is a professor of visual art and makes comics and illustrations for children’s magazines as a means of relaxing. In her comics, she plays with stereotypical cartoon characters, creating new stories with them. Her comic books are called ‘Protuotrov’, a Croatian word for a medicine that cures you when you are poisoned. In 1999, she won first prize at the Croatian Comic Salon competition.

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GRAPHIC Conspiracy

Thamara — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:59:58 +0000

GRAPHIC Conspiracy is a project of the cultural centre REX. In the issue GRAPHIC Conspiracy VI and VII the following artists were featured: ‘Les jours etrangers’ by Milan Pavlovic (alias Mr. Stocca) and ‘Poposak and the Flowers’ by Wostok, Grabowski and Sasa Mihajlovic.

“During the hard times, cultural centre REX started publishing a comic strip collection entitled “Graphic Conspiracy” which had three conceptual editions in the year 2000: ‘Graphic Conspiracy (#1)’, ‘Odyssey: Serbia 2001′ and ‘Catharsis’. The fourth collection appeared on the first anniversary of this project. We are now introducing GC 10, worthy successors to previous collections in the Graphic Conspiracy series.” Carried out with the support of the Fund for Open Society and the Civil Parliament of Serbia. Visit their website to see. Visit the website to view previous editions.

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Rumen Petkov

Thamara — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:48:27 +0000

Rumen Petkov was born in 1948 and is a Bulgarian animator and comic creator. His influence spawned a new generation of young Bulgarian comic book artists as Vladimir Nedialkov, Koko Sarkisian, Ivan Kirjakov and others. He was one of the main artists of the comics magazine ‘Rainbow’, which was the most popular comics for several generations of Bulgarian children. His most popular cartoon is ‘The Adventures of Choko the Stork and Boko the Frog’, which was popular in Bulgaria during 1970s and 80s. Other famous animated films he directed are ‘Friends of Gosho the Elephant’ and ‘Treasure Planet’. He has won the Grand Prize at the Ottawa Animation Festival and the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Recently Rumen Petkov has worked as a writer, storyboard artist, animation director and director on some episodes of Tom and Jerry Tales, Johnny Bravo, Dexter’s Laboratory, Cow and Chicken, The New Woody Woodpecker Show and other series.

Zoran Janjetov

Thamara — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:39:02 +0000

Zoran Janjetov was born in 1961 Subotica, Serbia. He is a comic artist and lives in Novi Sad. Janjetov is best known as the illustrator of The Technopriests, written by Alejandro Jodorowsky. In 1986 he was chosen by Moebius to continue his work The Incal.

He directed several awarded music videos and designed numerous award winning LP covers of different music bands and performers. His strong music, movie and sci-fi involvement is present in his early comic, today already cult, Bernard Panasonic.

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Hardcomics

Thamara — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:36:26 +0000

Hardcomics is a self-financed publishing house. Their aim is to create a market for comics in Romania and to set a standard in content and form. Hardcomics is also an undergound magazine with a lot of sex and humour. Hardcomics began 6 years ago in Bucharest. The birthchild of Serbian graphic designer Milos Jovanovic and Romanian animator Matei Branea, later on to be joined by Street artist Andy Sinboy. The meeting of these comic fans spawned Romania’s first independent (and back then, only) comic book publication. The first issue called “Aaarghh” was made by Romanian painter and illustrator Roman Tolici, a bizarre, neurotic and abstract compilation of sex, violence, love and beauty. The second issue was by our own Matei Branea and his lovably chainsmoking character Omulan. This issue was mute and looked at man’s relationship with a God which is enforced on him, as well as how to get extremely high and party. Visit to the website 18+ only!

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Political Cartoons

Thamara — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 20:45:35 +0000

This site contains a database of political cartoons concerning democracy and voting rights in Moldova.

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Varvara Pomidor

Thamara — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 20:32:05 +0000

“I was born in Leningrad in 1975. It was December 5th, that day was a holiday dedicated to the adoption of the Stalinist constitution. In my family, almost everyone is an artist. I’ve always drawn. I worked as a graphic designer during my studies, and later as an artistic director in a company. But I wanted to draw, so I did.”

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Polina Petrouchina

Thamara — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 20:24:02 +0000

Polina does not just make comics on paper, some are realized on fabric, on tiles, in fact even on dresses. Some of her stories are a little like choreography: motives, movement, rhythm. Others are inspired by the Russian cultural heritage: songs (The Black Cat which is inspired by a song by Bulat Akudjava a Russian singer of the past century). Polina is burlesque and dreamlike, but sometimes a little sarcastic. Polina currently lives and works in France.

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Aleksei Nikitin

Thamara — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 20:09:59 +0000

Aleksei was born in 1953 Moscow, Russia. In 1968-1972 he studied at the “Year 1905″ Moscow Regional Art College, Section of Industrial Graphics and Advertising and in 1973-1976 he studied at Moscow Polygraphic Institute, Department of Artistic and Technical Design of Printed Matter. Since 1979 he is co-organizer of the Moscow Archive of New Art and co-founded the APTART Gallery. Aleksei lives and works in Moscow.

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