Comics Lifestyle has been listed as a digital participant for International 24 Hour Comics Drawing Day this Saturday, October 18th. So far we have yours truly, Miromi and David Lasky. Care to give it a try?

Sign on at: http://www.comicslifestyle.com/group/24hourcomicsdrawingday2008

Tags: comics

[Courtesy An Island Art] – Australia: There’s the wonderful Jo Waite, curator of the exhibition ‘Ugly, Drunk and Stupid’ that she, and I, and Matt, and Susan, and Rose, and Joseph, and Georgia, and Zebedee, took down yesterday at the Town Hall Gallery at the Hawthorn Town Hall. And next to her is Mr Smiley, who Jo drew and was our exhibition mascot.

Tags: comics

On October’s First Thursday, Floating World will present a gallery show with the work of Igor Hofbauer, Dunja Janković, Aleksandar Opačić, and Radovan Popović, leading artists from comics collectives in Zagreb and Belgrade.

Forged in the social turmoil that accompanied the bloody dissolution of Yugoslavia in the nineties, indie comics and ‘zines (cheap to produce, ignored by the cultural and political establishment, and inherently subversive) became the refuge for underground artists across the region.

Today these collectives have come of age and the artists represented here are producing some of the most exciting work coming out of the fringe of Europe. This show is the first of its kind in the US. Floating World will also be offering books and ‘zines from the region that are otherwise unavailable in North America.

LISTING INFORMATION:
WHO: Igor Hofbauer, Dunja Janković (in person), Aleksandar Opačić, Radovan Popović
WHAT: Gallery show and opening reception
WHEN: Thursday, Oct.
2nd, 6-10PM
WHERE: Floating World Comics
20 NW 5th Ave 101
Portland, OR 97209
(503) 241-0227
Poster (above) by Radovan Popović
Show runs through Oct. 31st

BIO INFORMATION:

IGOR HOFBAUER – Igor Hofbauer (“Hof”) is one of the most recognizable artists working in the ex-Yu today. Living and working in Zagreb, Croatia, he developed his signature wood-cut-esque style and propensity for lurid, underworld stories as the graphic artist for Močvara, a famous Zagreb club. Concert posters turned into album covers and some winning illustrations for underground writer Edo Popović, and eventually Hof turned his eye to comics.
He’s regularly published by Komikaze (www. komikaze. hr) and Stripburger, and recently has had a slew of gallery shows across the Balkans.

http://www. gonebald. net/extrastuff/hof/igor_hofbauer. htm

http://www. komikaze. hr/index. php?issue=18&author=igor%20hofbauer&action=showPages

DUNJA JANKOVIĆ – Growing up on an island in the Adriatic, later attending the art academy in Zagreb and then moving to New York to do a graduate degree in illustration and comics at School of Visual Arts (where she worked with such folk as Gary Panter and David Sandlin), Janković’s comics are fantasies, equal parts breezy and horrific, flights of fancy, and a girl’s daydreams of the ocean and all the irrational flotsam to be found when once can escape the city’s grid. Recently she published Agony! The Story of a Girl Who Didn’t Know How to Find Her Way Out of a Situation! (published by Fabrika Knjiga, Belgrade). She also publishes regularly with Stripburger and Komikaze.

http://www. tripica. org

http://www. komikaze. hr/index. php?issue=18&author=dunja%20jankovic&action=showPages

ALEKSANDAR OPAČIĆ – Opačić (aka Profesor) completed his coursework in the painting department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade in 1999. Although he had been a comics fan since boyhood, he didn’t start drawing his own comics until he finished with the academy and, eligible to be drafted into Milošević’s army, went into hiding to avoid the draft. Shortly thereafter, NATO bombs rained down on Serbia and Opačić found himself with a lot of free time for drawing. His work tends is often wordless, most often featuring lost or hunted characters in caught in gritty cities and surreal landscapes.
He is a member of the Belgrade multi-media collective, Kosmoplovci (www. crsn. com/studiostrip), has published extensively in Serbia as well as with Komikaze in Croatia, Stripburger in Slovenia, and Cestbon in Sweden.

http://www. crsn. com/opacic

http://www. komikaze. hr/index. php?issue=14&author=aleksandar%20opacic&action=showPages

RADOVAN POPOVIĆ – Radovan Popović (aka Rashid), the de facto leader of Kosmoplovci, has been at the center of the Serbian comics scene for over a decade working as a visionary editor, organizer of many comics festivals and events, a dedicated and talented artist, co-founder of Beopolis (the largest bookstore for alternative comics in Belgrade), and as a spokesman and all-around cheerleader for comics. Interestingly, though Popović had been one of the most prominent figures in the Serbian comics scene through the nineties, he didn’t begin seriously drawing his own comics till 1999. Since that time, however, he has drawn literally thousands of pages which spill out of boxes and shelves, reducing the floor in his bedroom/studio to one narrow path from door to drawing table. His work tends in two directions: spontaneous, playful and short comics, often well steeped in irony, and dark, psychological, expressive, labor-intensive longer works which often combine drawing with painting and collage. Most recently, Popović published Šaka (The Hand, 2007) based on the Philip K. Dick short story “The Electric Ant.
“

http://www. komikaze. hr/index. php?issue=14&author=radovan%20popovic&action=showPages

Komikaze’s website: http://www. komikaze. hr/

Komikaze English introduction page: http://www. komikaze. hr/wiki/pmwiki. php?n=Komikaze. English

Studiostrip/Kosmoplovci: http://www. crsn. com/studiostrip

Additional info:

Yugoslav independent comics didn’t register on the radar of readers in the West till the nineties when some little comics (most notably those of Aleksandar Zograf), clinging to the underbelly of the Big Serious News stampeding out of the region, found their way into Western publications. Individuals were speaking out from these “dangerous places,” recording their own stories, exploring the dirty corners of dark times, and reinventing comics in a time and place when everything was turned on its head. These comics spoke to a generation for whom day-to-day life was probing new depths of absurdity as inflation rendered currency valueless, communists became rosary-toting folk heroes, war criminals became pop stars, dictionaries were rewritten, borders were redrawn and cemeteries sprouted up like mushrooms. Furthermore, they did so in an accessible, unprepossessing (and often underestimated) medium perfectly suited for conveying the voice of the counter culture. As the nineties dragged on, more and more inspired individuals flocked to the comics scene to vent, find community, and, it turns out, create some of the most vital, dynamic, intelligent and engaging comics appearing anywhere in the world. In a Darwinian twist, isolation and adversity brought the oddballs and outsiders to the top of the heap and by the end of the nineties, underground artists had a strong edge over the mainstream.

Now it’s a brave new century, the dictators have been toppled, the curtains lifted, and the independent comics artists from Serbia and Croatia find themselves a little more ripened, yet still armed with a practiced distrust and cynicism, humor (of the gallows sort), and an abiding sense of community. In this future of “bright tomorrows,” they’re up against more insidious beasts than dictators and bombs: “transitional economies” (which usually means losing your social benefits while rich foreigners buy up your property). The artists in this show represent the cutting edge of the Croatian and Serbian comics scenes. They’ve cut their teeth in isolation and adversity and set up a working culture that exists outside of the market and transcends borders. With the help of the internet, these artists from their perch on the periphery have begun to infuse the world comics community with their energy and innovative approaches to comics. This is the first show to bring this work to audiences in the US.

Interview with Dunja Janković – Stripburger 46 (Oct. 2007):

Hello folks,

a couple of exhibitions featuring comics and comic related events as part of
the Melbourne Fringe Festival:

‘Ugly Drunk and Stupid’ is an exhibition of grotesques by Melbourne comic
book makers, plus comic strip stories featuring those characters. Curated by
Jo Waite. At the Town Hall Gallery at the Hawthorn Town Hall.

The opening is this Thursday, 2 October, 6 -9pm. On Saturday arvo, 4
October at 2pm I’ll do a bit of a talk about the ‘Ugly’ tradition in comic
book art, taking in such beauties as Basil Wolverton, Peter Bagge and Ralph
Steadman. Then at 3pm there will be an Ugly Draw-off as cartoonists draw
the ugliest faces they can!
Hoo hah! Potrzebie!

Ugly, Drunk & Stupid
Grotesque characters by Melbourne’s best comic book makers.

This year Bernard Caleo and Jo Waite gather the silent army once again
to bring their pens to bear upon the ugly, the drunk and the stupid
(more often than not themselves) for your drooling delectation.

First to fifrth of October 2008
Opening Thursday 2 October 6-9pm
Saturday 4 October programs
2-3pm: Ugly talk
3-4pm: Ugly Draw-off!

Melbourne Fringe Festival
Cardigan Comics

The Town Hall Gallery
Rear, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn, 3122
Ph: (03) 9278 4626
Melway ref 45 D10
Open: We-Sat: 12pm-5pm
Sunday: 10am-3pm
Blog: www.townhallgallery.blogspot.com

Tags: comics

Win a Prize — Draw a Comic!

If you’d made comics before — win 500€!
http://www.komikaze.hr/wiki/PRAVADJECE
If you’d never drawn comics before — compete in the 6th Festival of
the First together with everyone else who is using a medium for the
first time — and win 1000€!

The topic for comics is: the media and the rights of the child.

For your inspiration: don’t get confused. Rights are not only for
lawyers. There is a variety of topics here, for example: the right to
play and have friends, family, live in peace, go to school, be safe
and healthy. According to the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the
Child, the state should protect children not only from the sun,
cigarette smoke and candies, but primarily from all forms of violence.
An Internet and TV suitable for children should mean more than just
showing Teletubbies. Just think of all the babies whose images were
used in commercials without anyone asking them what they want (the
right to privacy). Every child has the right to say what he or she
thinks — and not only when asked!

More details can be found at:
http://www.dadalos.org/kr/Menschenrechte/Grundkurs_MR3/Kinderrechte/KINDERRE.HTM

Deadline for the competition is: November 15, 2008.

All comics, regardless when they arrive, will be published on the
Komikaze website. We also plan a book issue.

Who can apply for the First Comic category? People over 18 who had
never published their work before (Google sees all and knows all!).
Sending a CV is ok.
More details at: http://www.studio-artless.hr

The jury consists of 5 people who will remain anonymous so you don’t
influence them:)

Send your comics in .tif format, 300 dpi. High quality scans can be
sent to komikaze5001@gmail.com or you can use the free file sharing
service at www.sendspace.com .

Snail mail: Komikaze, Skrlceva 29 – 10 000 Zagreb, Hrvatska

TAKE CARE OF KIDS, THEY TAKE CARE OF YOU!

Organized by: Komikaze & Studio Artless

www.komikaze.hr

www.studio-artless.hr

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.komikaze.hr/wiki/PRAVADJECE

NAGRADNA IGRA: NACRTAJ STRIP!

Ako ste i prije crtali/e stripove – osvojite nagradu od 500 eu!

Ako nikada niste crtali/objavili strip – imate mogucnost natjecanja na

„6. Festivalu Prvih”, ravnopravno sa svima ostalima koji/e se po prvi put okusavaju u

bilo kojem vama novom mediju i – osvojite 1000 eu!

Tema stripa je zadana: mediji i prava djeteta

Za inspiraciju: Ne dajte se zbuniti. Pravom se ne bave samo pravnici. Od bezbroj mogucih tema podsjecamo na: pravo na igru i prijatelje, obitelj, mir, skolu, sigurnost i zdravlje. Po konvenciji UN o pravima djeteta usvojenoj 1989. drzava je duzna zastiti djecu ne samo od sunca, cigareta i slatkisa nego prvenstveno od svih oblika nasilja. Televizija i intenet prilagodjen djeci ne bi trebalo znaciti samo ukljucivanje Teletubbiesa na programu. Sjetite se napr. brojnih fotografija novorodjencadi koje su postale hit reklama a da ih se nije pitalo za misljenje (pravo na privatnost). Svako dijete ima pravo reci sto misli i to ne samo onda kad ga pitaju!

Detaljnije na adresi: http://www.dadalos.org/kr/Menschenrechte/Grundkurs_MR3/Kinderrechte/KINDERRE.HTM

Deadline za nagradni natjecaj je 15.11. 2008.
Svi pristigli radovi (neovisno o vremenu dolaska) biti ce objavljeni na Komikaze stranicama. U planu je i tiskano izdanje!
Za kategoriju Prvog Stripa racunaju se punoljetnici– debitanti tj oni koji nisu javno nikada javno objavili svoj rad (Google sve vidi i zna:). CV pozeljan.
Detaljnije na adresi: http://www.studio-artless.hr

Ziri je sastavljen od 5 clanova cija imena necemo jos objavljivati da ne utjecete na njih:)
Strip saljite u tif formatu na 300 dpi-ja. Mail za kvalitetne skenove je: komikaze5001@gmail.com ili se mozete posluziti besplatnim servisom
za slanje „teskih” mailova: www.sendspace.com .

Fizicka adresa je: Komikaze, Skrlceva 29 – 10 000 Zagreb, Hrvatska

PAZITE NA DJECU, DJECA PAZE NA VAS!

Organizatori: Komikaze i Studio Artless

www.komikaze.hr

www.studio-artless.hr

Tags: comics