6th International Comics Showroom - Belgrade, Serbia

Entertainment or Art

Comic strip is in expansion all over the world. Some countries set it on the same level like literature. The annual production in France is about 4,000 albums, and in Japan million editions


By MARKO ANDREJIĆ
from Belgrade, SERBIA


The Sixth International Comics Showroom Contest was held in Belgrade from 25th to 28th September. Student Cultural Centre (SKC) hosted numerous domestic and foreign comic-strip artists, collectors and the fans of "the ninth art" who had an opportunity to see and hear interesting presentations, promotions and exhibitions. Special guests of this year Showroom Contest were David Lloyd, a famous comic-strip author from Great Britain, Esad Ribic, Croatian comic-strip artist who has been working for U.S. "Marvell" since 2000, and an American Mett Hollingsworth, several times rewarded author. Besides them, at this interesting gathering the present was Bart Neuvelarts, one of the organizers of comic strip festival in Brussels, who, amazed with the works of Serbian authors, wanted to come personally and observe the situation in Belgrade. He has an intention to organize the exhibition of Serbian comic strip in Belgium next year.

One of the organizers of International Comics Showroom Contest Vladimir Vesović, who is in charge of coordinating domestic authors' programme, says for "WAVE magazine" that this might be the best Showroom Contest so far.

- That is the conclusion of majority of visitors and people who were addressing us expressing their impression. So far every showroom contest has been successful, but every following is better and better. We always try to change and improve something. This year there were much more visitors, apart from bad weather that followed us, so I am satisfied with the interest of the audience and media. That is also a kind of evidence that the Showroom Contest was good and interesting.

A special award for contribution to Serbian comic strip was rewarded to Srećko Jovanović, and at the contest which lasted from 29th March to 29th August, and which is somehow the basis for Comics Showroom Contest, the greatest number of works have arrived this year, even 210 works from 32 different countries.

- Official awards were given, of which the most important is Grand Prix, then the awards in the domain of classic comic strip, alternative comic-strip language, for the best scenario, the best drawing, and a special award for innovation in comic-strip art. For the authors up to 15 years old there were the awards: Young Lion, for the best idea, for mature and imaginative expression and for the youngest participant. Those awards were given by the jury which consisted of: Srećko Jovanović, a publicist, Vasa Pavković, a literary critic, Miroljub Milutinović Brada, a comic strip author, Zlatko Milenković, the author of Comic Strip News and Kokan Mladenović, a theatre director. Besides that, there were sponsors' awards which were given by the sponsors and friends of Showroom Contest - Vesović explains and points out that this year there have been obviously less number of bad works. - Last year there were a lot of weak works, almost amateurish, which we immediately eliminated from being judged. The situation is much better this year, but still there are a lot of late works and that remains our problem which we should solve together in the organizing team - which, apart from him, consists also of Milosav Pješčić, Showroom Contest's editor and Dejan Nikolaj Kraljačić, in charge of international programme.

Tendencies in comic-strip development differentiate a lot in our country from those in the world. A great problem in Serbia is non-existence of sufficient number of publishers - Stripoteka celebrates its fourth decade of existence this year and it is the only one which has survived all problems, together with its short non-working periods. Some smaller private publishers were established after 2000 - "System Comics", "Beli put" ("White Road"), "Veseli četvrtak" ("Jolly Thursday"), "Strip pressing"... There are more comics at kiosks than before, but still it is not enough for the tradition which lasts for 70 years.

- Comic strip is in expansion all over the world. In some countries - France, Belgium, U.S.A., Japan, Korea... - it stands on the same level like literature. The annual production in France is about 4,000 albums, and in Japan million editions. - Vladimir Vesović says, and emphasises that our comic-strip stage has the same problem like many other spheres of life - it faces the departure of our best artists. There is no problem with talented authors; the problem is the one of financial nature. - At the moment, about 30 Serbian artists work for French and Italian publishers, the very French cannot believe it. At the most significant comic strip festival in Angouleme it was thought that our many authors were French, because of their pseudonyms or strange family names. Our artists do not leave the country, but they work for foreign publishers and in that way it is possible to live well. If you are hard-working, there is no problem...

And before 2000 only Zoran Janjatov had cooperated with foreign publishers for many years. In Vesović's opinion, today out of our authors we should mention Aleksa Gajić, who even in France became a star very fast, Dražen Kovačević, who won an international contest - in France again, then Siniša Radović, Bojan Kovačević. Marko Stojanović from Leskovac works exceptionally for our market and at this Showroom Contest he had eight comic strips with eight various artists - he was a scenarist. Scenarists do very hard abroad, only Đorđe Milosavljević succeeded in getting ahead in France, although for a short period.

- In the golden period of the 1990s there existed a large market (of ex-Yugoslavia) and comic strips were goods like any others, but above all, they represented entertainment. Then, the media became interested in comics, there were a lot of small editions, fanzines... Cultural institutions, galleries, museums became interested, and we organised a lot of exhibitions, though there was no comic strip at kiosks - it sounds absurd, but comic strip lived in bookshops and galleries.

Today media is interested again, while museums accept comics like "the ninth art", although it really has some commercial basis. In Serbia, in order to gain the status of comic-strip author, there is the Applied Artists Association which member you can become and thus achieve a kind of status. But, in order to achieve a status in art, the state must accept it. French did it, besides Koreans... at all other markets it represents goods and entertainment - Vesović explains and reminds of the idea of building a serious Comic Strip Centre in Belgrade where would be a gallery, library, a school of comic strip... - It would encompass all levels and that would be a real thing, but still in Serbia there is no even a comic-strip museum.

New media, primarily the Internet, bring some new dimension into comic-strip art. On one hand they help - there are web sites where people get informed about events, where they comment, find new links, authors' addresses, and announcements of exhibitions... Nevertheless, our interlocutor says that for him personally the Internet serves only like information, because if he likes something, he will also try to find it "live": "Although there is a possibility of reading on the screen, I am sure that many comic-strip fans prefer to have a comic strip or album in their hands."


(Published: 10.10.2008.)