ApARTe° the magazine

One of my pages from the A.C.2020 visual essay created to express anxiety and uncertainty caused by Covid-19 was published in Italian magazine ApARTe°. The magazine turns twenty this year and it celebrates its birthday with this special edition.

ApARTe° is a magazine that explores explores organically the relations between anarchist and libertarian thought and the Arts. It is a semi-annual magazine, printed on quality paper and hand-tied. It usually offers its readers inserts of various kinds and always a CD or a DVD.

Writers, editors, graphic designers and distributors lend their work without any compensation. The magazine does not host any kind of advertising and it does not depend on any sponsor. Its balance sheet has been miraculously positive for twenty years thanks to the steady support of its subscribers and readers.

More about A.C.2020 here and here.

"Vecernji list" Interview

One of the leading Croatian newspapers Vecernji list devoted its front page of Sunday edition to the interview about me. 

To all of my friends who cannot read Croatian, I was fantastic.

To all of my friends who can read Croatian, I need to apologize for the mediocre interview. I will try to do better next time.

 

 

A.C.2020.2

One more page from my a visual essay A.C.2020.

I created this to express anxiety and uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 epidemic.

More here.

 

 

A.C.2020

Here is a one of my pages from a visual essay A.C.2020.

I created this to express anxiety and uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 epidemic. More here.

"Trigan Empire" comic by Don Lawrence

When I was very young, I started to look at comics magazines. One of the comics appearing on the front pages was Karl The Viking by Don Lawrence. To me, at that time, there was something really disturbing about it. This comic was published in black and white. People had weird faces with too many muscles and there were too many teeth in their crooked mouth. The landscape was almost without any vegetation. Even the trees were leafless. Just stones and cold sea with rain and constant wind. 

This comic made me file cold.

Later I discovered that he also drew comics in colours. For example, his comic The Trigan Empire. Colour did help, but there was still something weird about it.

That is probably the reason why I got myself the original page of The Trigan Empire from episode The Man From The Future published in 1975.

 

"Death in Venice" by Milton Glaser

My recent eBay acquisition. Promotion booklet and flyers for a Luchino Visconti film Death in Venice from 1971. Designed and illustrated by Milton Glaser.

 

Tex Willer by Guglielmo Letteri

Some of my European friends are noticing that I am posting online a lot of original US comics from my collection.  And they are asking me if I have any of the originals of European comics in my collection. 

 

Ha, ha! 

Of course, I do. Here is an example.  

 

Page 93 and 94 from Tex Willer in the eposide Tex Gigante, from 1978, drawn by Guglielmo Letteri. Tex Willer is the longest-running Italian comics book. It started in 1948 and it was a direct influence for the rise of the "Spaghetti Western" movie genre in Italy.

Invitation poster by Roman Cieslewicz

Recently I acquired this poster designed by one of my idols Roman Cieslewicz. The poster is designed in 1976 as invitation to visit the Modern Theater in Wroclawiu, Poland.

Here, here and here are the links to some of the other Cieslewicz's posters in my collection.

 

The book "Paper. Pen. Pandemic."

I just got this book Paper. Pen. Pandemic. The book includes over 400 pieces of art from more than 170 cartoonists, from over 50 countries. 

 
I was not only happy that my work is in the book, but also that I share a spread with a friend of mine Jugoslav Vlahovic, from Serbia. 
 

This book is published by Benevento Publishing in Austria.

 

You can see more of B.C. comics here. 

 

 

Joe Kubert "Winnie Winkle" 3

Recently I acquired this original Winnie Winkle, daily comics strip. Dated September 29, '81. This one is drawn by Joe Kubert and his school. And it actually turned out that Joe drew most of the comics, especially towards the end. As Joe told The Comics Journal in 1994: "I suddenly found myself doing the whole strip by myself. So I just dropped it."

 

I bought this stip is not only because I already own one, which was published a day before, on September 28, '81, but also because it seems to me because of crunch time, Joe decided to almost recycle the drawing of the face from the day before. 

I always said if you must steal, it's best to steal from yourself. Nobody can sue you.

Secret Agent X-9 and Robin Malone by Bob Lubbers (Bob Lewis)

I recently acquired ten daily comic strips by Bob Lubbers (Bob Lewis). A group of nine dailies featuring Secret Agent X-9 (aka Phil Corrigan) from 1961 through 1963, and one is Robin Malone daily from 1967, also drawn by Lubbers.

I've always been fascinated with Lubbers' ease and smoothness with which he can draw, from realistic drawings such as Tarzan and Marvel Comics to cartoony drawings such as Long Sam. This particular comics are drawn by using the interesting technique of DuoTone chemical shading board. As an added bonus, these have Bob Lubbers' rough pencil character layouts on the backs of the strips.

Rolling Stone: The Illustrated Portraits

I just received a new book, Rolling Stone: The Illustrated Portraits.

"The book is a collection of five decades of portrait illustrations from the magazine's archives and with focus on more contemporary artists and issues, this stunning book collects more than 200 of the most iconic illustrations to have graced its pages--from portraits of major cultural figures (from Bob Dylan to Barack Obama, Oprah to Madonna) to depictions of key moments in recent history (from Woodstock to Trump's election). Some of the greatest names in art and design have defined the magazine's illustrated lexicon, from modern heroes like Milton Glaser and Ralph Steadman to subversive contemporary artists such as Christoph Niemann and Mark Ryden."

I am pleased that my portrait of Billy Corgan from The Smashing Pumpkins is included in the book.

Child Superhero Logo

The organization Moje mjesto pod suncem (My Place Under the Sun) originated in Rijeka, Croatia. Their program's primary goal is to provide children below the poverty line with activities that will enable them to grow and develop based on their abilities rather than on the severe social context surrounding them. They offer these kids quality extra-institutional education in the hope that it will boost their self-esteem and self-reflection, and help them realize their full potential.

 

When I was asked to volunteer my services and create a logo for My Place Under the Sun, I decided to create something child friendly, also something empowering, that is why I decide to create this image of child as super hero.

 

Recently, the organization started the fundraising drive. People started to post on their social media, not only the donation telephone number 060 80 20 25 and bank number of the campaign HR 1924020061500087226 where one can donate money, but also they started to draw their own versions of child superhero logo.

 

Asia Pacific Design No.16

Published by Sandu Publishing, Asia Pacific Design is the first-ever professional design annual of the Asia-Pacific region. This year, the theme of Asia Pacific Design No.16 is the fusion of multi-disciplined design that honours the latest outstanding creations and designs that affect the design industry in the Asia-Pacific region.

I am very pleased that my poster for the play Screw the one who started it for Yugoslav Drama Theater in Belgrade is included in the annual. 

More about the play and poster here.