My First Published Illustration

Immediately after my 17th birthday, I figured out that if I want to be an illustrator, I need to publish some work. I was always ambitious and on a mission. 

At that time, I heard that Omladinski tjednik (Youth Weekly) paper was looking for illustrators. Not knowing exactly how that worked, I quickly drew half a dozen drawings on legal paper with a marker and dropped them on the desk of an editor. A couple of weeks later, one of these drawings was published in a paper. The drawing appeared published without crediting me because in my haste, I totally forgot to sign my drawings or leave my name with the editor. In the first few days, I didn't even notice that; I didn't care. I had proof that my work was good enough to be published, which was the most important thing to me. 

Soon after that, I started publishing more work in Omladinski tjednik, and other youth magazines and papers. I became an illustrator, I was credited and even paid. 

A couple of years ago, I mentioned this story to an illustrator colleague of mine, Stjepan Micak, who puts a lot of effort into scanning and collecting illustrations and comics from my generation. He managed to find that issue of Omladinski tjednik with my illustration, and he sent a scan of that spread to me yesterday. Thank you, Stjepan. 

This is probably the first time that I have seen that drawing after almost fifty years. There is obviously a lot of room for improvement, and I am still working on that.