Friday, April 19, 2024

Drawings of a Young Man

When my mother moved from Croatia to Bosnia, she took lots of my papers, posters, and art with her which I left in her house at different occasions, including when I moved to the United States in '86. When she died, I asked a friend of mine Dejan Krsic to go to her house and take whatever he thinks is worth keeping and bring it back to Zagreb.

For one reason or another, I have never thoroughly gone through these things, especially the small papers. Having a little bit more time during my visit to Zagreb a week ago, I decided to check those out. Among other things, I came across these two drawings of younger me that I had almost forgotten.

The first is a small drawing of me by Andrija Maurović in 1975. Andrija Maurović (1901-1981), is considered the father of Croatian comics. His comics are probably, without exaggeration, the most interesting comics in Europe created at that time. His comics had a big influence on me as a kid, and I remember how pleased I was when he suggested drawing a portrait of me.

The second drawing/caricature that I found was drawn in 1978, two years later, by Oto Reisinger (1927-2016), an amazing Croatian cartoonist and caricaturist. At the time that he drew my caricature, I was already an "established" illustrator and comics author. That is why he wrote the dedication next to the drawing "to colleague, Mirko." That recognition from him was even more important to me than the buck-toothed face of mine he drew.




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