“Mary Perkins, On Stage”

Recently, I acquired this slightly beaten-up and folded page from the comics “Mary Perkins, On Stage” by Leonard Starr from 1975. This is not his most exciting composition of the page, but his brushstrokes are exquisite. It’s amazing to see how easily he’s drawing all this. 

The comic came with a vellum cover with a color break.

 

”Modern Times” Design Documentary

I am pleased to share with you this episode of the 2023 documentary television show “Moderna Vremena” (”Modern Times”) authored by Dubravko Merlić. The series aired in 2023, but I didn’t get this link to share it with you all until now. This is the sixth episode, dedicated to design in the 1980s in Croatia. The segment about my work begins at 30:50.

Unfortunately, the show is in Croatian, so my Croatian viewers will have to deal with being able to understand what I’m saying.

 
 

"The People's Deputy" Poster

 

 

My Cyrillic and Latin poster designs for the play by Branislav Nušić, "The People's Deputy” (The Member of Parliament) at the JDP-Yugoslav Drama Theater in Belgrade, Serbia. The play is directed by Vito Taufer.

The comedy "The People's Deputy" can be classified as a social comedy, i.e. a comedy of character, with an interweaving of situational and verbal comedy. The play takes place in a Serbian town at the end of the 19th century. The main theme is the elections for a member of parliament, manifested through political passions in society, corrupt characters, and the struggle for political influence and personal enrichment. Nušić supplements the theme of the comedy with everyday topics from the everyday life of the town and characters of different moral profiles. As in many other works, he set the action in a family environment. Nušić defines three parts in a comedy, and they can often be seen in his other comedies. The normal line of life is depicted through the everyday relationships in the family of a village merchant, a life he is content with, based on petty fraud and mischief. The departure from that line occurs when he wishes to become a member of parliament, which leads to a series of events. However, the political and love entanglements are ultimately resolved happily, and the merchant returns to his simple life.

Branislav Nušić (1864 - 1938) was a Serbian writer, comedian, journalist, founder of rhetoric in Serbia, diplomat, and photographer.

The "People's Deputy" is the first comedy by writer Branislav Nušić, which he wrote in 1883, when he was nineteen years old.

The building depicted on the poster is the House of the National Assembly (Parliament) in Belgrade. 

 

 

Dizajn TV / MIRKO ILIĆ: Time After Time After Time

 'For all those who did not have the opportunity to see the exhibition "Mirko Ilić: Time After Time After Time", we will guide you in detail through its entire exhibition at MMSU Rijeka, whole by whole, chapter by chapter, work by work. In the duration of 80 minutes, the authors of the exhibition, Marko Golub and Sabina Salamon, talk about Mirko Ilić and time!' – Dizajn TV

 

 

The Political History of Male Homosexuality

 I would like to point your attention to the new book "Political History of Male Homosexuality in Socialist Yugoslavia" by Frank Dota. Published by Fraktura, Croatia
 

"The book Political History of Male Homosexuality in Socialist Yugoslavia by historian, journalist, translator and activist Frank Dota is a significant step forward in the study of an apparently marginal phenomenon. With the book, based on diligent archival work and with rare intellectual and moral responsibility, Dota has filled a gap that our historiography has insufficiently – or not at all – addressed. The importance of Political History of Male Homosexuality in Socialist Yugoslavia is not exhausted by this and is not reduced to the topic contained in the title.

The evolution of the Yugoslav state and society, from post-war totalitarianism, through liberalization and soft authoritarianism, to the relatively free 1980s, is reflected in the mirror of the fate of male homosexuals, who were initially stigmatized, exposed to contempt and criminal prosecution, and then gradually, however reluctantly, accepted. To this extent, Dota's Political History of Male Homosexuality in Socialist Yugoslavia exposes the revisionist narratives present in a part of our public. Namely, the stigma and fate of male homosexuals in Yugoslavia in the 1950s and 1960s did not differ significantly from the stigma and fate in the democratic West.

Finally, The Political History of Male Homosexuality in Socialist Yugoslavia also has an activist dimension. It addresses not only homosexuals but also all who feel themselves victims of prejudice of any kind. Frank Dota uses it to call for Freedom, because in a society in which homosexuals are not free, in which, therefore, the minority is not free, the heterosexual majority cannot be free either."
 

The illustration which they used on the cover of the book, I originally created for the article "Homo, homine, homić,” in Start magazine in 1980, one of the largest mainstream magazines in Socialist Yugoslavia. This was one of the few articles written about homosexuality at this time.

The designer of the book cover, Ivan Stanišić, created an unusual and effective cover.

 

My Lecture at Algebra Bernays University in Zagreb

I’m pleased to inform you that on November 13th, I held a lecture at Algebra Bernays University in Zagreb. The lecture was titled “Recognitions and Purpose” and explored the role of design in a social context, balancing accolades with the creation of art that communicates values, shapes perspectives, and inspires responsibility.

Algebra Bernays University is part of the largest private educational organization in the Republic of Croatia and the region, present in more than 20 cities throughout Croatia.

You can learn more about the lecture here.

I’m thankful to Iva Babaja, Assistant Professor at Algebra Bernays University, for her tireless efforts in making this lecture possible.

 

"A.C. 2020" Book Available Now

I am pleased to announce that my visual essay series "A.C. 2020“ has been published in a book by Croatian comic publisher “Fibra”.

I originally created this series to express the anxiety and uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Over time, within the same series, I also began to address my other anxieties and visual observations. Each visual essay consists of self-contained single-page stories created in greyish-blue tones to reflect the subject.

The book's foreword was written by Steven Heller and Marko Golub.
 

'Mirko Ilić stopped drawing comics in 1979, having played one of the key roles in Novi Kvadrat, the most important comic book collective in Croatia and Yugoslavia, to devote himself to illustration and design. After moving to New York in the mid-1980s, he achieved an extremely successful international career working as an illustrator and designer for some of the most important magazines and newspapers in the world. A return to comics, his first love, did not seem likely until the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown broke out in 2020, when the first panels of the visual essay "After Covid 2020" were created. Fibra is extremely proud to present them to you, collected in this book.’

 

Milton Glaser's Hand Signs

I came across these pictures taken 20+ years ago. Milton had just received from Brooklyn Beer a sample of the cap with his Brooklyn Beer logo that he designed, and as he was showing off the cap, I was trying to teach him the West Coast/East Coast hand signs.

As you can see, it turned out to be hilarious.

I really miss him.

Opening of &TD Theatre Poster Exhibition

I am pleased to let you know that on Friday, October 24th, at 7 pm, the HDD - Hrvatsko dizajnersko društvo / Croatian Designers Association Gallery opened the exhibition "DESIGN FOR THE &TD THEATRE 1964 – 1983: MIHAJLO ARSOVSKI, BORIS BUĆAN, ŽELJKO BORČIĆ & MIRKO ILIĆ". 9 of my &TD posters are included in the show. I am pleased that at this exhibition I am “hanging” with my idols Mihajlo Arsovski and Boris Bućan.

The curators of the exhibition, based on private collections and the collection of the Museum of Arts and Crafts, are Marko Golub and Dejan Krsic. 

'The exhibition provides an overview of one of the most exciting creative series in the history of Croatian graphic design, the dynamic continuity of graphic design for the Chamber Stage and the &TD Theatre, which were created, one after the other, by Mihajlo Arsovski, Boris Bućan, Željko Borčić and I from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s.' – Marko Golub and Dejan Kršić

&TD Theatre is a theatre in Zagreb, Croatia. It is regarded as one of the most important experimental Croatian theatres of the 20th century.

Photos by Buga Cvetanović.