Photos of Novi kvadrat from 1978

While going through the archive of her mother, Slavenka Drakulić, Rujana Jeger came across two photographs of the comic artist group Novi kvadrat (New Square). As far as I know, these are the only existing photographs of most of the members of New Square in one place. The photo was taken by Ranko Marković in 1978, and in the photos are Radovan Devlić, Igor Kordej, Nikola Kostandinović, Ninoslav Kunc, Joško Marušić, Krešimir Skozret, Krešimir Zimonić, and me. Ivan Puljak was also a member of the group, but wasn’t able to make it, so we held up a portrait of him for the photograph.

Here is an entry from a Croatian encyclopedia page:

“Novi kvadrat is a group of comic artists gathered around the Zagreb weekly Polet, which operated from 1976 to 1979. The artists gathered in this group contributed to raising interest in comics in the former Yugoslavia and its acceptance as a form of artistic expression. They introduced a series of graphic innovations into Yugoslav comics. Today, Novi Kvadrat represents a cult group on the Croatian art scene, and the name of this group of authors has become synonymous with comics in the former Yugoslavia.  

The Novi kvadrat group was founded by the authors of the so-called third generation of Croatian comics, Mirko Ilić, Igor Kordej, Krešimir Zimonić and Emir Mešić, all of whom came from the Zagreb School of Applied Arts. They were encouraged to found this group by new trends in European comics, especially French and Italian. They were later joined by Radovan Devlić, Joško Marušić, Ninoslav Kunc, Krešimir Skozret, Ivan Puljak and Nikola Kostandinović.  

Acting within the framework of the New Square, these artists, in addition to thematic and iconographic ones, introduced a number of graphic innovations into the field of comics, such as the film technique of framing, breaking the frame of the comic square, and others. Approaching comics as an artistic medium, they moved away from traditional, commercial comics. Apart from Polet, they published their works in other student and youth magazines, among which the most famous at that time were Studentski list, Mladost and Stripoteka. From time to time, they also worked in other media, such as film and television, with which they collaborated on music videos.”

Here also, you can see a video from the Croatian national broadcaster from the same year.