My latest obsession is comics from the Balkans, counties like Croatia, Albania, and the like. This is only stuff that I've learned about in the last few weeks but during the 1990's there was an underground comics movement that partly rose up as a counterculture to the artless pop-culture and by artists actively avoiding the draft. What I think is cool about these comics is how weird-looking they are-- they don't really resemble any comics I've read before and they're also usually drawn collectively, so often comics are only signed with the name of a collective rather than an individual artist. Anyway, you can see some examples here:
www.komikaze.hr [komikaze.hr]

Interesting.

I used to hang out with a large group of Yugo friends (Croation, Bosnian, Serbian...), and they had some kids comics from during the communist era. Those were pretty cool :)

This is pretty neat :)

There's even some stuff in English, yay (under #22 at least, didn't check anything beyond that and #1).
We had a wave of underground artists over here too in the 90s, although the goals were slightly different I think.
Seems comics here were mostly underground cause there was no "overground" to publish them, haha.

Thanks for checkin' those out, dudes!
Aurora, now that you mention it there was a wave of underground comics in the US during the '90's as well, though I think it's largely attributed to the appearance of a direct market which I think happened in the '80's. My own personal opinion is that it was in part fueled by the '90's burgeoning fanzine movement but I digress.
In the Balkans the underground comics movement appeared to be more about straight-up defiance. Artists would actually live and meet with other artists underground-- so I guess underground comics in the Balkans were literally underground!

Well, being from the region (Serbia), I can attest to there being a substantial underground comic movement in the former Yugo-countries (dunno bout Albania, though) beginning in the 80s and going all the way to the 00s.

The thing is, Yugoslavia had a thriving comic culture - there were large state-owned publishers, and comics were kinda considered and accepted as art... Or maybe, it is more correct to say, they were not considered crass nor "funnybooks" nor "kids only". They were regularly publishing foreign comics - mostly French and Belgian stuff (Asterix, Lucky Luke, Franquin was really big, so was all the Dupuis/Dargaud stuff, Tintin, Blake and Mortimer, but also Moebius, Bilal (he lived in Serbia BTW) etc) and what was then, in the 80s, the cutting edge of comics. There were comic magazines with circulations in 100 of thousands, printing also American stuff (mostly older, 1940s/1950s, Alex Raymond comics, Tarzan, Mandrak, The Phantom, but also Marvel superheroes like Silver Surfer, Thor and Hulk). Italian comics were really big - check out anything by Magnus & Bunker, that is a true comic classic and their Alan Ford is still revered in ex-Yugo countries, as is Dylan Dog. Also, Brits (Judge Dredd, 2000 AD stuff). In short, comics from all over the world (except Japan, that was too foreign for the local editors who grew up on the French/American stuff) were published and read there. So, of course you would have plenty of domestic artists and writers in that kind of situation and with so many venues (both magazines and collections) for their art to get published.

But, when the shit hit the fan in the 90s, most "culture" went out the window, and comics were flung pretty far into the ditch. So, naturally, all those artists and kids who grew up reading them and wanted to make them had to go "underground". Of course, with that kind of a set up, you get a lot more artistic freedom and exploration, a lot more fringe stuff and, yes, anti-establishment themes (keep in mind, the "establishment" was in most countries represented by ex-communist bigwigs now turned "democratic" and seizing power only to wage wars on neighbouring countries and run the economy down with their war/corrupt privatization profiteer buddies, the nouveau riche of the new countries). Interestingly, that kind of work by underground artist helped keep comics a true art form round these parts - and it still is that, because even now there is only a handful of publishers interested in comics, and they focus on the greatest hits from "the West". There is still little to no room for domestic talent to get published - becoming "free" and capitalist didn't do much for bringing back the art (any kind) into the public eye again. That is why most comics artists (and there is a ton of talented guys and gals in Srb, Cro and Slo) work for the French. Sigh. And writers, well... They better learn English fast. Or keep being underground. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it is damn hard to make even a penny from it.

Damn. A TL;DR? Anyway, if I didn't bore you and you want to know more, ask away, I'll do my best to shed some light on this.

Heh, I started writing about how this compares to Polish comics history and ended up with a loong post that went offtopic pretty fast, and I didn't even cover half of what I wanted to say. So OUT it goes :D

As for the comics on the site, two things.

One, I'd love them to be a bit larger? Although I'm thinking here... underground, so probably photocopies folded in half, so probably A5 format?

Two, I'd love to see all of them translated. And purchasable in a book form. And then on my shelf. Once I'm not broke that is.

See, I love comics and I love discovering new things. Superheroes, golden age, silver age, newspaper strips, pro-communist tinted Polish detective comics from the 80s, 2000AD's "painted" late 80s/90s period, old newspaper adventure strips (Flash Gordon etc.), art comics (picturebox and stuff like that), fetish comics, myth/fantasy based tales (think Sandman and stuff), hard sci-fi, pulp, hong kong kungfu inspired comics, giant robots, crime stories, smutty underground comics, abstract comics, real life stuff, minicomics, Japanese Manga, French BD, Italian Fumetti, Mahwa, Manhua, Shonen, Shojo, Heavy Metal/Metal Hurlant, webcomics, experimental stuff, silent comics, one/two panel gags... I want to explore all of these, as much as possible!

There are too many languages in this world to learn them all so that I could read everything, haha.

Umm, drifting away again, sorry, carry on :D

Hah, I guess there is virtue in brevity, though now I get to know you better. :)

Here's some stuff for YOU GUYS from EX-YU GUYS!

This is an old school magazine from Slovenia with fresh new talent always on display. You can get it in the US, too.

http://www.stripburger.org/y_rele.htm

There is a great comic here,and its in English! if you scroll down bout halfway down this horribly user-unfriendly page.

http://comics-stripovi-exyu.blogspot.com/


Cheers

Aleksander Zograf-- I always blank on that guy's name! Thanks, dude!

Also Dunja Jankovic does work in English, you can read a sample here: http://www.sparkplugcomicbooks.com/books/departmentofart/departmentofart1/pages/departmentofart1.html
also her personal page: http://www.tripica.org/ [tripica.org]

Aurora Borealis
pro-communist tinted Polish detective comics from the 80s

Are You referring to Kapitan Zbik, by any chance? :) I actually never read that one, I didn't like realistic comics when I was a kid. My favorites were "Kajko & Kokosz" and "Tytus, Romek & A'Tomek".

European, and especially Eastern European comics are a whole different world. Not to mention animation. Russian cartoons = awesomeness!

Hahaha, yep. That's the one I'm referring to! And obviously I've read the other two too :D

Have you read anything by Tadeusz Baranowski? :) His "Na co dybie w wielorybie czubek nosa eskimosa" was the comic book that made me learn to read (cause my mom was tired with reading it to me, haha).

(I can see people scratching their heads over the looong title, lol)

Oh yeah, I think I've read EVERYTHING by Baranowski, actually :) Antresolka Profesora Nerwosolka, Podroz Smokiem Diplodokiem, Orient Men and all the comics with the Kudlaczek & Babelek (the travellers) and Szlurp & Burp (the vampires). Then there was Porady Praktycznego Pana and that comic he drew together with his wife, can't remember the name... Flower of Evil?

But the one that made me learn to read was Kleks. There was this one book about pirates and stuff, and I remember just looking through it with sheer awe but not understanding a word of it.

We had a whole issue devoted to Tytus, Romek & A'Tomek over at: http://www.esensja.pl/magazyn/2009/06/index.html [esensja.pl] - a mag that I'm a part of. I wrote and co-wrote some articles and contributed to the gallery (alongside some big names of the Polish comics world). And I just received the last two of 25 issues of Tytus reprinted from the originals! Wicked stuff!

Oh and there's a book of collected "Kajtek & Koko w kosmosie" strips. 560 pages straight! I just finished reading and I'm going to review it, too. Janusz Christa was the man!

Sorry for off-topicking (is that a word?)! And long strings of incomprehensible words in Polish ;)

I don't have a problem with that, haha.

It's strange, I'm already used to be the only guy from Poland on whatever site I end up, haha.

Just to wrap it up... I've read probably half of Baranowski (couldn't find some books and now I'm too broke to afford any), Kleks was fine but never my favorite (I did enjoy it though) and I'd love to buy all the Kajtek & Koko books (I think there was a whole bunch of them, right?).

So yeah... back to topic I guess? :)

Nice topic =)
I'm Croatian and my favorite comics are "Sabrana djela i nedjela","Glištun Gmižic","Overkloking","Pterodaktilicarstvo","Super Di" and "Desmozgenes" by artist Dubravko Matakovic
I have some cool pictures here:

Interesting that in a discussion about the Balkans Greece is omitted. :P

Anyway let me make a contribution by adding here some serious graphic novels and comic strips by Greek artists, so you can see what there is to be had here. Greeks generally are indy comic makers if they make comics at ALL, as there is a very harsh control by big conglomerates in the market about what gets released when and where.

But bit by bit they tend to spill over to mainstream, and there are small (comparatively) conventions where new artists can present what they got. :)

These are the indy stuff:

So here's 'Recess' by George Kommiotis:



'Short Horror Story' by Gogtsilas



and 'Once Upon a Time' by Staboulis



And some color by Chrysa in 'Nightmares'



There.

I'm off now to go find the mainstream samples, as these were all indy. :P

Wow, Tanz thanks so much for sharing those. It wasn't my intention to omit Greece, I just never really realized it part of the Balkans, (I'm American and we're famously terrible at geography.) I love underground comics in general, particularly from other parts of the world. The comic by Gogtsilas reminds me of some Argentine comics I've seen, like Brescia-- very cool!

That's quite ok Patrick- after all, I am not that great in geography either if asked the right questions about the right parts of the earth ;)

here's some Arkas by the way- he's really mainstream, and a political-slash-satirical comic that's popular with some.






In general, the comic makers who make it to mainstream in Greece are basically satiric and highly politically oriented in their material, as many Greeks will read anything, regardless the art value, as long as it involves political analyses and critique ;)

Here's a prime example by Ioannou: