Recently, on the blog, I had the pleasure of allowing myself a nostalgic journey into the world of Communist rule era of comics, by reviewing excellent (despite many flaws) comic book by Janusz Wróblewski “Hernan Cortes and the Conquest of Mexico”. This comic has recently been remastered and released by the publishing house “Ongrys” in a hardcover, being an excellent treat for connoisseurs of classic Polish comics.
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There are certain things in our life, that are occurring in our childhoods and are staying with us for the rest of it, inspiring us for years to come. For me one of those things are comic books (or “graphic novels” if you like) that I did read passionately in my childhood in early 1990’s.
One of such comic books was “Hernan Cortes and the Conquest of Mexico” published by KAW publishing house in 1989, by the duo of Stefan Weinfeld (script) and Jerzy Wróblewski (art). Mr Wróblewski was one of the titans of pre-1989 Polish comic book scene, with tremendous portfolio consisting of dozens of comics, both full albums and short stories published over the decades, with very varied styles and genres.
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It’s time for thermonuclear nostalgia bomb: “Funky Koval“ series of comic books, issued in 1980′s and 1990′s in Poland by “Fantastyka“ SF/F magazine. “Funky Koval“ that is widely considered as a best comic ever made in Poland in the last 30 years, mainly due the fabulous art by Bogusław Polch. Lets dive in into the mists of the past to explore the seminal product of the Polish comic book scene of the late 20th century…
Reading comic books is one of my my favourite pastimes since the my childhood, and when I was little I learned how to read by paging through the classic Polish comics of the 1980’s and early 1990’s, for example “Kajko and Kokosz”, “Funky Koval”, and others (including “Thorgal”, which one was drawn by Pole living abroad). After that the socio-political transition period had began (that was the year 1989), and domestic marked was literally flooded with American superhero comics and franco-belgian comic books (like, “Forever War” by Marvano and Haldeman, and “L’Épée de Cristal” by Didier Crisse), giving the domestic writers and artists a very hard time.
With the exception of underground publications the Polish comic industry had suffered a serious stagnation, but it crawled back on its feet in the years 1999-2005, when it had experienced a boom, and once again Polish comics entered mainstream, unfortunately not for long, and in the beginning of the current decade we entered again a period of stagnation:
Mimo wszystko wychodzi na to, że krajowy komiks w PRL miał się lepiej niż teraz: http://t.co/d6S2KUP3
— DoktorNo (@doktorno) October 7, 2012
In Autumn 2014 the news had hit Twitter, that the cyberpunk comics series called “Staus7” made by duo of Mr. Adler and Mr. Piątkowski in the years 2003-2005 is now available for free on dedicated blog:
Najlepszy polski cyberpunk w postaci komiksu jest za darmo w sieci. Nie szanuję jak ktoś nie czytał! #status7 http://t.co/a4D41CkGpS
— Tomek Drabik (@quaz9) March 11, 2014
Some time had elapsed, before I could read them all, so it just now I could write a review of it.
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