CALAMANDARY, an invitation to comic books

Opening: 18th September at 10.50 a.m. 

Gallery Open University Subotica

Comics based on Zmaj’s verses

Exhibition celebrating the 190th anniversary of the birth of Jovan Jovanović-Zmaj

The comics that will be on display during the 30th International Festival of Children’s Theatres Subotica were originally printed in the children's newspaper magazine The White Bee published in Rijeka from 2016 to 2020. The magazine is published by the Serbian Cultural Society Prosvjeta from Zagreb, more precisely its Rijeka sub-committee. The magazine boasts a slogan “To all Children” under its title. It is also intended to be used as an educational tool in schools for children of Serbian nationality in Croatia. Using Zmaj’s poems as a jumping point for comics was a considerable challenge in making them relevant today. The universal themes depicted in selected poems made the task easier: the verses did not lose their importance while the comic, as a medium, kept its unique integrity.

Zdravko Mićanović Retired professor at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade, Department for Graphic Design Department.

Exactly six decades have passed from the the first issue of "Truth about Blackbeard" - the first comic strip in Kekec magazine which, as an overly excited 10-year old, I would cut out and assemble in order to make a complete comic book measuring 6.5cm by 9cm - to the comic-truth about Whitebeard, which also contributes to the origin of this exhibition. The urge to finally showcase (at least a part of) the author's comic book opus - created continuously only in the last 20 years – is a debt owed to one’s childhood in which comics played one of the most pivotal roles.

VISUAL CALAMANDARY

The origins of comics in Serbia trace back to the second half of the 19th century. "Stories in images" and a developed form of caricature were present in humorous/satirical and children's magazines. Since Jovan Jovanović-Zmaj (1833-1904) had a prominent role in the development of such magazines, his credit for the evolution of comic in Serbia is unchallenged. Among Serbian children magazines, Neven was the most significant phenomenon. The first issue of “Mr. Jova’s Papers” was published in July 1880 in Novi Sad.

In his book "The Century of Comics in Serbia" Zdravko Zupan writes that in that very newspaper the “continuous publication of ‘stories in images’” (more precisely poems) can be found. We have no knowledge as to how Zmaj came up with the idea of creating such a form from words and images combined. He must have seen it somewhere, but where? It is well documented that the exquisite Serbian romantic was greatly influenced by German literature. “His” first published poem about the lazy Gasha, printed in Školski list in 1858, was actually not his creation, but more of a loose translation of a poem by the German author Rudolf Levenstein (1819–1891). More than a hundred of such translated poems by numerous German authors were attributed to Uncle Jova as the "new originals".

In his book "Jovan Jovanović-Zmaj and the German Literature", Jevto M. Milović names writer and illustrator Wilhelm Bush (1832-1908) as one of Zmaj's influences. Maybe here the answer to the aforementioned question lies, because Bush himself was the inventor of a brand new form and his characters - two naughty boys Max and Moritz - were declared the first comic book characters in history. The witty German’s concept would then be taken over by the famous American newspaper magnate, Hearst. With the help of a powerful publisher/cartoonist Rudolph Dirks, the first comics in the United States would appear on the pages of the New York Journal. Comic strips following the adventures of two boys, Hans and Fritz (better known in Serbia as Bim and Boom) gave birth to this new, ninth art. That is how "literature in pictures" (as Hugo Pratt, the father of the adventurous sailor Corto Maltese, defined comics) was born.

In an era when the image dominates over the word, graphic designer Zdravko Mićanović tackled Zmaj's work for the youngest in an effort to bring his creativity closer to the zoomers and the Alpha generation offering them a new read, a viewing poetry. How did a dormant concept artist known for giving his posters a new, third dimension - an event, fare in this applied graphic discipline of illustrated literature?

Exceptional, because this is not the first time he's done it. Andrić's Cursed Courtyard was previously the subject of his artistic dramatization. On the stage called paper sheet, he managed to establish a "dialogue between drawings and Andrić's text" through phantasmogoric images. Then again, Zmaj’s poetry sought a different form and a far more infantile approach to dialogue, so it is much simpler and refined. In about 40 panels, Mićanović approaches uncle Jova's verses in different ways, in whole or in fragments, as an interpreter, but also as a co-author - adding or subtracting in order to modernize thus creating "new originals" and crossing the two-century gap between the creation of words and images. And so, in my humble opinion, that Calamandary in front of you - a mix of artistic, dramatic and literary forms - on the eve of Zmaj's 190th birthday, became what was expected of Zdravko Mićanović: an event.

Pop D. Đurđev