Comic in Poland
In Poland , comics were printed in daily newspapers before the Second World War . The very first own Polish comic hero was the billy goat Koziołek Matołek , who came to life in 1933, by the illustrator Marian Walentynowicz and the writer Kornel Makuszyński .
history
However, comics were first published on a large scale in Poland in the late 1940s in the form of notebooks or paperbacks. The US works of the 1930s and 1940s had a visual and literary influence on the early publications. There were hardly any licensed publications, mostly published comics from the 1940s were own productions by Polish artists and authors . The rest of European comics only gained influence on comic makers in Poland years later.
The comics from the period from 1948 to the fall of 1989 included particularly idealistic and politically committed titles from our own production, such as today's cult series Kapitan Żbik and more visual series such as Historia Państwa Polskiego (German: The History of the Polish State ). The most important representative of more sophisticated comics with a surrealist humor at the time was Tadeusz Baranowski . But other comics, which were aimed more at entertainment, had their permanent place. These included, among others, the comic series Tytus, Romek i A'Tomek of Papcio Chmiel for younger readers (remotely comparable with the Abrafaxe from the GDR ), Kapitan Kloss a series about a Polish secret agent who as, Wehrmacht officer orders for the Soviet army in Third Reich fulfilled, the fun series Kajko i Kokosz and Kajtek i Koko w Kosmosie ( Eng . Kajtek and Koko in space ) by Janusz Christa and the science fiction series Funky Koval by Jacek Rodek , which were important and groundbreaking for the development of the medium in Poland should be.
In addition to numerous comics, a number of real trade magazines and other secondary literature were also published. One of the most important of the communist era is the Relax magazine , which can be compared to the German comic magazine Zack , for example .
In addition to specialist articles and reviews, Relax published numerous comic strips by well-known artists, some of which were specially produced for them. So made z. B. Authors and draftsmen, such as Grzegorz Rosiński , who later achieved worldwide renown through the Franco-Belgian fantasy series Thorgal , and Bogusław Polch , whose work Bogowie z Kosmosu (German: The End of the Idols ) has now been translated into more than fifteen languages , about this magazine career.
In addition to Relax, there were plenty of other magazines on the market that were available either in kiosks , at the train station or in bookstores , as well as the simply named Komiks magazine , which, in addition to domestic comic strips, also published foreign titles for the first time.
After the fall of the Wall in 1989, a sudden comic boom developed in Poland. Within the first three years, dozens of small and large publishers were formed, who either produced their own series or published licensed series from abroad. For the first time, US American and numerous Franco-Belgian comics were published that were previously only found sporadically.
The comic has been an integral part of the Polish literary scene since the mid-1990s. Young up-and-coming artists are promoted through various private and state campaigns. Fixed comic festivals have established themselves in Krakow and Warsaw . In addition, there are annual trade fairs in Łódź and Warsaw, such as the International Festival of Comics , at which international greats such as Moebius and Milo Manara have already made guest appearances. Numerous fanzines keep the independent comic scenes alive. The most important representatives are AQQ and Ziniol , which are sold at kiosks and in bookshops. The latter also regularly publishes comics from German production.
Todays situation
Socially, the comic was and is not branded as junk literature and did not have the difficulties to assert itself, as in the rest of the former Eastern Bloc or even some countries in Western Europe . The functionaries of the communist ruling party PZPR even used the medium for learning and propaganda purposes .
At the moment, local comic makers play an important role. They publish innovative and sometimes very artistic comics, which is made possible for them particularly through modern ways to reach customers. There is at least one multimedia provider in every city, mostly bookstores from the Empik chain , where comics from all publishers can be bought. The most important of these publishing houses are the publishing house Mandragora , founded in Wroclaw , the Warsaw publishing house Kultura Gniewu , which is also known in Germany and which has already published several German comic productions in Poland, and the Polish subsidiary of the Danish publishing group Egmont Ehapa . Comics adaptations of Polish literary classics , such as those by Nobel Prize winner Henryk Sienkiewicz , as well as comics on historical and current events, such as the anniversary of the Solidarność movement, are also very popular. The Zin Zin Press publishing house , which also works internationally with Czech and Baltic comic artists, has specialized in the latter .
Some of the most popular comic series at the moment are Jeż Jerzy by Rafał Skarżycki and Tomasz Lew Leśniak , which was made into an animated film for the cinema, and Pierwsza Brygada by Tobiasz Piątkowski and Krzysztof Janicz . The work of comic artist Agata Nowicka , who develops comics and illustrations with the program Paint , is also popular and groundbreaking . Since the end of the 1990s, one can also find more Japanese mangas and Korean manhwas in Poland. As in Germany, there are also a few specially founded publishers in Poland that only offer publications from Asia.