All posts by pawel

Staring from the Hill

Author:

Norbert Rybarczyk

148 x 200
Hard cover
56 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9933951-5-4

Staring from the Hill

“A delightfully bizarre celebration of friendship and the bonds of music. Engagingly chaotic and pulsing with energy.” – Andy Oliver, Broken Frontier

When Norbert asked me to write an introduction to his comic I was honoured, but also a little lost. I have never attempted something like that before and I didn’t know where to start? With a wise quote? Cultural reference? How to tie it all together?

Right now I am literally just a few minutes after visiting Casa Batlló, probably the most complex realisation of Antonio Gaudi, the famous modernist architect and visionary from Catalonia. I am going to tell you one thing- this comic is like this building. Via its subtly bent doors it invites [you] into its remarkable interior full of intricately twisted lines, how very pedestrian in their application. Because, all appearances aside, Casa Batlló is a regular tenement building. There is probably nothing more prosaic then that for a building. But for its inhabitants, living in the interiors inspired by the sea flora and fauna, must have been a real adventure.

Likewise “Staring from the Hill” simply talks about the every-day reality of a group of friends, who above all cherish their mutual company, music and juice. And similar to Gaudi’s works all of that is served with a handful of surrealism, love of colour, light and form, and gigantic dose of vision. Flipping the pages is like climbing up a twisted staircase – you never know what might lurk around the next bend. There are only two things which are certainone, that shortly you will reach yet another astounding floor, and the other, that at the end of it you will be lead to the rooftop adorned with a ceramic dragon, where you can see a really beautiful panorama of Barcelona.

This comic really is like Gaudi’s architecture. You will find out yourselves. Just let the rhythm of the staircase carry you. The only remaining thing is to wish the author that, like the architect of La Sagrada Familia, he may be appreciated by us – his contemporaries. And that thanks to this he obtains the means necessary to allow us to climb the stairs of his imagination towards the sky, which, as you will find out after reading “Staring from the Hill”, will never be the same again.

Jan Sidorownin
Passeig de Gràcia, Casa Batlló
13.01.2016 Barcelona

Release Autumn 2016

Disco Cry

Author:

Marianna Serocka

130 x 170 mm
240 pages
Soft cover

ISBN: 978-0-9933951-3-0

Disco Cry

based on a true story

Every girl knows this, all these Saturday nights that stretch until dawn and cannot end. Coming back home with a hangover, broken heart and a strange guy on top of that. “Disco Cry” is an account of one of these nights that leave memories you’d rather not have.

Marianna wittily uses paper as a means to explore her fondness for ornaments. Impatient drawings and wild colours, increasingly intense as the night progresses, reach a climax at the end of the story.

An amusing read that will calm your conscience after a sleepless night. Just beware of men in crocodile shoes.

Klara Sladkova, No Ordinary Heroes

I haven’t read it but I like it.

Jenny, Tooting Broadway

Release Autumn 2016

Erik the Red - King of Winter

Author:

Søren Mosdal

234 x 312mm
136 pages
hard cover

ISBN: 978-0-9933951-4-7

Erik the Red – King of Winter

Inspired by the real story of the colonisation of Greenland, a tale of the wild North, masterfully told by the Danish author Søren Mosdal.

In the year 982, Erik Torvaldsson, also known Erik the Red, left Iceland following a bloody feud with his neighbour. He set out to find a mysterious island to the north. He found it and, to attract settlers, he named it called it Greenland.

With gifts and bribes he ruled his colony undisturbed by Christian kings and priests until the beginnig of the year 1000.

 

Release Autumn 2016

Chernobyl. The Zone

Author:

Francisco Sánchez

Illustrator:

Natacha Bustos

170 x 245 mm
Soft cover
188 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9933951-1-6

Chernobyl. The Zone

There’s a human story behind every disaster.

How would you react if, one day, you had to abandon everything you have?

This is a story of one of many families that were forced to leave their homes after the tragic accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. They were told that they would return after a few days but it was too late – the invisible enemy had already claimed all their possessions and occupied their houses and land for years to come.

It’s been over ­‑ years since the events of ­th April but it’s nothing compared to the tens of thousands of years that will have to pass before the radioactive waste is no longer a hazard. This graphic novel is a tribute to those who personally experienced the consequences of nuclear power that had got out of control.

In their story – which aims neither to shock nor cause controversy – Francisco Sá nchez and Natacha Bustos look from a distance at three characters who, though fi ctional, could very well be real. The authors make their readers understand what happened in Chernobyl and refl ect on its meaning for today’s generation.

Do you miss your country?

Author:

Monika Szydłowska

148x148mm
176 pages
soft cover
ISBN: 978-0-9933951-0-9

Do you miss your country?

The subject of emigration affects every Polish person. If not directly, then through family and friends. Now anyone can be an emigrant, from a mechanic to a violinist. They can keep in touch with relatives on Skype, shop in a Polish shop, wait for their first payment in pounds or euros. These things have become a generational experience.

The blog Na emigracji. takes this universal theme. It has been maintained since October 2013 and watched by more than 10,000 fans. By using a style reminiscent of comic illustration it relates the trials and tribulations of immigrants who have decided to move to the British Isles.

The minimalist watercolors are enriched with text (both in Polish and English), used to highlight or outline the nuances of common experiences and unexpected situations faced by a Pole outside Poland. They are frequently comical – either through laying bare prevailing stereotypes (on both sides) or through making wry observations of cultural differences.

The blog has strong autobiographical themes and is partially a documentation. It’s a little report, a diary and above all an artistic record of experiences in which millions of Polish emigrants and their relatives can see reflections of themselves.

Publication of: Do You Miss Your Country? was made possible by generous support from the Polish Cultural Institute in London.pci