Tag Archives: Czech Graphic Literature

Iogi

Author:

Jean-Gaspard Páleníček, Václav Šlajc

Illustrator:

Various

170 x 230
176 pages full-colour throughout
Softcover

ISBN: 978-1-912278-39-8

Iogi

A Japanese salaryman decides to ditch everything and go toa remote island to produce salt. A rocker plays with localclubs at night while working as a garbage man by day. Anaward-winning manga author earns extra income byworking at a retirement home to maintain his authorialintegrity. On the weekend, a father goes to the nearbyswimming pool […]

A Japanese salaryman decides to ditch everything and go to
a remote island to produce salt. A rocker plays with local
clubs at night while working as a garbage man by day. An
award-winning manga author earns extra income by
working at a retirement home to maintain his authorial
integrity. On the weekend, a father goes to the nearby
swimming pool with his disabled son… Eleven poetic views
of ordinary, everyday life in contemporary Japan, far from
geishas, robots, otaku, panty vending machines and other
preconceived visions of the land of the rising sun. Eleven
stories set mostly in the typical residential district of
Suginami ward, west of Tokyo, around the Iogi train station,
edited by acclaimed Czech comics author Václav Šlajch and
written by Czech-French poet Jean-Gaspard Páleníček.


Eleven artistic styles by artists from Czech Republic,
Slovakia, Ukraine and Russia.
Stories: Jean-Gaspard Páleníček
Artists: Ondřej David, Daniela Herodesová, Matej
Jurkáček, Adam Kaňovský, Matěj Kolář, Marina Kudinova,
Jozef Pavelka, Jakub Lang, Dominika Lizoňová, Petra
Ramešová, Petra Šestáková, Václav Šlajch

Japan International Manga Award 2021, bronze
Muriel Awards 2023, nominations in the categories Best
book, Best script, Best short story (“Undercurrent”, written
by Jean-Gaspard Páleníček, art by Matěj Kolář)

Jean-Gaspard Páleníček (1978), poet, translator,
exhibition curator and composer. In 1997-2001, he has
acted in the orfeus Theatre in Prague. In 2004-2017, he was
the artistic director of the Czech Centre in Paris. Since
2017, he is a freelance writer and art curator active mainly
between Prague, Paris and Tokyo. He is the author of
several poetry collections, most recently Mater speciosa
(2022), the novel The Birches (2008), the theatre play
Balzac’s Household (2009) or the poetic diary One
Sentence (2013).
Václav Šlajch (1980), comic author and illustrator, head of
the Media Illustration Studio at the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty
of Design and Art of the University of West Bohemia in
Pzeň. He belongs to the so called Generation 0 of Czech
comics, along with creators such as Jiří Grus, ToyBox or
Vladimír 518. In 2010 and 2022, he received the prestigious
Muriel comic book award in the Czech Republic. He
collaborated with director Jan Svěrák on several projects: he
is the author of the graphic version of the fairy tale Three
Brothers (2014). His most recent significant work is the
comic book Štefánik (2021).

Single

Author:

Jiří Franta

Illustrator:

Series Life

220 x 304 mm
200 pages
hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-912278-19-0

Suggested for Adults only 18+

Single

This existential graphic novel draws us into the world of a Prague thirty-something who’s just been dumped by his longtime girlfriend. What does it mean to be single at a time when everyone around you is starting families? Is it a blessing or a curse? And what to do now? Think about the past, seek […]

This existential graphic novel draws us into the world of a Prague thirty-something who’s just been dumped by his longtime girlfriend. What does it mean to be single at a time when everyone around you is starting families? Is it a blessing or a curse? And what to do now? Think about the past, seek yourself, try to redefine your existence? A lot of questions, not a lot of answers. The single is free, but against his will. And it’s this very freedom which brings him stories and experiences which he’d never go through otherwise. A strange trip to Rome with a friend that didn’t go as planned. A brief but nonetheless intense relationship with a racist football fan. And many other scenes which play out in his head as memories during a purgative voyage across the Arctic Ocean. The single is like an iceberg waiting for a fateful Titanic to strike.

The Sisters Dietl

Author:

Vojtěch Mašek

Illustrator:

Series Life

Translated by Julia and Peter Sherwood
230 x 300 mm
248 pages
Hard cover
ISBN: 978-1-912278-20-6

Recommended Age: 16+

The Sisters Dietl

A richly textured story of a mysterious evil hovering above two ageing sisters. It’s mood is reminiscent of Charles Burn’s Black Hole, but in a particularly Czech way. A horror detective story about two sisters, whose world is created from the surreal visions of Vojtěch Mašek, one of the most acclaimed Czech comics authors. When […]

A richly textured story of a mysterious evil hovering above two ageing sisters. It’s mood is reminiscent of Charles Burn’s Black Hole, but in a particularly Czech way.

A horror detective story about two sisters, whose world is created from the surreal visions of Vojtěch Mašek, one of the most acclaimed Czech comics authors. When one of the Dietl sisters ends up in hospital after what appears to be a brutal attack, leaving her with a mutilated face and unable to move, Mašek leads the reader on a detective story exploring change of identity, doppelgängers, deformation, hallucination and altered states of mind in contrast with idyllic family life. This comics takes place in a fictional world woven from dreams, hazy and distorted memories of childhood fears, fear of the unknown and the desire for a safe hiding place. Reality constantly disrupted by doubts, changing points of view, the neurotic need to find objective truth. All this is contained in the story about the Dietl sisters – many theories, many possibilities but seemingly with only one solution. Mašek employs a unique multilayered art style, combining backgrounds created from various texts, newspaper cuttings and patterns with the main plot taking place in the foreground. The connections and juxtapositions between these two levels brilliantly evoking the main themes of the book.

Puppet, Plum Pit, Plum, Log and Back to Puppet

Author:

Vojtěch Mašek

Illustrator:

Chrudoš Valoušek

255 x 345 mm
96 pages
full color
HC

ISBN: 978-1-912278-18-3

Puppet, Plum Pit, Plum, Log and Back to Puppet

The story is filled with twists and turns, escapades, absurd humour and wonderful linocuts

Pinocchio, Carlo Collodi’s peppy impish wooden puppet, must encounter many adventures before finally coming to his senses… But what must a plum pit endure before it can become a puppet? This adventurous and comic tale told by a talking plank recounts the winding and capricious life story of a plum pit given to escapades. Screenwriter, comic book creator and author, Vojtěch Mašek, exhibits a sense for lively, nearly theatrical, storytelling and returns absurdist humor and biting levity to the children’s literary scene. Abundant linocut illustrations and graphics by artist Chrudoš Valoušek are, as always, stunning.

The beloved puppet of children’s literature, a figure that has been a continuous inspiration for artists all over the world, here presents an entirely new gallery of heroes and adventures. The graphic design plays with scale. The pages are peopled with historiated initials reminiscent of illuminated manuscripts, giant page numbers, avant-garde references and a medley of geometrical characters, their neon colours boldly outlined in black. Spread after spread, the mix of different layouts and the uncommon use of line-cut technique make for a truly extraordinary picturebook.

The Jury of Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2019

So far So Good

Author:

Jan Novák

Illustrator:

Jaromír 99

160 x 230 mm
256 pages
color
HC
ISBN: 978-1-912278-22-0

So Far So Good

Visually arresting graphic novel in a unique noir style!

The true story of three Czech men whose daring exploits of anti- Communist resistance and 1953 flight to West Berlin set off the largest manhunt in the history of the Eastern Bloc.

The story of the Mašín brothers and their band waging guerilla war against the Communist regime in the early 1950s could be the most dramatic Czech tale of the 20th century. After their activities in Czechoslovakia, these young men headed west – facing off against twenty thousand East German Volkspolizei and shooting their way to freedom. In the novel So Far, So Good, Jan Novák wrote the story like a thrilling Czech Western and won the Magnesia Litera prize for Best Book of the Year. After the runaway success of the previous collaboration with an illustrator Jaromir 99, Zátopek, the authors return with an even more explosive comic book.