My Comic Book Revival

Probably everyone is into reading comics in their childhood. Then in the course of growing up the love of comics is often undeservingly forgotten. At the same time some people never give up this passion and some are drawn back to it at some stage of their adulthood.

I was a kid in the eighties and there was a good variety of comics to read that time in Hungary. Then as free capitalism was unleashed in 1990, most of the good old magazines (such as Kockás and Alfa) disappeared and the new ones could not provide the same charm.
On the creative side, I spent a lot of time with drawing as a kid but never bothered to take professional art classes . I got as far as making a short comic version of a Twin Peaks episode in Garfield style and a four page story about U2 in search of the Angel of Harlem (this was a Christmas present for a friend). Those were the end of my comic art initiatives for a long while.

For me the real rediscovery of comics came about a year and a half ago when I got hold of a very long and totally grabbing comic book in Ireland (on the misty mountain, I should point out). It is called Bone, written and drawn by Jeff Smith. In a nutshell the 1200 or so pages contain a fantasy story of a fight between good and evil in which three fellas from a place called Boneville are caught up. This is the sort of book which makes you laugh out loud at certain parts whereas it moves you or even sends shivers down your spine at others.

Here are some images from this story :
Nicely done, huh? Actually, the coloured version is a recent development as the comics was originally made in black and white, but the colouring adds an awful lot to the visual enjoyment.

After coming back to Hungary I realized that a comic book revival had been started in here in terms of publishing works from the world's leading artists (e.g. Frank Miller, Alan Moore) and our native professionals as well as organizing events and creating outlets for aspiring new talent. All in all, it looks like a comic book community clearly made itself visible here at last.


Leafing through the collected adventures of the Bone cousins also made me feel like trying my hand at comics once again. It has been a really sluggish kind of process - I had a basic story idea right away and made some sketches but anything more failed to materialize. Then last year at the yearly Hungarian Comic Book Festival I came across the advertisement of an art school for a short summer course on the bases of this fine art.
Somehow the summer course turned into 6 Saturday morning sessions starting in November but it was well worth waiting. We were introduced to both practical and theoretical ideas as well as the working process of comics, which is rather labourous as you need to produce a proper draft or storyboard before you start the actual drawing. During one of the classes our instructor told us to make a storyboard of the tale of Little Red Riding Hood in any way we wish to interpret it. Below is the final, coloured version of my interpretation, made with some of the professional advice in mind.

Hungarian speakers clearly have an advantage in reading the text, but I would be interested if anybody else has a guess on what is going on here: So, thanks to the course I have proudly completed my first "adult and seriously intended" comic story. I currently resumed working on the previous project intending to create about 8 pages at first. The date of its completion is yet unknown, but I plan to post it here provided that I'll be satisfied with the looks of it.
For people interested in the medium and theory of comics I can recommend reading Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud or checking out his web site at www.scottmccloud.com.

In closing I would be glad to hear about the role of comics in your lives, if there is one that made a significant impression on you and of course what your favourite ones were/are.