EUNIC Stand Brussels Comic Strip Festival 2016

Participating artists:

HUNGARY

Antal Bayer (1955) graduated in English and French language and literature in 1980 at the Budapest ELTE University and wrote his thesis on the structures of comics. A professional translator and editor, he has worked for several publishing houses, including the Hungarian branch of Semic in the early 1990’s. He was instrumental in the founding of the Hungarian Comics Association and the Budapest International Comics Festival in 2005. Now a freelancer, he is the Hungarian translator of a large number of comics, including Asterix, Batman, Largo Winch and Dylan Dog. Won the Alfabéta award for best full-length comic story in 2008 (The Gemini Report). He has represented the association at conferences and festivals in Romania, Finland, Poland, Israel, France and Belgium.

Zoltán Fritz graduated at the Budapest University of Applied (MOME) in 2003 but had already started working in animation while in high school. A founding member of the Hungarian Comics Academy collective, he has been publishing comics regularly since 2004. His strips have appeared in weekly and monthly magazines, and his short cartoons are regularly shown on national television channels. Working full-time as the head of graphics and animation department of a creative agency, he is also active in the Hungarian Comics Association, focusing mainly on exhibitions, teaching and Comic Jam improvisation sessions. Won the Alfabéta award for best short comic in 2011 (A Haunting Party). His most recent work in comics is a self-published collection of these comic strips. He has represented the association at festivals in Greece, Poland, the Czech Republic, France, Belgium and Germany.

Dávid Cserkuti (1974) is an illustrator and comics artist. He graduated at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in Graphic . He started working as an illustrator in the advertising industry with companies like Ogilvy & Mather, Saatchi & Saatchi and McCann- Erickson. He created the visual world for numerous campaigns such as: Kinley, Campona, Unicum and Unicum Next which earned him several awards. He also works for book publishers and magazines (e.g. Playboy) and in the game design industry on brands like Assassin's Creed and Skylanders. As a comics artist he took part in several exhibitions and won the Alfabéta Award. He has represented the association at festivals in Finland and Romania.

Domonkos Erhardt (1991) is a student in animation at the Budapest University of Applied Arts (MOME). He has been drawing comics since high school, and joined the 5Panels collective in 2011. Some of his comics work has been published in the anthologies of this group as well as in EpicLine, a Hungarian monthly comic’s magazine, for which he also created a cover. A recent addition to the Hungarian Comics Association, he is mainly active in Comic Jam improvisation projects. He has represented the association at festivals in Belgium, Greece and Germany.

Katalin Sárdi (1995) is a comics artist and student in animation at the Illyés Academy of Arts. She is a member of the 5Panels collective and has been drawing comics since being admitted to the group. Her comics have appeared in anthologies and literary magazines and as self-published one-shots. She also publishes webcomics regularly at https://tapastic.com/MirrorMembrane

Eszter Komornik (1991) graduated in Literature and Cultural Studies at the Budapest ELTE university in 2015. Her thesis about Hungarian novels adapted into comics earned her the 2nd place at a national contest. Currently the leader of kArton gallery, the only gallery for comics and cartoons in Hungary. She is also a PhDstudent in the Language and Communication PhD Program at Pécs University – her dissertation also deals with comics as a medium. She is a representative of the Hungarian Comics Association and the chief organizer of a monthly comics workshop in kArton.

TURKEY

Devrim Kunter (1971) is a Turkish comic-book artist, writer, editor and publisher. He created “Seyfettin Efendi", a series about a detective leading a team of professionals in solving mysterious cases involving supposedly supernatural occurrances. The first book of the series was published in 2013. In 2016 he published a magazine named "Yabani".

Giuseppe Manunta (1968) is an Italian comic book artist. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples and persued the career of a graphic ilustrator. His work began to appear in several publication from 1994 onwards as he worked for Heavy Metal Press, Tabou Editions, Disney, Max Bunker Press and others. LancioStory and Skorpio, two well-known Italian periodicals, published various horror and adventure comics of Manunta. "Giunchilglia, the Flower of Ireland" and "Zombie Walk" are the two main projects written and illustrated by him and are still in the works with new volumes to come. In 2015, Manunta began to illustrate the second and third volumes of "Once Upon a Time on the Pitch", a soccer-oriented vintage story by Turkey's Studio Rodeo as adapted from the novel by Bulent Sagman.

Bülent Sagman (1965) is a writer. He is the creator of famous comic caracter- goalkeeper the cat ‘Magician Tekir’. He was graduated from Istanbul High School in 1984. He has always been very passionate about literature, football and comic books. His creative personality could only be discovered after his first story book titled ‘Everything flows (Her Şey Akar)’ which was published in 2005. Then, ‘ the Magician Tekir( Büyücü Tekir) ’ – a novel of football- which made him widely known, was published in 2006. ‘İkinci Hanımefendi( Second Lady, ( 2009)’ and ‘I am scared, my darling ( Korkuyorum Sevgilim, (2012) are his other novels.

Murat Mıhcıoglu (1972) is a writer, editor and publisher as well as being co-founder and general coordinator of publication house ‘Studio Rodeo’. He studied English Language and Literature in the University of Istanbul , then he continued on his education in ‘painting department’ in Mimar Sinan University and he completed his mater degree on ‘cinema and television ‘ in Istanbul Bilgi University. He started his carrier as being representative and correspondent of many international organisations and publications mainly from France, England, Italy and USA . In the meantime, he has been writing his columns in some of the art and cinema magazines. In 1998, he got the first prize on ‘Best Art Critic’ in the competition organised by TUYAP. He also got prizes in ‘Sciences Fiction Story Contest’ in 2008 and 2009. Since he co-founded Studio Rodeo, he is realizing comic book projects in Turkey as well as abroad. In 2004, he started to publish the magazine titled ‘Rodeo Strip’.

ESTONIA

Joonas Sildre is freelance illustrator and comics artist. He studied graphic design at the Estonian Academy of Arts, has taught classes in Tartu Art School and Estonian Academy of Arts, and given occasional comics workshops. In 2013 he co-founded the Estonian Comics Society. Joonas has drawn many short comics stories for various publications and exhibitions. His first book is children's story “The Navel of the World” (“Maailma naba”, 2009). He is currently working on his first full-length graphic novel, “Silence”, which tells the story of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt and his life in Soviet Union. http://joonassildre.tumblr.com/

Elina Sildre is a freelance illustrator and comics artist. She studied graphic design at the Estonian Academy of Arts and has illustrated more than 30 books. She regularly illustrates children magazines. She has drawn many short comics stories - mainly for children but also for comics art exhibitions and anthologies. Her technique mostly mixes classic drawing by hand and digital editing. http://joonistused.blogspot.com/

Liisa Kruusmägi is an artist and illustrator who works mostly with exhibition projects and small comic books. Her main interests are the human being and his or her existence in life. She uses her experiences and travels and appreciates humour. http://liisakruusmagi.com/

Ats Nukki is an artist and illustrator, born in , . Earned his bachelor's and master's degrees at the Estonian Academy of Arts, in the Department of . he has been a big fan of comics and fascinated by the art of storytelling since a young age. Illustrations: http://atsisaac.deviantart.com/ Art: http://atsnukki.weebly.com/

Veiko Tammjärv’s desire to tell stories in pictures has sent him all along his conscious creative life. The style of his latest comics is a combination of digital graphic design and photographic images. Conventional comic art techniques and rules are mixed with influences from modern graphic design, pop art and infographics. The reader must get the story without help from the text, so the well-known comics text components are missing. Lines of images tell a story without linguistic barriers. Content of the stories is about city culture and human relations. Many of his works have been published in various alternative comics magazines and collections, including “Still Life” (2001) in Stripburek, “Short Love Story” (2002) in Madburger, “Connections” (2003) in Warburger, “Day Off” (2007) in Narration in Pictures. Estonian Alternative Comics from the 00s, “48h” (2009) in Narration in Pictures. Estonian Alternative Comics from the 00s Part 2, “Levels” (2010) in C'est Bon Anthology vol 13.

Stella Salumaa was born in Tallinn, Estonia. After completing her undergraduate degree in Cultural Theory studies at , she went on to get a Masters Degree in Animation at the Estonian Academy of Arts. At the moment, Stella is pursuing her art career in London, working in animation, comics and illustration. www.stellasalumaa.com; http://www.stellasalumaa.tk/

Mari Laaniste is an art historian with a research interest in visual narrative media: film and TV, animation and comics. She is currently completing her PhD dissertation about the Soviet-era works of the Estonian artist and filmmaker Priit Pärn, is active as a film, art and pop-culture critic, and has also published fiction. independent.academia.edu/MariLaaniste

POLAND

Agata Wawryniuk is a young graphic designer, illustrator and comics author. With her autobiographic graphic novel “Polish-English Conversations” she gained lots of praise and won many prizes. She drew and authored many other comic books.

Tomasz Samojlik is a comics writer and biologist. His work is concentrated on the Białowieska Forest, one of the largests forests in Europe with a huge biodiversity. In his comics books, he combines his knowlegde about nature with funny stories about its inhabitants. Samojlik has received many prizes for his work.

ROMANIA

Mihai I. Grăjdeanu represents the new Romanian generation of comics artists. He lives in Bucharest and works as a freelancer. Bibliography: “Behind Bars”, the first comic strip for the inmates in Romania. “The Nipper” vol. I & 2, the first Romanian graphic novel about football. “Legends of the Dacian People” old Romanian tales in comics and colouring books. The graphic novel “Tata Moșu”, the first Romanian graphic novel produced by an all- Romanian team (the scriptwriter, the story, the graphic artist, the publisher - Bucharest Municipality Museum). Comics in permanent museum exhibitions - "The legend of Bucur the Sheppard" and "The last duel of Bucharest". Adaptation (in comics) of I.L. Caragiale’s play “A Lost Letter” and Mircea Eliade's fantastic novel "La Tiganci" and Mateiu Caragiale's play "Crai de Curtea Veche". mihaibd.blogspot.ro legendeledacilor.blogspot.ro ciutanul.blogspot.ro

PORTUGAL

Paulo Monteiro was born in Vila Nova de Gaia, Oporto, in the North of Portugal, in 1967. From the age of 13 he has illustrated poetry fanzines and drawn posters and mural paintings. He studied in the Faculty of Letters of the Lisbon University from 1987. During that period he has also studied Painting and Theatre Design. After graduation in 1991 he went to live in the southern town of Beja, his current home. He had (and still has) a lot of interests and activities: he has worked has a grape-picker, brought films of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin across small villages via a travelling cinema, wrote for the radio and newspapers as a young journalist, has worked in the Alcântara’s Maritime Pier (in Lisbon), composed songs and played guitar (often in old people’s homes), worked as a Geography and Nature Sciences teacher, made set and costume design for theater plays, set and costume design as well as writing scenarios for Chinese shadows puppetry and puppets theater, worked in several archaeological excavations, etc., etc. He has also curated dozens of exhibitions on sculpture, illustration, ancient and contemporary painting, etc. He has written and published three poetry fanzines: Poems (1988), Poems for a car journey (2003), and Japanese Poems (2005). Since 2005 he has been the director of the Beja Comics Library and of Beja’s International Comics Festival, hosting many exciting leading comic artists like Craig Thompson, Dave McKean, David B., Gipi, Lorenzo Mattotti, and Miguelanxo Prado, among others. It was also since 2005 that he has decided to dedicate himself essentially to comics, as an author... Since then he has published a few comic short stories in fanzines and magazines from Portugal, Brazil, Colombia, Latvia and Spain. He has also participate in a few events and made some exhibitions, mainly in Portugal, but also in Angola, Brazil, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Spain. In 2010 he publishes is first long form comic, The Infinite Love I have for you, published in Portugal (Polvo), Brazil (Balão Editorial), France (Six Pieds Sous Terre), Poland (Timof Comics), Serbia (Komiko) and Spain (Edicions de Ponent).

The book had a significant reception in the Portuguese and international press, and won 4 awards: 2011 Best Portuguese Comic Book Award, Amadora BD, Portugal. 2011 Best Independent Comic Book Award, Central Comics, Portugal. 2013 Sheriff d’Or Award, France. 2013 Best Published Comic Book Award, Generalitat Valenciana, Spain.

Now he is currently hard at work on his second book, Estrela, a long form love story that will be finished in 2017. He regularly travels all over the South of Portugal, visiting schools in little towns and villages to talk about comics. And has a son: Manuel.

BASQUE COUNTRY

Marc Armspach, (Bordeaux, 1969), Marko is a cartoonist, notably of the Les Godillots series from Bamboo. Ever since he joined Studios Ellipse (Paris) in 1989 to work on the Babar series, he never has stopped creating and producing projects that range from animation to illustration to comic strips. Everything took off in 2001 with the Agence Barbare, a series of four volumes with scenarios by Olier, his long-time collaborator, with whom he produced Les Godillots in 2011. This new series quickly found an audience and became a point of reference for youth comic books about the history of the Great War. The year 2011 also was marked by Marko’s meeting with the BeKa team of scenarists with whom he began to work on the GEOBD series published by Dargaud, in collaboration with the magazine GEO. Two albums in the Voyage collection of Bamboo allowed Ben and Nina to travel in China and then India. Since the summer of 2014, Marko has contributed daily to the humorous series Living with a Cartoonist (Vivre avec un dessinateur) on Facebook. This series is becoming increasingly popular by treating a wide range of different professions with humour. The first half of 2016 has been eventful for Marko: Publication of the album Verdun, with a scenario in collaboration with Jean-Yves LeNaour and Iñaki Holgado (February 2016, Bamboo Grand Angle); publication of the 4th volume of the Godillots series with Olier; publication in early March of Volume 1 of “Living with…” from Bamboo.

Adur Larrea is born in Bilbao in 1982. After having finished Fine Arts studies, he immersed himself into drawing. He illustrates books, posters, and he also makes infographics and animation projects for TV. However, comic is his favourite field: he regularly publishes comics in journals such as Xabiroi, Bertsolari and Aizu! In 2010, he published the album Okatxu, hegal egiten (Argia, 2010) in collaboration with Mattin Irigoien and Asisko Urmeneta. His last graphic novel is the biography of the Basque writer Gabriel Aresti (Erroa, 2015). www.adurlarrea.com