At the Italian cultural institute in Belgrade there was an exhibition that represents a retrospective of the first 100 years of the Italian comics with more than 250 illustrations divided into 9 sections.
MARKO ANDREJIĆ, Wave Magazine deux ex machina, met the curator of the event Andrea Plazzi:
«I can see that in the entire history of Italian comic books there are openness and sensitivity of Italian authors to foreign influences and authors. An example would be 1910s and 1920s when French influences came into Italy - for example, Antonio Rubino was one of the biggest importers of French art in Italian comic books production. This is followed by 1930s and '40s when Italian authors opened themselves to adventure comics and American school, first of all to Alex Raymond, the author of Flash Gordon. After that to Milton Cliff who influenced Italian authors, among which were Hugo Prat and Aurelio Galepini, author of Tex, one of the most influential Italian heroes, and all the way to Paolo Parisi who is our guest in Belgrade these days.»
The full article on www.wavemagazine.net
know this image to be far from the truth. This is why writing Persepolis seemed of such major importance to me. I believe that an entire nation should not be judged by the wrongdoings of a few extremists. I also didn't want those Iranians who lost their lives in prisons defending freedom, who died in the war against Iraq, who suffered under repressive regimes, or who were forced to flee their families and homeland to be forgotten. One can forgive but one should never forget." The first volume of Persepolis, which came out in France in 2000 with a historical introduction by David B., became a great success immediately. It tells the history of Iran
as seen through the eyes of a nine-year-old girl who lived in great expectation through the Islamic Cultural Revolution of 1979. I had the good fortune of meeting Marjane in 2001 on the stage of the theatre of Angoulême at the award ceremony (with Stripburger we received the prize for the best self-produced comic and Marjane won the Alph-Art “coup de cœur”, prize for the first work) and I knew immediately that she was an intelligent warm person and, without becoming immodest, would go a long way in the world of comics.
The jury was particularly impressed by the correctness of tone and the authenticity of the sentiments contained in the Persepolis album. The sobriety of the black and white drawing reflects childlike sensibilities and brings out the imaginary that triumphs in the tragic fall of Iranian society under the dictatorship. Going beyond the historical context, it presents universal aspects. In the same year Persepolis I was awarded the Golden Lion prize by the Comic Strip Centre of Brussels. The second volume brought her the prize for the best scene sequences at the 
origin, has demonstrated that the comic can also be used as a journalistic medium and the Canadian Julie Doucet has made us grieve with the stories of her comic strip diary. The Swedes, Max Andersson and Lars Sjunesson, have mixed surrealist fiction with true life in their travelogues through the Balkans, the Croatian Helena Klakocar has given us a splendid account taken from a travelogue with her family in the Adriatic Sea at the beginning of the war in Yugoslavia and finally, a group French authors - Joelle Manix, Matt Konture, Lewis Trondheim, Joann Sfar, David B and Marjane Satrapi – have understood that the comic strip as a medium does not have to be limited only to fiction.
Marjane Satrapi chose the right moment to appear on the international scene of new comics with Persepolis, her comic strip debut in autobiographical form, which is also the first Iranian comic book (even if the first edition was published in French by the French publishers of Paris L’Association). There are many important artists in Iran in the fields of literature, cinema and caricature, but comics do not exist there and so Marjane Satrapi, influenced by the French Bande Dessinée has filled the semantic vacuum. At the beginning of her career in drawing, Marjane, who studied Fine Arts in Tehran and Art in Strasbourg, was influenced by the American graphic artist Milton Glaser and wanted to become a famous graphic designer. Her first successes came with children’s books. The decisive turning point in the life of Marjane Satrapi came when she moved to Paris where she met a group of young French artists - Joann Sfar, Émile Bravo, Christophe Blain, David B. and Emmanuel Guibert – who published comics for a living. These young men invited her to share their studio (workshop ‘des Vosges’) and in particular David B., who with his Cronaca del Grande Male, an intense autobiographical account of epilepsy experienced by his brother Jean-Christophe, opened Marjane’s eyes and encouraged her to express her story in comic strip form.
Nat Röfu
kanjano
channeldraw
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Armin Barducci
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nuccia
