Hello 2019 - It's a new comic book!

Yup, back from the dead (it's a long story, which I'll spare ya). Without any further ado, the Corvin 2 book is completed, printed and self-published at this year's Budapest Comics Festival.

Behold the cover:

Some great Hungarian comics people helped me "dressing up" the book, just like the last time around. We are pictured below with cover colourist extraordinary, Mr. Gergely Madarász. I'm also totally grateful to Judit Anticia Kiss for the book's design and converting the pages into a printable format. Győző Dudás followed the progress of the book from the beginning, and gave some great advice on how to enhance it. 

The festival was great fun as always, Dürer Kert (myformer university campus) is an ideal venue, we can hopefully hold on to it for a few more years.

This is definitely the biggest news of late, but there is another pretty big one: I also illutsrated a book, which was published this spring. I'll tell you more about it in the next post, so stay tuned ;-)

Zombie Apocalypse 2060

Think I promised some "quick updates" two months ago or so... Heh-heh.
It's obviously time to make amends, so I'll give you a short comic back from May, drawn right before, during and after the Budapest International Comics Festival. It was inspired by a little reflective piece made by some friends of mine about Nyugat+Zombik (West+Zombies), the first successful Hungarian crowdfunded comics project, the completion of which is now long overdue. West here stands for the name of an eminent literary periodical of the early 20th century, written and edited by some of the best Hungarian poets and writers of the age.

Long story short, the young and imaginative artist (let's call him Olivér) had the idea to engage these literary icons in a fight witha crowd of zombies occurring  in their favourite café. He raised about 30,000 USD  an utterly successful crowdfunding campaign in the autumn of 2014, and promised to deliver a 200-page-long graphic novel by the next Christmas in return. So far so good, but there is still no sign of the end product 1,75 years after the deadline. Olivér does not seem to sweat over it too much - save for an apologetic Facebook post every few months -, as he also sings in an alternative band, which enjoyed a reasonably busy schedule during the summer festival season.

So here comes my little satire. The year is 2060, and the comic is about to finalized at last.. 

Zombie Apocalypse 2060

Panel 1

(Aaarrghh)

Panel 2

Olivér: Aand… Done!

Panel 3

O: Hooray!

Panel 4

O: Now, I will share the good news on social media at once…

Panel 5

Dear Supporters, who have kept faith with me until the very end! I’ve got awesome news: I just indeed, actually, entirely, at last FINISHED THE COMIC BOOK!

Panel 6

I’m bringing the whole works to the printer’s office on cd (heh) today so that it may finally become a gift this Christmas to everyone’s joy.

Panel 7

There is even more great news as Onlyforyoulittlegirl, the band I used to sing in, will reunite after a 30 year hiatus for the premiere of the comic book.

Panel 8

O: Think it’s time I leave for the printer’s…

(Aaarrghh)

Panel 9

O: Ugh… Bloody stairs…

(phone ringing)

Panel 10

O: Hey Dave! The Opus Magnum is done, so we can rehearse tomorrow… What?! The city is swarming with zombies?! Oh, you’re so funny!

(AAARRGHH)

Panel 11

O: JESUS AND THE VIRGIN MARY

Zombies: AAAAARRRGGHHH

There you go. Ironically the next post will be on my own pending project, the second installment of Corvin. 

Spring drawings and other updates

It's probably safe to say now that 2017 is not going to be the most prolific year on this blog, but there are still things to post about. The good news is that the herniated disks are fine thanks to some therapy, so there is no obstacle to drawing currently.

At first some quick doodles done during the daily grind for my "proper" job:

On the current situation of "freedom" of speech in Hungary.

A displeased football manager/ politician/ company executive.

Next up, some more sophisticated fanart. Brandy, the most badass animal psychologist from Liberty Meadows, Frank Cho's awesome epic length strips series.

Last - but certainly  not least - some sketches made during the workshop of Jul, one of the special guests of this year's Budapest International Comics Festival. Jul is the current writer of the renowned Lucky Luke series - hence the rather inaccurate portrait of the title character based on my memories. Even though this was a conversation workshop, I just had to sketch the interpreter, too. The samurai above them was entirely spontaneous.

The workshop was held in Budapest's French Institute, who kindly made Jul's visit possible, i.e.paid for his flight, room and board, etc. Some prominent Hungarian comics makers were in attendance too.

Also, here is yours truly, checking out what Lucky Luke actually looks like as opposed to his memories :)

Dear Readers, expect some more quick updates like this and forget about this not being a prolific year... Hohohooo! :)

Have I mentioned that I published my first comic book recently?

It is called Corvin, you may have seen here a few pages from it during the last couple of years.... :)

 I am fully aware that the project dragged on for a long time, so this year I decided to complete Issue 1 with (much more than) a little help from my friends, just in time for the Budapest Comics Festival held on May 8 at Dürer Kert (which is a concert venue and club, transformed from my old university campus, if you like fun facts).

Here's me, selling the good stuff at my stall. I must say that talking to prospective customers and signing copies is great fun, so I'm going to do it again - hopefully the same time next year.

And some of the good stuff itself. Only in Hungarian for the time being, but I'm going to make an English version soon online, to practice my newly acquired Photoshop lettering skills. Stay tuned and let me know if you would like to have a copy!

Memories of a Happy Festival

Some belated pics of the 11th Budapest International Comics Festival, held exactly four weeks ago at Dürer Kert - same place as last year, and pretty much the ideal venue.

A little warm-up the day before the festival at Roham Bár, our regular drawing spot - sadly closed down in the meantime :(

In the morning of the festival, dedicated comics people making preparations.

Opening ceremony with the international guests. Left to right: Lucie Lomová (Czech Republic), Typex (The Netherlands), Pierre Wazem (Switzerland), Ptiluc (France) and Fabio Celoni (Italy). Presentation of guests done by Antal Bayer on behalf of the Hungarian Comics Association.

The comics fair. There was a real good turnout for the festival, facilitated by the not-so-chilly weather as last year.

The artists' corner. No specific assignment for this year but fun was had by all. Yours truly was even asked for advice by a potential comics maker. Wow!

YT was also involved as interpreter (hence sat in the middle) in a discussion with Lucie Lomová and Typex about their respective theatre crime comics and graphic novel on the life of Rembrandt.

Some cosplayers were also present and sort of stole the show when Euronews interviewed presenter Róbert Vass.

Almost finally, the items purchased. All well worth their prices.

Last but not at all least, Lucie Lomová's special dedication.

We had a good old time again, hope to see you next year!

Some Festive Pics

Hey Folks,

Thought I would post a few pictures of the yearly Hungarian Comics Festival, as it's been already three weeks since it was held.

The event itself was on Sunday, but we kicked it off with a little Drink & Draw in the company of some of the foreign special guests on Friday evening. On the right side of the table you can see Héléne Becquelin-Mottet from Switzerland, author of the autobographical Angry Mum comics and her husband. Opposite to them, the utterly prolific and versatile Boulet from France, whose body of work ranges from fantasy comics (Donjon Zénith) to his regularly published autobiographical Notes. Do yourself a favour and check out his blog at www.bouletcorp.com

Here's something Boulet drew on the spot. Three Hungarian comics people, from right to left: Magdi Kasza, Dóri Gresz and myself.

Then on Sunday the festival was unleashed in modest 12 Celsiuses at my old university campus - now a sort of underground concert and party place, which atmosphere suits our little comics subculture perfectly. Here the creators of the forthcoming comic book called The Mountain are giving a presentation about their work, which was awarded the the opportunity to be published by a reular publisher company next year.

There was a special Lord of the Rings cosplayer unit on site, featuring this scarily accurate nazgul.

Yours truly was one of the persons coordinating the so-called "artist petting zone", where some pretty awesome improvised comics were produced despite the slightly grim natural circumstances.

This was the point when Boulet became the absolute star of the festival, as after spending a couple of hours signing books, he carried on drawing

... a couple of posters like this one

Some of the improvised comics have made their way to an art periodical and the rest will soon be visible online, including a 3-page-long piece from your humble author. Do not miss out!

Suspicious Minds & memories of a comics festival

(Decided to rewrite this post as most of its content disappeared due to the massive inconveniences www.blogger.com experienced last week. Seems like I have waited in vain for its restoration...)
So here's the second love child of my recent civil rights activism and ongoing comics activity. For the first one, check out the Gyöngyöspata post below. This is a naive little one, suggesting trust instead of suspicion through a roma boy - non-roma girl love story.
Normally I don't draw comics for Elvis's songs but this time I was inspired by a workshop linked to our Comics Festival, where the special guests from the Netherlands, Finland and Estonia paid tribute to the King. Why here and now? Well, Elvis recently became a honorary citizen of Budapest, which fact I'm sure he deeply appreciates wherever he resides now. The final product was printed superquickly and was on sale at festival, but you can also purchase it here: http://www.nyitottkonyv.hu/konyveink/konyv/161/Elvis_Budapest
The festival itself was good craic again - fun fact: it was held on my former university campus which turned into a bar and concert venue since I graduated - here are a couple of photos just for a feel of the atmosphere:

The Comics Battle is raging - they took no prisoners :)
The best comics artists of 2010: Róbert Vass, Zoltán Fritz and Gergely Oravecz
I had the pleasure of running the Comics Association's stall for most of the day
(This is clearly not as cool as the original post. Well, that's life, ain't it? Things get lost, broken etc...)

Comic Jam és Képregényfesztivál

Hullo again Folks. Here's my entry for the special issue of Pesti Est - our local free weekly programme magazine - for the upcoming 7th Hungarian Comics Festival.
In March the Hungarian Comics Association issued a call for its members to participate in some "comic jamming", ie. to draw and write a story on a page with predesigned empty panels and speech bubbles ASAP. The only instruction was that it has to take place in a career advice office and has to feature a balding secretary who wears glasses.
My entry didn't make it to Pesti Est but I had fun drawing it and like it nonetheless.



Panel 1
Director: Good morning Aranka! You look upset. What's the matter?
Panel 2
Secretary: Boss, it's a disaster! I made the same appointment with Gábor Vona (the leader of the right-extremist Jobbik party) and the Dalai Lama by mistake! They are already in the waiting room!
Panel 3
Director: No worries, we have dealt with tougher situations too! We'll come up with an idea in a minute. Till then could you have a look to see how are they getting on?
Panel 7
Secretary: Gentlemen, please come in! I hope you don't mind if we are having a competitive interview. Act as natural as possible!
Panel 8
Vona: We must be worthy of the glory of our ancestors once again! If we cannot plunder Western Europe anymore while shooting arrows backwards, at least let our ultra-hungarian blood reign in our own counties!
Dalai Lama: My dear young friend, all this fuming may make your heart chakra congested pretty soon! I suggest that you often drink ginseng tea and take up volunteering in a disadvantaged rural area!
(A little footnote on Vona: he and his parliamentary party are highly responsible for the topic of the previous post - "Gyöngyöspata: a visit for a reason" - as some of the paramilitary groups are closely linked with them. Merrily making fun of him is not enough in the light of what has happened recently in different parts of Hungary.)

To end on a higher note, the Comics Festival is coming up indeed, as it's gonna take place next Saturday in Dürer Kert.

The programme looks really promising with special guests from the Netherlands, Finnland and Estonia, as well as exhibitions in several venues to complement the festival. Drop in if you're free!
More info for Hungarian speakers at http://kepregenyfesztival.blog.hu/

Festive impressions

I guess most comic book festivals or conventions look a lot like the opening scenes of the Kevin Smith movie, Chasing Amy, save for Jason Lee starting a fight with an utterly cheeky reader. Apart from that you have authors signing (sometimes also selling) their books, publishers doing the same, also presentations and film screenings going on.
Pretty much the same went on in Gödör Klub, so I'll settle for a a couple of snapshots here.

First, the foretold stall of the art school exhibiting our works in order to lure more people for the upcoming courses. There was also a presentation on that end, which included words like 'art' and creation' a bit too many times. Sadly, none of the coursemates turned up during the two and a half hours I hung out at the premises.

The festival also had a special guest with a perfectly Hungarian name on account of her grandfather. Kati Kovács is from Finnland, currently living in Rome, but as a kid she spent a few summers in Hungary exporing her roots. She commemorated these experiences in her first comic book, pictured above.

Another author signing books was Dániel Merényi (aka Grafitember), who worked for an advertising company when he started his webcomics - to be found at http://napirajz.hu - partly to deal with his various impressions gained at work (hence the general atmosphere and language of the drawings). Since then he went on to work for a bicycle manufacture in the Italian Dolomits, and reportedly enjoys a lot more chilled-out lifestyle than earlier. He's keeping up with the drawings regardless, and was busy signing the second compilation of them at Gödör.

In closing a short video of the festival made by index.hu, targetted mainly at Hungarian speakers - I'm beginning to realize the schyzophrenic nature of writing this blog in English. Can't help sharing the information that there is a bit where one of the festival's award winning artist speaks. The guy is depressed and currently makes his living by cleaning up after horses in a stable. There's something sadly typical about the present state of Hungary in this setup.

Next update of Corvin is likely within a week, by the way!