The Comics We Loved
(Selection of 20th Century Comics and Creators from the Region of Former Yugoslavia)

authors: Z.Tamburic, Z.Zupan, Z.Stefanovic

foreword: Paul Gravett


Format: 210 x 297
Cover: Hard
Pages: 312 (color)
Year: 2011
ISBN: 978-86-87071-03-2

Summary

The Comics We Loved: Selection of 20th Century Comics and Creators from the Region of Former Yugoslavia is a lexicon for the wider audience. For the first time in the research of popular culture, there has been drawn together, in one place, the most important works and authors’ opuses, from one of the centres of European comics.
Yugoslavia in the 20th century was a region which was not only massively developing comics’ culture, but was also producing many important works of the history of comics, and even some masterpieces. This tradition has continued even today in the countries which were a part of the former Yugoslavia: Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.
The book provides basic information, panel examples and critiques or citations from critiques for about 400 comics from about 400 authors (about 200 artists, 150 script writers, 50 writers whose works were used in comics). With the help of about 100 comics critics from the whole of the West Balkans, the book has been compiled by three co-authors – Živojin Tamburić, Zdravko Zupan and Zoran Stefanović – who have been devoted to comics all their lives as readers, artists, researchers, promoters and collectors.
The criteria that were used for the selection of comics are aesthetic and professional achievements, popularity with the audience, originality, sociological relevance and curiosities. The book is distinguished by many special research materials and a rediscovery of many forgotten authors’ opuses after many decades of obscurity. The book is published in Serbian, but the most important parts are translated into English.

* Creative Commons: Attribution-Share Alike 3.0  Unported
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

Awards: Edition of the Year 2011

Monograph entitled Comic Books That We Loved, published by Omnibus from Belgrade, was selected as the Edition of the Year 2011.

Jury's decision was based on the excellence and grandeur of this project, which thoroughly analyzes, systematizes, and popularizes 20th century comic books in former Yugoslavia. The authors of this lexicon of critical essays, which are all top experts in their field, have proven to be fully competent to create such a detailed and ambitious project to serve as a testimony to the history of comic book culture, its quality surpassing all borders as it can boast obvious regional significance.

Belgrade Book Fair: http://www.beogradskisajamknjiga.com

About a book

“ (...) So, whether you are an action lover, helpless romantic, admirer of beautiful graphics, art critic, humour lover, history enthusiast or simply one of the “cool kids “ from Yugoslavia, this is a book for you. Buy it, read it, savour it and treasure it for your future cool kids, but most importantly for your inner child.(...)”

BILJANA BILLIE KRSTOVIC, Britic - the British Serb Magazine
Posted: September 16, 2011

Paul Gravett -
"Comics Culture in Yugoslavia: World-Class Innovators & Remarkable Visionaries"

Posted: July 10, 2011

When you have in one place a complete overview of the most important authors, magazines and critics of comics, it means you have a guide which you can absolutely trust.
MOMCILO RAJIN, art historian, editor and author

The Comics We Loved by Zivojin Tamburic, Zdravko Zupan and Zoran Stefanovic represents a pioneering achievement in the history and critique of the 9th Art in Serbia and Yugoslavia.
VASA PAVKOVIC, writer, editor and critic

The Comics We Loved is the book that in the 21st century will draw attention to this previously less emphasised cultural factor, which shaped consciousness of contemporaries in the previous century.
SLOBODAN IVKOV, editor, critic and curator

In this book, these intrepid, discriminating compilers have realised an exceptional achievement by combing diligently through thousands of pages of comics and comics reviews to distil a captivating alphabet of artists and writers who have shaped and enhanced not only the comics of their homeland but in several cases the comics of the world.
PAUL GRAVETT, writer, curator, international comics historian, director of Comica Festival, London