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Serbian cartoonist offers everyman view of conflict in Kosovo} By Bill RadfordColorado Springs GazetteSerbian cartoonist Sasa Rakezic believes “yoii can find something humorous in just about every human situation,” but that belief is being stretched to the limit these days.Rakezic, w$o lives with his wifein Pancevo, across the Danube River from Belgrade, the Serbian capital, has been bught in the waves of NATO airstrjkes against Yugoslavia. In a serils of e-mails to COM1-CON.COM, af sort of online comicbook convention, he has offered an everyman vifw of the crisis in his homeland. Wfiile expressing sympa-COMICSthy for the plight of the Albaniansin Kosovo — “I can see no justifica- ' tion for the suffering of those people!” — he also makes clear the nightmare of being caught in the middle of a global conflict.“As far as I can see,” he wrote in one e-mail, “the common people on all sides are being hurt, and they are all bleeding, they are confused and bewildered.”Rakezic publishes his work under the name Aleksandar Zograf. That work has been published in the United States by FantagraphicsBooks, King Hell Press and Kitchen Sink Press. In an e-mail interview with the Gazette of Colorado Springs, he talked about his work and what he sees as the universal language of comics.“I started to read comics very early,” he says, “simply because my mother adored reading comics. ... She used to buy almost every comic published in Yugoslavia back then. I still think I learned most things about art by reading comics and watching old American animated cartoons when I was a child. Later, when I went to art school, I was pretty much disgusted by the ‘official’ art education.”Rakezic, 33, began publishing his work in the mid-1980s in various Yugoslav magazines. When war erupted in the early ’90s, most of the Yugoslav publications went out of business.“I had to try to publish my comics elsewhere or stop creating comics at all. So I created self-published minicomics in English ... and sent them to many people abroad. Those comics were mostly dealing with my description of everyday life in my country during that horrible crisis.” One such comic, “Alas!” No. 1, was published by a Chicago magazine, and Rakezic’s career in America —a country he has never visited — was launched. His latest book, “Psychonaut” No. 3, is scheduled to be published soon by Monsterpants, a small California publisher.His work looks at the continuing crisis in Yugoslavia while also delving into his own dreams. “I pay much attention to dreams in my comics, and I try to reflect on the experiences in different dream states, in hope to explore that spectacular mine of wonders, which is hidden inside ourselves.”Rakezic says he has seen interest in comics grow in his homeland in recent years. Several comics exhibitions have been in Pancevo in thepast few years, including one in February, a month before the NATO bombings began. “Artists were brave enough to come to this crazy land even though the Kosovo crisis was reaching its peak.”His success abroad, he says, “is an example of how ideas (can) circulate no matter of boundaries and geographical distance.” In Serbia, “there are many of us who are into comics, rock music or any other contemporary culture, so we are speaking the same language just as other people all around the world with similar interests. I hope that my comics speak to people all over the world.”
Newspaper Details
Cedar Rapids Gazette
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, US
Sun, Apr 18, 1999
Page 657
Full Page
Clipped by
Sasa R.
NA, 10 Aug 2020
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