Officially recognized as the ninth art, modern comic books or graphic novels are perhaps the only art form to have originated in the United States as early as the 1890’s, and soon swept the world, remaining popular and respected to this day. From the early heroes like Superman, Batman, and Spiderman, Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, and Prince Valiant, over Peanuts (Charlie Brown and Snoopy), Calvin and Hobbes, to modern commercial and creative triumphs of Maus and Watchmen – American comics remain a pillar of world pop-culture and modern (super)hero mythology, rivaling the ancient ones in scope and richness. Serbia was heavily influenced by US comics continuously for almost a century, and we read and even made licensed comics like Disney’s Mickey Mouse since the 1930s.
The exhibition will show the long, deep, and strong ties of our nations in the comics – including artwork and published comics by several prominent Serbian authors that had popular and influential comics for U.S. publishers. These include Rajko Milošević Gera – R.M. Guera, who, among others, worked with Quentin Tarantino on comic book adaptations of his films, Stevan Subic, working on bestseller comics like Superman, Batman and Conan, Aleksandar Zograf – publishing exclusively in the U.S. during the 1990s, plus many more.
The core of the exhibition will be works by young authors, participants of the 8-week workshop program „Creating comics and more“ on the topic of „Freedom250“, demonstrating that the future of comics is bright in Serbia, and that the U.S. remains a source of inspiration for our creators.
