Ένα εξαιρετικό αφιέρωμα (στα αγγλικά) από το ζωγράφο και μέλος του ιστολόγιού μας, Γαβριήλ Τομπαλίδη.
Detail
from the cover of Erotokritos (2016). Art by Giorgos Gousis.
(by Gabriel Tombalidis, Mikros Iros Publications LP)
July
16th, 2020
The
Early Years
The roots of Greek Comics can be found in the early 20th
century, and mainly through the interwar period, with the evolution of the
satirical cartoons (mostly socio-political) in a certain “strip” form. One of
the Greek pioneers of this form was sketch artist Fokion Dimitriadis with his
single page strips in the newspaper Elefthero Vima, which debuted
in 1927. In the next decade, this form of art will flourish, and in 1939 we see
the premiere of To
Periodiko Mas, a magazine published by
Nikos Kastanakis. This Greek magazine was the first to include comics.
Kastanakis, an inventive publisher, created the comics and mimicked diverse
styles, giving the impression that different artists were working on the magazine.
Unfortunately, after 25 issues, the magazine ceased its publication due to
World War II. In 1945, after the war ended, a new magazine called To Ellinopoulo, hit the stands. On the last page of its 5th
issue, the magazine started a new single page comic called Bibikos drawn by Kostas Papadopoulos. These early
stories were mostly rip offs from comics published in the Italian kids magazine Corriere dei Piccoli.
The stories, following the Italian text, were written in octosyllabic rhyme,
which fit perfectly as narration method for kids and was adopted by many Greek
kids magazines of the era. Bibikos stories
began to have original material thanks to the great Greek painter Michael
Papageorgiou (artistic name Doris). After Ellinopoulo ended
its run, Papageorgiou continued to create stories with Bibikos for the new magazine Thisavros ton Pedion. The Bibikos character
had an important place in the history of Greek comics, as he is the hero of the
first comic book published by A. Samaras. Bibikos o Efevretis,
published in 1950, included 16 single page strips and was the first issue of
the comics series that possibly run for four issues (issues 2 – 4, if they
truly do exist, are considered “lost”).