Sunday, March 10, 2024

Hari Džekson in the Wild West



Some time ago I bought this black and white photo of Hari Džekson (Harry Jackson) on the Internet. It is one of the photos from his films, which he is displaying in the window of his photography studio.

Aljuš Musli (1944–1999), was a young Muslim photographer from my hometown of Bijeljina (population 10,000-15,000 at that time), who was a passionate Western films lover, so much that starting in the seventies he changed his name to Hari Džekson and devoted all the time and money he had to shooting Western movies, with 8mm camera. He and his friends, fellow "actors" built sets of Western towns from scratch. Local peasants were supplying them with horses and local Roma (Gypsies) acted as Indians. At that time he became a cult personality. 

Unfortunately, by now he is mostly forgotten.

Since Hari never had the chance to come to the US, let alone visit the "Wild West", I decided to take him for the ride.

And here is Hari at the canyon.












Hari Džekson Hari in the Cameron Trading Post in the Navajo Nation.



Hari in Navajo country.






Hari in front of the Blauert Buildings.


Hari in Red Rock Country.






"Usamljen kauboj sam ja, daleko od doma svog…" –Talicni Tom
"I'm a poor lonesome cowboy, and a long way from home…" –Lucky Luke






Friday, March 8, 2024

"Mendo Mendović" by Borivoj Dovniković (Bordo)

You probably think I started to collect to collect original comics in my old age. No. I started to collect comics at my young and tender age. Here is one of those comics given to me in 1975 by Borivoj Dovniković (Bordo)

The comic is based on the hit Yugoslav children's TV show that ran from 1963-1965 with live actors and a bear puppet. The show was named Mendo and Slavica. Mendo Mendović was an early celebrity on Yugoslavian TV. He was a puppet bear that would regularly perform with Slavica Fila (Mendo and Slavica). He had a peculiar speech, inserting "n" within words (hence his name Mendo from Medo "(teddy) bear") and he let the good children press his nose, which would produce a honking sound. 

The comics Mendo Mendović were drawn by Bordo, and appeared in 1964.

 




Thursday, March 7, 2024

I recently went through my storage and came across this 1962 Milton Glaser poster, Possession. It is probably one of the first Milton Glaser posters.

It was an advertisement for an exhibition at the School of Visual Arts of objects owned by the faculty that would reveal something about their aesthetic preferences. In the background of this disturbing object is the face of illustrator Paul Davis.

By today's standards, this is a totally politically incorrect image.



 

Thursday, February 29, 2024

Sketch Drawings by Chevalier Fortunino Matania

My recent acquisition, a pencil sketch drawings of the christening scene(?) by the Italian artist Chevalier Fortunino Matania (1881 – 1963)

This sketch is from the time when artists were trying to save paper, not ideas. That is why he used both sides of the paper.  

Chevalier Fortunino Matania was known for his realistic portrayal of World War I trench warfare and for a wide range of historical subjects. He also worked on the movie "The Ten Commandments" by Cecil B. DeMille. For this movie, he produced a number of paintings of Rome and Egypt to be sure that authentic designs were created. You can see more of Chevalier Fortunino Matania's work here.





 

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

My Work in a New Illustration Textbook

I just received the new textbook Illustration: A Theoretical and Contextual Perspective written by Alan Male and published by the English publishing company Bloomsbury Visual Arts.

Alan Male is an illustrator, academic, and writer. He directed the Illustration program at Falmouth University, UK, for many years. Alan has written and edited several books about illustration and has won a number of international awards for his work.

I was quite pleased to see that the book features quite a few of my illustrations, posters, and visual essays. 

You can see more of the work featured in this book here.









 

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Refugees

This is a photograph showing a Serbian woman, Milica Tepić, escaping her village with her two children just before Ustaše (a Croatian fascist) burned it. The photo was taken in January 1944 by George Skrigin, who was part of the partisan resistance and accidentally stumbled upon Milica. 

Milica died in 1949. Her husband, Branko, a partisan resistance fighter, was hanged by the Nazis in 1942. Like his father, the little boy on Milica's back was called Branko. He was born one month after his father's death. He died in 2022 at the age of 81. His sister Dragica died in 1983.

The photograph as a witness of suffering and struggle for survival is one of the exhibits in the Holocaust Museum in Auschwitz.

This powerful image embedded itself in my memory at a young age. Today whenever I hear about refugees or displaced people, this image comes to my mind. 

What would have happened to her and her children if she was not allowed to escape the horrors behind her? What would have happened if she was forced to go back? Thinking of today's refugee and displaced people situation, I decided to create this visual essay using Milica's image.


 

Wednesday, February 7, 2024

"Ilustracion + Comix Internacional"

Once, I shared cover bylines with Breccia, Bilal, Eisner, Corben, Jones, and many more of my idols and comic legends.
Here are the covers of first two issues of the Spanish comics magazine "Ilustracion + Comix Internacional", published by Toutain Editor in 1980.
 
If you can read Spanish, you can read about "Ilustracion + Comix Internacional" here.