Comics from the Ukrainian Front

Rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about comics. I live with a cartoonist, I wake up each day in a home filled with comics, I go off to work at a museum filled with comics, I come home and either unwind by reading comics or catching up on side projects dealing with…you know.

Despite this near-constant influx of content, it’s exciting–and intimidating–to realize just how vast the comics universe is. In the United States alone, you’ve got hundreds of monthly periodicals, dozens of daily newspaper comic strips, thousands upon thousands of regularly-updating webcomics, millions of people posting drawings online every day, whether for fun or profit…it’s literally impossible to keep up on all of it.

Expand your scope to include other countries and that task grows exponentially. Several major publishing houses in the United States are working round the clock to bring the best Japanese manga to American audiences, while only a relative handful of European comics make their way to American audiences, and fewer still find widespread readership here. Cultural difference, language barriers, reluctance of comic book shops and their patrons to branch out beyond the standard monthly comic book format–most comic readers my age know Moebius for the Silver Surfer comics that he illustrated for Stan Lee, and would be hard-pressed to name another European cartoonist. 

While it does represent a considerable gap in my comics knowledge, it also represents constant learning opportunities. All the bandes dessineés that hit my doorstep, every European artist that does a short story in an anthology put together by a progressive editor, every trip overseas…it’s exciting to know that there are still so many new discoveries to be made.

Last year, I received an inquiry from a Polish artist named Artur Wabik, head of Muzeum  Komiksu, and Michael Rubenfeld, co-director of FesivALT, who, like most people who write to me, wanted to talk about comics. In this case, they wanted to talk about comic artists from Ukraine, and about sharing their work with American readers so that we can develop a greater understanding of life during wartime, of the trials and tribulations of artists and citizens during the invasion. And what better way to cross those borders than through the universal language of comics?

After several spirited discussions over Zoom, Artur and Michael organized an exhibition that would feature the work of six incredible Ukrainian artists, all women, coincidentally, that would be displayed in the galleries of San Francisco’s Cartoon Art Museum. Until the work hit my inbox, I knew nothing at all of the Ukrainian comics scene. 

I don’t know what I was expecting, but I was floored by the artwork that arrived in the weeks following my initial conversations with Artur and Michael. Despite all these artists had been through, some forced to flee their homes, some forced to leave the country, some staying in place but dealing with uncertainty regarding their safety, livelihood, and their very survival on a daily basis–despite all that, here were six artists who wanted to share their stories. Whose drive to create compelled them to put one foot in front of the other and keep making comics. Frontline sketches, slice of life tales of their daily routines, inspirational images about Ukrainian spirit and determination–it’s humbling to see such an amazing array of work produced under such harrowing conditions.

Presented here are the works of five incredible artists, Kateryna Kosheleva, Inga Levi, Yulia Vus, Masha Vyshedska, and Dartsya Zironka. If you enjoy this work, please consider making a donation to FestivALT, and that money will be divided equally among the artists. A digital exhibition catalog featured more than 50 cartoons and illustrations from these artists will be announced soon, and, as with your FestivALT donations, all proceeds will go to support these artists and their continuing efforts to chronicle life during wartime.

About FestivALT

After  the Holocaust and decades of repression under Communism, Jewish life in  Poland is undergoing a revival. That revival is complicated—as  fractious as it is full of promise, as tangled as it is exciting. Cut  off from its pre-war heritage, contemporary Jewish culture in Poland  faces a crisis: either replicate American or Israeli Jewishness or  attempt to resurrect the yiddishkeit  of the past. FestivALT offers an alternative pathway, one that embraces  diverse representations of Jewishness, emphasizes nuanced and critical  perspectives, and focuses on the here and now. Joined by emerging and  established artists from Poland and around the world, FestivALT has  built an inclusive platform for bold, experimental work that celebrates  complexity, challenges assumptions, and welcomes debate.

About the Muzeum Komiksu

Muzeum  Komiksu is a foundation set up for the establishment of Poland’s  first-ever permanent Comics Museum. The foundation's collection includes  40,000 items related to the history of comic books in Poland. Muzeum  Komiksu regularly documents, archives, and promotes the art of comics  through the organization of exhibitions, lectures, workshops, museum  lessons, and meetings with authors. The current headquarters of the  foundation is located in a townhouse on Sarego 7 street in Kraków. It  houses a gallery and a reading room, available on request to  researchers of the comic genre, as well as more than 500 works on the  theory of comics.

Please visit https://fightwithart.com/ for more information about both of these organizations.

The digital catalog is available for purchase here.

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