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32 artists 21 comics

Bulgaria.

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Comics

комикс

Bulgaria

1890

комиксkomiks

In short

Bulgarian comics begin with Georgi Danchov's picture story The Six Feelings, drawn in 1890 for the caricature weekly Talasum, and flowered in the early 1940s in magazines such as Chuden Svyat, all of which were closed after the communist takeover of 9 September 1944.

The children's magazine Duga (1979 to 1992), which reached 180,000 copies in the 1980s, became the high point, home to Rumen Petkov's Choko and Boko, Nikolai Dodov's Darko and Sotir Gelev's Tolkien adaptations. After 1989 local comics largely moved underground, with later revivals including a relaunched Duga, digital graphic novels and webcomics.

Bulgaria in numbers · 01 • 04

32

21

1890

1970s

Artists

Artists from Bulgaria in the archive.

Comics from Bulgaria in the archive.

The Six Feelings, the earliest comic from Bulgaria in the archive.

The decade when the most new comics from Bulgaria began.

комикс

komiks · Comics from Bulgaria

History

Bulgaria in 5 chapters

  1. 1890

    to 1939

    Chapter 01

    Caricature beginnings

    In 1890 Georgi Danchov drew The Six Feelings for Talasum, counted as the oldest Bulgarian comic. In 1906 Slavov drew a strip in the children's magazine Slaveiche, and caricaturists such as Aleksandar Bozhinov, Ilia Beshkov, Aleksandar Dobrinov and Raiko Aleksiev used picture sequences.

  2. 1940

    to 1944

    Chapter 02

    The first comics magazines

    Chuden Svyat, an all-comics colour paper edited by Nikola Kotov, first appeared on 6 June 1940, alongside weeklies such as Iliustrovano Chetivo and Kartinen Svyat. Lyuben Zidarov adapted Treasure Island and drew the western Ulcheda.

  3. 1944

    to 1978

    Chapter 03

    Restrictions under communism

    All of these magazines were closed from 9 September 1944, and the caricaturist Raiko Aleksiev died after a police beating. Few foreign comics were allowed and artists were expected to make non-political children's stories.

  4. 1979

    to 1992

    Chapter 04

    Duga

    The state publisher Septemvri launched Duga at the end of 1979; it printed 42 issues until 1992, with folklore, history, science fiction and literary adaptations. Rumen Petkov, Todor Dinov, Donyo Donev, Nikolai Dodov, Sotir Gelev and Evgeni Yordanov worked for it, and a new Chuden Svyat ran from 1980 to 1987.

  5. 1991

    to today

    Chapter 05

    Underground, revival and webcomics

    Georgi Chepilev founded Diaskop in 1991, while artists such as Ivan Kiryakov and Svetlin Velinov worked in an underground scene. Duga was relaunched from 2003 to 2005, Daniel Atanasov made manga-inspired series and webcomics, and the Valev brothers released Under My Skin (2011), the first Bulgarian digital graphic novella.

Essentials

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Essentials

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Artists

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