Komiks: Comic Art in Russia

by José Alaniz

Jose Alaniz explores the problematic publication history of "komiks"--an art form much-maligned as "bourgeois" mass diversion before, during, and after the collapse of the USSR--with an emphasis on the last twenty years. Using archival research, interviews with major artists and publishers, and close readings of several works, "Komiks: Comic Art in Russia" provides heretofore unavailable access to the country's rich--but unknown--comics heritage. The study examines the dizzying experimental comics of the late Czarist and early revolutionary era, caricature from the satirical journal "Krokodil," and the postwar series "Petia Ryzhik" (the "Russian Tintin"). Detailed case studies include the Perestroika-era KOM studio, the first devoted to comics in the Soviet Union; post-Soviet comics in contemporary art; autobiography and the work of Nikolai Maslov; and women's comics by such artists as Lena Uzhinova, Namida, and Re-I. Alaniz examines such issues as anti-Americanism, censorship, the rise of consumerism, globalization (e.g., in Russian manga), the impact of the internet, and the hard-won establishment of a comics subculture in Russia.

" Komiks" have often borne the brunt of ideological change--thriving in summers of relative freedom, freezing in hard winters of official disdain. This volume covers the art form's origins in religious icon-making and book illustration, and later the immensely popular "lubok" or woodblock print. Alaniz reveals comics' vilification and marginalization under the Communists, the art form's economic struggles, and its eventual internet "migration" in the post-Soviet era. This book shows that Russian comics, as with the people who made them, never had a "normal life."

Genres: Comics, Art, Russia, Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published December 21, 2009

About the author

José Alaniz is Professor in the Departments of Slavic Languages & Literatures and Cinema & Media Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle. He is the author of Komiks: Comic Art in Russia and Death, Disability, and the Superhero: The Silver Age and Beyond.

Reviews

[maha]

اقرأه لاهتمامي بحقبة الاتحاد السوفيتي.
تعليقي الحالي هو كتعليق جاستون من كرتون الجميلة والوحش: !
"how can you read this, there's no pictures!!"
كيف يخلو كتاب عن الكوميكس من الصور??? أوكي في كم صورة هنا وهناك.. ربما يريد تأكيد المقولة التي ابتدأ بها الكتاب
"أن الكوميكس للسوفيتين كان كالجنس، لم يحصل عليهما أحد"..
بنرجع بعد قرائته
----تحت القراءة----

[Tsartomat Placeholder · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate it.
I. Hate. It.
I hate it as a russian.
I hate it as a wannabe multimedia critic.
I hate it as someone who reads a ton of comics.
I hate it as someone who consumes art mostly in english language.
But most of all i hate it as a beeleengvahleest.

[Erik Wirfs-Brock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent survey of Russia's very marginalized comic history. Because it has been so marginal there is not a lot of work profiled here that seems like it would blow away a well read comics fan, but it is interesting to see how comics so closely track the culture of the late soviet and New Russia eras. Like many works of this type it makes you very curious to check out a lot of works that would probably be hard to find in russia let alone ever be translated into english,hopefully an enterprising alternate comics publisher thinks about doing an anthology someday.

[A.J. McMahon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alaniz is an academic and it shows. This book could have been interesting and insightful but it was't. Towards the end he frequently descends into postmodernist gibberish. Some of the material was interesting though, and I was glad to learn of the graphic novel Siberia by Nikolai Maslov, which I intend to get hold of and read. Overall Komiks was informative, but entirely lacking in any kind of real insight.