Comics of the New Europe

Martha Kuhlman is professor of Comparative Literature in the Department of English and Cultural Studies at Bryant University. José Alaniz is professor in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and in the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Washington, Seattle.

• General Introduction: Comics of the 'New' Europe Martha Kuhlman, José AlanizPart 1: The Former Yugoslav States Un-Drawn Experience: Visualizing Trauma in Aleksandar Zograf’s Regards from SerbiaMax BledsteinFilial Estrangement and Figurative Mourning in the Work of Nina Bunjevac Dragana ObradovićReality Check Through the Historical Avant-garde: Danilo Milošev Wostok Aleksandra SekulićPart 2: Czechoslovakia/the Czech Republic Facets of Nostalgia: Text-centric Longing in Comics and Graphic Novels by Pavel ČechPavel KořínekThe Avant-Garde Aesthetic of Vojtěch Mašek Martha KuhlmanRegardless of Context: Graphic Novels with the Faceless (and Homelandless) Hero of Branko JelinekMartin ForetPart 3: Germany Co-Opting Childhood and Obscuring Ideology in Mosaik von Hannes Hegen, 1959-1974Sean EedyImages of Spies and Counter Spies in East German Comics Michael F. ScholzTowards a Graphic Historicity: Authenticity and Photography in the German Graphic NovelElizabeth “Biz” NijdamPart 4: Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Hungary Women, Feminism and Polish Comic Books: Frąś/Hagedorn’s Totalnie nie nostalgiaEwa StańczykIgor Baranko and National Precarity in Post-Soviet Ukrainian Comics José AlanizThe Autobiographical Mode in Post-Communist Romanian Comics: Everyday Life in Brynjar Åbel Bandlien’s Strîmb Living and Andreea Chirică’s The Year of the PioneerMihaela PrecupAvatars and Iteration in Contemporary Hungarian Autobiographical Comics Eszter SzépAcknowledgments About the authors Index

Altogether, this volume represents a very welcome and stimulating introduction to comics production in a region that has been overlooked by critics. [...] this collection does represent an intriguing and novel exploration of new areas of study for comics scholarship. The introduction makes clear that the editors “consider this book an open invitation for further research” (13). It can only be hoped that their call will find receptive ears, and that some at least of the obviously worthwhile works they discuss will also find suitable publishers in the “old” Europe or North America.Vittorio Frigerio, Paradoxa, No. 32, 2021