Comic books and graphic novels are rapidly becoming a popular and
recognized form of Czech literature and they build on a tradition that in
this country goes back well over a century. Lucie Lomová is one of the
foremost representatives of the art form here and her books both for
children and adults are hugely popular. A testimony to her talent is the
fact that her books have even made an impact in France, the spiritual home
of the comic strip. She talks to David Vaughan.
Lucie Lomová, photo: Robert Sedmík
When Lucie Lomová’s graphic novel, Divoši (The Savages) came out in
2011, it was something of a publishing sensation. With wonderful attention
to visual and historical detail, she tells the moving and true story of the
Paraguayan Indian, Čerwuiš, who was brought to Prague at the beginning of
the 20th century and held up a mirror to our European civilization. This
book, possibly more than any other helped to make the graphic novel part of
the Czech literary mainstream, and it is just one of a several books for
adults that Lucie Lomová has published over the last few years. She has
been just as successful with her comic strips for children, which have kept
their appeal even in the age of the iPhone and laptop. I asked Lucie where
it all began and she went back to her childhood in the late 1960s.
“We were in Chicago in America with my parents because my father was
working at the university there. I was going to kindergarten and we were
drawing pictures. I drew a picture with a magic carpet and I was sitting on
that carpet. And the text under the carpet was: ‘I’m going to visit my
three grandmothers in Prague.’ The teacher was a little bit upset because
she thought I didn’t speak English. She insisted on two grandmothers, but
I insisted on three because my great-grandmother was included. So I
remember this. Much later, when I made the book ‘Anna Wants to Jump’
there is a cover picture where Anna is flying in the air among the clouds,
and this reminded me of the first image I remember, because it’s the same
idea – that she wants to fly somewhere else.”
And do you think that the fact that you spent part of your childhood
abroad in America has been formative in your work as an artist and comics
maker?
“Yes, definitely, because it was in 1969 to 1970 and it was the time of
pop culture and it was so different from Czechoslovakia at that time that
it was like switching from black-and-white TV to colour. A big influence
were the American comics of the time, because I wasn’t able to read
English – I wasn’t able to read at all – because I was five years old
and comics are easy to understand even without words. So it was my tool,
how to start reading.”
And when you came back to Czechoslovakia, it wasn’t a world completely
without comics, was it?
‘Anna Wants to Jump’, photo: Meander
“No, of course it was not. I have some comics from my grandmother –
Punťa, he was a little dog, and his girlfriend, having different kinds of
adventures, and this was from the 1930s. And then there is the big
tradition of Rychlé šípy – everybody knows them and I think almost
everybody loves them. They were also my heroes…”
They are a group of boys – the Swift Arrows – who don’t so much get
up to mischief as spend their time putting things right.
“Of course, they are completely positive heroes. But they do have some
funny character features.”
And when you were growing up, did you decide to study fine art?
“I was always drawing and I thought that I should learn something else.
So I decided to go to the theatre academy and I thought I could be a
playwright. But all the time I was drawing and I started to publish
cartoons in a magazine called Dikobraz – porcupine – at the age of
about eighteen.”
This was still in the communist period. Did you have a sense that you
could do what you wanted or were you aware of the censorship or
self-censorship that was hanging over society – because cartoons are a
very subversive medium in many societies?
“Yes. Of course the Porcupine magazine was published by communists, but
there were also people who were trying to push through some satirical
ideas. Of course it was toothless at that time, but still it was possible
to publish some cartoons that were not dealing with ideology.”
So what was the first longer comic that you did?
“Maybe it was Anča and Pepík.”
These are classic comic strip or cartoon figures – two mice having
adventures – but somehow they captured people’s imagination and became
extremely popular.
‘Anča and Pepík’, photo: Academia
“Yes. They are almost like people. The only difference is that they have
mouse heads. It’s a bit of an old-timer world, because they have no
mobile phones or computers. They are not brother and sister but they are
friends and they live in two little houses near the wall on the edge of the
city which is called Ušín – you might call it Mousetown. Some of the
stories are fairytales, some are detective stories.”
One thing that had a major impact on you was travelling to France.
“Yes, I have a special feeling for France because my first comic books
for adults were initially published in France, thanks to a series of
coincidences. Since then I published all three of my books for adults
there. My publisher lives in Angoulême which is a city where the most
famous festival in the world takes place and the whole city lives with
comics. They also have house where comics authors and animators come to. I
applied there and they gave me a grant and a residency for two months.”
And France is a world power when it comes to comic strip – bandes
dessinées. It must have been very stimulating for you being in that
environment.
“Here there are only a few of us doing comics and in Angoulême there
was a house full of about twenty people who were solving similar problems
like me. So it felt like a seventh heaven.”
The graphic novel that opened the door for you to travel to France was
“Anna chce skočit” (Anna wants to jump) which is not for children.
“No, it’s not for children. The story is not easy to describe because
the plot is very complicated. It’s like a road movie, where the events
are piling up on each other and it’s a personal story of the main
character Anna who is discovering her own history and her own family
history. She finds out that she has a twin sister and that her family
history is very firmly bound with the history of Czechoslovakia. It’s in
black-and-white and I used two graphic styles, one for dreams and for
retrospectives which are very important and the simplified black-and-white
shades of grey for the present.”
And I’d like to ask you about the book that came after Anna Wants to
Jump, which is Divoši (The Savages). Of all your books it’s probably the
one that has been most talked about and written about.
'The Savages', photo: Labyrint
“It is the story of Čerwuiš, an Indian from the Paraguayan Gran Chaco,
who was brought to Europe at the beginning of the 20th century.”
And this is a true story.
“Yes. I was fascinated by the true story. It was the reason why I chose
it.”
There is a lot of attention to historical detail, which I love in the
book. You really have gone out of your way to make sure that the backdrops
– for example Prague at the turn of the century, are very accurate.
“I studied historical photographs a lot and I was going to museums and
looking at old photographs, because the town and the society is a kind of
character in this book. The story is about how the world was changing and
how the new world is killing the old one. And the same process was
happening in the city, because Prague at the beginning of the 20th century
was a mixture of old dying houses and quarters. It was also the time when
the Jewish Quarter was destroyed and new houses were built there and the
whole society was very quickly changing. And I wanted to show the face of
the town very precisely.”
And since the book The Savages you’ve written a detective graphic novel
with a rather unusual detective in the form of an old lady investigating a
murder.
“Yes, her name is Dita Oulipská and she’s a theatre critic. I loved
this character because she’s not a very nice one, you know, she’s quite
strict and not very polite. She doesn’t look very good, but she’s a
charming personality and a very specific one. The other character is her
husband, who is a detective and they together are solving the problem of
who has killed an actor.”
And in this story you’ve returned to black-and-white from the colour of
The Savages. It’s a kind of timeless world. It could be the present but
it could also be fifty years ago.
“It’s similar to Anča and Pepík’s world because you cannot say
when it takes place. Maybe it takes place in my head only. There are no
bounds to reality.”
I’d like to ask you about being a graphic novelist in the Czech
Republic. Do you feel that it’s understood and respected in this country?
“I think now it’s changing very much. It’s only now that different
sorts of comics are appearing. It will take some time until people realize
that comics are not only for teenagers but it’s a process which is very
fast-moving.”
The world of comics is also quite often seen as a predominantly male
world.
'The Savages', photo: Labyrint
“This is connected with the fact that in the mainstream comics the
majority of them are about superheroes and it’s definitely the world of
men and boys. Girls have different kinds of heroes. But now, as comics are
changing so fast, you can even find comics which are mainly for girls and I
don’t like this dividing of the audience very much, because you never
know who will be interested.”
Where do you go from here?
“Now I am taking time out of comics because I am back at Anča and
Pepík, in that I’m doing an animation series for Czech TV, which is
based on several stories about Anča and Pepík.”
With an animated TV series at first sight I would think that it is very
similar to what you’re doing when you do a comic strip, but it’s
actually a very different skill, isn’t it?
“Comics are very different, because the reader can choose his time for
reading and can skip through the pages, and this fact of space is very
important. When you are watching a movie you are ordered to perceive it in
specific time, which is not chosen by you. It’s as though someone is
guiding you, while in comics you are your own guide.”
So you are looking forward to getting back to comics again.
“Yes, I am!”
Source:-radio.cz
Image credit: Vimanika Comics
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