Fantastic Comics
Szarlota Pawel, also known as Eugenia Joanna Pawel-Kroll, was a Polish graphic artist, illustrator, and comic book writer. For many years, she collaborated with "Świat Młodych" scout newspaper, and later with "Uśmiech Numeru" magazine. She had been publishing adventures of "Jonka, Jonek and Kleks" since 1974, with its album editions released in the 1980s. The artist was hailed as the "first lady of the Polish comics", which is fully justified in view of her priceless creative contributions to the development of the genre.
While still in college, she designed shop signboards. After obtaining her diploma, one of the lecturers started searching for someone who could make comics for the editorial office of "Świat Młodych" and discovered her among the other pupils. Pawel immediately took the post, gaining a secure postgraduate job. In this way, Szarlota Pawel and the magazine began a long-lasting cooperation (until 1993). In the editorial office, she met Henryk Jerzy Chmielewski, who quickly became her authority figure. Additionally, the artist worked on press and book illustrations and magazine layouts. At the 22nd International Festival of Comics and Games in Łódź in 2011, the Association of Artists "Contur" published an anthology "W hołdzie Szarlocie Pawel"/"In Hommage to Szarlota Pawel", in which several dozen comic book artists paid tribute to the characters created by Pawel in the form of drawings and one-page comics. Earlier in 2010, the artist was awarded the Bronze Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis.
Szarlota Pawel read a lot as a child, enjoyed telling tales from an early age, and started making single comic stories at that time. She didn't write a full-format comic book until she got a job at "Świat Młodych" magazine, where she began with the "Jonka, Jonek and Kleks" adventures. It was inspired by Papa Chmiel's suggestion, who advised her to create two child heroes and one fantastical character. In addition, the father of the Polish comics provided his collegue from the editorial office with Western comics books. Chmielewski was then the head of the graphic designers at "Świat Młodych" magazine, and Szarlota recalls this collaboration very well. He had great authority, made very accurate remarks, and was more perceptive than others. When creating her stories about Kleks, Szarlota based her books on her vivid imagination, children's dreams, as well as excerpts from books, sayings, and superstitions that kids are familiar with. She played around with the plots of fairy tales. The surreal and grotesque story of "Jonka, Jonek, and Kleks" follows the extraordinary adventures of two school-age children who are accompanied by blue Kleks (Eng. "blob"), a creature that one day was born out of an inkwell. The first comic books were black and white, with color added in later issues. In the 1980s, the Młodzieżowa Agencja Wydawnicza Publishing House published six comic notebooks.
"Kubuś Piekielny"/"Hellish Kubuś" is a completely different series by Szarlota Pawel, humorously telling the story of Poles who are allotted an apartment in a newly-built block of flats. It was one of the few comic books depicting the absurdities of the communist Polish People's Republic, with the series caricaturally presenting its everyday life. The character of Kubuś was based on the son of one of Pawel's friends. When working on her stories about the specialists' behavior or defects occurring in the apartments, the artists drew inspiration from her conversations with the residents of the block of flats. The first episode was published in "Świat Młodych" magazine in 1977, with the adventures issued until 1988.
After the shutting down of "Świat Młodych" magazine, Pawel collaborated with "Uśmiech Numeru" magazine, publishing one-page comics about Kleks and Kubuś, being, however, primarily responsible for the graphic design. The magazine stopped publishing in 1996.
Szarlota Pawel was from Warsaw and published more than a thousand comic stories in the press. Her comic book albums were continuously reissued, and by 2010, more than 4 million copies had been sold. As regards her creative achievements, Pawel took a particular liking to "W pogoni za czarnym Kleksem"/"In Pursuit of Black Kleks", based on the book "In Desert and Wilderness" and her story about a conflict between concerns - "Pióro kontra flamaster"/"Pen Versus Marker". She developed intelligent stories, had a timeless sense of humor, and used her vast imagination to come up with adventures devoid of vulgarity or violence. She skillfully incorporated non-pushy educational values into her works by using satire and caricature. Her personality must have been distinctive, as Szarlota Pawel was the only woman to ever make comics for "Świat Młodych" magazine.
