A POSTCARD FROM ROMANIA

Old Forum Fella · Post by **Old Forum Fella** » 27 Feb 2006, 15:10

Hey there, I'm in touch with a chap from Romania and thought I'd share (with permission) some of his observations on the Romanian comics scene. It has a lot in common with ours (sadly). Ther eis another e-mail, even more detailed, but I'll post that later, I can only add in so much HTML tags before my mind goes numb.

We had a few magazines with romanian comics art but all have died. The last died a few months ago. We also have few translations like Ultimate Spider-Man, a so-called SuperEroi (SuperHeroes) mixt magazine with translation from Dark Horse crossovers such as Superman and Madman, Batman and Tarzan, Superman and Terminator and Planet of Apes and traditional kids stuff such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Tom & Jerry, Mosaik.

Occasionally we have albums too: there is an editor who publishes romanian underground comics albums (the series title is Hardcomics, nothing to do with porn) and others publishes also isolated translated albums (few Asterix albums, around 9 Garfield albums, 2 Lucky Luke albums).

There are also some imported comics magazines from Belgium and France such as Lanfeust, Fluide Glacial, Bodoi, BD Magazine, W.I.T.C.H. and from UK Dennis the Menace, Classic Comics, Beano and Commando. By the way, who on Earth is still reading these english titles in UK?

Originally posted by Paulvonscott on the old forum on 8/2/2006

Old Forum Fella · Post by **Old Forum Fella** » 27 Feb 2006, 15:11

Who's still reading UK comics? Thousands of people, that's who!

Originally posted by Anonymous on the old forum on 8/2/2006

Old Forum Fella · Post by **Old Forum Fella** » 27 Feb 2006, 15:12

I don't think you've read his question properly to be honest. He's asking who still reads these comics. Who, not how many!

Could people post their names when replying to my posts, please. It's vaguely unsettling not to have a frame of reference!

I'll post more from my postacrd later on. Paul

Originally posted by Paulvonscott on the old forum on 8/2/2006

Old Forum Fella · Post by **Old Forum Fella** » 27 Feb 2006, 15:12

Yeah lots of folk still reading UK comics and enjoying them, strange comment in a way but I think he may be refering to the fact that many old titles (Lion, Buster, Victor, Beezer, Wizard etc) have now disappeared - Comics like everything else, it seems, are going global (ie American) -OK sorry to sound like a rabid Scottish Nationalist here, (I am, but I am also chuffed to be British as well) but its a MAJOR peeve of mine - they are NOT "English" comics at they are BRITISH Comics ( most are published in Scotland and England ) - and he wasnt refering to English language in this case.

Originally posted by Jock McHaggis on the old forum on 8/2/2006

Old Forum Fella · Post by **Old Forum Fella** » 27 Feb 2006, 15:13

The chaps from Romania, cut him a break! :p The whole british, English, United Kingdom thing is very confusing for people overseas! He just knows them as English, the comics aren't conspicuously Scottish in accent or outlook as far as I can see.

The only hint of it I picked up when I was a kid was the Jocks and The geordies, which as someone living in North East England made no sense to me whatsoever! I knew nobody who wore a bowler hat and was that posh! Plus the English were always the bad guys, nothing chnages I guess.

Originally posted by Paulvonscott on the old forum on 8/2/2006

Old Forum Fella · Post by **Old Forum Fella** » 27 Feb 2006, 15:14

More comments on the Romanian scene, in more detail.

By the way, now that you mentioned Dandy being the oldest UK ongoing comics title, I realized that is also imported in Romania, together with Beano, Dennis the Menace, Commando and Classic Comics. I forgot to tell you about the new edition of Pif magazine which is imported from France. I buy it because is the only foreign comics magazine which was available (limited availability) under the comunist regime from Romania, when I was kid.

Pif was the comics magazine which was supported or edited by the french socialist party so you can figure out why was tolerated by the comunist system from Romania. More than this, one of the most popular characters from Pif Magazine, who's name is Rahan, had reprinted his adventures in albums (such as the Chronicles of Judge Dredd albums, but coloured) which were printed in the comunist Romania (!).

Later I found out that even some beautiful hardcover Superman albums were printed here, but they were never aloud to be sold on the romanian comunist market. So the pupil who were born around 1968 (as myself) grew up with these french comics titles (Pif and RAHAN). Now, the new generations are more american oriented.

Here you have one online address where you can see the complete scans (made by a devoted fan) of Quadrat nr. 1 (1996), which is considered by me and many others to be the best 100% romanian comics achievement after the anti-comunist revolution (december 1989).

Unfortunately, Quadrat Magazine died after 2 numbers, I suppose because of totally lack of publicity and because it has been very poorly spread around the country. http://www.visualart.ro/forum/showthread.php?t=6325

The following online address is of the underground Hardcomics (only romanian authors published by my knowledge) which issued 4 albums up to this moment. http://www.hardcomics.ro/ Go to the "Old Sait" (Old Site) link section and you'll be able to see a few samples from the first 2 albums published. Warning! Some samples have explicit sexual content by I wouldn't call it pornography.

The latest romanian comics magazine which died around 2 months ago was called CARUSEL (new edition) and it had mix-content: romanian comics short stories and translations of some Conan and Aliens Dark Horse series.

I think that the 2 numbers which appeared were totally sponsored by Sandu Florea, a romanian comicbook artist who lives in USA at this moment and works as inker for Marvel, Dark Horse and many other publishers. He also published some of his work in CARUSEL, some comics created with romanian colaborators, some with american ones.

Unfortunately, I don't have any other online address then the following which shows you only the covers of the 2 numbers. Cover of Nr. 1 is made (pencil+ink) by Sandu Florea and cover of Nr. 2 is made by Tudor Popa who also worked for Quadrat (cover of nr.1 and also the first painted serial title "Aranca") http://www.caruselbd.blogspot.com/

Originally posted by Paulvonscott on the old forum on 8/2/2006

Old Forum Fella · Post by **Old Forum Fella** » 27 Feb 2006, 15:14

what i've seen of romanian comics has not been aimed at kids. i don't know much about non-british comics but i was under the impression that european non-british comics tend to have a longer and more developed narrative than british ones. has romanian comics scene developed independantly from that of say france, belgium, netherlands? do other countries have the same style of short stories (e.g. dennis, calamity james, bash st.)? anybody here an expert on the development of comics outside of the uk? it might be interesting to compare and contrast that with the uk scene.

Originally posted by HighAndMighty on the old forum on 8/2/2006

Old Forum Fella · Post by **Old Forum Fella** » 27 Feb 2006, 15:14

Ignorence is no excuse hee-hee - I know all to well what you mean re the UK - English thing as I regularly work overseas a lot -now honestly I wasn't being (very) serious, but it is VERY gauling - its a feeling English people will not experience due to their justified global importance and its not anti English thing either , but you would look funny if he said I like those Welsh comics (same thing really) - I am still miffed at the Great Brit books oroiginal sub title (which is still used in advertising) noting "a history of Englands best artists etc" - Beleive me Romanians hate to be called Bulgarians or worse yet Hungarians - now please Its only a wee peeve and I'm half pulling your legs its said in jest don't you get (not Paul) all Duke of Cumberland on my ass lol. THE Thread itself is interesting cheers Paul

Originally posted by Haggisman on the old forum on 8/2/2006

Old Forum Fella · Post by **Old Forum Fella** » 27 Feb 2006, 15:15

Heh, yeah, I know you weren't being deadly serious.

And I can see how you might get annoyed by it, but hey, I'm English, that's not my problem :p

Now please don't cross over the border to steal my pies (or whatever they got up to in Jock's and The Geordies, it really was that long ago - 25 years?). Is that still running by the way? I'm sure it was some sort of propaganda preparing for another invasion of Northumbria, even living in the North East I was on the Jocks side, the Geordies were abysmal.

Originally posted by Paul 'English' Scott on the old forum on 8/2/2006