Michael D Hamersky On Comics Presents...   A 'Report' From Poland On... The Current Status Of The Polish Comic Books Industry Thanks to Waldek Juszczyk, Kraina komiksu, and Others!

TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #3598 -  I don't normally go into the fact here at this blog that my surname was originally 'Hamerski', which was 'Germanized' in 1866 when my earliest ancestors emigrated to the USA from 'West Prussia'.  I usually leave that to my Hamerski / Hamersky / Hammersky & Allied Families Newsletter Facebook Fan Page, (unabashed plug!).

However, I recently became Facebook Friends with Waldek Juszczyk of Poland, (pictured to the left), who is a comic book enthusiast, and I couldn't help but ask him about the state of the comic books industry in that country.

He deferred it to friends of his at Kraina komiksu, which has a Facebook Fan Page, as seen here.

Thanks to them, and Waldeck, I am able to reprint their 'report' on the 'status of the Polish Comic Books Industry' as seen from their viewpoint.  The 'report' is translated as best as possible into English by them, and it is the 'status' that I more interested in / concerned about, than the usage of English.

Here is the 'report', which I found to be blog worthy, and I believe you will too!

"Comic books publishers (comercial ones) avoid (with few exceptions) publishing work of polish comic book authors. There are undoubtedly few reasons. The major reason is fear, that it won't sell. But It's difficult to sell them, because knowledge about modern polish artists is not very common in society. No more than few hundreds are interested in this subject. It is not profitable for publisher, to commit to this business. Anyway, printing in 300 copies in fundamental way will have repercussion on price. I don't think that anyone (except real fans) in this country will pay 40/50 PLN, for a copy of Mei Wong album (she is talented polish underground artist), even if it will be most beautiful exclusive edition. It is linked with absolute lack of advertising. To be honest, no one writes about comics in Poland, only comic book pages and magazines. Publishers are absolutely no interested in it. Yes, I know - advertising costs, for example, on Wirtualna Polska will be surely very high. The truth is cruel. Without advertising there will be no selling.

We must move our asses, and go to the people with this topic/matter. To new, potential consumer. Literally - let's say with presentations/expositions/meetings in schools/ etc. What we have, is still referred to previous comicmaniacs. So, except reprints of "Tytus, Romek i A'Tomek" (famous series of Henryk Chmielewski) and "Kajko i Kokosz" (masterpiece of recently died author - Janusz Christa) albums, we can expect (especially new ones) not much comic books in near future. I wrote "not much", because something is of course published. Resolute problem is virtually lack of reprints (except, of course, mentioned before "Kajko i Kokosz" and "Tytus, Romek i A'Tomek", and foreign titles like "Asterix", or "Thorgal"). Someone, who, for example, will be suddenly interested in comics, simply will not buy many titles (same polish, like foreign authors work). Never.

Prices. In many cases are abstract. Comic books are much more expensive than in West - sometimes even two/three times more. With small (1000 - 2000 copies) edition, there is allegedly difficult to have it for cheapest price, but higher circulation are not in plans. Interesting thing is, that many titles have 15 - 20% discount even before sell started. .. Zins and comic books/albums are published directly by artists or small, niche publishers. Cool. For sure, but there is one "but", and it's serious one. Circulations are what they are, and will not be higher. Problem is the distribution. Last year we had bloom of Zins with its peak event - Comics Warsaw and MFKiG (Międzynarodowy Festiwal Komiksu i Gier - International Festival of Comics and Games). If someone didn't come and buy one copy at place or pre-ordered it, not long after event have no reason to contact with authors cause all of the copies were sold out. Major part of circulation was bought on festival or was distributed by artist among other artists. Well, so stop their tears if they cry , when nobody will recognize them... I think, it is worth to choose some internet bookstores like sklep.gildia.pl or incal.com.pl, and successively give them part of the published albums. It will not harm to remember about obligatory copy for Jagiellonian Library and National Library. Not only authors, but publishers as well, forget about it. Surely it will be cool to have something for next generations in this places. ~Comicland."

I have posted three comic book covers at the top of this blog post.

The first one, next to this blog's logo: "Tytus, Romek i A'Tomek ( eng. Tytus, Romek, and A'Tomek) is the longest-published and one of the most popular Polish comic book series, created by Henryk Jerzy Chmielewski (aka Papcio Chmiel) in 1957 and concluded in 2009. It centers around Romek and A'Tomek, two boy scouts, and Tytus de Zoo, a chimpanzee with the ability of human speech."  The rest of the article can be found at this link.

The second one is:  "Funky Koval is a 3-part Polish science fiction/detective story/political fiction genre comic book published in People's Republic of Poland in the 1980s. It gained a cult following and is still recognized as one of the best Polish comics."  The rest of the article can be found here.

The third one is: "Captain Kloss (Kapitan Kloss) is a fictional World War II secret agent appearing in the 18-episode 1967-1968 Polish television series Stawka większa niż życie (Direct Translation: More Than Life at Stake; DVD Movie Translation: Playing for High Stakes; Popular Translation: You Bet Your Life), following earlier live television theater plays. It was, and still is, widely popular in Poland."  Rest of article is found in this link.

For more background on Polish Comics... Please see this Wikipedia entry. .

In the private messages that Waldek sent to me, he pretty much verified several of the comments in that entry, without being asked.  So I would suspect that the rest of the wiki is pretty much correct.

My thanks again to Waldek Juszczyk for obtaining this information for me from Kraina komiksu, and obtaining the permission to print it here.  

Kraina komiksu has a Facebook Fan Page that you can look at and then 'Like' as well.

As a USA citizen whose Hamersk(i)y family originated from Poland, I found the above article that was sent to me to be a fascinating one, and of interest to me also as a comics fan, which is why this has been published here today!

~Michael D Hamersky On Comics!

NOTE FROM Michael D Hamersky On Comics:  My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now at 3,598 total posts in number!   I do appreciate your continued reading and support of this Blog!

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Note:  My online 'Local' Comic Book Shop (LCBS), carries many different genres of comics, magazines, graphic novels, and comic con promotional items. Possibly even copies of the item(s) that was mentioned here today...!  If I have it, you'll find under the BIG TOP of Comics, at Comic Books Circus.com, including the book 'Gotham City 14 Miles' that I am shown holding to the left. I'm 1 of 14 essayists in that book! !     

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