Georgi Chepilev: Formation of the Bulgarian Comics Genres in the Period 1890-1980 IV

Първа част: 28 май 2022

Втора част: 13 юни 2022

Трета част: 04 юли 2022

 Bulgarian comical books

The comedian observes, but does not condemn, he entertains, creating divergent characters and situations. His position is entertaining tolerance. They are the opposite of martial and uncompromising satire. Satire is mainly for moralizing or reformist purposes. She attacks evil and injustice with ideological emotionality, seeking to provoke anger in the audience. And irony attacks ignorance and stupidity, it has a calm tone and appeals to critical feeling. The Bulgarian comic books have the same separation.

There can be comical relief in everyday family and public morals, in social and political relations. Generally, the types of comical books - masquerade, absurdity, lack of knowledge or skill, etc. are diverse.

13. Cover of the satirical “Palyacho” (“Clown”) newspaper from 1925

If we look at the titles of the Bulgarian editions of the Kingdom of Bulgaria, who have published comical books: “Talasum”, “Smyah”(“Laughter”), “Smyah I Sulzi”(“Laughter and Tears”), “Cherven Smyah” (“Red Laughter”), “Palyacho” (“Clown”), “Bai Ganyu”, “Pizzo”, “Maskarad”(“Masquerade”), "Bich"(“Whip”), "Jilo"(“Stinger”), "Osa"(“Wasp”), "Dr. Kukurigu", "Crocodile", "Shtuka"(“Pike”), "Sedmichna zabava"(“Weekly fun”), "Vesela Sedmica"(“Happy week”), "Baraban"(“Drum”), etc., the attitude will be noticed of the authors to the depicted acts or the social role of the comical.

The works of this section focus on laughter, fairytale, mental gymnastics, children's picture books, etc.

Bulgarian editors and publishers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries sought through the "Funny Comics" a means to create more innocent joys and pleasures for children, because that is how fantasy and heart develop.

Children's magazines in Bulgaria

One of the first children's magazines was edited by N. Belovezhdov – “Zvezditsa” (“Star”) is the first children's magazine in Bulgaria. If you compare “Mladina”(“Youthful”) with “Star”, you will see the type and prototype. "Star" is a small booklet with light children's content, published in 10 books a year. Peter Morozov collaborated with illustrations and puzzles. “Mladina” also published comics. But because of its small volume, weird thing is seen in “Mladina” magazine: some comics are about 9 pictures (eg, "Swan's Weight", "Chimney sweeper and mason") are absurdly separated by "to be continued". Such division in a monthly magazine should not be made. With so much waiting to see what happens, readers cannot clearly grasp the meaning of the work.

The children's edition of “Kitka” was third in the chart at the time. Children's magazines until the socialist period were encouraged by the state, so their number is very large and in most of them there are short comic stories. Some of the newspapers that have published comics may include "Slaveyche", "Chavche", "Merry Squad", "Sparrow", "Trail" and many more. others.

Short comic book forms

The first Bulgarian comic book works are characterized by the readers' edification and education of their will. This desire is most clearly seen in the genres of short comic book forms - the fable and the philosophical story.

“Kumcho Valcho and the Donkey” is defined as a "fable" and it is the Bulgarian work that gave the contemporary look to this comic book genre. Stoyan Venev draws comics from different genres, but the most typical of his style is the folk tale and the fable.

Alexander Denkov also works in various comic book genres, including folk tales, instructional comics such as "Bad Word" and "Evil for Good,"

which cannot be called fables. In “The Crown of Death”, the artist shapes the genre of the philosophical fairy tale, which is an extremely allegorical method.

 A new twist in shifting the emphasis from philosophical content is the desire to build a comic book work, externally sophisticated and artistic, with an eye on the present world and the psychology of the Bulgarian person. Comic books on folk tales by Lyuben Zidarov are examples of this genre.

All three great Bulgarian comic artists are working on folk tales, but based on this principle, they present ideas through different methods.

14. Comic Book Page in Storytelling Genre, “Pravda I krivda” (“Right and amiss”) from “Iliustrovano chetivo” (Illustrated Reading) by Stoyan Venev

15. Comic book in the genre philosophical fairy tale, “Korona na smurtta”("The crown of death") from “Chuden svyat” ("The Wonderful World") by Aleksandur Denkov

Epic

It can be said that the most preferred comic book genre in Bulgarian editions of the Second World War are epic types, because they not only express the thoughts and moods of the author, but express events and circumstances of life, depict the actions and attitudes of individuals. The more important epic types that influenced the Bulgarian comics are: myth, legend, ballad, animal tales, fable, magic fairy tale, heroic poem, historical poem, epopee, idyll, narrative, novel. The synthetic worldview pervades not only tales, epics and myths, but also soul-saving tales of the wonders and exploits of the saints, of light and unclean spirits and visions in the afterlife.

Historical genre

It should be noted that the historical genre does not hold such a prominent place in the renaissance art of most European nations. And in Bulgaria this genre develops in two directions - purely historical and contemporary, reflecting current social and political events.

I would like to draw attention to the fact that the two processes - the social political and the artistic, are inseparable in the Bulgarian historical genre.

Bulgarian religious art originated the Bulgarian historical genre in two directions: purely historical and contemporary. The historical genre plays an important role as a tool for national education and patriotic propaganda.

To be shorter, I will say that the historical genre in Bulgarian comics can change its subject of image in terms of its external form and internal nature. This produces legendary-idealistic historical comics, realistically historical comics, historically retrospective and with aesthetic functions, as well as modern symbolic historical ones. Free imagination is a moment of no historical order. In it, the aesthetic aspect absorbs the historical material. These comics can be aesthetic, ironical, spicy. In these comics, a credible historical task is conveyed as a free play of fantasy, followed by stylization and taste tasks. What matters here is the perspective, ie. the artist's defined view of history.

There are numerous modules and formats in the genre of historical comics in this respect of form and content: ethical, aesthetic, abstraced philosophical.

With the book “Stematography” from the first half of the 18th century, Christopher Zhefarovich is the forerunner of Bulgarian comics.

But the first in Bulgaria's pictorial historical narrative are 6 lithographs on scenes from "Raina - Princess of Bulgaria", painted by the first Bulgarian artist Nikolai Pavlovich, who completed his studies in Western Europe. They were printed in Vienna in 1860-1874. Nikolai Pavlovich was well acquainted with German, Austro-Hungarian and Russian theaters and was the first Bulgarian professional set designer. Raina's theatrical play is of 5 acts and is full of phantasmagoras, mysterious dreams, miraculous acts, mysterious appearances and disappearances of heroes, magic, frequent changes of place and jumps of time. This characteristic is preserved in the historical comics "Conspiracy in the Palace" by Denkov and "Under Slavery" by Vl. Milev.

During the Bulgarian Revival, the axis changed from top and bottom (vertically) in icons, to near and far (horizontally) in secular motifs. That is why Pavlovich's lithography cycle has an interest in the double look, later moving on to the comics of the occult and science fiction.

Interesting is the comic book of Rayko Alexiev's "The Secret of Dreams", which forms a separate genre group with other similar works. A vivid example of a well-shaped genre for a Bulgarian science-fiction comic book is the novel in the paintings of Ivan Krastev's “The Distant Abductors”, painted by Hristo Brykov, published by “Bulgarian Artist”, 1975.

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