People still read comics despite enormous competition from the internet and other media technologies - this is the impression that was created after the International Festival of Comics and Cartoons, held between 8-15 October at Prizren's Hamam gallery.
Comic and cartoon artists from 36 countries took part in this seventh consecutive festival. Among them were artists from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Malaysia, Turkey and Romania.
Their work ranged from topics such as ecology and fantasy to bribery and corruption. The festival also included a number of workshops where many lovers of this "ninth art" were involved.
Gani Sunduri, president of the Kosovo Comic Book Artists' Association, interpreted the great interest by visitors as a good omen that comics, regardless of all the challenges of modern times, do have a future.
"I believe that this is the way to put comics back in their rightful place and to establish cooperation with our colleagues from other countries, which is an ongoing process. The internet and other forms of modern technology have taken away our readers and comic lovers. Yet, I believe it is but for a short while. Comics are still being read because nothing can replace that particular pleasure", Sunduri told Southeast Europe: People and Culture.
Sunduri has won many prizes and is one of the co-authors of the only comic book made up to now in Kosovo. He says that they and like-minded people from the region organized the first festival in 2004, after coming to the conclusion that there was enough interest among people and that this was the best way to preserve comics and caricature.
Sunduris works were exhibited in Belgrade and Leskovac (Serbia), Makarska and Split (Croatia), Bulgaria and Skopje (the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) where, he says, he has many friends and colleagues.
The Kosovo Comic Book Artists' Association Xhennet Comics has around 300 members. Among them is the popular caricaturist Jeton Mikulovci, who publishes his works twice a week in the widely circulated Koha Ditore daily newspaper.
Mikulovci took part in a number of festivals and has received a number of awards abroad. In 2002, he published a book of caricatures entitled Jesmo gde jesmo (We are where we are), together with a comic cartoon in English called Willy the Verifier. Mikulovci's caricatures have, from time to time, appeared also in prestigious French, Danish, Swiss and U.S. newspapers.
The festival in Prizren was also attended by Murat Mihcioglu, president of the Turkish comics company Expix, and the famous Turkish Cartoonist Yalcin Didman. Their aim was to offer support for talented cartoonists from the region.
