Have you always wanted a Hungarian comic in which nothing happens? In which Lidl cashiers are grumpy and the protagonists know all Netflix series by heart?
Then Weekdays, my first comic book, is for you! Nothing really happens in this story about three siblings. For one of them reality seems darker, gloomier, more unbearable, and the other two brothers try to help him in their own ways.
So Weekdays is about depression, living with it and relating to a loved one suffering from it.
I am proud of this comic, it has grown and grown, the storyworld became more complex during the autumn, and finding its visual language has been a fun creative challenge. Special thanks to Anna Benczédi and Soma Sebesvári for their support and Metprint for the very quick printing!
The comic was launched on 3 December 2023 at the Hungarocomix comics fair in Budapest. This was also the occasion when our artist group, The Random Factor Comics Collective showed itself to the world! We started this collective in October 2023 with Anna Benczédi (RO-HU), Ivana Gecek (HR), Anamarija Kvas (HR), Masha Semashyna (UKR) and myself to give ourselves a flexible creative framework to create in. We hope to do great things in the future.
Here is my introduction from The Random Factor Comics Collective instagram page.
Meet Eszter from our collective.
“I’m in love with paper.”
Eszter Szép is a teacher and researcher of comics and visual narratives. Over the years, she came to the realization that the academic study of comics cannot be separated from practice. She is the author of the monograph Comics and the Body: Drawing, Reading, and Vulnerability (Ohio State University Press, 2020), in which she studies how the body is involved in making and interpreting comics. Her last chapter is a short comic. She teaches a lot and is super proud of her students. She has edited anthologies of her students works as well as albums surveying comics in Hungary. Her recent work is a comic book called Weekdays. Find her at @szep__eszter
“The fastest pen-slinger of the Wild East, sharp-lined and sharp-witted. She’s a project-wrangler, a schedule surfer, a mixologist and a dancer. Is there anything Eszter can’t do? She can’t help smiling at the techno party!” Anna @anna_julia_benczedi
“During the WOMCOM residency, I had the privilege of having Eszter as a mentor, which proved to be one of the most beneficial factors for my comics in the sense of expanding and growing. Personally, she is full of creative energy and willing to take on any impromptu activity + can dance for hours! She has not only united us as the collective, but also as a friendship group, and for that I am really thankful.” Kvas @kvasanamarija
“I met Eszter during the WOMCOM residency where I was lucky enough to have her as a mentor. Besides the great input she provided, she also initiated this collective, which I’m eternally grateful for. On a more personal note, I love her dry humor and witty commentary. She’s also the best tour guide of Budapest one could wish for.” Ivana @ivana_gecek
“Eszter is an incredibly supportive and attentive mentor adamant on helping her students’ bring thier creations into life. She is fond of dinosaurs and cats, ever curious, and ready to call bullshit. When she grumbles, it is also a form of art.” Masha @kraka_took
Eszter Szép 