One of the greatest honors of my life has been to keynote at the joint conference of IGNCC and IBDS (International Graphic Novels and Comics Conference, International Bande Dessinée Society).
COMPLEX, our collectively made choose-your-own-adventure comic is out!
In COMPLEX, you can navigate between many storylines. It starts out at an art exhibition, and depending on your choices, you can test gravity on various space objects, challenge patriarchy with cats, or can help our heroes survive their poor life choices. This is THE choose your own adventure comic from the Balkans that you would not want to miss!
Last autumn I had the pleasure to co-teach a one-week practical workshop on making comics and feminism. This practical workshop was attended by young creative women studying at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, and and they were so dedicated and hard-working, that we managed to publish an anthology of our work. My co-teacher, Nikoletta Mihalik took on the role of designing our booklet, which contains a lot of 2-page comics on the experience of being a young woman in Hungary today. Topics include body image, work-life balance, wrestling, and the most popular topic is the weigh of expectations.
I spent the first half of this year in the USA as a Fulbright Visiting Researcher at the University of Oregon. I cannot tell you how privileged I feel for having been given this grant and the opportunity to immerse myself into the world of comics.
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? ThenWeekdays, 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.
I am honored to be a mentor and advisor in WOMCOM, a groundbreaking 6-country comics initiative that aims at creating a network for women and non-binary creators in the very patriarchal comics cultures and societies of Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia.
It Used to Be Easy: Comics about Growth and Change is out now!
The comics were made by MA studentsof MOME ANIM during our Storytellings with Comics course in November 2022. These are personal and cool comics. It was a pleasure to work with the students both as an instructor as an editor: they were eager to learn, listened to advice, and kept very tight deadlines. I absolutely loved teaching this course.
This past year I’ve been part of the History in Comics research project, initiated by Eli Woock at Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic. We have had meetings, presentations, and discussion every second month, and we have had a great time. This research group meant that I could get connected to other comics scholars and I could think about questions that are not part of my usual what the fuck is going on in Hungary? routine. I have learnt a lot from the project participants, who are:
This is the abstract of the paper that I will present next week in Dún Laughaire at the International Graphic Novels and Comics Conference. The theme of the conference is “Comics and Conscience: Ethics, Morality, and Great Responsibility”
„I spotted you on TV, you have 10 minutes to get back home” – Comics of the Lebanese Revolution
Eszter Szép 