Kowalczuk's Comics Conquer the World
Three comic books by Polish writer Łukasz Kowalczuk have been translated to English, and more are on their way!
Łukasz Kowalczuk's cycle Violent Skate Bulldogs which describes the life of mutants from the suburbs is among the three works translated. The action of the book takes place in a dystopian city in the 25th century. The story itself is only a pretext for playing with conventions, metatextual quotes, and expressive graphics. The comic book was released in Poland under the same title. In Canada Violent Skate Bulldogs was released by Bloody Gore Comix. WP Comic Ltd., a new publishing house on the British market, picked up the mute Ultra Minion, where Kowalczuk's story was illustrated by Maciej Czapiewski. This 40-page-long comic book was at first only available online for free as a crowd funding campaign did not succeed in collecting enough money to publish the book in paper form. Ultra Minion is a sci-fi that explores the issues of totalitarianism and individuality.
Kowalczuk's authorial Szlamologia was published under the name Slime! by the American Rats and Crows Publishing after a successful collection of funds at Kickstarter. The 64-page-long album is an anthology combining the artist's works from 2015. The author stated:
3000 copies of Slime! were released, and up to now it has the biggest circulation of my career. The publisher is struggling for distribution with Diamond, the biggest American distributor of comic books, which is not easy in the case of small subjects, but I'm optimistic. The premiere of my albums would not be possible without work at the grassroots level. At the beginning of 2015 I started to break into the western market. I looked for anthologies and zines where I could publish my short stories and drawings. My works were published everywhere I received a positive response from. At the time I limited the creation of such works and focused on longer stories. My works have been published in numerous American titles (including Atomic Elbow), as well as Canadian, Chilean, Britain, German, and international publications. It gave me a certain recognition and helped me form a brand.
It is still not the end of Kowalczuk's expansion into foreign markets. Before the end of 2016 another three titles are to be published, and a few more are on their way.
My flagship series Vreckless Vrestlers about a group of mutated intergalactic wrestlers from the future should be published in English any day now. This edition will be different from the others, because particular chapters will be printed in different colours. The book will be published by Bloody Gore Comix. Later on, the American Hidden Fortress Press will release Only Wrestling is Real. It is a comic book about my fascination with American wrestling. I also illustrated Luke Toywalker's script about muscular warriors (a fake Masters of the Universe) who are after a mysterious castle. Knock-Off Wars is 36 pages long and will be published by Underworld Muscle.
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Kowalczuk underlines that he now focuses on creating works for foreign publishing houses, because it enables him to make a living out of drawing, despite the niche character of his comics.
Łukasz Kowalczuk is a teacher but has been working as a graphic designer for years. He has also played in various punk bands. Kowalczuk has a characteristic, unreal and grotesque style. Equally unreal are his plots that play the role of an excuse for pop cultural journeys through the 1990s. His works often refer to gore and camp styles.
Author: Łukasz Chmielewski, October 2016, translated by AW, November 2016
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