The artist also drew fantasy series, such as Yans (André-Paul Duchâteau’s script, six volumes) or Skarga Utraconych Ziem (Lament of the Lost Moors, Jean Dufaux’s script, four volumes). Fame and appreciation from readers and critics alike followed the publishing of his fantasy trilogy, Szninkiel (Chninkel, Jean Van Hamme’s script), filled with biblical and pop culture references, and painted comics: The Western Album (Van Hamme’s script) and the Zemsta Hrabiego Skarbka Duology (The Revenge of Count Skarbek, Sente’s script), an interesting parody of The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. Rosiński’s francophone comics have also been published in Poland.
Apart from comic books, the artist also does paintings, acts, landscapes and battle scenes – the Cinquantenaire Museum in Brussels invited him to create a cycle of historic canvases about the Merovingian dynasty, and he designed post stamps to commemorate an episode from the Battle of the Ardennes. His paintings often relate to his comics.
Rosiński is highly valued for his mastery, his dynamic and precise realistic drawings, his visual sense and feel for telling stories through pictures. Most of his comics are drawn with a thin, black line, then filled in with colour (which he does himself). Szninkiel was originally created in black and white, only to be coloured in by the artist later. Western was the only album in which Rosiński relied on painterly techniques – this resulted in Zemsta Hrabiego Skarbka, drawn only in colour and without the use of contouring. Some Thorgal volumes were completed using a similar technique: including, for example, the last covers to the series within that universe.
Rosiński has received numerous prizes for his achievements on the francophone comics market, including two Prix Saint-Michel prizes, awarded by the city of Brussels (for the 2nd and 5th volumes of Thorgal), as well as the Prix-Albert Uderzo and two audience awards at the Angoulême International Comics Festival (for the 21st volume of Thorgal and for Szninkiel), Europe’s largest festival of this kind. The Museum in Stalowa Wola, the artist’s hometown, published a catalogue and biography, entitled Grzegorz Rosiński: Mistrz Ilustracji i Komiksu (Grzegorz Rosiński: Master of Illustration and Comics, text by Wojciech Birek). Rosiński was awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, a silver Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis and the Belgian Order of Leopold II. He lives and works in Switzerland.
Written by Łukasz Chmielewski in November 2013
Translated by: Ewa Bianka Zubek