I hear crickets.

It's been awfully quiet around here. I'm currently visiting friends and family and counting down the days until my flight back to Slovenia. I am very excited.

I have some Slovenia-related stories wanting to come out and say hello. Maybe over the weekend? Let's hope.

Slovenia and comics.

Now that my comic book love is made public (well, that's not really big news - I tend to write about comics in my "home blog") I should take the opportunity to mention that I'm very interested in Balkan comics (Slavic comics?) as well. I'm aware of Stripburger and I just bumped into Tonci Zonjic's blog, so obviously there's much more out there.

My first foray into European comics, much like many other North Americans, was TinTin and Asterix. I wouldn't really count the Smurfs: I found them irritating and I didn't even know they were based on a European comic: Belgian, I believe. I was heavily invested in Heavy Metal, which introduced me to French, Spanish and Italian artists.

Anyway, about a couple of years ago I finally got around to reading more bande dessinée and presently I'm hunting for more. The techniques used in European comics are markedly different from their North American counterparts, such as pacing, line work (I find European artists aim for cleaner lines, I could be proven wrong if someone showed me an example) and overall format.

I'm still on the lookout for anything relevant - feel free to post suggestions or recommendations!