Do you like comics?

When I was a kid, I could hardly wait for two weeks till new Alan Ford, the cult comic book of my Yugoslav youth would hit the stands. I shared this passion and old issues with my older sister and we both still have our humble stashes of these comics in our homes, and a small batch of them at the no man’s land (my mother’s house). I guess one thing about comics is that they are not made for solitary reading. The passion for them should be shared. Issues too. And then talk about them or cleverly interweave lines into your dialogue.

I haven’t been reading any comics till this year a dear friend – a man of words who had recently rediscovered his passion for books of drawings – slipped me two hardbound volumes of Zoran Smiljanić’s Meksikanarji. And a reading suggestion. I followed his advice, Took some time of one Friday morning and sat in a local cafe, reading the first volume. By the end of the first book, I was so into the story that I ordered another cup of coffee and took out the second volume. Now I’m in the waiting period, which will take more than two weeks. A month later I learned that it will take around a year or so before part three comes out, and probably two more before the story is finished. It’s going to be a long wait.

The story of Meksikanarji (The Mexicans) is about a few hundred Slovene volunteers who in 1864 joined the Habsburg emperor Maximilian I (Franz Joseph’s younger brother) in his short-lived Mexican adventure. Very cinematic, rich with details as well as historical facts, the story complements Maximilian’s adventures with that of Slovene volunteers. I really like Smiljanić’s attention to details – the butcher sign in the pic above can be found hanging above (now closed) butcher shops in Kamnik’s old town. Speaking about attention to visual details, click here to see how the prize decorators in the neighbouring building rearanged their lights.

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