Here’s an interview with Nina Bunjevac, a great cartoonist in Toronto who (I think) gets often overlooked. She’s taught for Toronto’s Maxx the Mutt, she participates in Nuit Blanche with her installations, and lately she’s been included in Mineshaft, an underground zine from the US that also publishes Robert Crumb, Jay Lynch and Art Spiegelman, among others. Sophie Crumb drew the cover graphic for this issue, Robert Crumb provided an overlay in red, and Nina’s graphic (on the left here) graces the back cover.
Here’s an excerpt of Nina talking about the comics scene in the Balkans:
“Thave taken it, the comics, the medium of comics, really seriously. And just what we were talking about, in some ways, I can see that the scene in the Balkans is about 20 years ahead of North America. And I’m talking generationally, I’m talking about this generation doing work. I mean I can’t categorize the whole population of North American comic book artists. But as far as our generation goes, the people over there in Europe are way way far ahead. Especially as a community. These people get together and draw regularly, and there’s always certain events and we’re talking about a country who have been economically exhausted, there’s hardly any money–but there’s always money coming from somewhere to publish a new book, a new magazine.”
Thanks Dave! Great art!