Antal Bayer: You studied dramaturgy and even worked in this field for a year. Why did you leave this area, and why did you choose to return to the theatre in your comics?
Lucie Lomová: It was in August 1989 that I started working in theatre. Actually I wasn’t sure how long I would stay there, but three months later the revolution came and everything turned upside down. I spent one very nice season in the North Moravian Theatre in Šumperk, but then I decided to return home to Prague and become a freelancer, which wasn’t so easy then. I worked as a journalist for some time, but soon started doing comics as a main job. I still like the theatre very much and feel close to it, not only as an art form, but I love also the world behind the scene, where people have very close relations and are completely dependent on mutual cooperation and trust. Working together on a performance has its ups and downs but it is obviously completely different from working alone at home as a comic author. I have some personal experience both as a theatrical creator and critic, so when I was asked to make comics for one theatre magazine, naturally I decided to choose this milieu. For the first time I made a comics called Tyl’s guard, and when they asked me again, I decided to try a detective story linked to the theatre environment.
AB: By the way, how did you start out in comics? Were your influences mainly Czech or foreign? Who were your favourite characters or artists, and who do you like now?
LL: I have been drawing and writing since childhood. I loved the Punťa comics from the 1930-s inherited from my mom, and also a milestone of Czech comics, the Rychlé šípy series (Speed Arrows, a group of five boys experiencing different adventures) by Jaroslav Foglar (script) and Jan Fischer or Marko Čermák (drawings), which are still very popular. When I was five, our family moved to Chicago because my father, who is a parasitologist, got a job at the university there. I discovered colour TV with long Sunday morning cartoon shows and American comics magazines for children and I fell under their spell. After a year in the US, we returned to Czechoslovakia in 1970. This felt like a cold shower and I started having dreams about going back. I think this American year had a big impact on me, but I was influenced by everything I saw and read and experienced, I can’t pick out just a few things. I’ve always loved Art Nouveau illustrations like those by Artuš Scheiner, but also Czech illustrators Radek Pilař, Helena Zmatlíková and of course Josef Lada, who is probably the most famous Czech illustrator. You may know his drawings for Good soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek.
The Hungarian Comics Association is happy to announce that the 11th Budapest International Comics Festival will take place on Sunday, May 10th 2015, in Dürer Kert. Our official partner will once again be the Képes Kiadó publishing house with whom we have signed a long-term agreement for the organization of the festival.