After Bartosz Sztybor, it is his regular collaborator's, artist Piotr Nowacki's turn to answer a few questions before the festival. Again, Aneta Kaczmarek helped with the translation.
Antal Bayer: Can Polish artists choose to make a career out of comics, by volunteering for a popular series or character, or are they more or less condemned to do something by themselves and then try to get it published?
Piotr Nowacki: Currently, the Polish market has no series that would be published for years and offer an opportunity for young talented artists to continue them. Honestly speaking, there were some efforts were made to reactivate a few of the vintage, popular titles such as Kajko i Kokosz by Janusz Christa or Kapitan Żbik, created in the Communist era by different artists. Despite the initiative these series were not successful. The young generation of artists has to create their own heroes and series and try hard to get them published. What I am mostly fond of in creating comics is designing my own characters and worlds. I do hope that in the future my characters and books will become as popular with readers as the classic ones remembered by the generations of Poles who grew up on them.
AB: You used to be the editor-in-chief of a magazine called Karton. What was it like, does it still exist? Did you like doing it, and why did this come to an end?