The Children’s Programme of the 21st edition of the International Comics Festival CRŠ – Zagreb Comic Con brings us a great exhibition of one of the most productive Croatian cartoonists Krešimir Biuk. The exhibition will include original pages, covers, sketches and illustrations, and will be held at the Barrel Gallery of the Home of the Croatian Association of Fine Artists (HDLU) from 11 to 13 May 2018.
Krešimir Biuk was born in Zagreb in 1974. He graduated from the Electrical Engineering School “Tesla” in 1993. He has been drawing comics since he was a boy. He received no official artistic education, which he claims can be seen in his drawings, but he loves comics so much he couldn’t stop making them even if he wanted to. In 2000, he won second prize at CRŠ’s one-page-comics competition themed “pig”. He works in the technical department of Croatian Radio and Television, and “doodles” in his free time. He claims he is not a comic artist, but for someone who is not a comic artist, he sure has a seriously big bibliography. Tell him a joke, share a piece of gossip, mispronounce a word, and Biuk will draw a comic about it. But not just a strip or a panel: a whole series! Tell him you wish you had a script to draw, and Biuk will send you a script for the first episode of a series the next day. Comics give him life, and life itself is poured into his comics. And everything in his comic books really happened. Maybe it was smaller in scale, less fictionalized, and not as exaggerated – but it’s all true! In his comics, the line between reality and its interpretation is often blurry.
From 1999 to 2006 he drew for the children’s monthly called Prvi izbor, drawing and writing the comics “Detektivi” (1999-2002), “Mala Tiki” (2003-2005, 2008 – 2010), “Krznate priče” (2005 – 2006) and “Sukići” (2011 – 2012). His work was published in the Bruh magazine (“Romero”, 2001), Q-strip magazine (“Pumfi”, 2004-2006, “Policajci s plaze”, 2008, and “Bubism”, 2012), Mister Mačak Magazine (2006- …, “Brabonjaste priče”), Modra lasta (where he replaced Darko Macan in script-writing “Modra”), Sergej strip (2006 – 2008, “Fort Wayne”, written by Darko Macan). He has published the books “Pumfi” (2007), “Dabar i los” (2011), “Biukovo” (2016) and “Deni Sparina” (2017). He is the creator and script-writer of all six episodes of the omnibus-album called “Parlight Starlov”, to be published by Crtani romani šou in 2018.
He has illustrated several textbooks for Školska Knjiga publishing house. Lately, he has gotten into drawing storyboards and in 2014 he illustrated the music video for the song Red Ferrari by Croatian singer Mladen Grdović. The illustration from Q-magazine was published in the Italian edition of a book about one of the most important contemporary comic authors: “Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman”.
Biuk’s comics correspond to the latest trends in children’s comics, and communicate with children in a way that is contemporary and timely, which gained them a faithful following. His works are published in youth and kids’ magazines, and the fact that he often writes his own scripts makes him a well-rounded author. The exhibition is primarily intended for elementary school children, but due to the high level of artistic expression and popularity of this artist, who has a big “adult” following, too, the exhibits will be able to communicate with both kindergarteners and grown-ups at the same time.