Dr. Jose Alaniz, University of Washington-Seattle, will discuss post-Soviet Russian comics. Since their rocky origins in the tumultuous 1990s, post-Soviet Russian comics have weathered a shattered economy; domination of the market by foreign brands; and deep public disdain for the form as inherently frivolous. Much of the material produced in this era – in such genres as science fiction, adventure and humor – proved of such shoddy quality as to confirm Russian preconceptions of comics as subliterate trash. With the autobiographical work of Nikolai Maslov in the mid-2000’s the tide began to turn; unfortunately, Maslov could only publish his comics abroad. But partly as a reaction to Putinism, a wave of “serious” graphic narrative has definitively crested. In this talk, Dr. Alaniz examines the exciting new trend of non-fiction Russian comics. The “graphic reportage” of Viktoria Lomasko (since 2010); Askold Akishin’s My Comics Biography (2013); the travelogue Bordeaux-St. Petersburg by Varya Pomidor and French artist François Ayroles (2013); and My Sex by Lena Uzhinova (under the pen name Alena Kamyshevskaya, forthcoming) represent a leap forward in length, sophistication, and maturity for Russian comics, which for the first time are attaining the critical and popular respect long afforded graphic narrative in other countries.
