Ph.D. OLTSEN GRIPSHI
Albanian graphic history is not short drawings, but in terms of photography and its characters. In the scientific studies as part of the Creative Europe project “Creative Europe” “an for Balkans”, this history has been described for the first time, researching and tracing various authors who over the years have shaped thanks to their creations history of the Albanian graphic novel.
This new artistic genre began to develop after the Second World War in Albania and the establishment of a new political system, the communist one. The period from 1945 to 1991 was the year in which the Albanian graphic novel reached extremely professional and diverse levels. In the first years after the war and the establishment of the first review for children which have turned into a great environment for their cultivation.
Undoubtedly the graphic novels created during the conflict in a common spirit and community of Albania that connected them between them, that of propaganda accessible communist ideas, but the skills of the artists in this period occupy created different languages. extensions with diverse stories of graphic novels such as: pantomime, legendary, political and fictional graphic novels.
Undoubtedly, this investigation does not stop only in this direction, it seeks to clarify the journey of the history of Albanian graphic novels from the beginning, the metamorphosis suffered over the years and until starting in our modern times. A scientific research, which shows and treats for the first time the theme of graphic novels in Albania, extending its map in time and in many directions.
Often in the journey of Albanian graphic novels, a lot has happened, that good painters have not reached the same level in the artistic genre of the graphic novel. But, there are also many Albanian cartoonists, who have cartoons made especially for the magazine Hosteni, they have created very beautiful and imaginative graphic novels for the magazine Fatosi and Yllkat. Albanian artists have known how to make a good distinction between the genre of graphic novels, otherwise known as comics, which is easily recognizable compared to the illustration of children’s books, posters or other genres.
This scientific research elaborates the entire developmental track of this genre from its beginnings to our days, touching step by step the method, methodology and meeting points of the Albanian graphic novel comparable to the foreign one. The research extends over time and as such is very large, dividing it into three central axes: the first introductory part, elaborates on various issues of the origin of the world graphic novel with all its features. The second part focuses entirely on the birth and development of the Albanian graphic novel during the period of Socialist Realism in Albania. The period during which the first magazines after ’45 were founded such as: Hosteni, Fatosi, Pionieri, Yllkat, Ylli and November which come today as the most vivid evidence of the cultivation of this artistic and impressive genre in the creation of cartoon characters in Albania . While the third part focuses on examining the contemporary Albanian graphic novel after ’90, analyzing through it many phenomenological-anthropological aspects with the reawakening of attention to reflect Albanian legends. The Ministry of Culture of Albania also paid special attention to the evidence of Albanian legends in graphic novels, which in 2014 established the first national graphic novel competition after the 1990s.
Thanks to the chronological development time description and detailed aesthetic-stylistic analyzes for some of the most representative Albanian graphic novels, this scientific study turns into a vademecum[la] for all readers and new creators in this field.
The diversity of the Albanian graphic novel, as well as artists such as Agim Faja, Safo Marko, Enriko Veizi, Bujar Zajmi, Anastas Kostandini, etc., created universes that would awaken new worlds, unknown and previously unexplored, within young readers. thanks to meeting and getting to know the most iconic Albanian cartoon characters. This, because the interactive power of communication and education through the graphic novel of small age groups was impressive as a whole and even more so when it belonged to Albanian creators.