Five years ago we used to say that selling comics in Romania was like trying to sell ice-cream to Inuits. Four years later we can proudly state that it now resembles selling pork in Palestine.
Hardcomics began 6 years ago in the city we call Bucharest. The birthchild of Serbian graphic designer Milos Jovanovic and Romanian animator Matei Branea, later on to be joined by Street artist Andy Sinboy. The meeting of these comic fans spawned Romania’s first independent (and back then only) comic book publication. The first issue called "Aaarghh" was made by Romanian painter and illustrator Roman Tolici, a bizarre, neurotic and abstract compilation of sex, violence, love and beauty. The second issue was by our own Matei Branea and his lovably chainsmoking character Omulan. This issue was mute and looked at man’s relationship with a God which is enforced on him, as well as how to get extremely high and party. For the third issue we captured a million pigeons and tied messages to their neck, telling people that we were going to publish a compilation of Romanian comics, professional or amateur, if it made us chuckle or think it was going in. After a few months we were proud to present a compilation comic book featuring different styles from 28 artists. At the time there was no other means of publishing physical comic books in Romania.

Romania’s history with comics is sparse and vague. During communism only a few titles were available, such as Rahan and Pif. These titles were successful with children, but due to there not being any other comics available, people would eventually lose interest and cease reading comics. These were the main titles, but we must add that we are pleasantly surprised every once in a while when we find some comic that was published during Communism by a small, long forgotten press. After the 1989 revolution some attempts were made to bring comics into Romania. Huge titles such as Asterix or Superman fell flat on their face and were cancelled after a few issues. However in the last couple of years some books have started to appear on the market, such as Tin Tin, Spiderman (a success thanks to the films) and even reprints of classic Rahan (bought by 30 year old kids). As well as this there has been an increasing interest in Manga culture, fore fronted by the Otraku crew.
Since we began, we have grown from a small company of three people to a massive corporation with one boss, two exhausted employees and a horny cat. Our first issues were self financed, but we were fortunate to have made a statement and produced some quality books which have gotten noticed by cultural institutions such as the Romanian Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC) which sponsored the print for the compilation 'Hardcomics 6 - The Anthology'.
Our latest issue is yet another compilation, 'the sex issue' where we can find the sexual experiences and deviance of Romania's underground artists, as well as some international fetishists. Dick jokes aside, it's sexy.
Comic book culture in Romania is still next to zero. You can barely find a couple of international comics in two specialized bookshops in Bucharest. Nonetheless we are sticking to our horses, providing a platform for anyone who enjoys frames and speech bubbles as a form of communication, interaction, entertainment or masturbation.
We aren’t holding our breath for our first million, but we hope that in time we will be recognized for being there when no one else was.

www.hardcomics.ro