Botond
Attila Fazekas is a Hungarian comic book illustrator and the last prominent representative of the old school of comic book adaptations. He was born on the 25th of July, 1948, in Keszthely. A self-taught artist, whose Western European-like realistic style appeared in the seventies.
Attila Fazekas and his characters
His first drawings were published in Magyar Ifjúság. With the help of an editor, he was commended to Ernö Zórád (the doyen of Hungarian comics) for whom he worked for as assistant for a while. His first comic book story, 'Újvári kaland' ('The Újvár Adventure'), was published in Pajtás in 1972. Soon he got to know Tibor Cs. Horváth, a leading figure of the Hungarian comic book scene of the time, who employed Fazekas to rework the illustrations of imported comics and reissues to the publishing format of Füles magazine.
The Real Ghostbusters
Cs .Horváth promoted him to Népszava in 1974 and from that year Fazekas may be regarded as a professional comic book illustrator. He has been drawing mainly comic book adaptations for Füles since 1976. These include 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame' by Victor Hugo (1979), 'The enchanted planet' by Pierre Barbet (1982), 'Ballad of the flood' by Zoltán Csernai (1982), 'The teutonic knights' by Henryk Sienkiewicz (1991), and 'The Three Musketeers' by Alexandre Dumas (1992).
Attila, a hunok csillaga (Attila, leader of the Hungarians)
In 1980, the publishing company Ifjúsági Lap-és Könyvkiadó began collecting his most popular comics stories (originally published as weekly series) in volumes that were printed in several hundredthousand copies. Some of these specials are reported to have been sold in record numbers (e.g. 100.000 copies of the adaptations of the first two 'Star Wars' movies).
In 1984, he created the character of 'Botond', whose name was borrowed from the heroic figure of the Hungarian history. In 1988 he named his own comic book magazine after the character. This title is published occasionally and until 2012, 17 issues have appeared. In 1982, the character of space adventurer 'Captain Perseus' was born, whom Fazekas modeled after himself. In the story titled 'Titkok bolygója', secessionist elements greatly influence the composition of the pages. This unique style is still a characteristic feature of all of the Perseus-stories.
Captain Perseus
His erotic comics were presented in Szexi in 1990, although the title lasted only 2 issues. Besides drawing comics, Fazekas illustrated quite a lot of novels, including the first 10 volumes of the 'Tarzan' series. In the 1990s he continued working on comics for Füles, Népszava, Szabad Föld and Füles Bagoly, most of these stories were scripted by Ferenc Kiss.
Újvár adventure
Attila Fazekas' comics have been published in almost all of the countries of the socialist block. In the 1990s he also tried to work for foreign publishers: between 1990 and 1992 Fazekas produced about a dozen 'Die echten Ghostbusters' comics for Bastei Verlag in Germany.
The Real Ghostbusters - Die Geisterstadt
In 1996 Fazekas again attempted to launch a magazine, unfortunately Képes Krónika couldn't survive after its premiere issue. In 1999 he produced the backgrounds for the video 'Persuaders', which was made for a song by Neo, a popular Hungarian electronic trio.
Botond
As a worthy appreciation of his 35-year old graphic career, Füles awarded him the Aranyceruza (Golden pencil) prize in 2006. In the same year, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian revolution of 1956, Fazekas illustrated the first comic book focusing on the subject, based on a script by Mór Bán. In 2007, 'A Gemini jelentés' ('Gemini Report') won him the Alfabéta prize (generally considered to be the Hungarian Eisner Award) awarded by the non-profit organization Magyar Képregénykiadók Szövetsége (Society of Hungarian Comic book Publishers).
Since 2004, Attila Fazekas' works have been present at various collective comic book exhibitions.(e.g. Frame Up - exhibition series in Helsinki, Tallinn and Holdudvar Gallery, Budapest).
