'Worlcombe Mystery'.
György Szitás was a Hungarian comic book artist, born on 5 April 1926 in Szarvas as György Szloszjár. Szloszjár changed his name to Szitás in 1954. He gained admission to the Hungarian College of Arts and Crafts in 1948, from where was removed after his first semester due to false accusations.
'The Day of an American Journalist in 2889' (Jules Verne).
In 1951, Szitás began working for Ifjúsági Lapkiadó Vállalat. His first illustration was published in Pajtás on 15 March 1951. Commissioned by Pajtás, he produced his first comic book story titled 'The Adventures of the Explorer Patrol' in the same year, based on a script by Péter Teknos. This is a fine example of comics with captions (without balloons), although the artist's unconventional graphic design is already present.
Self-portrait.
In spite of the fact that Szitás was a self-taught artist, his characteristic and sophisticated style is evident both in his early and later works. Szitás had an intuition of the potentials of science fiction and he could make use of it.
'Rocambole'.
In 1957, Szitás conjured up Agades on the pages of Tábortuz, while in 1970, Füles presented a Captain Pirx-story, Stanislaw Lem's 'Worlcombe Mystery', adapted by Szítás.
'Rocambole'.
In 1968, Szitás scripted and drew 'Rocambole', based on Ponson du Terrail's classic pulp series. Like many Hungarian illustrators of the period, Szitás too adapted mainly classic literary works. He retired from Ifjúsági és Lapkiadó Vállalat, his first and only workplace. Szitás had been a member of MÚSZ, the Society of Hungarian Journalists from 1976 to his death in February 2000.
György Szitás.