What would happen if the son of a seasoned and adored comic author, who is also a comic author, met a living character from his father's series - is the question that Igor Kordej dealt with in Texas Kid, my brother
Igor Kordej is a kind of legend of the comics scene in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. He is one of the most respected authors, and certainly one of the most fruitful. From the comic beginnings associated with the New Square in the second half of the 80s, Korday has been continuously engaged in comics, illustration and design until today. First as a popular author of domestic editions, and then for European and American publishers, Kordei built himself as a drawing brand that is recognized all over the world.
His comic was recently published in the "Međuvreme" edition of the Veseli Thursday publishing house Texas Kid, my brother, which can also be considered a monument to all comics, comic lovers and authors in our region.
Texas Kid, my brother was formally created according to the prose template of the same name by Darko Macan. We say "formally" because it is a comic book adaptation of a story created more than two decades ago, for which Macan left creative freedom and copyright to Kordej. As soon as he read the short story – in 2002, as Corday states in the afterword of the comic – he started thinking about its comic adaptation. However, it took more than two decades for that adaptation to see the light of day. It is a fortunate circumstance that it is Texas Kid was created in this period of Kordej's creativity. He didn't lack experience even twenty years ago when he started comics, even in adaptations, because he already had Vama based on Vladimir Kolin's prose template. But at this moment, Corday had the ability to see the whole story he is telling in a comprehensive and insightful way, which can be seen in the construction of this comic.
The very idea behind Texas Kid is apparently simple, but essentially extremely deep and thoughtful. What would happen if the son of a hardened and especially adored comic author, who is also a comic author but constantly lives in the shadow of his father's creations, met a living character from his father's series? What if that character, the Texas Kid, was everything his father ever wanted his son to be and he wasn't?
That's the premise on which Corday – and Macan before him – built this story. And from those foundations was built a whole narrative cathedral about the ex-Yugoslav myth, comics, fathers and sons, and above all achievements. Texas Kid each page becomes a life-giving deconstruction of silent intergenerational tensions. Radovan Brant silently despises his father for never being able to become the son he wanted, and wanders in his shadow like a cheap copy. Tomislav Brant, a father forged from the strongest Balkan iron, hardened in the war, an idealist at heart but actually a selfish and seemingly insensitive person in reality, despises his son - because he is not a younger copy of himself. Texas Kid despises his "brother", Radovan, because he believes that he is a weakling who knows nothing about the world. Radovan despises his "brother", Texas Kid, because he is an arrogant and immoral copy of his father. Because she is a sycophant whose real face only he sees. Because he is everything he himself is not. And in that triangle of contempt is played out Texas Kid, my brother and dissects these relationships, but also the world beyond. Along with the many narrative jumps that tell about the growth and maturation of both of them, the roots of the formation of such opposing characters can also be seen. That simmering tension has always been there, but the appearance of the flesh-and-blood Texas Kid only escalates the existing situation. Although this is formally a story about the thoughts of Radovan's son, because it is told from his point of view, through the centuries-old silence of the father and the cruelly cynical words of the Texas Kid, the thoughts of the older actor of this drama can be glimpsed. His inability to accept his son as he is, but the prevailing desire for him to grow into what he is not, from his character to his comic skills, is reflected in this work. Even in his attitude towards comics, you can see how much Tomislav despises everything that has to do with his son. "Let weaklings draw comics about weaklings for other weaklings!" Tomislav speaks through the mouth of his beloved Texas Kid to his unloved biological son.
Corday is Texas Kid in a way, he also dedicated himself to manga, a form of comics that he greatly appreciates. Essentially, manga describes the comic's geographical origins more than any narrative or aesthetic structure. But the number of pages - a little more than 200 - as well as the structure of the chapters, with the predominant black and white drawing form, with only hints of color where blood appears, Texas Kid's red scarf and the design on Tomislav's shirt, bring it somewhat closer to manga. However, this comic should not be thought of as a manga, nor as a domestic version of a manga. It is enough to be what it is - an outstanding achievement of a domestic comic and the creative peak of Igor Kordei.
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