If you’ve been
following my blog for some time, you may be aware that years ago I used to be a
freelance cartoonist and comic artist here in Lithuania. In my interview for Steve Holland's Bear Alley website that I did to promote The Power Pack of Ken Reid, I mentioned
that my first published work was actually in the UK!
Here’s the story: I started
learning English since my first year at school at the age of seven. When I was
in third grade, I wrote a little story in English, and presented it in the
form of a small illustrated 12-page book. Each illustration occupied a full
page, with text on the opposite page. I showed it to my English teacher, and
she posted it to her pen friend at Shakespeare Middle School in Leeds. A few
months later my teacher gave me a copy of the 1978 Autumn edition of the School’s
magazine with my story printed in full! I think they were impressed with the effort of a young non-native speaker from the other side of the Iron Curtain…
A few days ago I found
the magazine in my archive. Here are the front and back covers - the latter
looks a bit like a Creepy Creation by Ken Reid, don’t you think?
My little story is in
the two images below. It even has a slap-up feed panel at the end! Considering
I was only 9 or 10 years of age when I wrote it, and had only been studying
English for some 3 years, the language isn’t too bad… The story was printed in
black and white, and the print quality was rather poor, so my 10 year old self
must have decided to colour it in and go over the handwritten text with a
pencil…
That's excellent, and your use of English at that age is impressive. I like the final panel - is there a tradition of slap-up feeds in Lithuanian comics as there is in the UK?
ReplyDeleteThank you for complimenting the English of my 10-year old self :) Lithuanian comics don't have traditions because we never had comic magazines like you've had for decades in the UK. Folk tales, however, usually end with slap-up feed. There's even a standard closing phrase which goes something like this: "I've also been there, drank beer and spirits, had it dribbling down my beard, but had nothing in my mouth". I'm actually unsure what that means... :)
DeleteI'm sure it's deeply meaningful :)
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