Krew / Blood

The anthology "Blood" illustrates the multiplicity of meanings of blood, starting from its mythical dimension (the magical power attributed to menstrual blood), through the symbolism of inheritance, the inevitability of genealogical continuity, but also revenge, violence, to the very concrete connotation of bodily suffering. Aesthetically, too, "Blood" touches on many layers of art, not just comics - we find references to the woodcut pre-comics of Frans Maseerel or Lynd Ward, the subtlety of graphic portraiture, cartoonish economy of line, photomontage and psychedelic references to science fiction. The uniqueness and timeliness of the anthology lies in the very placement of blood in the title, and thus in the program, carried out exclusively with the participation of female comic artists: Beata Sosnowska, Natalia Kulka, Maria Kadyszewska, Anna Krztoń, Olga Wróbel, Aga Gójska, Zavka, Marta Zabłocka, Katarzyna Kowalczyk. The gender discourse signaled here leaves behind the black-and-white patriarchal-martyrdom-paternity assignments and reveals, masterfully avoiding literalism, the cultural conditions of such categories as gender, class, species. "Blood", by its controversial concept and, at the same time, its semantic multiplicity, offers, so to speak, a Polish answer to Liv Strömquist's recent feminist and gender comics, and like them and as they do, it has a chance to become an event on the comics market.
Kalina Kupczynska

Album cover design by Karolina Sosnowska.