9 May – 3 June, 2015
EPEKA Gallery, Maribor

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, the EPEKA Association, a social enterprise, is organising an exhibition in the EPEKA Gallery entitled Partisans – Liberators, the work of Croatian comic artist Jules Radilović, born in Maribor.

The symbolic opening of the exhibition will take place on 9 May at noon.

The latest reprint of the comic album Partizani will be available for purchase exclusively fresh from the printers at the opening of the exhibition, personally signed by the author Julio Radilović – Jules.

Death to Fascism – Freedom to the Nation!

With the exhibition of original comic panels by Jules Radilović, we want to commemorate this important event and immortalise it with comic art on the theme of the Partisans and the NOB. The comic book series Partisans was originally commissioned for the Dutch market by the Oberon publishing house in Haarlem, which considered the partisan liberation struggle and the then independent liberation of the Yugoslav partisans from Nazi-fascism to be a phenomenon and a story of interest to lovers of the ninth art. Due to its interesting subject matter, the comic was later reprinted in many countries around the world.

The exhibition was supported by SAF – Strip Art Features, Stripforum Zagreb, the Slovenian Youth Office, the Municipality of Maribor, the EU Erasmus+ programme, the Municipality of Maribor, Ekoteh Zagreb, Studio Risar and Romani kafenava.

You are cordially invited and welcome.

More information at: epeka@epeka.si

Partisans
Partizani is a comic series, one of the most successful in the career of author Jules Radilović. He collaborated with screenwriter Đorđ Lebović, best known for his scripts for the films Valter defends Sarajevo, The Bridge and Partisan Squadron. The comic strip Partisans enjoyed its greatest success in the 1970s and 1980s in the Netherlands in the comic magazine Eppo and later in albums printed in large editions in countries as diverse as Sweden, Indonesia, Suriname, Norway, Denmark, Finland, France, Spain and elsewhere.

Much of the international success of Partisans is due to the publishing house Strip Art Features – SAF or Ervin Rustemagić.

Julio Radilović – Jules
Jules Radilović was born in 1928 in Maribor. He has lived in Zagreb since 1939. He began his career as a draughtsman in what was then known as the Mario Saletti painting studio, where he drew on numerous advertising boards and signs according to the wishes of his clients. He also sketched men’s suits and women’s costumes, some of which were his own creations.

From 1947 he was a member of the Jadran film studio at Jordanovac, long before the founding of the Duga film and Zagreb film studios. He never completed his formal education, despite attending the School of Applied Arts intermittently from 1948 to 1952, but decided to embark on the adventure of a truly free artist. Since then he has been working professionally in comics, illustration, design and design of printed matter, books, advertisements, etc. He worked for Horizontal Entertainer, Plavi Vestnik and many other magazines and publications until his retirement in 1989.

Štefan Simončič, President of the Association EPEKA, Soc. Ent.
Tjaša Teržan, Associate of the Association EPEKA, Soc. Ent.