A review of the comic book by Johannes Schachmann has recently appeared on our website . Life and Times . Today we are sharing with you, dear readers, an interview that was conducted with the authors of the album a few days ago. At the outset, it is worth noting that Mateusz Piątkowski and Jacek Kuziemski are friends who took up the literary challenge together. Today - they are enjoying success.
OT: I would like to ask you about the cooperation between the cartoonist and the screenwriter. Did you always reach an agreement, or were there any issues of disagreement during the joint project?
Mateusz Piątkowski: We get on very well. Jacek does not – as a rule – have too many objections to the first sketches of the script. If one of us has any expectations about the direction of the story, we manage to take that into account. We arrange all the details live, it also helps in drawing a common vision.
Jacek Kuziemski: As Mateusz wrote, we usually start working on an album by meeting somewhere outdoors or in the city. When we discuss an idea for a script, we have space to push our own ideas. The trick is to find a compromise and we often go hand in hand with each other. In the end, what Mateusz remembers ends up on paper anyway.
Mateusz Piątkowski: Yes, he usually writes down what we came up with after a month or two, so my memory is an element of chaos in creating a script.
OT: Gentlemen, you are working in the city, so it is possible that some unaware visitor of this place does not realize that a large project is being built next to it. Nevertheless, in the Magical Foreword, Kajetan Kusina mentions that the life of a comic book creator is not simple and requires a lot of time. However, I have the impression that for you the process of creating the album was a kind of challenge and gave the expected satisfaction.
Mateusz Piątkowski: There was satisfaction, but now, seeing positive reviews, we know that readers and readers have as much fun reading our comic as we had while creating it.
Jacek Kuziemski: To tell the truth, the first comic book scripts were created on a bench in our housing estate. An interesting fact is that Mateusz and I have known each other since junior high school. Right now it is very rewarding to come up with more stories about Johannes. We can switch ideas, motives and plan the fate of the heroes. Drawing is sometimes boring and tedious, but quoting Henryk Glaza from the meeting at the URO.K festival: “To draw comics is profitable, you have to draw them quickly”. In fact, most of the stories on this album were written over a period of two or three weeks, at various intervals.
OT: So the idea for a comic about Barthell Schachtman was born many years ago? I’ve never heard that name before, and now I know I will remember it for a long time. And it is because of the album. I would like to ask why you chose such a man-inspiration.
Mateusz Piątkowski: The idea for all the characters was born in Jacek’s mind. I was invited to cooperate to give them more life.
Jacek Kuziemski: It’s true, the characters were created in my head, but I had no idea how to move them. Mateusz gave them a lot of life and humor. Without him, there would be no Johannes Schachmann. In turn, Bartłomiej Schachmann is the mayor of Gdańsk from the golden age of this city. Apart from being a great steward, he was also a famous traveler, bookseller and collector of artifacts. It was his inspiration, among others, to create the municipal archive, the legacy of which is still kept by the Polish Academy of Sciences in Gdańsk. Schachmann also lived in the period of fashion for alchemy, which then swept over Europe. Apparently, he also dabbled in it. Moreover, both [Jacek Kuziemski and Mateusz Piątkowski – editor’s note] live in Gdańsk and we grew up here. No wonder then that such a character as Schachtman became an inspiration for our hero.
OT: Mr. Mateusz, my editorial colleague (who was also the reviewer of the album) admired the humorous accents that fill the story. As is well known, readers are not easily amused. Do you find it easy to write stories that amuse the audience? However, does this process require a long period of reflection and looking for inspiration?
Mateusz Piątkowski: It can be different. Some stories, like Tyrant Well-Being or Saint Maurice’s Piece , just spilled out of me, others were worse. I had to write the first script for Mercantilism and Childhood Trauma from scratch, because I was not able to follow the framework that I had established on the first try. Some inspirations appear completely by surprise. My struggle with depression is an obstacle, which means that sometimes it takes a month, two or three before I write the first words of the script.
OT: Mr. Jacek, I am very pleased to read how the gentlemen complement each other at work. However, being very impressed with the way reality is depicted in the comic book, I can’t help but ask if you sometimes lack ideas? Creating an album in just a few weeks seems like an incredibly difficult art, especially as some comic cards are filled with lots of elements.
Jacek Kuziemski: With a full-time job and household chores, it can be difficult. I happened to take a vacation to cover up the already sketched charts, not to mention the fact that household activities are of secondary importance. However, it seems to me that this type of work has many comic book creators in our country. I am all the more happy to present the album to a wide audience. I hate the lack of ideas, but when there is a doubt about the composition of the frame and its content, I turn to the scriptwriter for help. We dispel most of the unknowns during live conversations about comics.
OT: I’m guessing that you don’t live in one city right now (information on FB), is it easy to organize a meeting, while the reality is filled with professional and personal obligations already mentioned by Mr. Jacek?
Mateusz Piątkowski: My address on Facebook is a joke J
Jacek Kuziemski: I have Danzig entered in North Dakota for years, so please do not be influenced by it. I getting even Privia questions, or actually live in Danzig, because it’s a ghost town founded over a century ago by German settlers in the United States.
Mateusz Piątkowski: But seriously, when we moved out of the estate, problems with meetings began. At one point, Jacek traveled to Gdynia, which is relatively close, but not so close, to be able to arrange a beer in five minutes. In any case, for some time now, we happen to arrange up to three weeks ahead before we get together to discuss a comic. What to do, life.
OT: The question was intended to provoke answers. I would be jealous if it were Vanatu or North Dakota. Going back to the plot of the comic, while reading it, I found many cultural symbols such as the Holy Grail? Where did you get the idea to include such artifacts in this story?
Jacek Kuziemski: It’s quite simple – a dark wizard must have high-powered items. And since the direct inspiration here is European magic, alchemy and Kabbalah, it was easiest for us to refer to legends and Christian symbolism.
Mateusz Piątkowski: Additionally, these elements are usually well known to the reader, which means that we create situations in which both we and the audience broadcast on the same wavelength.
OT: That’s right. Nevertheless, it may so happen that some viewers will not be sure if the combination of Genghis Khan, Lenin and the Dwarfs is not too much. These characters come from three completely different worlds, maybe not?
Mateusz Piątkowski: It seems to me that we managed to introduce all these characters in such a way that they can easily appear next to each other and create one world in which everyone interacts with everyone. It comes out naturally.
Jacek Kuziemski: It may seem that they are completely different worlds, but what is the imagination for? Lenin and Temujin are more than legendary in common by the fact that they stood at the head of huge Eurasian states. In turn, dwarfs are such a popular and charming folk motif that even in the company of such villains they look nice.
OT: In addition to combining characters characteristic of different worlds, the stories combine old and real times (the world of corporations). It’s an amazing combination, even for the world of comics. Honestly, Pickman Corp. is one of my favorite stories. Although undoubtedly short; )
Mateusz Piatkowski: The connection is due to the fact that the original adventure Johannes appeared every year in the zine Piglets . Each time there were some topics (individual for the first issue and collective themes for the following) that partly guided our history. We wanted to send Schachmann’s Piglets every year , whatever the topic, and we did it.
Jacek Kuziemski: In turn, the mentioned comic [ Pickman Corp. – editor’s note ] was created for the needs of the Warchlacz exhibition at the, probably no longer existing, Bathroom gallery in Krakow (I’m not sure if this gallery just suspended its activity). The exhibition consisted in presenting the evolution of a corpole from the Pickman Corp.
OT: You could say that if it weren’t for Piglets , the world might never have heard of Johannes. What are your literary plans for the future? Can we, the readers, count on the continuation of the hero’s story?
Mateusz Piątkowski: It wouldn’t be. You can see how it started in the additional material. As for Schachmann’s future, there are ideas and we would very much like to present them in the future.
Jacek Kuziemski: After this year’s intensive work on the collective edition of Johannes’ adventures, we would like to create something completely different for relaxation – in terms of genre and atmosphere. A new story will probably be published this year. It will be a short story about a kontusz and a saber. I recently posted the first drawings on my Facebook profile:
https://www.facebook.com/brzozo.art/photos/a.562883487136917/2405965719495342/?type=3&theater
Of course, we will also want to continue the story of Johannes and his entourage. We still have some unrealized ideas.
OT: Undoubtedly, together with the editors of the comic book section, we are looking forward to more stories! Thank you very much for dedicating me – a trifle! – an hour and a half for an interview. It was a great pleasure for me and I am glad that I could get to know the authors of the story that I read yesterday with bated breath at one in the morning!
Mateusz Piątkowski: We were also pleased. We are glad that you liked the comic.
Jacek Kuziemski: Thank you for your kind words and we were also very pleased to answer such well-chosen questions.
