Ivana Armanini
Komikaze
Croatia
Ivana Armanini – comics author and illustrator. Her work is inseparable from activism and social context. She graduated from the School for applied art and design and the Academy of fine arts in Zagreb (mag. art; rector’s award). She is a member of the Croatian community of independent artists and had 10 solo exhibitions and 10 solo comic publications (albums, fanzines, art books, micro-editions): the adventures of gloria scott, 2005 (based on stories by mime simić); catalog, 2016; fmcx, 2017; mangelos vol. 1, (screenplay: marko golub); blue concertina, 2018; she must be mad, 2018; nini zine, 2019; Alice in Waterland, 2020; bots, 2021; zero zine, 2022; love, resistance, etc., 2023.
Armanini launched and manages Komikaze, a network for the production, promotion and distribution of original comics, with a special focus on female authors through the femicomix line, which publishes over a hundred collaborative issues (21 comic book anthologies, 61 webzines, several fanzines and special editions) and exhibits to around three hundred events (exhibitions, festivals) locally and internationally (Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia, Italy, France, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Austria, Romania, Poland, Portugal, Portland, New York). In 2020, Komikaze received the award for alternative comics at the largest European comics festival in Angouleme, France.
The Komikaze network has about 400 authors and 6,000 pages of authored comics and illustrations, which come from about 60 countries. It can be found on https://komikaze.hr and webzines are published every four months. A selection of three webzines forms an album at the end of the year. It is printed in 500 copies with an average of 25 authors. This rhythm has been continuous since 2002, and the call for new authors is open. Everything tangible on paper is also on the net, along with info and links to authors and other great comics.