Early summer has offered intense emotions to lovers of Bulgarian comics. Seven artists from the legendary “Daga” (Rainbow) magazine, published in the period 1979 -1992, issued a long-awaited second album with seven comic stories in the best traditions of Bulgaria in the genre. "Nad Dagata 2" (Over the Rainbow 2) was released on the book market three years after the first album published at the initiative of the Daga Project Association. The official presentation of the book took place on June 8, simultaneously with the opening of an exhibition on the second floor in the gallery of the Union of Bulgarian Artists in Sofia. "Nad Dagata 2” is much better than the first album, which had the characteristics of a spontaneous and curious experiment, one of the scriptwriters Marin Troshanov says. However, the first edition of "Nad Dagata" was sold out for a week after its release in late 2012, becoming now a bibliographic rarity. The comic book offers a well-developed, mature and interesting stories to please both the older Bulgarian lovers of comics, who grew up with the heroic feats of "Dobromir", "E.L.O.", the trips of “The Girl from Earth," the original adaptations of "Treasure island," “Lord of the Rings" and many others, but also a new range of readers who have more modern requirements. The artists are the same ones who created a rainbow of imagination and emotions in the 80s and 90s of past century.

More from Petar Stanimirov:

"The seven artists who participate in the project are Sotir Gelev, Evgeni Yordanov, Rumen Chaoushev, Peter Stanimirov, Dimitar Stoyanov-Dimo, Vladimir Konovalov and Penko Gelev. The album differs from all previous editions of Bulgarian comics, because it is also the largest ever issued - 136 pages. I think it turned out very good as the second album is very modern, but it is also in line with the tradition of Bulgarian comics. The stories are long and three of them were written by our colleague Sotir Gelev. Authors of my comic with ‘Damga’ are Marin Troshanov and Evgeni Proykov and author of 'Evgeni Yordanov‘s ‘Eak the Destroyer’ is Kancho Kozhuharov. Rumen Chaoushev created his comics ‘Mitashki’ using his own script, while ‘Benkovski’ by Vladimir Konovalov is based on ‘Notes on Bulgarian Uprisings’ by Zahari Stoyanov," Peter Stanimirov says.

His dark fantasy "Damga" comic book is one of the few that are sequels to stories of the first album. The reason is the story itself, which in his words is quite large and could not be completed within 20 pages. We should mention that the first part of the "Damga" comics won the 2012 award for best traditional comic book at a festival in Belgrade in competition with 300 original works from 30 different countries. Curiously, the story does not end in the second album, which is gives hope that in the coming years Nad Dagata 3 will also be released.

During 2012 the release of "Nad Dagata" was accompanied by an exhibition. "Four years ago we decided that this was the best and right way to present such a project,” Peter Stanimirov says. “We kept the tradition and this year the place of the exhibition is the second floor of the UBA. Initially, we wondered if we would be able to fill up the large space of the gallery. We managed and I think the exhibition is very interesting because in addition to the standard 100/70 cm sized works we have huge works with sizes of 2, 3, 4 and 5 meters.

We have not shown such a thing before, the artist says. The exhibition, which can be seen until June 18, includes excerpts from comic books included in "Nad Dagata 2" and retrospective works by each of the seven artists. Although it's been 25 years since the last issue of "Daga,” the magazine remains a bible in the sphere of comic books for Bulgarian amateurs and professionals to this day.

"I think my colleagues and I realized the true meaning and value of the Daga magazine only after the Internet entered our daily lives. Before that, we did not realize how popular the magazine was. I personally was surprised and still am that over 25 years after publication ceased, Daga continues to have thousands of fans. This is a phenomenon. This fact shows that people need the art of the comics. But in Bulgaria a tradition that was established and experienced its development during the last two decades of the 20th century, seems destroyed these days," Peter Stanimirov, says.

However, just looking at Nad Dagata 2 makes one feel there is still hope for the art of comics in Bulgaria.

English: Alexander Markov