Popular Author of Popular Art

Abstract

The article provides a report on research conducted on the creative activity of Jerzy Wróblewski, a Polish author of comics published in the book „Urodzony, żeby rysować”. Twórczość komiksowa Jerzego Wróblewskiego, “Born to Draw.” Jerzy Wróblewski’s Comic Art (Jaworski, 2015). It is the first study of this kind in Poland. From this point of view, it contains not only a body of knowledge in the form of a monograph of the comic writer’s artistic creativity, but it also includes a developed research model. The structure of this model, combining traditional monographic narrative with broad historical, political and social context, can be used in the analyses of artistic accomplishments of other authors of Polish comics. The presented study addresses the need for scientific explorations in this field, but also for raising the value of those parts of Polish modern culture which were marginalised as ‘worse’ for many years, first for political reasons, then for cultural ones. It appears that the time has come to examine critically the artistic creativity of important figures of Polish popular culture (in this case of comics) objectively and without ideological prejudice, and recognise them as full authors of Polish culture. Jerzy Wróblewski is among them and that is why the book is about him.