Kobzar, Krip, Cyborg, and Vira

Lesia Voroniuk, a young writer from Chernivtsi, an author of several prose works and compiler of the collection of poems about Maidan, presented at the Publishers’ Forum the comics Ukrainian superheroes, published by the Bukrek Publishing House.

One of the reasons why the comics were created, Lesia explains, is oversaturation with Western superheroes. Lesia Voroniuk considers the situation when Ukrainian children in school or kindergarten on holidays put on costumes of Superman, Batman, or Spider-Man, is desperate. “And these children could be kobzars with superpowers or ‘cyborgs.’ We tried to develop superheroes, which would be very up-to-date, meet the need of a child today, but at the same time have Ukrainian historical root, which would be reflected in their abilities and appearance,” the author of the comics explains.

A kobzar with a kobza that is a music instrument, but at the same time an ultramodern portative computer. Krip is an herbalist-shaman from the Carpathians. Vira is a usual Kyiv student with blue-and-yellow hair. Cyborg is a serviceman from Luhansk, who supported Ukraine, lost his body in a battle, but kept the yellow-and-blue heart. These are the main characters of the first two issues of the comics. On the whole. Lesia Voroniuk plans to publish 10 issues. The comics will be published once in three months.

The idea to create the comics was spontaneous. “One day, when I was choosing books for my daughter, I saw that Ukrainian literature production is well-represented in the book market. We have a lot of fairytales, poems about dogs, cats, and butterflies. The publishing houses publish en mass traditional Ukrainian folk fairytales, but they don’t have anything up-to-date, which would satisfy the demands of modern children. As far as I can see from the children, traditional Ukrainian characters, like Kotyhoroshko cannot meet their needs anymore, they cannot be their superheroes. Taking into account the fact that we are living in a very technical world of information, a superhero that can use a tablet will be more interesting for children. And we cannot stop this process,” says Lesia Voroniuk.

“In our comics there are four leading heroes, who in every issue fulfill various tasks and overcome obstacles. But new positive and negative heroes will join them in every issue,” Lesia Voroniuk continues, “For example, in the second issue a wizard Cossack who can turn into a wolf. Incidentally, the front man of the band Haidamaky Oleksandr Yarmola is a prototype of this Cossack. The prototypes o well-known writers, musicians, artists with different abilities will be added, to attract children to art. We try not to invent heroes, but take them from history and culture, so that the children read, and everything will stay in their imagination and memory.”

Lesia Voroniuk recommends to adults to read comics together with their children. “Parents with the help of comics can explain to their child what is going on in their country in the language of children and not traumatize them. Children shouldn’t be shown news today. News can traumatize them. But a child can perceive and understand the format of a comic book,” the author of the comics sums up.