Sunday, May 17, 2009

#0 - Marek Raczkowski

Marek Raczkowski is a Polish cartoonist whose work I first came across in the pages of Polityka when I was living in Poland in the early '00s.

At first it was his appealing, goofily childlike drawing style that caught my eye. As my command of Polish improved I discovered that his jokes were of a rare order. He regularly and with subtle skill poked fun at features of contemporary Polish political and cultural life in such a way that his barbs would almost always carry a sting for men and women of any nation. I didn't always need to understand the reference to Politician X-ski or Actress Y-รณwna to get the joke, because I knew people from my own culture - sometimes myself - who acted or thought in the way Raczkowski was mocking.


It became clear to me that Raczkowski was a great wit and deserved a wider, international audience. This blog is my attempt to create that audience for his work.

I will translate his cartoons as best as I am able. My Polish is not perfect and I no longer live in Poland, so I welcome corrections and explanations of references that I miss.

This site has not been approved of by Mr Raczkowski.

2 comments:

  1. Raczkowski is one of my favorite cartoonists. I am Polish, but live in the United States. Your translations are really good!

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  2. I'm glad you like them! I saw a book of Mleczo cartoons the other day and the English translations were just terrible. Really they should make a little more effort.

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