Ukraine's UA Comix stands defiant
Ruslana Koropetska, editor-in-chief of Ukraine publisher UA Comix says she is proud to represent the Lviv-based graphic novel specialist at this Bologna Children’s Book Fair and do what she can “in our own way” to help show Ukrainian culture to the world.
She said she has been busy with licensing enquiries and even more with well-wishers from across the trade. She added: “But it is of course stressful, difficult, horrific time. And an odd time to be at the fair as we have, of course, been unable to trade as a proper publisher since the invasion.”
Koropetska made it to BCBF only because she happened to be travelling in the Netherlands when the Russian forces invaded Ukraine and she has remained outside of her home country since. She said: “We’re based in Lviv, which so far has not been as devastated as other cities. My colleagues for the most part are safe—or as safe and OK as they can be in the circumstances. We have a lot of stock in the US, but a lot of it is in a warehouse in Kyiv, which is safe as of today. But that can change tomorrow.”
UA was founded in 2017 by self-confessed comics geek Bohdan Kordoba and specialises in comics by Ukrainian artists and illustrators. It has partnered with global players such as Marvel and Dark Horse and among its most famous comics internationally are Three against Evil, Uptown Chronicles and Bane.
Shortly before the fair, BCBF was part of an array of international book fairs which cut ties with Russian exhibitors and invited Ukrainian authors and exhibitors to come to Bologna at no cost. Understandably, few have been able to take advantage. Anna Tiurina, co-founder of Crocus Publishing in Kharkiv contacted The Bookseller Daily yesterday after “a long journey to evacuate my kids and family to a safe place. We were supposed to go to Bologna but I [and my two co-founders] are all in different places and trying to figure out what to do next with our lives and jobs.”
In the end, Koropetska said that at the very least her BCBF was a tonic for her “as it’s been four days where I could get back to some kind of normal life again, feel like a publisher again and not a refugee”.
