Nationality Croatian and Dutch Area(s) Artist, Writer | Name Helena Klakocar | |
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Helena Klakocar (born 1958) is a Croatian and Dutch alternative cartoonist known for her autobiographical, social, and political observations.
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Life and work
Helena Klakocar was born in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, into an ethnic Croat family. When she was seven years old her family moved to Maribor, Slovenia, where she attended primary and grammar school.
She studied graphic art at the Art Academy in Zagreb, Croatia and became successful as a comics author, designer of posters and animation films. She was working as an art organizer in Zagreb.
In summer 1991 she went on a sailing holiday with her husband and two-year-old daughter. Their return from Greece was prolonged because of the outburst of the war in Former Yugoslavia. On a small catamaran during the winter she was capturing daily life and memories of her homeland in drawings and text, depicted in her award-winning graphic novel "Restless Sea 1" (in French "Passage en douce") which is translated into several languages.
She received a grant by Fonds BKVB, Amsterdam, and later from Centre de la livre, Paris, to continue with this story.
In 1992 she moved with her husband and child to the Netherlands, where she continued her diary with observations of immigrant life in Netherlands "Friesland (Restless Sea 2)".