Politikin Zabavnik

First editorship consisted of journalists from Politika, headed by Vladislav Ribnikar, Dušan Timotijević and Živojin Vukadinović. They were among the enthusiasts who were gathering Serbian intellectual left wing during the late 1930s.[1] They had the idea about making an amusing newspaper containing novels, short stories and comic strips. On 31 December 1938 Politika came out with an open competition for the name of new edition. Between 34,998 coupons that arrived, one fifth voted for the name Politikin Zabavnik (Politika's Entertainer) among other suggestions.[1] The magazine's first issue was published on 28 February 1939. It was issued in the form of Berliner newspaper (31×47 cm). It had 12 pages printed in black and white. Four of them were printed with addition of red color and its undertones. The concept of Politikin Zabavnik was balanced relation between comics and texts, such as novels, stories and interesting facts.

As comics editor Duda Timotijević was in charge of translation of American comic strips and Sunday strips. He gave Serbian names to many Disney's characters to reflect their characteristics.[4] Beside Disney's comic strips Politikin Zabavnik published comics such as: Jungle Jim, Ming Foo, Little Annie Rooney, The Lone Ranger, Red Ryder, Thimble Theatre, Curley Harper, Brick Bradford, and King of the Royal Mounted. Domestic comic authors also had significant space: Đorđe Lobačev (comics related to Serbian folklore – Baš Čelik and Čardak ni na nebu ni na zemlji), Moma Marković (Rista sportista – adventures of Belgrade boys), Konstantin Kuznjecov (adaptation of Pushkin's tales in verse – The Tale of the Golden Cockerel and The Tale of Tsar Saltan), and Sergej Solovjev (adaptation of R. L. Stevenson's Treasure Island). The main difference between Politikin Zabavnik and concurrent comic publishers, such as Mika Miš and Mikijevo carstvo, was textual parts containing crosswords, novels, Ripley's Believe It or Not!, news from science to sport, and numerous short, interesting and edifying texts. Additionally it had exclusive rights on, in that time in Serbia, the extremely popular Walt Disney comics.[4]

Editor of textual parts was Bata Vukadinović. Politikin zabavnik featured novels of Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, H. G. Wells and many other famous writers.[5]

Average magazine circulation came to 41,000 per issue, which was at the time a great number. But World War II stopped the publishing of the magazine. The last of the pre-war editions (No 220) came out on 4 April 1941, two days before the bombing of Belgrade.

After the war, the new communist regime banned comics.[6] Their explanation was that comics are a decadent product of capitalism. However, after the end of Soviet influence in Yugoslavia, and especially after the Informbiro period, cultural bondages started to loose. First it started with caricatures and animated movies, and later some comics acquiescently started to be published in different editions.[7]

Seven years after World War II, Vladislav Ribnikar decided to re-establish the magazine. The first post-war issue came out on 5 January 1952. Editor in chief was Kosta Stepanović, and his first assistant Bogdan Popović, (he later also became editor). Allegedly, it was prearranged by a visit of Athens' representative of Walt Disney Company. He suggested to president Josip Broz Tito to re-establish comic publishing in Yugoslavia. Tito's reputed answer was: "Why not, I like Donald Duck".[8] The fact is that Disney's characters had significant space in Politikin Zabavnik.

The first day of 1968 was a historical date for the magazine. Nikola Lekić, chief editor in that time, changed its form from newspaper to magazine format (25×33 cm), and it was now published in color. Another significant addition was a comic in the middle of the magazine. Before that, Politikin Zabavnik published only comic strips. The magazine now contained a complete episode of a comic separated into 2-3 parts.[1]

Starting from 1971, Politikin Zabavnik was also printed in the Latin alphabet and Slovenian,[9] and at its peak it reached a number of 330,000 copies per issue (1975).[10] Printing of Slovenian Language edition stopped in 1989 after 843 numbers when sold circulation fell to 8000 copies, soon after that Latin alphabet version also stopped.

In January 1988, Zabavnik changed the format again, becoming a little smaller (21×30 cm). Although it has been slightly redesigned several times since, it is still published in that format.

In 2019 the Slovenian-language version was resurrected by the new publisher.