ATHENS ILLUSTRATED

Four local representatives of the Ninth Art design and write about their own favorite
city spots.

By NIKOLAS ZOIS

Depicting cities in comics is an old story. Maybe because the urban landscape has
always been a fascinating visual project, or because not only the characters but also
the atmosphere that surrounds them plays an important role in the plot of a story,
also maybe for a lot of other reasons. There are many examples. Batman's dark
Gotham City, Duck family’s happy Limnopolis, Judge Dredd's colossal Mega-City
One and also Moebius's hovering cities, Will Eisner's painfully growing New York
City, Chris Wear’s old Chicago or Futuristic Tokyo by Katsuhiro Otomo are just a few
of them.

Athens could not but be a source of inspiration for domestic comic book creators.
Giannis Kalaitzis portrayed it in gray tones in "Gypsy Orchestra".Spyros Derveniotis,
in "Simply Fanouri ", saw it as the well-known big city of the ‘90s (which
complemented the stories of D. Vanellis and D. Kalaitzis). Leandros identified its
deformed aspects in "Paria", while Alekos Papadatos and Ani Di Donna (assisting the
script of Abraham Kaua), highlighted its ancient past in the graphic novel
"Democracy".

But how do the younger Greek comedians see it? What do they love about it, which
spots they feel most intimate in and which part of its daily life they find joy in? We
asked four Greek men and 4 Greek women representatives of the Ninth Art the above
questions , knowing that if the modern domestic comics scene does not have common
features, then it certainly has representatives with distinct craftmanships and styles.

Of course, the answers they gave us consist of colors and lines. The latter can
sometimes intersect, perhaps revealing some common trends or preferences.
Little does it matter: in the panels that follow, Athens, through the eyes of four
creators who live, endure and love it, proves once again, full of favorite
neighborhoods and parks, streets and balconies, where its important or insignificant
stories take place.

PANAGIOTIS PANTAZIS

A spot for me, Polygono

Few people know where Polygono is. You will meet residents who claim to be
residents of Gyzi, Ampelokipi or Kypseli. There are people who confuse it with
Pentagono. There are no attractions here, even the square is not exactly a square. It
has uphill and narrow streets, parking is a nightmare. A friend of mine thought I
would live in a mountain forest. It is not exactly like that. It is the neighborhood
where I was born and raised, left behind for 15 years and I found myself living here
once again. From this spot we see Athens stretching from our feet to the sea.
Panayiotis Pantazis is a comic artist, illustrator, and musician. His next work is the
new album of his band, Echo Tides. More at pantazis.space

ALEXIA OTHONAIOU

A park pulsating with life

Eleftherias Park, one of the few parks in the heart of Athens. A hill with grass and
view on four levels: Vasilissis Sofias, buildings, Ymittos, Attic sky. It is home to a
variety of birds, from buzzards to parrots. On its upper side, the Arts Center of the
Municipality of Athens and the Museum of Anti-dictatorship Democratic Resistance
of the Association of Prisoners & Exiled Resistance members 1967-1974 , are housed
in a beautiful stone building, Despite its small size, the park is full of life: people of
different ages and nationalities play sports, have a picnic, read. It is a model of free
use of greenery and public space, as it is a place of recreation where one can be close
to nature, historical memory and art. In other words, Eleftherias Park is a place
where one can be a citizen and not a consumer.

Alexia Othoneou's weekly strip "X in Ψ" is published in EFSYN, "Stories that were
hidden in obvious places" is hosted on socomic.gr, while her graphic novel "The
Woman with the Cards" is under publication (Jemma Press). More at
alexiaothonaiou.com.

GIORGOS GOUSIS

Balconies that reconcile you with the urban chaos

I love Athens, because it is the city where the people I love live and because it is the
setting of our common life. A setting that suits us and is full of contradictions and
labyrinth paths, just like us. The thing I admire about Athens is how uncomplicated it
is in its chaos, something which shows us at every opportunity from its high
balconies. I finally wonder if frequent visual friction with it is the reason why I often
feel reconciled with the meaning of this word. The latest graphic novel by Giorgos
Gousis is "Robbers - The life and death of Giannis and Thymios Dovas", which he
wrote with Giannis Ragos, drawing inspiration from real people and events that took
place in Epirus from 1909 to 1930. More, at facebook.com/Ggoussis

GEORGIA ZACHARI

Everything about this noisy environment

I like many things in Athens. I like its ancient, its new sites, its completely destroyed
ones, the tables on the sidewalks, the uphill roads when you reach the top, the kiosks,
the galleries, the Athens Polytechnio, the metro when it comes out of the tunnel and
you see the apartment buildings, the apartment buildings in general , the cinemas
that are everywhere. I like the fact that I can walk and be a stranger among strangers,
the opportunity to meet someone I know anywhere. I love Athens precisely because it
is so densely populated. I love everything about this noisy environment, because it
gives me the feeling of a background ideal for literally countless stories, stories
without a finite number: real, imaginary, past, future or just probable ones.

Georgia Zachari has been honored by the Greek Comics Awards with the award for
Best New Artist (2018) for her self-published "Xematiasma". Her latest work is
"Festival" (with G. Gousis and P. Pantazis), a publication for the 60th anniversary of
the Thessaloniki Film Festival. More at instagram.com/tiganopsomo/