Serbia without Paja Patka

Every Friday is an exception! Many readers of "Politika's entertainer", surely the favorite magazine in the Balkans, were a little surprised when they found Hogar the Terrible on the front page of their favorite magazine instead of Paja Patka, whose indolence usually drove Helga crazy somewhere on the tenth page of the paper. The back cover of "Entertainer" indicated that it was not a mistake in the fold - instead of Mickey, Garfield the cat was lazily lounging on it. At the same time, the popular comic show for the youngest "Mickey's Fun" also disappeared from the newsstands. As "Politikin zabavnik" is not just an ordinary entertainment show for those between seven and one hundred and seven years old, but one of the few true values ​​of our culture on which the generations of the last sixty years have been literate and grown up, we asked what it was all about. Zefirino Grassi, editor-in-chief of "Zabavnik", confirms the suspicions - it is a matter of copyright problems with the Disney company, the owner of the cartoons about Pajama Duck and Mickey.

DEPARTURE COLPORTER: The problems with the Disney company began with the introduction of sanctions against FR Yugoslavia in 1992, which included not only the economy, weapons, oil and air traffic, but also cultural contents. As a consequence of the US government's decision to impose sanctions, in January 1993, the Disney company sent a letter to Politika's Entertainment in which it announced that it was freezing the previous contract with Politika until further notice and demanded that the printing of Disney comics and their use in Politika's publications be stopped. . In the same week, Paja Duck and Mickey Mouse, which were the paper's trademark for decades, disappeared from the pages of "Zabavnik", and the recognizable image of Paja Duck in a colporteur pose was cut from the "Zabavnik" header.

The problems in which "Zabavnik" found itself in the midst of sanctions and general decline were great, which could not be noticed based on the content of the paper. All these years "Politikin zabavnik" was one of the few things that kept the self-imposed high standards and quality, and which can look back with pride on the past period, which for all the good things that "Zabavnik" implies, was the worst ten years in its long history. Fortunately, not everyone followed the example of the Disney company, and many comics remained in "Zabavnik". Some, like Rene Stern, the author of "Adler", have generously given away the copyright, and Dennis Silverton of Universal Press in London, who owns the copyright for "Hogar the Terrible" and many other comics, said that in the absence of a normal and legal business the only thing he can do is pretend to be crazy until all this idiocy passes, and then he will sit down, draw a line, and see what and how to proceed. However, despite these generous gestures "Zabavnik" was mostly forced to reprint old comics from the 1980s, despite the contracts under which most of those comics were scheduled for one-time publication. It was about survival.

CARIBBEAN THE STORY: The sanctions of the Disney company did not last long and Paja Patak returned to us. In October 1994, "Politika" published an article on its front page announcing that the company Politika had renewed its contract with Disney and that Politika's publications continued to publish Disney comics. As it was found out later, the director of Politika at the time, Dragan Hadži Antić, paid 400.000 dollars to the Disney company during the harshest sanctions and thereby settled a large part of the company's debt, including the debt from the previous period during the directorship of Zika Minović. According to the verbal agreement between Disney and Hadži Antic, Disney was supposed to forgive Politika the rest of the debt and that Politika should be the first company that Disney will negotiate with when normal conditions are established.

Normal conditions have been restored. In the process of general legalization of work and business, and in the desire to resolve all potential copyright disputes to the general long-term satisfaction of all interested parties, "Zabavnik" sought documentation related to the agreement between Hadži Antic and the Disney company. It turned out that no one knows the details of the agreement, and the only one knowledgeable about the details, the now former director of Politics, Dragan Hadži Antic, aka Struja, is unavailable. After October 5th, he disappeared in a dovetail, some say in the direction of a sanctioned Caribbean island and the home country of the Buena Vista Social Club. "Zabavnik" has decided to enter into negotiations with the Disney company and until these negotiations are finished, due to possible misunderstandings, "Zabavnik" has stopped publishing Disney comics and suspended the publication of "Mickey's Zabavnik". There is no Paja Patka in Serbia again.

WITHOUT TALIC TOMA: "I still have a meeting with the people from Disney, where I will find out their side of the story," Zefirino Grassi, the first man of "Entertainer", tells "Vreme". "We only recently found out how it all went down, and since we now want to start again with Disney, we intend to finally resolve the matter." We have suspended the release of material until we see what is happening, and what will happen. The negotiations will be completed by mid-April, and then we will know where we stand. We hope that everything will be resolved in the best way."

Problems with Disney aren't the only problems The Entertainer has. The printing of the albums "Talicno Tom" and "Asterix" was also suspended. "Despite the valid contract with the French publisher Dargaud, we have stopped printing "Taličný Tom" because we do not have paper. Namely, the contract stipulates that the cover and the interior of the comic book cannot be made of the same paper, and we currently do not have the money to purchase paper for the cover," says Grassi, while with "Asterix" the problem is of a completely different kind. "Zabavnik" published the first 25 episodes of "Asterix" under the contract with Dargo, which were made jointly by the author tandem of Gosini and Uderzo. After Gossini's death, Uderzo created a company called "Albert René", which owned everything he did thereafter. "In 1998, we signed a contract with Rene and published two Uderz episodes from the new cycle. In March 1999, on the eve of the bombing, we sent a translation of the text of the episode "Asterix and Son" for authorization, as was the custom, after which we expected to receive permission and films to print. From March 1999 until today, that is two full years, I sent dozens of faxes and letters to René and received no response, even though the contract is valid and even though an advance of 25.000 marks was paid. So now the situation is that they are holding our money captive there and are not responding. It's usually the case that we abuse copyright here, and this is probably the only case where a valid contract has been abused to our detriment."

The only problem that "Zabavnik" has in the new conditions today is money, and there are plans and projects. "Normal business means that for each issue of "Zavanik" I will find a sponsor for 900 German marks, which is the cost per issue of only comics that are published, Grassi says. "Zabavnik" has been an expensive newspaper until now, and now it will be the most expensive newspaper in this area. I still hope that sponsors will appear who are interested in helping "Zabavnik", and that despite everything, we will somehow push through."

And we hope and cheer for it.