With a clever pun in the comic's title, Davor Schunk signals to readers that an intelligent, darkly humorous odyssey awaits them, featuring adorable animal antiheroes whose foolishness we simply cannot resist.
From panel to panel, Schunk's animal kingdom reveals a cascade of absurd associations, rich with pop culture and philosophical references. Understanding these requires life experience, but also knowledge in literature and film. In his clearly profiled anthropomorphic characters, a concentrated reader will recognize a multitude of archetypes that surround us: the armchair know-it-alls, cynical observers of life, victims of peer violence, hopeless suckers, all together packed in the aesthetics of ugliness, established through minimalist drawing, which usually adorns his comics.
Just as single-celled organisms are crucial for the survival of macroorganisms in biology, and form the basis of every food chain, Striptococcus plays a vital role in the world of the Croatian comic strips. It continues a legacy of intelligent works that sustain our comics, a delicate and fragile art form that is perpetually on the brink of survival.
Mario Kovač
Davor Schunk was born on April 30, 1970 in Virovitica, where he completed high school. After studying design at the Zagreb Faculty of Architecture, he worked as a senior designer and mentor to illustrators at the publishing house Školska knjiga. In 2003, he founded the visual communications studio ‘Definicija’. In 2013, he became a member of the Croatian Association of Freelance Artists (HZSU). Schunk started drawing comics in early childhood, and he’s been drawing ever since. In addition to organizing the demanding comic book festival Fra Ma Fu in 2009 in Virovitica, he is the founder and editor of the comic fanzine Striptokok. He published comics, illustrations and poems in children's magazines (Smib, Prvi izbor, Radost, Junior film). He has participated in several solo and juried exhibitions in Croatia and Europe. Schunk also designed and illustrated several textbooks for primary and secondary schools. In 2012, at the 23rd Slavonian Biennale of Graphic Arts, he had his two of his comic strips exhibited. In addition, for many years she has been successfully leading comic strip workshops for children and adults (kulturni klub O'grada, Monte Librić in Pula, Šibenik Children's Festival, Seven Days of Creation Festival, city libraries and reading rooms...). Schunk is also the author of books for adultsTragovi, Sitna proza 1 and 2, Svijet oko puta, comic strip album Striptokok and Bez brkova, as well as picture books Sretan svijet/Životinjski bonton, Fućka mi se, Joj kipari, series Mika and series Miro i Mara, where he worked as a writer, illustrator and designer.
Of the several awards he won, it is worth mentioning the Kiklop from 2014 for Palac sim i palac Tam (illustrations and design) and Ovca u kutiji for the most beautiful picture book in 2018 for Fućka mi se.