Arriving at almost 97 years old and with a career of seven decades in the back, Puiu Manu is the oldest cartoonist in the world, but also one of the most prolific European authors.
King Mihai, as a child. Photo: Puiu Manu
Like a José Saramago of the illustration, Puiu Manu demonstrates that age is not an obstacle to creation, but an instrument by which artistic vocation deepens and acquires new nuances. Without signs of fatigue, he continues to inspire generations, working daily with a rigor and passion that few creators manage to keep throughout his life. In each board it makes, not only the technical mastery and clarity of its style, but also the echo of a whole century of history lived, carefully observed and transposed in images that speak beyond words.
“My hand is still going”
Born on September 14, 1928, in Bucharest, Puiu Manu started his career from the study period, with drawings published in the newspaper “Scânteia Pionierului”. His first cartoon, “Montezuma’s treasure”, after a scenario signed by Mircea Sântimbreanu, was published in the magazine “Red Tie”. He has constantly collaborated with renowned writers of the time, such as Radu Tudoran, Octav Pancu-Iași, Ovidiu Zotta, Tudor Mușatescu, Petre Luscalov, Iuliu Rațiu, Petru Demeter Popescu, Alexandru Mitru, Horia Arama, Dumitru Almaș and Radu Theodoru. Most of his comics were published in the magazine “Cutezătorii”, the most important publication for children in the Socialist Republic of Romania, published between 1967 and 1989 by the National Council of the Pioneers Organization.
Puiu Manu giving autographs in the summer of this year. Photo: personal archive
Even after 1990, with the change of the regime, Puiu Manu did not slow down. He continued to be active, constantly making comics or book illustrations and collaborating with important publishers in the country and abroad. He is, permanently, a guest of honor to the East European Comic Con, but also to the most important events dedicated to the Romanian band: the International Festival of Historical Comics, Bucharest Comicsfest, Kids Comicsfest, as well as at book fairs, exhibitions or other artistic events. Wherever it appears, he welcomes his audience with patience and joy, signing dozens of albums and magazines for readers of all ages. There are few who come with old specimens from the magazine “Cutezătorii”, carefully kept for 40 or 50 years, just to get an autograph from the artist who delighted their childhood. “In 2010 I received a first prize for the whole career. Then others followed … But, honestly, they came about early, because I am not going to stop”, He confesses, smiling, Puiu Manu. “If I have nothing to work in a day, I feel discharged. I don’t know what to do! Fortunately, my hand is still going,” adds the long artist, exclusively for “Weekend Adevărul”.
Last King, in comics
Puiu Manu has recently finished working on a comic album about the life of King Mihai I of Romania (1921-2017), “for young people between 5 and 105 years”, a project he worked in the last two years together with two of his closest collaborators, university professor Adrian Cioroianu and the historian of the Romanian comic. The idea came to Puiu Manu after reading the volume “Mihai I of Romania”, signed by Adrian Cioroianu and Mihaela Simina, appeared at the Curtea Veche Publishing House, but also after the positive reactions received for the drawn band “The meeting”, published in 2021, in which the artist recalls a real incident.
The meeting between Puiu Manu and King Mihai. Photo: Puiu Manu
In April 1947, skiing in Sinaia along with a friend, Puiu Manu randomly met King Mihai in front of Pelișor Castle. The sovereign, who repaired a car, offered the two teenagers with precise indications about the route to the peak with longing, demonstrating a remarkable knowledge of the area. The simple gesture, but full of naturalness, deeply impressed on the future artist. “It was a short meeting, but that remained alive in memory until today, ” confesses Puiu Manu. A few months later, at the end of December, King Mihai would be forced to abdicate, marking the end of an era. Until the album appears in the bookstores, at the end of this year, the comic book enthusiasts can admire some of the original sheets within the exhibition “The story of King Mihai I of Romania, drawn by the master Puiu Manu”, opened at the County Museum of History Brașov on the occasion of the eighth edition of the international festival.
Captain RO, another local superhero
Puiu Manu created, together with the historian Adrian Cioroianu, a Romanian superhero, captain RO, whose adventures have been published, so far, in two albums, “War in the heart of Europe?” And “Djihad! Everything is playing at the Black Sea!”.
“As a comic band author, I had some envy on my confreres in the United States who could juggle with the wonderful” Superman “, involving it in the most fantastic adventures! I lived in a period when this” fantastic “was forbidden! But fortunately, I started more permissive times. similar to the American one, but which is endowed with many more qualities! ”enthusiastically tells Puiu Manu, who is now waiting for Adrian Cioroianu to complete the third scenario having as a protagonist the captain RO.
Dim Danube, a James Bond of the “Golden Age”
Together with the writer Ovidiu Zotta, Puiu Manu gave life to an emblematic character of the Romanian comics during the communist regime: Dim Danube. This hero, similar to an unarmed James Bond, defeated his opponents not by weapons, but with the help of the age and the perfect mastery of martial arts. The sheets with Dim Dunăreanu were first published in the magazine “Cutezătorii”, between 1968-1974, in a series called “The holidays of a quiet young man”. Two of the episodes were also adapted in albums published by the Stadion Publishing House, on the scenarios of Octav Pancu-Iasi.
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King Mihai, comic band hero, through the eyes and brush of Puiu Manu
“We were good friends. I told him at one point: Tuţule, you made so many movie scenarios, you do not make me a drawn tape scenario? And he made me two,” the young and the sea “and” the compass does not look north “. I want to tell you that the publishing house to publish, Exhausted in just two months. Puiu Manu tells.
The character was reborn in 2012, when, together with the screenwriter Marius Leștaru, Puiu Manu made the album “Dim – Sarabandă in Aden Bay”. This time, the action brings the Danube to this day, facing Somali pirates, in a tense and topical story. Also, the artist published in the form of album, in 2015, the episode “Heroic Ballad”, initially published in 1974, in the magazine “Cutezătorii”.
“All the canvases up!”, Together with Radu Tudoran
Good friend with the writer Radu Tudoran, both of them passionate about sailing with canvas, Puiu Manu was the one who adapted the beloved novel “All the cloths up!”. The first variant of the graphic narrative was published in 1958, in the pages of the magazine “Red Tie”, and later, in 1972, it appeared in the form of black and white album, at the Stadion Publishing House.
Fragment from “All the cloths up!”. Photo: Puiu Manu
“When I proposed to make this cartoon together, he shook his nose at first.” How could I summarize an 800-page novel in your 30 boards? “, I asked me. The album was a great success, they were sold as hot bread about 40,000 copies. The Russians after the war.recalls the venerable cartoon creator for “Weekend Adevărul”.
In 2010, when it was a century since the writer’s birth, left among us in 1992, Puiu Manu completely redesigned the album, this time in colors. Initially launched in a limited circulation, by only 100 copies, on the occasion of the International Bone Show from Constanța that year, the album was reissued several times, the last edition, a luxury variant, being published in 2025 by the Editorial Group art.
Shadows and colors of the past
Octav Ungureanu (42 years old) is one of the exponents of the new generation of comic authors in Romania and close collaborator of the Puiu Manu, who supports the album -editing. Like the graphic veteran, Octav uses the comics to bring history closer to the general public, especially young people, in an accessible and captivating form. During the International Festival of Historical Drawings from Brasov, its album was released, “There were near us … 12 stories about the Holocaust in Romania”, an editorial project realized by the National Institute for Holocaust “Elie Wiesel”, on the same occasion being open to the same name. The album reveals the experiences lived during the Holocaust of Jews and Roma from various communities and regions of the country, bringing authentic and emotional stories.
Also, Octav Ungureanu coordinated, together with Alexandru Ciubotariu, other albums on historical themes, such as “Pontic stories in comics: Tomis” (2022), a project of the Museum of National History and Archeology Constanța, but also “Histories from ’89 in comics” (2019) and “Dracula” (Dracula The County Museum of History Brașov. At the same time, inspired by the Donald duck, the rubber toy produced by the “Aradeanca” factory in the 1970s, Octav Ungureanu created the cartoon character Golan Duck. Ported as a nostalgic “hooligan”, Golan Duck expresses, through the “nine art”, a fine criticism of the totalitarian past.
