Alfabéta

The kArton Gallery presents another new exhibition dedicated to the winners of the ALFABÉTA awards. Imre Fekete, Marabu and Róbert Odegnál who created the best comic books, stories and strips in 2005. Their works will be on view until July 1st, 2006.
In Hungary, rewarding the best comic artists is without precedent. Internationally, the prestigious Eisner and Harvey awards or the Grand Prix of the city of Angouleme are well-known even outside the comic profession, while in this country, many people still share the view that comics are for analphabets – hence the name of the award. A jury of twenty-five Hungarian comic artists, critics, publishers, editors, collectors and fans voted earlier this year to decide upon the best original comic works published in 2005
There were three categories:
A: Kép-Regény: graphic novels, stories collected in albums or stories of at least 20 pages published as an on-going series in a magazine.
This category includes the type of comics with the longest runnig tradition in Hungary, that is the continuing stories published in newspapers or magazines otherwise not dedicated to comics. This tradition is today mainly carried on by the Füles crossword puzzle magazine and most of the stories are adaptations of literary works.
B: Kép-Novella: Short stories between 1 and 20 pages, mostly published in a single issue or in a small number of installments.
In 2005, there was an increase in possibilites for publishing comic stories with the lauch of Fekete-Fehér Képregényantológia and Pinkhell. Quite a few magazines of special interest such as Beszélő, Mozinet or Galaktika also published one or several comic stories last year. This is also the category that includes some of the longer stories published in Kretén.
C: Kép-Sor: comic strips or series starring the same cast of characters or a based on a common theme.
Kretén, Pesti Est and Exit have been the most notable magazines publishing this type of comics for some time.
The awards were handed out at the 2nd Hungarian Comics Festival to the following creators:
Odegnál Róbert for his graphic novel "A Hívó" (The caller).
Odegnál won the comic competition "Vadkelet" in 2004 and was also one of the first place winners of the competition announced by Míves Céh in 2005 for the character called Nero Blanco. His covers and illustrations for science fiction books and series have been made him an in-demand artist and he was awarded the Eurocon 2006 price for best European graphic artist in the SF field. The awarded album is the first part of his own series called "A rév" (The ferry).
Fekete Imre for his short story "A gömb" (The sphere) which appeared in issue 2 of Fekete-Fehér Képregényantológia.
Imre has been one of the leading names of Kretén magazine as both an artist and a writer and is responsible for most of the covers of that title.
Marabu for his comic strip "Hé, Dodó!" which has been running for several years in Kretén magazine.
As a cartoonist, Marabu has been a mainstay in Kretén and HVG, but many other magazines have also published his works. In comics, his favorite genre is the comic srip but has also created somewhat longer stories, among others in the now legendary title Krampusz.
The jury felt that the works of these three artists did the most in 2005 to increase awareness of comics in Hungary and to dispell misconceptions and preconceptions about this art form.

The award was founded in 2005 by Antal Bayer, the editor of Black & White Comics Antology.