Michał Śledziński

• nickname Śledziu
• born 1978
• born in Bydgoszcz
• he lives and creates his works in Warsaw
• he specializes in comics, animation and computer games

“It is hard to leave comics. It is easy to enter, though”.

He graduated from the Leon Wyczółkowski Secondary School of Fine Arts in Bydgoszcz. He was awarded his diploma in comics in 1997, together with the title of a graphic artist. He has participated in individual comics exhibitions in Poland and abroad, including in Krakow, Poznań, Wrocław, Siedlce, Łódź, Budapest, Lukka or Tokyo. He is recognized as one the Bydgoszcz classics of the Polish comics. He was an editor-in-chief of the “Produkt” comics magazine published in 1999‒2004, where the “Osiedle Swoboda” series was printed.

The most important publications: “Wartości rodzinne”, Vol. 1‒4, Kultura Gniewu, 2008‒2010; “Osiedle Swoboda 1” (1999‒2004), a collection, Kultura Gniewu, 2010; “Szkicownik”, ATY, 2012; “Czerwony Pingwin musi umrzeć!”, Vol. 1, Kultura Gniewu, 2013; “Strange Years: Jesień”, Vol. 1 (art), story by M. Śledziński and A. Kurasiński, Kultura Gniewu, 2015; “Osiedle Swoboda 2” (2006‒2008), a collection (art and story), colour: Bartosz “Marian” Ślesiński, Kultura Gniewu, 2017; “Na szybko spisane: 1980‒2010”, a collection, Kultura Gniewu, 2017.

The most important awards and distinctions: K’01 Award in the Best Comics Magazine category for “Produkt” (as editor-in-chief), Krakow, 2001; K’01 Award in the Best Comics Magazine category for “Produkt” (as editor-inchief), Krakow, 2001; award in the Best Polish Comics 2006/2007 category for “Na szybko spisane: 1980‒1990”, International Festival for Comics and Games, Łódź, 2007; award of the “Hiro” magazine for the Best Comics/Book 2010 category for “Osiedle Swoboda 1” (a collection), Warsaw, 2011; award of the Polish Comics Association for the Best Comics 2010 for “Osiedle Swoboda 1” (a collection), Warsaw, 2011.

The works by Michał Śledziński include the first such long Polish comics about human relationships; therefore, his name is often mentioned in the context of the beginnings of the Polish graphic novel. The unprecedented “Osiedle Swoboda” series has revolutionized the Polish comics market and set new standards in terms of both form and contents presented using a combination of various conventions.
One of the features which makes Śledziński’s comics differ most from works by other authors is the manner of evoking sensual impressions using a strictly visual medium. His plays with its visual nature consist e.g. in depicting smells by drawing flowers coming out of an air freshener or showing sound using a visual layer. Music is particularly important in his comics; they have their own soundtrack, as panels include fragments of lyrics and band names. Music is often the topic of characters’ conversations as well.
Regardless from the selected style and experiments with the page composition and the manner of joining panels, all comics by that artist include fluent narration and soft transitions between subsequent images. His realistic and simplified style has evolved over the years, becoming more refined over time; however, it still includes the recognizable overdrawn cartoons strokes. Śledziński uses both strong and caricaturist strokes as well as soft, rounded ones with no expressive contours, which are close to Japanese animation owing to their dynamics.

Michał Śledziński Gallery

More information about the artist: sledziu.pl