Nikodem Cabała

• born 1980
• born in Dąbrowa Tarnowska
• he lives and creates his works in Warsaw
• he specializes in drawing, illustrations and scriptwriting

“For me, comics is most of all a story, presentation of content.
I try to match the form to avoid anything which could stand between the content and the reader, disturb the message and distort the content”.

He is a natural artist. He has not completed any art studies. Since 2004, he has worked for “Nowa Fantastyka” as an illustrator. He is a co-author of the “BiOCOSMOSiS” series, the only Polish comics series with two first volumes reprinted by “Heavy Metal”, an American magazine. He has participated in group comics exhibitions in Radom, Tarnów and Wrocław as well as abroad, in Tel Aviv or Vilnius.

The most important publications: “Strefa Komiksu #1” album titled “Mrok”, Vol. 1: “Przebudzenie” (art), story by R. Zaręba, Wydawnictwo Roberta Zaręby, 2007; “Strefa Komiksu #2” album titled “Pomidorowa” (art), story by Ł. Borowiecki, Wydawnictwo Roberta Zaręby, 2007; 5 albums in the “BiOCOSMOSiS” series, (“Enone”, “Savas”, “Qiuciuq”, “Evilive”, “Atlana”) and 2 comics anthologies from the “BiOCOSMOSiS” world, story by E. Volinski, ProArte, 2006‒2011, including “Enone” and “Savas” – reprint in “Heavy Metal Magazine”, March 2009, November 2010; “Tylko koni żal…” episode in the “Nędzole” anthology (art and cover), story by R. Zaręba, Wydawnictwo Kameleon, 2016; participation in the “Polish Porno Graphics” anthology (story and art), Planeta Komiksów, 2017.

The most important awards and distinctions: the first place in the poll of the “Nowa Fantastyka” readers in the Best Illustrator category (twice), Warsaw, 2010 and 2012.

The word which seems to describe the works by Nikodem Cabała best is “care”. His most frequent techniques include pencil and ink; as a result, his illustrations are very elaborate, with characteristic thin strokes drawn with calligraphic precision.
Regardless from whether Cabała decides to use black and white with a relatively low blackening of a panel or to put in colour, his images are always equally expressive and filled with multiple details.
Those realistic and intricate images make a particularly shocking impression in works using the gore convention, where faithful depiction of bloody and violent scenes is the most important.
Although he sometimes creates works about human relationships or humorous works, Cabała mainly draws fantastic and scientific comics, including the “BiOCOSMOSiS” series, a space opera which seems to be simply asking for film adaptation owing to its film-like panache and incredibly three-dimensional images, full of spectacularly depicted vehicles, flying objects or combat units.
The artist’s works also include untypical composition solutions. What is characteristic of him is overlaying single images, often separated with diagonal borders or characters or vehicles drawn outside panels. That trick of expanding the visual space of the presented world makes Cabała’s pages seem to be captured in motion.

Nikodem Cabała Gallery

More information about the artist: nikodemcabala.deviantart.com