GraphicMEMOIRBlog | Creator Conversation #90
Regular readers will know that whenever I visit a country, I try to understand its comics scene. In May, I was in Latvia on a family roots trip, retracing my grandfather’s 1937 visit, which was briefly depicted in The English GI. I’ll write more about that journey in a separate post.
Before arriving in Riga, I knew almost nothing about Latvian comics. A quick online search led me to Jurijs Tatarkins, a cartoonist, illustrator, and co-organiser of the Sābrs zine festival. What caught my attention was that he had recently published Unrest, a short comics collection with Fieldmouse Press, the California-based alternative comics publisher behind SOLRAD, a newsletter and criticism site I have long followed.
We arranged to meet for coffee in central Riga and then took a short stroll to the Freedom Monument. Over the course of our conversation, Jurijs introduced me to Latvia’s comics scene, from the pioneering role of Kuš! Comics to his own journey from self-published zines in Riga to publication in California. What emerged was a surprisingly international story: a small post-Soviet comics culture whose artists now connect with publishers and readers across the world.
Kuš! Comics
During the Soviet era, comics were not widely encouraged as an art form, and Latvia emerged with a very limited comics infrastructure — no sustained publishing scene, festivals, criticism culture, or established sense of the medium as a serious art form.
In Latvia, Jurijs explained, everything begins with Kuš! Comics. Founded around twenty years ago by David Schilter, from Switzerland, who arrived through Erasmus exchanges, Kuš! began as an act of cultural improvisation in a country with virtually no contemporary comics scene.
Although always small, Kuš! developed a strong international reputation in alternative comics. Originally publishing in Latvian through kiosks, it later shifted toward English-language editions and international distribution. Today its anthologies circulate widely, functioning as both publisher and an important part of Latvia’s comics infrastructure.
“Wherever I travel in alternative comics circles, people know Kuš!,” Tatarkins told me.
Tatarkins, who works across illustration, teaching, festival organisation and comics, came from animation and initially had little engagement with the medium beyond childhood Donald Duck books. Kuš! changed that, revealing forms far from mainstream superhero traditions.
“It made me realise there were many more ways to make comics than I imagined,” he said.
He submitted work multiple times before being accepted. His first publication appeared in Finland’s Kuti magazine before he began contributing to Kuš! projects. Today he also helps run Sābrs — Latvia’s only zine festival.
From Riga to California
The most striking part of Tatarkins’ trajectory is how his work moved from Latvia’s small scene into independent publishing in the United States.
While working illustration jobs, he began producing a self-published ten-page zine each month. “It wasn’t really about quality at first,” he said. “It was about creating space for my own stories.” These became fragmented, diary-like works with recurring motifs, including a cloud-hatted figure.
While in Italy, he responded to an open call from Fieldmouse Press, a small US publisher focused on experimental and underrepresented comics. He assembled material from his zines and submitted it shortly before the deadline. Out of roughly 400 submissions, he was accepted. The resulting book, Unrest, draws on influences such as Fernando Pessoa’s The Book of Disquiet, treating comics as accumulation rather than narrative.
Founded in 2019, Fieldmouse Press is a nonprofit comics publisher based in California that focuses on distinctive and formally inventive graphic narratives. It also publishes SOLRAD, an online magazine devoted to comics criticism.
“Writing comics feels closer to writing poetry,” he said.
A Tiny Global Community
Alternative comics remains a small, tightly connected international world. Tatarkins described friends bringing copies of Unrest back from the Small Press Expo in the United States after meeting the publishers there in person.
“The field is small around the globe,” he said.
That DIY ethos is echoed in Sābrs, the Riga zine festival he co-organises, created after a previous festival disappeared during Covid. It reflects the collaborative, low-budget spirit of the wider scene. Tatarkins now balances illustration, teaching, organising events, and making comics.
Kuš! also runs a residency programme in Riga, inviting artists to spend one or two months in the city to develop new work while engaging with the local comics and art scene. Over the years it has hosted a wide range of international artists through various collaborations, continuing to feed into this small but global network.
Note: Tatarkins' next publication is already on the way: Soft Currents, his new mini-Kuš! comic, is due for release shortly.
Walking and Comics as Process
Walking, Tatarkins explained, is central to his creative process. His comics emerge not as linear narratives but as fragments of thought, observation, and internal monologue assembled over time.
“I go for walks alone to think,” he said. “I connect fragments slowly until some larger picture appears.”
In a country where comics culture barely existed a generation ago, those fragments are gradually forming a larger picture too.
Article written by Jonathan Sandler, author of The English GI: World War II Graphic Memoir, curator of the GraphicMEMOIRBlog, and Advisor to Mensch Publishing.
What a great profile! I have a couple of Kuš! comics and love Fieldmouse Press. Thanks for this intro to Jurijs.
I love this kid of outdoor sharing experience!