Since 2019, the Zlatirepec Award has been highlighting the finest achievements in comic creativity. This year’s jury was comprised of comic artist and animator Gašper Rus, comic and literary critic Eva Ule, and translator Julija Potrč Šavli. The first two jury members were voted in and selected by the members of the Packa Association of Slovenian Comics and Related Sequential Arts, while the third was appointed by the Slovenian Association of Literary Translators (SLTA). We have established a partnership with the SLTA based on presenting the international Sophie Castille Award for Comic Translation—which will be awarded at the festival for the third time—in order to further enhance the legitimacy of the award.

This year, 105 comic titles published in the last twelve months (from 1 July 2025 to 1 July 2026) competed for the Zlatirepec Award: 22 Slovenian comics for children and young adults, 59 translated comics for children and young adults, and 18 translated comics for adults. Since only 6 comic books were published in the Slovenian comics for adults category this year, the jury decided to nominate two instead of three titles. This year will also mark the inaugural presentation of the Award for Special Achievements in Comics.

The awards will be presented at the Tinta Ljubljana Comics Festival on Saturday, 10 October, at 20:30 in Kino Šiška’s Katedrala Hall. The ceremony will feature a performance by French drawing virtuoso Edmond Baudoin, who will be creating live art to the musical accompaniment of improviser and multi-instrumentalist Samo Kutin.

The awards are presented by the Packa Association of Slovenian Comics and Related Sequential Arts, Stripolis Institute, and the Sophie Castille Award Foundation. The award is part of a literary events project co-funded by the Slovenian Book Agency.

Zlatirepec Awards

Zlatirepec Award for Best Slovenian Comic for Children and Young Adults 2026:

Mojmir in Krištof: Primer izginule kuharice (Mojmir and Krištof: The Case of the Missing Cookbook) – Matej de Cecco, Janez Grm (Stripolis, 2026)

This entertaining narrative, packed with surprises, strictly adheres to the conventions of detective fiction while never forgetting its youngest audience. Flawless dramaturgy and witty dialogue are matched by playful artwork with a keen eye for facial expressions, body language, and action. The endearing detective duo, who eventually get to the bottom of the mystery after plenty of twists and turns, possesses the potential for a long-running series that will captivate generation after generation. For bringing a refreshing genre twist to contemporary Slovenian comics, we award the Zlatirepec to Mojmir in Krištof: Primer izginule kuharice by Janez Grm and Matej De Cecco!

Zlatirepec Award for Best Slovenian Comic for Adults 2026:

Divja jaga (Wild Hunt) – Martin Ramoveš, Janez Ramoveš (Forum, 2025)

The special power of this comic stems from the relationship between its subject matter and formal execution. Clean black-and-white artwork with stark contrasts, deliberate framing, and precisely measured pacing build a sense of inevitability, as though an eerie silent film were unfolding before us. Each subsequent panel narrows the space for escape, until the wild hunt embodies a violence no one can evade. Divja jaga is a concise yet powerful auteur comic that chills to the bone with its refined line work, thoughtful panel layout, and skilful escalation of dread – for the wild hunt always awaits, and its horror is impossible to escape.

Zlatirepec Award for Best Translated Comic for Children and Young Adults 2026:

Kinderland – Mawil (VigeVageKnjige, 2025; translated by Amalija Maček)

Drawing from the author’s personal experiences, this graphic novel captures the life of a boy on the threshold of adolescence with sensitivity and humour, along with all its attendant anxieties, insecurities, fears, joys, and revelations. At the same time, it vividly resurrects the look and spirit of a bygone era and a country whose inhabitants could never have imagined feeling nostalgia for it. Alternately funny, touching, and often both at once, but brilliantly drawn throughout, the comic unobtrusively demonstrates that during youth, friendship and peer camaraderie are far more precious than tectonic historical shifts. We award the Zlatirepec for Best Translated Comic for Children and Young Adults to the graphic novel Kinderland by German author Mawil.

Zlatirepec Award for Best Translated Comic for Adults 2026:

Jimmy Corrigan, najbrihtnejši poba na svetu (Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth) – Chris Ware (VigeVageKnjige, 2025; translated by Vesna Velkovrh Bukilica)

A meticulous grid of panels, unusual perspectives, visual repetitions, diagrams, and minute details create a complex structure where every element is deliberate and meaningful. Reality, memory, and imagination seamlessly merge into one another, with the author employing space, emptiness, and rhythm to speak where words fall silent. Through a radical and considered use of comic language, the artist transforms mundane everyday life, family history, and human solitude into a work that is both formally extraordinary and emotionally devastating – quiet, strange, and profoundly human. Due to the complexity of the original, its translation and publication represented a formidable publishing effort, carried out by the translator and publisher with exceptional precision and sensitivity to the nuances of such verbal and visual language. For this extraordinary translation and publishing achievement, the Zlatirepec for Best Translated Comic for Adults goes to Jimmy Corrigan!

Sophie Castille Zlatirepec Award 2026 – Best Translation of a Comic for Children and Young Adults

Katja Zakrajšek – for the translation of: Vrabčica (Pardalita), Joana Estrela (VigeVageKnjige, 2026)

This subtle story of fascination, growing closeness, and young love between two teenage girls weaves together various literary forms: dialogue, connecting prose, and prose poetry, all of which the translator navigates brilliantly. The dialogue stands out for its bold use of colloquial language common in teenage speech, injecting humorous notes into an otherwise gentle and occasionally melancholic narrative. In the prose passages, which evoke diary entries, the sentences remain short and natural, while the prose poetry is distinguished by its excellent rhythm. The translator masterfully brings the story closer to the young adults for whom this wonderful work is primarily intended; thus, the Sophie Castille Award in the Children and Young Adults category goes to Katja Zakrajšek for her translation of Vrabčica by Portuguese author Joana Estrela.

Sophie Castille Zlatirepec Award 2026 – Best Translation of a Comic for Adults:

Vesna Velkovrh Bukilica – for the translation of: Jimmy Corrigan, najbrihtnejši poba na svetu (Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth), Chris Ware (VigeVageKnjige, 2025)

In this monumental comic work, the translator expertly nuanced the speech differences across generations of characters using distinctive colloquial expressions and modes of delivery. Across nearly four hundred pages, in addition to the text in standard speech bubbles, she translated all signs, interjections, prose excerpts, explanations, and even assembly instructions for various objects with meticulous accuracy while maintaining the author’s specific humour and capturing numerous required registers. For a stunning translation achievement, the Sophie Castille Award in the Adult category is presented to Vesna Velkovrh Bukilica for her translation of Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan, najbrihtnejši poba na svetu.

First Zlatirepec Award for Special Achievements in Slovenian Comics:

Aleksander Buh

He broke new ground by opening a specialised comic bookshop at a time when similar institutions were nowhere to be found in Slovenia. Over more than two decades of operation, his comic shop has become a meeting point for Slovenian comic creators, readers, collectors, and lovers of comic culture in general. He hosted literary evenings with authors and book signings for local releases, actively promoting Slovenian comic creativity and publishing. By organising social events, particularly the traditional comic picnics, he connected proverbially solitary comic artists across different generations and artistic sensibilities. He was the initiator and co-organiser of several high-profile comic exhibitions, including two retrospectives on the life and work of Miki Muster. Last but not least, he ventured into comic publishing himself; alongside new works by selected local creators, he released a series of reprints, introducing Slovenian comic classics to new generations. With a diverse selection of comics catering to all age groups and tastes, he remained an indispensable presence at major Slovenian book fairs. For his contributions to encouraging, preserving, and developing Slovenian comic culture, the Zlatirepec Award for Special Achievement is awarded to Aleksander Buh!

Mojmir in Krištof: Primer izginule kuharice (Mojmir and Krištof: The Case of the Missing Cookbook) – Matej de Cecco, Janez Grm (Stripolis, 2026)

Meet the cat-and-dog detective duo in this fun comic filled with surprises that respects the rules of the crime fiction genre while keeping its target readership in mind at all times.

Grozna šola 1: Strašni razred (Terrible School 1: The Terrifying Class) – Miha Ha, Maša Ogrizek (Mladinska knjiga, 2026)

Even though vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and other creatures of the night attend this school, young readers will recognize feelings and situations similar to those they experience in their own classrooms, enjoying a good laugh along the way.

Riba na suhem (Fish Out of Water) – Ivan Mitrevski, Maša Ogrizek (KUD Sodobnost, 2025)

A colourful comic with simple shapes aimed at the youngest readers, engaging their exploratory spirit and unobtrusively teaching that every individual is more than just what their job or social status defines them to be.

Divja jaga (Wild Hunt) – Martin Ramoveš, Janez Ramoveš (Forum, 2025)

Divja jaga is the third comic in a cycle where the authors draw from folklore and the history of the Slovenian countryside to create dark, chilling visions of a world where violence is not a distant memory, but a persistent and almost primal force.

Pehta – Tamara Likon, Jure Ule (Forum, 2025)

Through a subtle reinterpretation of a famous folklore figure, evocative black-and-white drawing, and thoughtfully intertwined folk motifs, Pehta creates a captivating narrative of a woman who evolves from the archetype of a mysterious witch back into a misunderstood human figure with her own voice and pain.

Akisi v Parizu (1. knjiga) (Akissi de Paris (Tome 1)) – Marguerite Abouet & Mathieu Sapin (VigeVageKnjige, 2025; translated by Katja Šaponjić)

A highly promising start to a new chapter in the life of a non-conformist, inspiring, and thoroughly charming heroine whom our young readers have already met and fallen in love with.

Veliki hudobni lisjak (The Big Bad Fox)– Benjamin Renner (Stripolis, 2025; translated by Izar Lunaček)

A heartwarming, immensely funny, and brilliantly illustrated story about a fox who wants to be like the big bad wolf, but ends up becoming the best mum in the world.

Kinderland – Mawil (VigeVageKnjige, 2025; translated by Amalija Maček)

A witty, touching, and nostalgic coming-of-age story in which the author relives his early teenage years in East Germany, unobtrusively demonstrating that friendship and hanging out with peers can be more precious than tectonic historical shifts.

Jimmy Corrigan, najbrihtnejši poba na svetu (Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth)  – Chris Ware (VigeVageKnjige, 2025; translated by Vesna Velkovrh Bukilica)

A multi-layered story of loneliness, family ties, and the inability to form genuine connections, intertwining present, memory, imagination, and history through the stories of several generations of the same family. Its characters are trapped in their own fears, memories, and expectations, making their alienation both deeply personal and surprisingly universal.

Nebo v glavi (El cielo en la cabeza) – Altarriba & Garcia & Moral (VigeVageKnjige, 2025; translated by Sara Virk)

A poignant story of two boys from the Democratic Republic of the Congo that translates complex themes of migration, child labor, warfare, and the exploitation of natural resources into an epic narrative about the pursuit of a better life. It stands out with a lavish visual story in which vast landscapes, polyphonic scenes, and carefully considered transitions between panels merge into an evocative journey through dust, heat, anxiety, and rare moments of light.

Pospremi me do vogala (Walk Me to the Corner) – Anneli Furmark (VigeVageKnjige, 2025; translated by Mita Gustinčič Pahor)

Walk Me to the Corner is an extraordinarily delicate story of love, longing, desire, and new possibilities that can emerge even in the middle of a seemingly settled life. Its power lies in its restrained storytelling without moralizing, as well as an airy drawing style and thoughtful color palette that express complex emotional states through subtle gestures and fleeting glances.

Amalija Maček
Kinderland, Mawil (VigeVageKnjige, 2025)

While reading this lively, amusing book about the adventures of seventh-grader Mirko and his friends in East Berlin just before the fall of the Wall, there is never a dull moment. This is also credit to translator Amalija Maček, who managed to craft full-blooded dialogues through a measured use of colloquialisms and truncated words mirroring actual language use, delivering vibrant and convincing characters.

Katja Zakrajšek
Vrabčica (Pardalita), Joana Estrela (VigeVageKnjige, 2026)

In a subtle story of fascination, growing closer, and falling in love between teenagers Raquel and Vrabčica, various forms of verbal expression intertwine: dialogue, narrative prose, and prose poems. Translator Katja Zakrajšek navigated all of them masterfully. The courageous use of colloquialisms common in teenage speech stands out in particular, alongside a thoughtful selection of vocabulary that recreates humor and conveys the wide spectrum of emotions that distinguish this wonderful work.

Neža Božič
Boris, Beti in ljubi okostnjaki (Boris, Babette und lauter Skelette), Tanja Esch (Mladinska knjiga, 2026)

In a book about a boy named Boris doing his best to care for his talking pet Babette, translator Neža Božič brilliantly recreated the natural conversational language of children and their parents, which never feels forced. She also handled Babette’s endearing speech impediment with great skill, making it particularly memorable.

Vesna Velkovrh Bukilica
Jimmy Corrigan, najbrihtnejši poba na svetu (Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth), Chris Ware (VigeVageKnjige, 2025)

A monumental comic work has received a monumental translation in Slovenian. Across nearly four hundred pages, in addition to text in traditional speech bubbles, the translator impeccably rendered all signs, interjections, prose passages, and even instructions for assembling various objects—all with exceptional precision and a masterful shift between the different registers required by the original. A stunning translation achievement.

Suzana Koncut
Travestit (Travesti), Edmond Baudoin (LUD Literatura, 2025)

Travestit was adapted from the novel of the same name by Mircea Cărtărescu, a renowned contemporary Romanian author whose work has already been translated into Slovenian. Translator Suzana Koncut expertly blends longer, literary connecting text with the natural speech of comics, resulting in a hallucinatory coming-of-age narrative characterized by the finest literary language.

Srečko Fišer
Ime rože (The Name of the Rose), Milo Manara, Umberto Eco (Mladinska knjiga 2026)

The graphic novel adaptation of the famous novel was created by Italian master of comics Milo Manara, and translated into Slovenian by Srečko Fišer, who had also provided the translation of the novel over four decades ago. The translator masterfully places us in the Middle Ages through the use of archaic terms, Latin, and even a kind of Babelish spoken by one of the supporting characters, subtly fusing excerpts from the novel with comic dialogue. The result is a literary comic treat.