History in Frames. Meeting with Elena Vladova and Nikolay Rusev

History in Frames.
Literary meeting with Elena Vladova and Nikolay Rusev

The documentary comic as an art of storytelling
How do you tell a story that happened thousands of years ago, when only archaeological finds, fragmentary information, and numerous questions remain? How do you show the past that none of us has seen? And can comics do something that neither historical research nor ordinary literary text can?

We usually associate comics with fictional characters, adventures, and fantastic worlds. But comics have long been much more than just entertainment reading. They can be a documentary narrative, historical research, reportage, biography, and a standalone work of art where words and images create a common meaning.

In this meeting, we will talk with Elena Vladova and Nikolay Rusev — authors of a series of documentary comics dedicated to Bulgarian history and archaeology.

From the Varna Chalcolithic necropolis and the battle of Varna in 1444 to the medieval fortress Dubilin and their latest publication "Pictures from Varna – in the footsteps of the Shkorpil brothers", the two turn historical research into narratives that we can read and see at the same time.

But how is a documentary comic actually created? How do historical facts turn into plots, and real people into characters? How is it decided which moments to show, which to leave between the frames, and what can be reconstructed with the help of imagination?
Here arises a more complex question: where is the line between historical fact and artistic interpretation? Every image of the past contains decisions made by the artist — about perspective, composition, actions, and details. Can a historical comic be both accurate and artistically free?

We will also discuss the very language of comics. Why is this not just text with added drawings? How does the sequence of images govern time, how does the space between frames make the reader complete the action, and how does a story change when part of the narrative shifts from words to images?

As part of the European Authors Day, we continue to explore the different forms of literature and their possibilities to tell about the world. The documentary comic is an interesting example: it combines research, writing, and drawing, and the reader participates in building the narrative through their own imagination.

Come and let’s talk about the history we can read, see, and understand in a new way.

December 1, 2026, Tuesday, 18:30.
NCH "Iskra-1924", Captain Raycho Nikolov St. No. 103, Varna
Free admission.

The event is part of the European Authors Day 2026 – Varna, "Friendship and Togetherness."