Small wonder
Taking over a tiny wall at the side of a cafe Bucharest micro-store Libraria Jumatatea Plina attempts to be a big inspiration for local comic artists
October 2009 - From the Print Edition
Nestling in an alcove between two rooms in one of the capital’s cosiest cultural cafes is an experiment in book-selling.
Occupying no more than a few shelves inside the villa of Lente Bar is the Libraria Jumatatea Plina, a store dedicated to graphic narratives and comic art.
There is no cashier and the two owners sit outside the bar, drinking coffee on tables beneath a vineyard, clattering away on their laptops and waiting to give multilingual advice to customers looking for graphic novels.
Run by the non-profit association Jumatatea Plina, headed by Anamaria Pravicencu and Octav Avramescu, the store aims to sell obscure and international names from the genre and become a platform for the sales and exhibition of local artists.
Hosting the store, Lente Cafe itself is a hive of translators, film critics and artists. Many exploit the free Wifi to turn a bar stool into their office, downing coffee in the mornings and cocktails in the afternoon. Even the Japanese cultural association uses the space to host origami lessons for kids.
On sale in the micro-bookstore are French, English and Romanian language titles - with the French and Belgians dominating, due to the reverence which their countries hold the art of graphic narratives.
Top names shelved here include Herge, Daniel Clowes, Art Spiegelman, Kim Deitch and Boudoin, and all are selling at the western cover price.
From the Romanian side, the best-selling book is Oana Lohan’s realist sketches of the multi-layers of Bucharest’s dirty but intriguing urban landscape. Also on sale is Romanian artist Dan Perjovschi’s satires in a comic form and the regular experimental showcase of local artisans, Hardcomics.
At present, the store is exhibiting rising talent Sorina Vasilescu’s mix of sketches of Romania and anecdotes of everyday life - Vasilescu herself designed the inventory of miscellany which decorates the wall of the store.
The Jumatatea Plina Association aims to encourage more Romanians to write in a graphic novel format, because at present most of the artists compile only strips or one-off panels. This month, the association has set up another temporary bookstore at the Patria Cinema in Bucharest’s animation festival, Animest, and is bringing over author, theoretician, and comics publisher, Xavier Loewenthal, for lectures and a show.
However there is competition. Romanian cultural chain superstore Carturesti has recently opened a French bookshop inside the Institut Francais, only a few blocks from Libraria Jumatatea Plina, which also has a section dedicated to Francophile graphic novels – making Bucharest probably the fiercest battleground for French comic sales outside of the Left Bank.■
Michael Bird
Libraria Jumatatea Plina
Inside ‘Lente’ Bar
Str. Gen. Praporgescu Nr. 31
031 10 20 661
Open daily [not Wednesdays] from 13:00 to 21:00 hrs