If anything can be called a Sisyphean task, it’s the search for someone who hasn’t heard of Alan Ford in the former Yugoslavia. Even if someone isn’t interested in comics and has never read them, they will still know one of the famous jokes that never expire. For example, just saying: “Better to live a hundred years as a millionaire than seven days in poverty,” and everyone will remember what you’re talking about.
Alan Ford was created by the legendary creators Luciano Seki Bunker and Roberto Raviola Magnus, and the first story was published in Italy in May 1969. On kiosks throughout Yugoslavia, this humorous comic appeared three years after the Italian edition, in 1972, and quickly gained cult status, which – judging by the homegrown adjectives “alanfordovski” or the shortened “fordovski” – it still holds today.
The bipolar world that Alan Ford so brilliantly portrayed, alongside the position of Yugoslavia as a non-aligned country at a specific historical moment, undoubtedly contributed to its popularity. However, there is one more thing, the gem of Alan Ford, that made readers devour the comic so eagerly – its humor.
Often dark, satirical, and full of onomatopoeia – PUF, KNIF, PANT – the humor of this comic often triggered bouts of laughter in its readers.
Thanks to the legendary translations of Nenad Briksi, Alan Ford‘s treasury of meaningless lessons became available to Yugoslavians. Whether coming from Grunf’s t-shirts or from the sleepy stories of Number One, lines from Alan Ford seem to have no expiration date.
Here are some, and feel free to share your favorite lines with us:
- Alan, let’s run! There are two of them, and we are alone.
- Better to bravely retreat than cowardly win.
- Arm yourself and run!
- I will be most affected by my own death.
- For the homeland, I’ll give everything, even a fingernail.
- One for all, all for one!
- We promise nothing, and we keep that promise – The Party of Truth.
- We have experience, and you have money. In the end, you’ll have the experience, and we’ll have the money.
- Better to look like a fool than miss the train.
