French, b. 1976 Croatian artist Miroslav Sekulic-Struja is currently taking up residency in France. Sekulic has been drawing since he was as young as four years old, with merely a pen and paper to keep him company throughout childhood. Among his artistic influences are De Chirico, Magritte, Dali, Munch, and Van Gogh, while he indulges in the written works of Jonathan Swift and the Brothers Grimm. Raised in an orphanage and a child of poverty, Sekulic’s pursuit of his ambitions led him to the Zagreb School of Animated Films by the time he was a late teenager. His dreams as an artist were temporarily stalled by a mandatory enlistment in the Armed Forces of Croatia, which for many of Sekulic’s older friends from the orphanage, marked the end of both their friendships and their sanities. Sekulic served for ten months, honing his craft by painting, drawing, and embellishing love letters for his comrades to send to their girlfriends overseas. An Angoulême International Comics Festival “Young Talent” prize recipient, the masterful narrative execution behind Sekulic’s graphic novels Pelote dans la fumée and Petar & Liza has earned him several accolades. A member of Croatia’s lost generation, the artist is driven to tell stories that chronicle the unique, underrepresented struggles faced by people living between the lines of society. Whether illustrating the lives of impoverished youth or despondent veterans, Sekulic’s stories are almost always drawn from a place of experience and familiarity.