Igor Kordej


Igor Kordej is a Croatian comic book artist, illustrator, graphic designer and scenographer.

Biography

Igor Kordej graduated at ŠPUD, graphic department and attended two years at Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb, graphic department.
Kordej started as a professional graphic designer when he was 18, and as a professional comic artist and illustrator when he was 19 years old, joining the group of comic artists called Novi kvadrat in 1976–1979, and publishing in several Yugoslavian youth magazines of that era. In 1979 Novi kvadrat won the national award 7 sekretara SKOJ-a, thus marking a break-up of the group.
In the early 1980s, Kordej teamed up with Mirko Ilić again in SLS studio, and focuses on producing album covers and posters for Yugoslavian pop musicians and groups. After the break-up with Ilić he continues with solo career, doing illustration for Yugoslavian mainstream magazines, film and theater posters, logotypes and album covers.
Kordej started a career in European comic market in 1986, and since 1989 on the US market, in the magazine Heavy Metal Magazine. His work from that period includes the album Les cinq saisons – Automne, published in 1990 by Dargaud. IT was appointed by the Ministry of Culture in France as a work of significant cultural value and was assigned to all public libraries in France.
Kordej moved from Zagreb to a small Istrian village, Groznjan, in 1988 where he led, as an artist and supervisor, a group of over 20 artists and story writers, as well as veterans Radovan Devlić and Dragan Filipović Fipa, producing comics and design for the German market.
In 1991, he moved to Denmark at the invitation of Semic International company, where he spent almost a year producing comics and illustrations for Malibu Comics. In 1997 he moved to Canada, invited by the company Digital Chameleon to become its creative director. After disputes with management, he left the company after eight months to become a freelancer again.
From 1994 to 1996, Kordej worked for both Marvel Comics and Dark Horse Comics. At Marvel, he worked under editor-in-chief Marcus McLaurin, when Kordej produced several hand-painted comics for Tales of Marvels series. He returned to Marvel in 2001 when he was invited by editor-in–chief Joe Quesada to work on the series Cable and New X-Men. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks many of Marvel artists produced illustrations inspired by the tragedy. They all went on public auction, with the profits donated to families of fallen rescuers. Kordey's illustration Pennsylvania Plane was bought by The Library of Congress. Because of his speed as an artist, at his peak, Kordej was producing artwork for three or four monthly books at the same time. However, as a result, he has attracted heavy criticism for the quality of his art, especially from the readers.
A few months later, in June 2004, Kordej signed a contract with Editions Delcourt. In two decades of his collaboration with the publisher, he published nearly eighty albums on the francophone market.

Awards and nominations

  • 1986 Best comic, Mladost magazine, Belgrade, Yugoslavia
  • 1987 Best comic, SFERA Award, Zagreb, Yugoslavia
  • 1995 Best illustration, SFERA Award, Zagreb, Croatia
  • 1996 Best color illustration, SFERA Award, Zagreb, Croatia
  • 2000 Best artist, voted by fans, Haxtur Award, Gijón, Spain
  • 2005 Best artist, Haxtur Award, Gijón, Spain
  • 2006 Best limited series, Eisner and Harvey awards nominations, USA and Canada
  • 2007 Best artist, voted by fans, Reims, France
  • 2009 Award for contribution to the comics industry, FraMaFu festival, Virovitica, Croatia
  • 2009 Best cover, Glyph Award, Philadelphia, SAD
  • 2010 Favourite European comic book, Eagle Award nomination, Bristol, England
  • 2010 Voted by fans, Avilés, Spain
  • 2010 Best album design - Fender Mega Music Award, Zagreb, Croatia
  • 2011 Best theatre scenography with Valentina Crnković, Marulo Award, 21st Festival "Marulić Days", Split, Croatia
  • 2013 Chevalier of Order of Arts and Letters, Ministry of Culture, France
  • 2013 Honorary member of ULUPUH, Zagreb, Croatia
  • 2020 Gold medal - best of show - Rastko Ćirić for The Rubber Soul Project box set, Global Music Awards, La Jolla, California, USA. Kordey participated as designer and executive producer.
  • 2022 Best artist, European Science Fiction Society, Dudelange, Luxembourg
  • 2023 Best album design - PORIN Award, Zagreb, Croatia
  • 2024 Best comic, SFERA Award, Zagreb, Croatia
  • 2024 Minas Edhel Award for life-time achievement, ZmajKON, Niš, Serbia

    Interior work

  • La Saga de Vam Volume 1-3
  • Heavy Metal Volume 13 #5: "The Wall"
  • Les Cinq Saisons: L'Automne
  • Tales of the Marvels: Wonder Years #1-2
  • Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan :
  • *A Tale of Mugambi
  • *Tarzan/Carson of Venus #1-4
  • *The Rivers of Blood #1-4
  • *Batman/Tarzan: Claws of the Cat-woman #1-4
  • A Decade of Dark Horse #1: "Predator: 1718"
  • Aliens: Havoc #1
  • Myst #1
  • Star Wars :
  • *The Protocol Offensive
  • *Star Wars Tales #1: "Mara Jade: A Night on the Town"
  • *Chewbacca #1
  • Conspiracy #1-2
  • The Incredible Hulk #461: "Self Destruction"
  • Star Trek: Next Generation — The Gorn Crisis
  • The Brotherhood #3: "Drunk with Powers That Could Destroy the World"
  • Cable #97-105, 107 and Darko Macan
  • New X-Men #119-120, 124–125, 128-130
  • Captain America vol. 3 #50: "Relics"
  • A Moment of Silence: "Sick Day"
  • Diosamante #2
  • Black Widow: Pale Little Spider #1-3
  • Soldier X #1-8
  • X-Treme X-Men #25-46
  • Smoke #1-3
  • L'Histoire secrète Volume 1–2, 6-34, 0, 35
  • Empire Volume 1-4
  • Le cœur des batailles Volume 1-2
  • Taras Boulba Volume 1-2
  • L'idole et le fléau Volume 1-2
  • Keltos Volume 1-2
  • Scalped #50: "The Art of Surviving"
  • Jour J Volume 12, 15, 24, 29-31
  • Les 30 Deniers Volume 1-5
  • Nous, les morts Volume 1-4
  • Marshal Bass #1-10
  • Colt & Pepper #1-2
  • Mobius #1-3

    Covers only

  • The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest #3
  • Predator: Kindred #1-4
  • Predator vs. Judge Dredd #3
  • Classic Star Wars: Han Solo at Stars' End #1
  • Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi — Redemption #1-5
  • Star Wars Special #1
  • Soldier X #9-10
  • Angel: The Curse #1, 3
  • Hrvatski Velikani Volume 1 #1, 3
  • Unknown Soldier vol. 4 #1-6
  • Detective Comics #1018
  • Basketful of Heads #6, variant cover
  • 20th Century Men #1 and #6, variant cover

    Interviews

  • , PopImage
Category:1957 births
Category:Living people
Category:20th-century Croatian illustrators
Category:20th-century Croatian male artists
Category:21st-century Croatian illustrators
Category:21st-century Croatian male artists
Category:Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb alumni
Category:Artists from Zagreb
Category:Croatian comics artists
Category:Croatian comics writers
Category:Croatian graphic designers
Category:Croatian magazine illustrators
Category:Croatian poster artists