The 4th annual comic book festival in  Herceg Novi, a coastal resort in Boka Kotorska Bay in Montenegro proved  that in Southeast Europe there is still substantial interest in the  ninth art, as it is called. The 1970s and 1980s were the golden age of  comics in the former Yugoslavia. The industry was in full bloom, with a  number of widely-available and diverse publications including magazines,  single editions, and albums, ranging from mainstream Marvel and DC  Comics superhero editions to Italy's celebrated Max Bunker or Sergio  Bonelli.
The Herceg Novi Comics Festival was started by Nikola  Čurčin, a graphic designer and comics fan, a man who simply is in love  with the art. The festival is fuelled entirely by local enthusiasm. A  number of well-known comic book artists from the region, who are  employed with major publishers, have participated in this event in  Montenegro.
"The hardest thing was getting guests to come to the  festival,'' Nikola Čurčin told South East Europe: People and Culture.  "It’s a new festival, one that they had never heard of, so they weren't  sure. A fortunate circumstance is that the festival is held next to the  sea and at the start of September, when the weather is good!"
Nice weather aside, the most important thing for a festival  is usually the guests. During the four years that the festival has  existed, it has hosted the likes of Igor Kordej, a Croatian comic book  artist currently employed with DC Comics and Marvel, who worked on  Tarzan, and Serbian comic book artist Zoran Janjetov, who drew comics in  France.