Demokrata [89′ IV. Vol. No. 9 – Political and cultural magazine. (Samizdat)]

Demokrata IV. évf. 9. szám. [Democratic 89′ IV. Vol. No. 9 – Political and cultural magazine. (Samizdat)]
Edited by Nagy, Jenő and Sneé, Péter. Publisher: Nagy, Jenő. Images, graphics: Bokros, Péter.  Published: every two months.
Budapest, 1989. [ABC Független.] 84 [2] p.
Publishing paperback. Cover designed by Mirko Ilic. In good condition, minor fault. Between 1986 and 1991, a total of 41 numbers appeared.

Mirko Ilić (Bijeljina, Yugoslavia, 1956-) is Serbian graphic designer and comics artist based in New York City.
He published his first works in 1973, and has since been publishing comics and illustrations in magazines, such as Omladinski tjednik, Modra Lasta, Tina, Pitanja, and Start and has become the art and comics editor of the students’ magazine Polet in 1976. That’s when he organized an informal organization of the comic book creators Novi kvadrat (The New Square), that has been widely connected to the Novi val musical movement in Zagreb. That connection also made Ilić design album covers of some of the most prominent Yugoslav bands of the time, such as Bijelo dugme, U škripcu, Prljavo kazalište, Parni Valjak, Azra, Film and many others. He designed the cover for the first album of Prljavo kazalište, which became a widely recognizable and iconic symbol for Punk rock in ex-Yugoslavia.
He stopped working for the magazines in 1985, and in March 1986 he left Yugoslavia and went to New York “with $1,500 in the pocket and no idea what to do upon getting there”. Yet, he soon started publishing his illustrations in Time, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and many other prominent and influential newspapers and magazines. In 1991, he becomes an art director of Time International, and the following year he became art director of the op-eds in the New York Times.

Samizdat editions, mostly political pamphlets, appeared in Hungary in the 1970s in the poor form of carbon copies of typescripts. Later in the 80s the so-called Democratic Opposition in Hungary established semi-underground publishings, like “AB Független” to publish not merely political literature but also literature that was banned by the Communist politics.