Stipan Morian lived in several countries and cities before leaving home in 1988 at the age of 15. His first job was coaching kids in how (not) to fight. Coaching alone wasn’t enough, so he took on odd jobs and eventually finished technical school—barely, but with a lot of fun in the vital and vibrant community that Sarajevo was before the war.
After a few months of war, Stipan brought his mother and brothers to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. Soon after, he began leading an animation workshop at Vodnikova Domačija community centre in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Every weekend, he would travel there to work with Bosnian refugees.
In the early days of Metelkova City Autonomous Cultural Centre, he was part of the punk movement that occupied the former Yugoslav army headquarters. He contributed a small exhibition of underground comics during those first days of transformation.
In 1993, he was accepted into the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. A year later, he traveled to Brussels, Belgium, to learn animation filmmaking from his friends at Atelier Graphoui. Over the next 20+ years, he made animated films, drew and painted, worked on theatre scenography, and restored Renaissance stone buildings alongside his stonemason brothers.
Stipan is the co-creator and artist of 20th CENTURY MEN from Image Comics, written by Deniz Camp. He lives in Croatia with his family. When he can, he escapes the capital and retreats to the island. He has two beautiful sons.
Original art available at inkyknuckles.com
Twitter: @StipanMorian
Instagram: Stipan Morian