Richard Fischer
Džian Baban is a screenwriter and musician. In 2004, he co-founded the creative group Fred Brunold’s Monstrkabaret with Vojtěch Mašek, writing comics, screenplays, and theatre plays. Baban and illustrator Richard Fischer won the 2020 Muriel Award for Best Screenplay for „Rváčov,“ reviving Jaroslav Foglar’s ‘Vonts.’ He has been awarded several further Muriel Awards for best screenplay and comic book of the year in his work with artist Jiří Grus.
Richard Fischer Jr. was born in 1968 in Tábor. He studied mechanical engineering in Sezimovo Ústí and, after completing his military service, spent two years working in a factory. He then pursued art and management, majoring in promotional graphic design. Fischer has been a freelance artist since, working in illustrations, comics, applied painting, interior design, and textile prints with his family project, Domácí dílna. He also creates illustrations for magazines and books. His first comic book, „Rváčov,“ based on a script by Džian Baban, was published in 2020. Fischer often draws inspiration from the gloomy, forgotten, or vanished places of old Prague.
Brawler District
December 2023, 168 pages
Prague’s Old Town at a unique point in history, capturing a time like no other generation has experienced
The second volume of the comic novel „Brawler District“ by illustrator Richard Fischer and screenwriter Džian Baban is set in the 1990s. The children of the 1980s have left the city, and in the wild post-revolutionary era, the Old Town and Lesser Town are transforming as the next generation rises. Courtyards and attics are being locked up or rebuilt; houses are transitioning from public to private ownership. Despite the changes, the first half of the 1990s is still a unique time, with the fictional district of Stínadla buzzing with adventures. Characters like Migrén, Šídlo, Bob, the narrator Béla, Marie, and her mysterious ‘aunt’ Marta populate the story. Like the first volume, the narrative spans multiple timelines, taking the reader from the 2000s back to the Middle Ages. The story culminates in mid-August 2002, with a flood that sweeps through Prague.