Ivkovich, Alexander Efimovich

The real name of Alexander Ivkovich is not known. The surname was taken (officially in 1934) from the wife of the Serbian Darinka Ivkovich, in whose name he opened his first successful enterprise in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia - the photocinography "Rus".

The largest comic book publisher in the Balkans. In total, from 1936 to 1941, Alexander Ivkovich opened nine magazines (including thematic inserts). In the four months of 1936, on the basis of Rus photocincography, he begins to publish several specialized magazines - Zabavnik, Robinson, The Little Fun Mickey Mouse (Mali The Fun Mika Mish), The Little Mickey Mouse Library (The Little Mika Mish Library). At the beginning of 1937 another magazine was opened - “Have Fun”, and in March 1938 - the magazine “Tarzan”.

The most famous magazine in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which will go down in the history of European comics, will be the Mika Mish magazine (as the Serbian version of the name Mickey Mouse sounded then). Created in March 1936, the magazine will unite under its cover all the artists who began working in the new genre. Many Russian emigrant artists worked for the magazine, Yuri Lobachev , Nikolai Navoev , Sergey Solovyov , Konstantin Kuznetsov , Alexey Rankhner , Ivan Shenshin , as well as Yugoslav artists George Dzhuka Yankovich , Misha Dimitrievich. The editor of the magazine was the filmmaker Milutin S. Ignachevich . At the same time, Ivkovic with the Belgian publisher Ladislav Sandor Lustig opened a specialized company Universum Press for distribution of comics abroad. In 1939, Milutin S. Ignyachevich began to print his own magazine "Mikisevo kingdom." Since April 4, 1941, in connection with the war, the publication of Ivkovic’s magazines has ceased.

It was difficult to publish magazines during the occupation: all publishing activities in Yugoslavia were regulated by a decree of the military commandant of the country “On the Press” dated May 20, 1941, according to which all publishing houses were subordinate to the Propagand abtaeiling Sudost. Ivkovic nevertheless made an attempt to publish the magazine: on October 8, 1941, the Belgrade newsstands appeared in the 505th issue of Mika Mish magazine. But the American and English comics that were in the magazine did not appeal to the then authorities and Mika Mish magazine was banned.

After the war, Ivkovic made an attempt to return to the genre of the graphic novel: in 1945 he tried to revive the magazine “Fun Veselnik”, but to no avail, and later he dealt mainly with the affairs of the Universum Press publishing house. Alexander Ivkovich died in Belgrade in 1969 and was buried in the New Cemetery in Belgrade. ^{[1] [2]}