Cartoonist’s colourful career

Jiri Sliva credits his success to a series of chance meetings, says Tina O’Sullivan

CZECH cartoonist Jiri Sliva’s exhibition, Happy Hour, runs this month at Cork Vision Centre. Cafes, wine, jazz, love stories and Kafka are just some of Sliva’s themes. An award-winning illustrator, he has also enjoyed success as a writer.

Sliva was born in Pilsen, which is famous for beer. He did not aspire to be a cartoonist, he says. “When I was 19, I went to Prague to study at the university. In 1971, I started in the high school of economics and sociology. Then, I started to work in futurology prognostics at our department of futurology and sociology.”