# Igor Kordej

Igor Kordej (referred to as Igor Kordey in American and French publications; born 23 June 1957) is a Croatian comic book artist, illustrator, graphic designer and scenographer of international reputation.

## Early life

Igor Kordej graduated at ŠPUD (The School of Applied Arts and Design in Zagreb), graphic department (1972-1977) and attended two years at Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb, graphic department (1977-1979).

## Career
### Novi kvadrat

Igor Kordej started as a professional graphic designer when he was 18, and as a professional comic artist and illustrator when he was 19 years old, joining a very influential group of comic artists Novi kvadrat (New square) 1976–1979, and publishing in all relevant Yugoslavian youth magazines of that era. In 1979 Novi kvadrat won the prestigious national award 7 sekretara SKOJ-a, thus marking a break-up of the group.

### SLS studio

In the early 1980s, Kordej teamed up with Mirko Ilić again in SLS studio (acronym for "Slow, Bad and Expensive"), and focuses on producing album covers and posters for Yugoslavian pop musicians and groups. After the break-up with Ilić he continues with solo career, doing illustration for Yugoslavian mainstream magazines, film and theater posters, logotypes and album covers.

### Early international work

Kordej started a career in European comic market in 1986 (France, Spain, Germany), and since 1989 on the US market (Heavy Metal Magazine). His most significant work from that period is album Les cinq saisons – Automne, published in 1990 by Dargaud. That album was appointed by the Ministry of Culture in France as a work of significant cultural value and was assigned to all public libraries in France (in 2011 the same album was featured in Paul Gravett's book 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die).
Kordej moved from Zagreb to a small Istrian village, Groznjan in 1988 where he leads, as an artist and supervisor, a group of over 20 artists and story writers (among others a young Darko Macan, Edvin Biuković and Goran Sudžuka), as well as veterans Radovan Devlić and Dragan Filipović Fipa, producing comics and design for the German market.
In 1991 he moved to Denmark at the invitation of Semic International company, where he spends almost a year, producing comics and illustrations for Malibu Comics. In 1997 he moves to Canada, invited by Digital Chameleon company, working as a creative director. Having disputes with management, he leaves the company after eight months and becomes a freelancer again.

### Marvel

From 1994 to 1996, Kordej did work for both Marvel Comics and Dark Horse Comics. At Marvel, he worked under editor-in-chief Marcus McLaurin, when Kordej produced several hand-painted comics for Tales of Marvels series. He returned to Marvel in 2001 when he was invited by editor-in–chief Joe Quesada to work on the series Cable and New X-Men. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks many of Marvel artists produced illustrations inspired by the tragedy. They all went on public auction, with the profits donated to families of fallen rescuers. Kordey's illustration Pennsylvania Plane was bought by The Library of Congress. Because of his speed as an artist, at his peak, Kordej was producing artwork for three or four monthly books at the same time. However, as a result, he has attracted heavy criticism for the quality of his art, especially from the readers.

### Delcourt

A few months later, in June 2004, Kordej signed a contract with Editions Delcourt. In two decades of his collaboration with the publisher, he published nearly eighty albums on the francophone market.

## Awards and nominations

* 1986 Best comic (Zvjezdana prašina), Mladost magazine, Belgrade, Yugoslavia
* 1987 Best comic, SFERA Award, Zagreb, Yugoslavia
* 1995 Best illustration, SFERA Award, Zagreb, Croatia
* 1996 Best color illustration, SFERA Award, Zagreb, Croatia
* 2000 Best artist, voted by fans, Haxtur Award (Batman/Tarzan – The Claws of the Catwoman), Gijón, Spain
* 2005 Best artist, Haxtur Award (X-treme X-Men – Storm: The Arena), Gijón, Spain
* 2006 Best limited series, Eisner and Harvey awards nominations (Smoke), USA and Canada
* 2007 Best artist, voted by fans, Reims, France
* 2009 Award for contribution to the comics industry, FraMaFu festival, Virovitica, Croatia
* 2009 Best cover, Glyph Award (Unknown soldier series), Philadelphia, SAD
* 2010 Favourite European comic book, Eagle Award nomination (The Secret History), Bristol, England
* 2010 Voted by fans (Persona mas nocturna), Avilés, Spain
* 2010 Best album design - Fender Mega Music Award (Leiner & Hrnjak: Viša sila), Zagreb, Croatia
* 2011 Best theatre scenography (Čudo u Poskokovoj dragi) with Valentina Crnković, Marulo Award, 21st Festival "Marulić Days", Split, Croatia
* 2013 Chevalier of Order of Arts and Letters, Ministry of Culture, France
* 2013 Honorary member of ULUPUH (Croatian Association of Artists of Applied Arts), Zagreb, Croatia
* 2020 Gold medal - best of show - Rastko Ćirić for The Rubber Soul Project box set, Global Music Awards, La Jolla, California, USA. Kordey participated as designer and executive producer.
* 2022 Best artist, European Science Fiction Society, Dudelange, Luxembourg
* 2023 Best album design - PORIN Award (Chui: Zagreb - Berlin), Zagreb, Croatia
* 2024 Best comic, SFERA Award (Texas Kid, My Brother, graphic novel), Zagreb, Croatia
* 2024 Minas Edhel Award for life-time achievement, ZmajKON, Niš, Serbia