“1973-2009″, Evangelos Androutsopoulos

Summary

The two pages of this comic are actually part of a larger series I had in mind. I only chose these two for the competition because they are the most relevant. The first page is a story my father told me about Athens in 1973, after the fall of the military dictatorship of 1967-1973. The second page presents my memories of Athens when I was there in summer 2009, the year of the banking crisis. After this, I went back to Helsinki and worked there. I had already decided to prepare to move to London, UK.

Biography

I was born in Lappeenranta, Finland. I moved back and forth between Finland and Greece throughout my education. In 2006, I enrolled at the University of Athens to study history and I self-published my first magazines. In 2009, I went back to Finland to join the civil service and in 2011 I moved to London.

Page 1

1. My father said he was with his friends at the time. He and Stavrakos were in a basement café. There were others too.

2. When tear gas was fired they ran out without paying.

3. They went looking for Apostolopoulos who was with them earlier.

4. He lost them in the crowd when everyone started running.

5. He walked around and stayed hidden in some narrow streets in the centre all night.

6. Apostolopoulos was fine, but his arm was broken during the chase. This he found out later. He said in high school they were both caught by soldiers.

7. When they found out his father was in the military the soldier let them go. He retired a couple of years ago.

8. At around nine  in the morning he could finally take the bus to go home.

9. He lived with his parents in a Northestearn suburb of Athens. These were all houses given to ex-officers by the military.

Page 2

1. I hadn’t gone to class for months.

2. I was at a lecture with my sister. Something about Neolithic graves. I couldn’t even get interested in that.

3. During the coffee break I decided to leave and went outside. Every summer, contractors burn these mountains to build more houses.

4. I walked across the campus of the technical university to go home. I remembered the first time I walked here.

5. It was three years earlier. I was still drinking the same kind of juice and everything. Maria talked to me in front of the canteen.

6. Later in the city with an old friend. I hadn’t really seen him for a couple of years either.

7. I guess we spent a lot of money on drinks. The area was redeveloped and looked completely different. I was trying not to think, but wasn’t very successful.

8. Around May, having pizza with Apostolos. I remember the December riots, the whole place was burning, now it’s life again, like nothing happened.

9. I went exploring, I was a whale, maybe drink some more.

10. Hungover, I was staring at my pile of books for ages with my phone in my hand. Most of these I got for free and still haven’t read them.

11. in June I went back to Helsinki to avoid military service.

12. I was stuck working in the archive for eleven months. I was in Athens again the next summer.