Przemek Truscinski

Wow, I'm really dusting off some of these old articles here. This was originally written for Empty Magazine in 2006! Most of my articles from that period make me cringe, but there's something about this interview with Polish artist Przemek "Trust" Truscinski that I've always liked. See for yourself, maybe it's horrible. This interview was actually conducted all over email, too...

The night descends upon you like a suffocating, dark blanket. The man beside you collapses to the ground, so intoxicated he can’t speak nor hold himself up. Communist Poland cries with society’s collective pain. In a hazy back alleyway, a group of teenagers huddle around a steel drum roaring with the flames of burning dreams, exchanging needles between each other. It is in this time and place that the muse of Przemek Truscinski, or Trust as he is known in the art world, lives and breathes. Trust has been creating his unique comic works for the past fifteen years, works which have been published around the world and have garnered him critical acclaim.

Trust was born in Lodz, Poland in 1970, and he still lives in Poland. He has created a world of his own, a place were dark characters are brought to life.

“Living in a communist Poland, especially in Lodz, where almost every man lived a poor, shitful and dangerous life, had an effect on my style of drawing,” he says. “That's how it was behind the Iron Curtain. People from this side of the world are different

“The genesis of that dark, psychedelic style comes just from my childhood. I was living in a poor family. I was running away to my imaginary worlds, away from day-by-day problems. I used to be an introvert and my parents didn't mind what I was doing. I started doing comics at the high school of art, where I met a bunch of freaks who were just as creative as I was, and that helped me in making good decisions when doing comics in general.”

Trust grabbed his first break into the art community when he and a group of friends organised the first Comic Festival in Lodz. It was here that Trust first received awards and other people started to notice his works. Soon after, publishing houses caught wind of Trust’s incredible creations and started publishing his comics in Poland, and later internationally. Trust says that the inspiration for his works comes from a desire to challenge the observer.

“I just love whipping the readers' minds, that's for sure!” he says, “I treat myself as a typical pop-culture kid so all my inspiration comes from films, music videos and all that. I'm keen on art as well, no matter if it's Lascaux Cavern or modern art, really. Lots of stuff is taken from the fashion world, too. All of this is mixed with my personal life experience.”

In 1999, Trust embarked on one of his most ambitious comic projects – the ‘Dust’ project. The protagonist, Dust, is a street warrior who attempts to exterminate pushers and drug users rather than save the world in the conventional ‘hero’ manner. Trust says that Dust was born out of his resentment towards drugs and the effects they were having on those around him.

“I was completely pissed off by the fact that around 80% of my friends from Lodz are brain damaged thanks to drugs. No matter if it was hard stuff or marijuana, I started to lose my close mates,” he says. “I guess that everything must have its own proportions, even though I see myself as a party guy. Dust comes at the point when too many drugs are being abused. I wanted to create a superhero that wouldn't be either good or bad. Dust is a demon of revenge and... he simply tackles with people linked with drugs. No mercy!”

Another project that Trust has been involved with recently is the artwork for the new video game, The Witcher, which is based on the popular Polish fantasy icon of the same name. The project, Trust admits, whilst fulfilling, has been a labourious and difficult one.

“At one of the concerts of Cool Kids Of Death in Warsaw I met my old mate from Lodz who happened to be the creative art director of that game project,” Trust explains. “He offered me the job of designing the character of Witcher. I agreed and I tell you, I thought ‘it's gonna be easy’, but it cost me about half a year to make it! And when I was about to give up, I made this ultimate design which will hopefully be accepted by almost every orthodox fan of the Witcher in Poland. The whole project is highly anticipated all over the world. This game is gonna be a blast!”

Much of Trust’s artwork is available online at his website, http://www.trusthead.com/. The website is a work of art itself, a journey into an imaginary city where trips down dark alleys and peering through cloudy windows offer the viewer the chance to experience the many facets of Trust’s work. “I wanted to include all those elements that influenced me so much - my beautiful and freaked out city Lodz (we made thousands of pictures of that place) plus music without which I'm not able to draw (I picked The Young Gods, industrial pioneers from Switzerland).”

One such facet of work on display on Trust’s website is his art for advertisements. “I do it just for cash. I guess its manual work only. Surprisingly there is more and more stuff in the advertising world that is influenced by my own work. Weird but nice. The awareness of the power of illustration is growing bigger and bigger here in Poland.”

This awareness has meant that Trust has been branded with the label of ‘Godfather of Polish Comics’, a title which he isn’t completely at ease with.

“Oh, I feel shitful!” Trust exclaims. “True, I was the co-creator of the Polish scene and I know I've been an influence for the next generation of artists but this whole ‘Godfather’ thing makes me creepy... I don't want to be perceived as an 'instant classic' when I’m 36 years old! I presume that the best things are still yet to come.”

It’s been a long road for Przemek Truscinski – from the introverted child with a penchant for dark, psychedelic imagery to a man whose works are renowned worldwide and splashed across advertisements, comic books and video games. The hesitant godfather of Polish comics has risen up through the ranks of the art community, but is it as glamorous as it seems from the outside?

“Good question,” Trust replies. “It's the best thing I could be but, well it has messed up my life a little bit too! It's kinda like signing a pact with the devil! But... I pick up most of the girls ‘cause I create comics, you know! It's cool.”