'Odüsszeia' ('The Odyssey'), 1959-1960.
Tamás Szecskó was a Hungarian book illustrator, known for livening up the pages of over 500 books, mostly aimed at a young audience. Between 1959 and 1960, he also drew a serialized comic based on Homer's 'Odyssey'.
Life and career
Tamás Szecskó was born in 1925 in Budapest. Between 1946 and 1948, he studied art history at the Hungarian University for Fine Arts in the same capital, where the Hungarian avant-garde painter Róbert Berény was one of his teachers. Szecskó was 15 when his earliest drawings appeared in print. He was a contributor to the magazine Új Idök, edited by Lajos Kassák, and also worked in advertising. Szecskó was a productive book illustrator for the publishing companies Singer, Wolfner, Móra and Tankönyvkiadó Vállalat, specializing in educational books and children's books in general. He illustrated many classics of world literature, including editions of Jules Verne's 'Matthias Sándor' (1964), Carlo Collodi's 'Pinocchio' (1974), Lewis Carroll's 'Alice In Wonderland' (1974), J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' (1975) and the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen (1964). Another notable book with his illustrations was Szabolcs Szunyogh's 'Jeruzsálem lovagjai' ("The Knights of Jerusalem", 1986).
Book covers by Tamás Szecskó.
Szecskó also designed images for dia projectors and made graphic contributions to the TV series 'Mint Oldott Kéve' (1983), a costume drama based on György Sárközi's novel of the same name. The series was also dubbed in German as 'Wie eine verwehte Garbe' and broadcast on East German television.
Tamás Szecskó passed away in 1987. His son Tamás became a photo editor, his other son Péter an illustrator, graphic artist and painter, and his daughter Ágnes has worked as a graphic designer, illustrator and head of the library at the National Heritage Center, Forster Gyula.
The Odyssey
In 1959, Szecskó made a balloon comic based on the 'Odyssey', the epic by ancient Greek poet Homer. Rewritten in modern-day language by scriptwriter Gábor Devecseri (a pseudonym for Péter Kuczka), Szecskó's rendition was serialized in the magazine Füles until 1960.
Illustration for a 1964 Hungarian edition of Jules Verne's 'Mathias Sandorf' ('Sandor Matyas').