SZUTS, Istvan Szegedi

Szuts’ wordless novel, My War, details the initial enthusiasm of youth going off the war that is then ground down by the reality of war and its atrocities. It arises from Szuts’ experiences in World War One.

Istvan Szegedi Szuts (1892-1959) born in Budapest, Hungary.

• a friend of the composers Bela Bartok Zoltan Kodaly and Gyorgy Ranki.
• Szuts served in the First World War
• 1929 he first visited England and held a solo exhibition at the Gieves Gallery, London, in the same year.
• 1931 produced a book about his war experiences, My War (published in 1931 by John Lane).
• In 1936 he moved to Cornwall with his partner, Helen Gwynedd Jones-Parry, whom he married in 1937. The couple lived at Caunce Head near Mullion on The Lizard and remained there for the rest of their lives.
• He exhibited with The Newlyn Society of Artists and The Penwith Society of Arts.

My War

My War is a wordless novel composed of reproduced pen-ink-wash drawings by Szuts.

This story of (over) 200 ink and brushwork drawings is a display of the atrocities of war as seen through the eyes of a Hussar, or cavalryman, named Isikos. In the table of contents, each page is given a title that provides necessary clarification to a narrative that would otherwise be difficult to understand.

Extract from: Wordless Books, The Original Graphic Novels; Beronä, David A., 2008 p.177

The Little Hussar?

The “Little Hussar” is the main protagonist in the book. I am not sure why Szuts used the adjective “little”.

• “Hussar” is traditionally used to refer to a member of a light cavalry unit.
• The protagonist joins up to fight in the war and at one point is decorated.
• perhaps “little” is a reference to his youth.