The first comic

There were four children in the family. Josip's sister was the oldest, Mira was the younger, and Slavko and Rudi were brothers.

They were a modest working family. As Rudi told Marijan Ožarnić, his father and mother always rented an apartment. If they found an apartment cheaper by 200-300 dinars, they moved because that was money that could feed the family for almost 20 days.

When Rudi was four years old, his brother Slavko was already going to school! Rudi was very envious of him for having a school bag! And it was Slavko who was responsible for Rudi's love for comics and reading.

Sunday was a day of rest for the Aljinović family. Namely, every Sunday, newspaper delivery men (they were called "journalists") used the open "oberlicht" to drop newspapers into the house. And every pre-war newspaper had a children's page on Sundays.

Slavko gave the serious part of the newspaper to his father, but kept the children's page with comics. He also read comics to his younger brother Rudi in bed. Thus, the first comic that Rudi "heard" was "The Adventurer Ivica" written by the American Branner.

One of the turning points in his childhood was when he learned to read. Then he started devouring comics himself! His favorite authors appeared in Neugebauer's "Zabavnik".

Soon he started designing comics himself.

He made his first comic in the 2nd grade of elementary school, together with his friend Zvonko Lojen. They were then 8-9 year old kids.

Their magazine was called "Strip". On the title page was written "Strip", and below that in smaller letters the subtitle "8 pages of fun". All the pages were written and drawn by hand, and they copied it on indigo paper so that each boy got a copy. In it, they briefly described their adventures and crossed out caricatures from humor magazines. Inside they also had a comic book about the cat Felix, and all the drawings were carefully drawn out with ink after the pencil.

Their "Strip" "came out" in three or four numbers. Rudi, the acclaimed Croatian comic screenwriter, started writing in elementary school. But it didn't go too well for him from the beginning!

Namely, as an old man, Rudi remembered how he got angry when he would proudly show his work to his parents and aunts, and they would start laughing at him! They laughed at his strange sentences, and that would make Rudi sad. He would say: - Well, a child can't write like an adult! –

But after a valuable career, he saw that criticism only brought him good. His only regret was that he did not preserve some of his first works. He said: - In boy's games it was created and in boy's games it disappeared. –