Szarlota Pawel was the artistic alias of Eugenia Szarlota Pawel-Kroll. In 1974, the artist graduated from the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. She took up making comic books by chance. One of her lecturers was looking for a person skilled in drawing comic books who could be hired at the editorial office of the periodical Swiat Mlodych. Pawel applied for the job even though she knew little about comic strips – she was, however, in need of money.

At the editorial office she encountered Henryk Jerzy Chmielewski, the author of comic albums with stories about Tytus, Romek and A’tomek. He showed her foreign comic books and shared with her his recipe for a successful album for younger audiences: two kids an...