Uri Fink

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Uri Fink

Birth name	Uri Fink
Born	September 18, 1963 (1963-09-18) (age 44) Tel Aviv, Israel
Nationality	Israeli
Area(s)	Artist, Illustrator, Cartoonist, Writer
Notable works	Zbeng!

Uri Fink (born 18 September 1963 in Israel) is an Israeli comic book artist and writer. Considered to be one of the leading Israeli comic book artists.

Best known as the creator of "Zbeng!", which has been running since 1987 till today.

[edit] Biography

Born in Israel, Fink had a passion for art since early childhood. Fink began drawing at a very early age, influenced mainly by the comic books he enjoyed reading.

In 1978, at the age 15, he published his first comic story of the Hebrew superhero "Sabraman".

After he served in the Israeli army between the years 1981-1984 he got accepted into the department of visual design in the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. His final project was a comics book name "Hevlay Meshiach" (which was later on published.

In August 17, 1987 his comics "Zbeng!" was first published in the leading Israeli teen magazine "Ma'Ariv La'Noar" and won great success. Rapidly the one page comics expanded into a number of pages in every issue, and became the prominent part of the magazine.

Except for the steady section in "Ma'Ariv La'Noar", Fink also published 19 "Zbeng!" books throughout the years.

Fink also published two books which teaches how to draw the characters of "Zbeng!". He Also published additional merchandise which includes a series of school diaries, Zbeng Notebook, "Zbengale" (Zbeng's for young children), and many more.

Due to the massive success of "Zbeng!" and the popularity he gained amongst the Israeli youth, during the 1990s Fink published many additional comic books.

[edit] His different comics series

Fink has written and drawn many comic books, including:

Sabarman - The adventures of the Hebrew superhero "Sabarman". Sabarman is Dan Bar-On. His parents were killed during the holocaust by the Nazis. After the end of World War II he immigrated to Israel, became a policeman and later on became a special secret agent. He got a special transplanted atomic brain, which bestows him radioactive super-powers.

Havlei Mashiah (הבלי משיח) - this book was designed as part of a project Fink made as his final project created while he studied at the department of visual design in the famous Israeli Art school "Bezalel Academy of Art and Design".

Super Shlumper (סופר שלומפר) - A superhero dressed in the pajamas, which is actually a parody of all superhero typical plots.

Zbeng! (זבנג!) - this comics series a gang of typical Israeli teens, which including eccentric which are actually an extremism of typical stereotypes of that age group (the geek, the bully, the raunchy guy, the leftist, the rockiest, the most beautiful girl in the class, the soldier, The obese guy, the homosexual, the quirky principal and the mean teacher. Zbeng has won great success amongst the Israeli youth throughout the years: it appeared in the weekly youth magazine "Ma'Ariv La'Noar", It was published in 19 different volumes, and there was even a TV show produced based upon the comics series. The series also launched its own merchandise - such as school diaries, notebooks, booklets and more.

Zbengale - (זבנגלה) - This comics takes place is a somewhat "parallel world" to the world of Zbeng where all the characters are in their early childhood. This comic series was created by Fink from his desire to create a comics designed for children without much violence or crudeness.

Days of Antiochus (ימי אנטיוכוס) - The main character of this comic series is an evil dog called Antiochus.

Shabtai (שבתאי) - This comics originally appeared in the Israeli web portal "Nana" where it has been published until today since 1999. Shabtai is the only daily comics in Israel - which originally was somewhat similar to the comics Dilbert, and increasingly it transformed and became political and dealing with current issues.

The Golem (הגולם) - an alternative history comic book. The main character in the book is "The Golem", a supposedly real Israeli super hero, which was very popular in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s and had a big influence on the crucial moments of Israel.

Googi Stories (סיפורי גוגי) - After Uri Fink became a father he created this comics which is dedicated entirety to the experience of parenthood. The main characters of the comics are his own family: his daughter Inbar, his wife Liat and on his daughter Yael.