Vladimír Jiránek

Vladimír Jiránek (6 June 1938 – 6 November 2012) was a Czech illustrator, cartoonist and director of animated films. Most of his work was intended for an adult audience, but his best-known works are the animated series for children Pat & Mat and Bob a Bobek – králíci z klobouku.

Biography

Vladimír Jiránek was born in Hradec Králové on 6 June 1938, but he spent almost his entire life in Prague. He graduated from the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague with a degree in journalism. He was a freelance illustrator and cartoonist all his life. He started drawing during his studies and offered his illustrations to various magazines to earn some money. He closely cooperated with the magazines Mladý svět, Literární noviny, Vesmír, Technický magazín and Melodie.

After the Prague Spring in 1968, he was banned from publishing for political reasons, but he got a job at Krátký film Praha (a company focused on producing short films) in the Bratři v triku studio. Here he met Václav Bedřich, who introduced him to the creation of cartoons.

The main-belt asteroid 17694 Jiránek was named after Vladimír Jiránek.

Selected filmography Jiránek created twenty animated films. His films have been awarded many times at foreign film competitions. Among notable Jiránek's films are: Pivo přes ulici (1974) Pat & Mat (1976) Co jsme udělali slepicím (1977) – co-director, story, illustrations; awarded by the Golden Bear for best short film Bob a Bobek – králíci z klobouku (1977) Hokej je hra (1978) Srdečný pozdrav ze zeměkoule (1981) – animated inserts Pozor, bonbon (1990) – co-illustrations

Books Anekdoty pro civilizaci (Anecdotes for civilization, 1977) Běžte a milujte se (1987) Bob a Bobek – králíci z klobouku (Bob and Bobek, 1988) Knížka pro snílky (A book for dreamers, 1989) Události (Events, 1990) Doktorská knížka (1997) (Ne)kuřácká knížka (Book for (non)smokers, 2000) To byla léta devadesátá (2000)