Eugen Semitjov (22 May 1923 - 12 June 1987) was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

journalist, writer and artist of

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

descent, born in Sweden.

Background

Semitjov started drawing in 1942 during his military service in Sweden. He was an expert on

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, p ...

, especially

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

ones, and worked as a translator from Russian during Yuri

Gagarin Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin; Gagarin's first name is sometimes transliterated as ''Yuriy'', ''Youri'', or ''Yury''. (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space. Tr ...

's visit to Sweden. He also often worked as an

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

for

Aftonbladet ''Aftonbladet'' (, lit. "The evening paper") is a Swedish daily newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. It is one of the largest daily newspapers in the Nordic countries. History and profile The newspaper was founded by Lars Johan H ...

, especially when the subject was related to space technology. He covered the Apollo space programme as a journalist in Florida. As a Russian speaker, he obtained rare interviews with people involved in the Soviet space programme. Semitjov was awarded the

Stora Journalistpriset Stora Journalistpriset ("The Swedish Grand Prize for Journalism") is an annual Swedish award, founded in 1966 by Bonnier AB, given to "recognize achievement in journalism". The prize money is SEK 100,000 and is awarded in four categories: * Sc ...

in Sweden in 1972 for his work as a journalist. His non-fiction books were about the actress Greta Garbo, science, speculative science such as possible future space colonies and spaceships, with illustrations by well-known space artists such as Fred Gambino and

David A. Hardy David A. Hardy (born 10 April 1936) is a British space artist. Early life David Hardy was born 10. April 1936 in Bournville, UK. He studied at the Margaret Street College of Art in Birmingham, and was soon painting for the British Interplanetar ...

. He also wrote a small number of novels for young people. At a time when the belief that aliens had visited Earth was widespread, he published a book on the subject, deliberately giving it a title and cover to attract the 'true believers', while the majority of the book's content was devoted to debunking a number of well-known UFO cases. As well as writing books, he was the author of the

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

comic ''

Allan Kämpe ''Allan Kämpe'' was a Swedish science fiction comic, created by Eugen Semitjov in December 1942. Setting It all begins when Allan and his wife Eva Kämpe are flying around near the North Pole. They experience a possible fuel leak and crash in t ...

'', first published in December 1942. At first glance the stories appear to be a straight copy of ''

Flash Gordon Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established ''Buck Rogers'' adve ...

'', but the comic has more in common with

Sidney Jordan Sid Jordan (August 12, 1889 – September 30, 1970) was an American film actor. Biography Born in Muskogee, Oklahoma in 1889, Jordan was introduced to acting through his close friend Tom Mix, when both men were serving as the "Night Mars ...

's '

Jeff Hawke ''Jeff Hawke'' was a British science fiction comic strip created by Sydney Jordan. It was published in the ''Daily Express'' from 15 February 1955 to 18 April 1974, by which point Jordan had "written or co-written and drawn 6,474 episodes." Despit ...

'. He was a leading member of the Swedish Space Movement Association when it was founded in 1984 to promote interest in space travel in Sweden. In 1991, the association changed its name to the Swedish Space Society and then gradually went dormant during the first half of the 1990s, only to be revived in 2012. After Semitjov's death in 1987, the Swedish space movement established a prize in his memory, the Eugen Semitjov Prize.

External links

official homepage

References

1923 births 1987 deaths Swedish illustrators Swedish comics writers Swedish comics artists Swedish-language writers Swedish people of Russian descent 20th-century Swedish journalists {{Sweden-artist-stub