Artist Interviews 2025

Anton Gudim  
By Julia Siedenburg



Anton Gudim is an artist who creates amazing short comic strips, each showcasing a certain topic or thought critically but in a fun way. His work makes you think, it makes you take a moment to consider his ideas deeply.

A dear friend of mine introduced me to his art when she purchased some of his mini cartoon-like strips and I knew immediately that I had to interview him. This type of layered work that makes you evaluate certain aspects of life while not taking itself too seriously is hard to come by these days. They are incredibly amusing, surprising, entertaining, and also quite educational. I hope you enjoy Anton’s work as much as I do. Who knows, maybe you decide to get one of his pieces like my friend did.



Why does art play such a vital role in our society?

I don't think art plays a big role. Right now, safety and well-being are at the forefront, as life is getting more complicated, prices are mostly rising, and people are mostly thinking about how not to get fired and how to provide for themselves and their families. Art interests people when they are mostly doing well and are ready to entertain themselves or immerse themselves in thought.



How would you describe your style?

These are mainly short comics without dialogues. Mostly absurd and ironic, sometimes with humor, less often - with a specific message that you can think about and discuss. I also have more artistic works, close to caricatures. I am also slowly mastering the short animation format. All that unites my works is that each of them has a specific, clearly formulated idea.




Who/ what is your biggest inspiration for your artwork?

I can't single out one. I grew up with an interest in drawing and loved cartoons and comics when I was a kid. Then the Internet comics of the 2010s (Perry Bible Fellowship, Cyanide, and Happiness, Joan Cornella, etc.), memes of that time, and Internet creativity began to influence the formation of my artistic horizons. Since I started with T-shirt prints, this area also had a strong influence.



How did you find your way to your specific style?

I just drew as best I could (because I knew how to do it since childhood and with practice my skills improved on their own). I mastered vector graphics because I liked the results it could give. When the first drawings were published on social networks, it was easier to determine the style: I understood which elements of the drawings I liked (for example, a thicker outline of the outer contours of the characters) - and I used them later, and which elements I didn’t like (for example, dialogues in comics) - I removed them and tried not to use them. So time after time I honed my style and you can see what it has become.




Your art is very comedic and fun, yet it animates the viewer to think critically and look at their surroundings differently. What is your main goal or message that you want to convey?

I don't like pathos in my drawings. The main goal of their creation is to please as many viewers as possible. And, of course, I get great pleasure from the process of coming up with ideas and putting them into the form of a comic. I don't set large-scale goals because I understand that I can't change anything globally in this world, but perhaps I can cheer someone up or encourage them to be interested in creativity, art, or humor.





What are some topics that you feel are not discussed enough in our day-to-day lives?

I think that all the topics that come to mind have already been discussed on the Internet, and most of them are still discussed regularly and periodically. We live in a time when there is a colossal amount of content:, only the formats change (short vertical videos are now being popularized globally), but the topics remain the same.





Do you have a favorite piece of yours? If so, which one and why?

I have quite a large number of drawings and of course, among this quantity, there are those that I like especially. But these are not 1-2 works, I think that my favorites are about 30-40. You can find selections of my best works by year on my Instagram - most of them I think are good. I would highlight all the works on the theme of childhood and the inner child (I have several of them) because this theme resonates strongly with me.




Please tell us a little bit about your upbringing and childhood. Have you always been artistically talented?

It so happened that I have had the skill of drawing since childhood. In all the schools that I changed, I was the one in the class who did the design, postcards, and artwork. I did not do anything special for this, except that I loved it and as a result, I improved my skills through practice. I mastered Photoshop at a fairly young age because I was interested in it. We also regularly came up with our own comics with my older brother (who also knew how to draw well). I did not have an art education, but I went to painting courses for about a year.




You have multiple books that you released. Please tell us more about that process and how you came to release your first book.

It may seem strange, but I didn't do anything special for this either. I realized that the number of drawings I had created had exceeded 100 and was approaching 200. A publisher from China contacted me and I was surprised that they knew about my work and that it was popular. That's why my first book of drawings was published in China, then Russia, the USA, and France.




What is next? What are your plans for the future? Are there any more book releases or maybe art events planned?

We live in difficult times, so it is difficult to plan anything in the long term. I would like to have a large-scale solo exhibition and I really hope that it will take place soon in China. In general, I am open to any interesting projects and collaborations.