Kozioà Âek Matoà Âek ( the ) is a fictional character created by Kornel Makuszyà Âski (story) and Marian Walentynowicz (art) in one of the first and most famous Polish comics back in 1933. It became a cult classic, popular since its creation till today, and becoming an important part of the canon of Polish children's literature.
Makuszyà Âski and Walentynowicz created four books: 120 przygód Kozioà Âka Matoà Âka ("120 adventures of Kozioà Âek Matoà Âek"), Druga ksiÃÂga przygód Kozioà Âka Matoà Âka ("second book of adventures of Kozioà Âek Matoà Âek"), Trzecia ksiÃÂga przygód Kozioà Âka Matoà Âka ("third book of adventures of Kozioà Âek Matoà Âek") and Czwarta ksiÃÂga przygód Kozioà Âka Matoà Âka ("fourth book of adventures of Kozioà Âek Matoà Âek").
Pacanów, the setting of the comic, is a real town in Poland. Once when Makuszyà Âski and Walentynowicz were sitting in a coffee house in Kraków, they spotted a sad looking man sipping a drink at a nearby table. They asked him why he looked so gloomy, and he told them that he came from the small town of Pacanów and was wondering how to help the town prosper. Makuszyà Âski and Walentynowicz decided then to help him by popularizing the small town in their books.
The stories center around the quest that Matoà Âek, an anthropomorphic goat, undertakes: to find Pacanów, a town where it is rumoured they make shoes for goats. Matoà Âek's adventures are amusing if sometimes surreal. The titular hero is nice, naive, clumsy, laughable and not very bright â in many regards similar to another famous children's story character, Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne. As an adventure comic strip the stories are roughly contemporaneous with characters such as Rupert Bear and Tintin and Milou. Matoà Âek's search for Pacanów takes him to many corners of the Earth, from Africa to the Wild West.
The stories have visible patriotic undertones, from Matoà Âek's colors (white fur and red shorts, evoking the flag of Poland) to his homesick feelings for Poland, which appear when he finds himself in far-away places.
The comic has a specific format: each page is divided into regular, rectangular frames with each illustration accompanied by a rhythmical 8-syllabical quatrain. The most popular illustrations come from the third edition, the first two had a different style of art.
The comic has influenced many generations of Poles, and some of its phrases have penetrated into the Polish language itself, with expressions like 'w Pacanowie kozy kujà' (In Pacanów, they shoe goats), 'pacan' and 'matoà Â' (slowpoke, dummy).
From 1969 to 1971 an animated series Dziwne przygody Kozioà Âka Matoà Âka (Strange adventures of Kozioà Âek Matoà Âek) was made by Studio Miniatur Filmowych. The animated version was released in a series on 3 DVDs in 2002 and is available internationally; although there are no English language subtitles, the amount of dialogue is very limited. The original comic book has not been translated. Currently Studio Miniatur Filmowych has started work on a full-length animated film about Kozioà Âek Matoà Âek.
There are also four educational games for small children, 'Kozioà Âek Matoà Âek idzie do szkoà Ây' (Kozioà Âek Matoà Âek goes to school), 'Kozioà Âek Matoà Âek wynalazca' (Kozioà Âek Matoà Âek the inventor), 'Szkoà Âa Kozioà Âka Matoà Âka' (The school of Kozioà Âek Matoà Âek) and 'Wesoà Âe przedszkole Kozioà Âka Matoà Âka' (The happy kindergarten of Kozioà Âek Matoà Âek)
The series has also been adopted into a theater production for a younger audience.
In 2003 Polish minister of culture Waldemar Dàbrowski organized the celebrations of Kozioà Âek Matoà Âek's 70th birthday in Pacanów.