Dolki-n trei straie means “dolky in three garments”, and it’s the name of a traditional Czech dish – a kind of pancake garnished with cottage cheese, cream and rose hip jam.
This graphic novel is about Czech community living in the Banat region of Romania. There are six villages where the majority of the people are Czech, with a history dating from 1830. They were formed by colonists sent by the Habsburgic empire, almost two hundred years ago, in a relatively isolated area, and thus managed to conserve their language and traditions.
The book presents the journey of Ileana (a Romanian illustrator) and Petra (a Czech, settled in Romania, who plays the role of the guide). Together, they visit the people and the places, and try to share their story with the reader.
This is project done in collaboration with Petra Dobruská. Following her idea, we worked together on the script, and developed the story.
The book was done with the support of the Czech Embassy at Bucharest, and published by Jumătatea plină in December 2014, Bucharest. It is part of the collection Relaţii ceho-române în bandă desenată (Romanian-czech relations illustrated with comics), together with others three published titles: Mickey pe Dunăre, Aripi de Oțel, Karel Líman #arhitect.

In 2017 it was traslated in Czech ad published on a larger format and with a new cover by Mlada Fronta, under the title Češi v Banátu.

Illustrations: Ileana Surducan
Scenario and text: Petra Dobruská and Ileana Surducan
First edition Cover: Sorina Vasilescu