Makuszyński and Walentynowicz created four books: 120 przygód Koziołka Matołka, Druga księga przygód Koziołka Matołka, Trzecia księga przygód Koziołka Matołka and Czwarta księga przygód Koziołka Matołka. Pacanów, the setting of the comic, is a real town in Poland. Once when Makuszyński 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. Makuszyński and Walentynowicz decided then to help him by popularizing the small town in their books.
Story
The stories center around the quest that Matołek, an anthropomorphicgoat, undertakes: to find Pacanów, a town where it is rumoured they make shoes for goats. Matołek's adventures are amusing if sometimes surreal. The titular hero is nice, naive, clumsy, laughable and not very bright — in many regards similar to another famous children's story character, Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne. As an adventurecomic strip the stories are roughly contemporaneous with characters such as Rupert Bear and Tintin and Milou. Matołek'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 Matołek's colors to his homesick feelings for Poland, which appear when he finds himself in far-away places.
Form
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.
Influence
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 kują', 'pacan' and 'matoł'. From 1969 to 1971 an animated seriesDziwne przygody Koziołka Matołka 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 languagesubtitles, 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 Koziołek Matołek. There are also four educational games for small children, 'Koziołek Matołek idzie do szkoły', 'Koziołek Matołek wynalazca', 'Szkoła Koziołka Matołka' and 'Wesołe przedszkole Koziołka Matołka' The series has also been adopted into a theater production for a younger audience. In 2003 Polish minister of cultureWaldemar Dąbrowski organized the celebrations of Koziołek Matołek's 70th birthday in Pacanów.
