The creator of Mirko and Slavko, Desimir "Buin" Žižović [sr] (1920-1996), was born in the village of Gornji Branetići, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.

[1] It is certain that he spent some time under the command of Ljubo Novaković, before he was spotted by Dragiša Vasić, who sent him to work for the illegal newspaper Ravnogorski borac (Ravna Gora Fighter) as an illustrator.

[1] For a period of time he worked as a designer in Titoplastika, a factory that produced packages for various products.

[1] In the late 1950s, Dečje novine started publishing a series of historical comics entitled Nikad robom (Never a Slave).

[4] However, stories of Mirko and Slavko were excellently received, and gradually upstaged all the other comics from Nikad robom series.

[1][4][7] The comic was also published in Slovenian and Macedonian language, in magazines like Naš koutek, Drugarče and Jednota.

[4] Artists which worked with Žižović on Mirko and Slavko include Živorad Atanacković, Ratomir Petrović, Branko Plavšić, Milan Vranešević, Mile Rančić, Leo Korelc, Brana Nikolić, Nikola Mitrović "Kokan", Slaviša Ćirović, Stevica Živanov and others.

After the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia, Mirko decided to join the Partisans,[1] exchanging two breads for a gun with a soldier of the defeated and disbanded Royal Yugoslav Army.

[9] Mirko and Slavko was the first and only Yugoslav comic to be adapted into a live action film during the existence of the country.

[6] In the several years following the end of the World War II, the new communist authorities in Yugoslavia had an unfavorable view of comics, considering them decadent products of capitalism.

[1] Dečje novine annually received thousands of letters written by the fans of the comic.

[8] With the experience it had as the first distributor of the Walt Disney Company products in socialist Europe, Dečje novine signed contracts with various Yugoslav companies,[1] and the characters of Mirko and Slavko appeared on t-shirts, satchels, notebooks and other products.