| Ralf König | |
|---|---|
Ralf König, 2008 |
|
| Born | August 8, 1960 Soest, Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Notable works | The Killer Condom Der bewegte Mann Lysistrata Pretty Baby Wie die Karnickel |
| Awards | full list |
Ralf König (born August 8, 1960 in Soest, Germany) is one of the best known and most commercially successful German comic book creators. His books have been translated into many languages. He has resided in Soest, Dortmund, and Berlin, and now lives in Cologne.
Contents |
After attending a German Hauptschule, König completed an apprenticeship, learning the trade of a joiner.
In 1979, he came out as a gay man, and about this time he created short comics stories that appeared in the Munich underground magazine Zomix and the gay periodical Rosa Flieder.[1] He returned to school from 1981 to 1986, attending the public Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and pursuing a major in free art (Freie Kunst). Also in 1981, his early collected comics were published by the gay publishing house Verlag rosa Winkel as SchwulComix (GayComix). In 1987, he wrote The Killer Condom (Kondom des Grauens), his first comic with a continuous story, which was later produced as a film.
In the German-speaking world, König's comics have a vast homosexual fan base. Despite initial skepticism about the prospect of a broader audience due to his works' frequent setting within the gay milieu, his comics have achieved considerable popularity among heterosexual readers as well.[2] A few of his comics have been adapted into films, and several have translated into other languages. By 2008, his total publications exceeded 5 million copies.[3]
König's stories are drawn in an expressive cartoon style. Consistently written with humour, they occasionally deal with serious themes such as the tension between sexual freedom and the risk of AIDS infection. His work has repeatedly portrayed daily routines of gay life, often based on personal experiences of himself and his friends. He has also written works that deal centrally with heterosexuals (Der bewegte Mann, Hempels Sofa) and with religious themes, criticizing literalist readings of the bible (Prototyp and Archetyp) as well as Islamic fundamentalism (Dschinn Dschinn) .
Some of König's books have been translated into English. First was Kondom des Grauens, published as The Killer Condom (1991, reprint 2009). The two-part book Der bewegte Mann/Pretty Baby appeared as Maybe... Maybe Not (1998)/Maybe... Maybe Not Again! (1999), Bullenklöten as Bull's Balls (2002), Roy und Al as Roy & Al (2006) and Down to the Bone (2011).
Footnotes