Kai Hirdt

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Kai Hirdt (born July 3, 1976 in Bonn ) is a German PR consultant, science fiction author, comic book writer and publisher.

Life

Kai Hirdt was born on July 3, 1976 in Bonn and went to school there. In third grade he was already fascinated by the horror novels of the John Sinclair series . Through Perry Rhodan radio plays he came to read Perry Rhodan silver volumes . He did his military service in Munich .

In Hamburg , Hirdt studied German language and literature from 1996 with a master's degree with a focus on theater and media. He then completed his training as a PR consultant and then worked for various Hamburg agencies.

From 2006 he wrote the text for the comic series Perry - Unser Mann im All, which is now being continued by Alligator Farm Verlag (Hamburg) . Together with Maikel Das, Hirdt took over Alligator Farm Verlag in early 2008 and has been a publisher ever since.

For the publication of the Perry-Rhodan booklet No. 2.500 (July 2009) and for the Perry-Rhodan-Weltcon taking place in Mannheim (September 30 to October 2, 2011) Kai Hirdt organized the public relations work for the Pabel-Moewig Verlag (Rastatt) .

In 2014, Hirdt started his own business as a public relations expert and writer.

He has been a writer for the Perry Rhodan Neo series since 2015 and has been writing novels for the Perry Rhodan series since 2017 .

In 2019, Hirdt designed the Perry Rhodan mini-series Mission SOL , which comprises twelve issues, and wrote the exposés of the individual novels as well as the first and last novel in this mini-series. The miniseries Mission SOL 2 followed in March 2020 , which Hirdt also conceived and for which he also wrote the exposés.

"It's an honor (and to be honest, extremely cool) to help shape the world that I've had so much fun in so many years."

- Kai Hirdt

plant

Kai Hirdt's work includes both his work as an author or copywriter in the comic field as well as his work as a novelist.

comics

According to Kai Hirdt, adaptations of comics are an art that requires an idea of ​​its own. Transferring one to one does not work. In terms of drawing, one also has to make concessions to the comic medium.

Perry - Our Man in Space (2006-2011)

This comic series is published by Alligator Farm Verlag (Hamburg).

Even as a long-time fan of comics, Hirdt said, he had to learn a lot in order to be able to make comics himself. The continuation of the Perry series - in terms of drawing and storytelling - was initially closely based on the style of the old books. Then a more modern approach was taken. The event should remain true to the roots, but also meet more modern comic standards.

While the story in volumes 131–135 essentially came from Karl Nagel and Vincent Burmeister, the main stories since volume 136 were essentially by Kai Hirdt and Christian Hillmann.

Hirdt described that the authors largely have a free hand with the stories. Care is taken not to violate the basic rules of the "Perryversum" .

According to Hirdt, the Perry series readership is stable and not that small. With cost reductions it should be achieved that there are no more losses. However, in order to be able to pay the artists fairly for their good work, there should be one to two thousand more subscriptions.

  • 130: Hiding in Hyperspace (2006)
  • 131 (New Series No. 1): Hot Dance on Terra (2006)
  • 132 (New Series No. 2): Show Us The Stars (2007)
  • 133 (New Series No. 3): And they'll get you! (2007)
  • 134 (new series No. 4): washing day! (2008)
  • 135 (New series No. 5): Who is the monster here? (2008)
  • 136 (New Series No. 6): Decision on Camelot! (2009)
  • 137 (New Series No. 7): Mutants to Power! (2009)
  • 138 (New Series No. 8): Focus on Terra! (2010)
  • 139 (New Series No. 9): Death in the Sun! (2011)
  • 140 (New series No. 10): Alarm on Arkon! (2011)

Perry Rhodan Comics (2015-2018)

The idea for a new Perry Rhodan comic adaptation came from Klaus N. Frick . The publishing house Cross Cult (Ludwigsburg) secured the rights. Kai Hirdt, already endowed with experience through his work for Perry - Our Man in Space , was won over as an author and copywriter. The story of the comic series takes place in the year 3540 and covers a period that was not covered in the series. According to Hirdt, an important requirement for the series was that it should be both interesting for long-time Perry Rhodan readers and accessible to new readers. Not to bore the old readers and not to overwhelm new readers - a challenge for Hirdt. When it started at the end of 2015, Hirdt described the project as daring - due to the high production costs in view of an international team and the two-month publication frequency, which many German readers are unfamiliar with.

At the end of 2015, Hirdt explained that the collaboration with the artists Marco Castiello (Milan) and Michael Atiyeh (New York) was going smoothly thanks to the Internet. It is strange that he writes the scripts in English and later translates the dialogues into German. Then it happens that clever English word games in German don't work at all.

  • 1: The Cartographers of Infinity - Part 1 (2015)
  • 2: The Cartographers of Infinity - Part 2 (2015)
  • 3: The Cartographers of Infinity - Part 3 (2016)
  • Anthology 1 (Hardcover): The Cartographers of Infinity (2016)
  • 4: Battle for the SOL - Part 1 (2017)
  • 5: Battle for the SOL - Part 2 (2017)
  • 6: Battle for the SOL - Part 3 (2018)
  • Anthology 2 (Hardcover): Battle for the SOL (2018)

Novels

Hirdt sees his own strength in creating realistic dialogues. He has a lot of fun with absurd constellations and behavior. That suits his sense of humor. Hirdt also likes to describe unusual perspectives.

Perry-Rhodan-Neo-Romane (since 2015)

At the end of 2015, Kai Hirdt stated that he was in close contact with the exposé authors Rüdiger Schäfer and Michael Buchholz † when writing Perry Rhodan neo-novels . Sometimes he builds subplots on his own, but by arrangement.

  • 92: Aurora's Legacy (2015)
  • 102: Trace through the millennia (2015)
  • 106: Wrath of the Beast (2015)
  • 110: The Serpent's Head (2015)
  • 114: The Ghosts of CREST (2016)
  • 118: Robot Revolt (2016)
  • 122: Born for Arcon's Throne (2016)
  • 128: The Traitor (2016)
  • 134: The Cortico Syndrome, together with Madeleine Puljic (2016)
  • 139: Balance of Fate (2017)
  • 143: Lord of YATANA (2017)
  • 147: The Cursed Land (2017)
  • 152: The Enemy of My Enemy (2017)
  • 157: Requiem (2017)
  • 162: Alone Between the Stars (2017)
  • 168: The MAGELLAN Murders (2018)
  • 174: The Path of the Auloren (2018)
  • 178: Apas Crisis Zone (2018)
  • 181: The Moon Is Just The Beginning (2018)
  • 182: Fortress of the Alliance (2018)
  • 188: The Beast Within (2018)
  • 192: The Last Look at Sol (2019)
  • 198: Duel of the Beasts (2019)

Perry Rhodan mini-series (since 2016)

Arkon
  • 9: Fleet of Traitors (2016)
Jupiter
Mission SOL

This mini-series was conceived by Hirdt and he worked here for the first time as an exposé author , thus giving the other series authors the essential elements of the plot. Hirdt first developed the basic idea of ​​the story. He then decided to apply the classic narrative scheme of the hero's journey to it - over twelve defined stages. According to Hirdt, the trick is to design the points of tension and surprise so that the desired effects occur. One of the three main characters of the miniseries, Pravo Ylapp, did not appear in the basic concept of the series. It only emerged when writing the synopsis for issue 1 - and then assumed a decisive role for the entire series. In issue 10, suggestions by the author Olaf Brill ultimately led to a complete rescheduling of the content of the novel.

  • 1: The Spaceship Grave (2019)
  • 12 the die falls (2019)
Mission SOL 2

This mini-series was also designed by Hirdt and supervised as an exposé author.

  • 1: Knights of Chaos (2020)
  • 12: The Chaopressor (2020)

Perry Rhodan booklet novels (since 2017)

After previously working at Perry Rhodan Neo , joining the Perry Rhodan first edition meant a change for Kai Hirdt. The plot of the first edition is more complex, the universe is much more defined. In the neo-universe the author could think of more, in the Perry-universe more research had to be done.

  • 2903: The League of Guardian Spirits (2017)
  • 2908: The Law of Gemeni (2017)
  • 2916: Stolen Life (2017)
  • 2926: Black Fire (2017)
  • 2941: TEIRESIAS speaks (2017)
  • 2947: Rhodan's Last Hope (2018)
  • 2962: Sextadim Flotsam (2018)
  • 2963: The Munchausen Robot (2018)
  • 2975: The Lord of the Future (2018)
  • 2982: The Annihilation Variable (2018)
  • 2998: Three days to the end of the world (2019)
  • 2999: Genesis (2019)
  • 3032: Sand Swimmer (2019)
  • 3040: Arkons Admiral (2019)
  • 3048: The Strings That Mean the World (2020)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c zauberspiegel-online.de, Konrad Wolfram in an interview with Kai Hirdt: "Kai Hirdt about Perry, comics and subscribers". Undated. Retrieved January 23, 2020.
  2. ↑ a b c d e perry-rhodan.net: Author portrait: Kai Hirdt . Retrieved January 20, 2020.
  3. ↑ alligatorfarm.de: Imprint . Retrieved January 20, 2020.
  4. ↑ a b c tagesspiegel.de, Moritz Honert in an interview with Kai Hirdt: "Mutants pose problems as an author". November 12, 2015. Accessed January 20, 2020.
  5. ↑ perry-rhodan.net: A new science fiction series with twelve novels. March 20, 2020. Accessed March 20, 2020.
  6. ↑ a b Michael Marcus Thurner in an interview with Kai Hirdt . December 3, 2015. Accessed March 2, 2020.
  7. ↑ a b Michael Marcus Thurner in an interview with Kai Hirdt . March 27, 2017. Retrieved January 20, 2020.
  8. ↑ Kai Hirdt: On a hero's journey with the SOL , in: Perry Rhodan report No. 537, pp. 4–7, in: Michelle Stern : Das Supramentum, Perry Rhodan No. 3.044 , Pabel-Moewig, Rastatt, December 20, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Hirdt, Kai
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German PR consultant, science fiction author, comic book writer and publisher
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd July 1976
PLACE OF BIRTH Bonn