Matthias Schultheiss

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Munich Comic Festival 2019 Matthias Schultheiss

Matthias Schultheiss (born July 27, 1946 in Nuremberg ) is a German comic artist and author whose work is known to a wide audience, especially in France . He wrote the multi-volume series The Sharks of Lagos and The Truth About Shelby and Night Taxi .

Live and act

After an apprenticeship as a cabinet maker, Matthias Schultheiss studied illustration at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts and then worked as a freelance illustrator . His first comic, the graphic novel Trucker , was published in an edition of Becker & Knigge's comic book readers in 1981 and then translated into Danish. After converting several short stories by Charles Bukowski into comics, he met Albin Michel, who showed interest in Schultheiss' work and published some of his works as sequels in his French comic magazine L'Écho des Savanes . From 1985 his internationally acclaimed three-part series The Truth about Shelby appeared here (published in French as Le théorème de Bell by Albin Michel, in Canada by Castellan Communications as Bell's Theorem , both of which are the names of Bell's inequality of quantum theory, which is important for the plot ). Other works, such as the three-part series Die Haie von Lagos , were initially published by French publishers and were only subsequently published in Germany and other European countries, sometimes also in America.

Schultheiss tried to establish himself on the American market in 1993 with the eight-part series Propellerman at Dark Horse Comics . The series was not accepted by American readers, it was considered too lyrical . Another international collaboration followed when the Japanese publisher Kodansha was looking for comic artists in Europe in the early 1990s to draw comics in the manga style primarily for the Japanese market. In addition to Baru , Matthias Schultheiss was one of the selected draftsmen and from 1994 he developed Im Zentrum des Wahnsinns . In 1996 400 pages were completed. Suddenly all ongoing contracts and projects with European draughtsmen were terminated without giving a reason and the 700-page epic was no longer completed.

On the website of the comic mail order company Hummelcomic in May 2001, individual pages of the work that had not yet been printed could be accessed daily. As a result, Matthias Schultheiss withdrew from the comics scene and since then has mainly worked as a screenwriter for television series.

In 2008 and 2009 he prepared his comeback with two releases. Kodansha published two novels, over 40 pages long, The Woman on the River and Daddy . In 2010 he was back. Under contract with Glénat he published his new 280-page book Die Reise mit Bill . In Germany it was published under license by Splitter Verlag and presented at the Comicsalon in Erlangen.

Schultheiss' comic album Kalter Krieg , published in 1985, was included in the list of writings harmful to minors by the Federal Testing Office for writings harmful to minors. The reason was not the accusation of violence and sexual representations, but the argument that the author would give no hope to the youth through his description and portrayal of certain events.

Awards

In 1986 he received the Max and Moritz Prize for the best German-speaking comic artist. In 1990 he was awarded the Yellow Kid comic prize in Italy . In 2005 he received an award from the Art Directors Club for Germany (ADC) in the "Company presentations and annual reports" category.

In June 2019 he received the bang! Prize of the Munich comic festival in the category "Prize for life's work".

Works (selection)

  • Trucker , appeared in Comic-Reader , Edition Becker und Knigge (1981)
  • Charles Bukowski: The Long Job , Heyne (1984)
  • Charles Bukowski: Kaputt in der City , Heyne (1984)
  • Cold War , Melzer (1985)
  • The truth about Shelby
  1. Life Sentence , Carlsen (1986)
  2. The Connection , Carlsen (1987)
  3. The Contact , Carlsen (1988)
  • Blood Brothers , Carlsen (1992)
  • The sharks of Lagos
  1. Black Souls , Carlsen (1987)
  2. Lambert's Booty , Carlsen (1988)
  3. The Trace , Carlsen (1990)
  4. The Spirits of the Sea , Splinters (2014)
  5. Dirty Business , Splitter (2015)
  6. Jackpot , Splitter (2020)
  • Stromer , (1988)
  • Night Taxi , Carlsen (1990) - also as a limited edition (1,000 copies) with record in box
  • Talk Dirty (1991)
  • Propellerman (1993)
  • Die Pfütze , Lappan (2002) (with Detlev Wahl)
  • Woman on the River , Kodansha (2008)
  • Daddy , Kodansha (2009), Glenat / Splitter (2011)
  • Journey with Bill , Glenat / Splitter (2010)
  • Woman on the River , Glenat (2012)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A. Knigge: Alles über Comics , p. 64
personal data
SURNAME Schultheiss, Matthias
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German comic artist and author
DATE OF BIRTH July 27, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg