Mike, the pocket money expert

Mike (until issue 01/1984 Mike, the pocket money expert ) was an advertising comic that appeared every two months from 1978 to 2007 and was distributed free of charge to young Volksbank new customers via VR banks , as well as the Sumsi and Marc & Penny booklets to advertise. 175 issues appeared in the 29 years. With the publication of the 03/2007 issue, the production of the Mike magazine was discontinued.

Since July 2007, the follow-up series has been the Primax magazine , in which Mike and his girlfriend Tina experience new stories together with the characters from Marc & Penny, which has also been discontinued .

Mike is a creation of the German comic artists Mali Beinhorn and Werner Büsch from the comic workshop Büsch-Beinhorn in Emsdetten . Jan Gulbransson , Gabriel Nemeth , Hansi Kiefersauer and Ralph Ruthe also worked on the series at times .

The Mike magazine series was most recently produced by the advertising agency geno kom from Münster in Westphalia , which also publishes the successor Primax together with DG VERLAG.

content

The comic stories take place in the fictional German town of Sülzberg. Mike Hamsterbacke lives here with his father Alfred in a small house. His best friends are Pear , a living light bulb from China , and the scholar Dr. Karl Höhn , a hybrid of mouse and bird. Since issue 02/1989 Mike also has a friend named Tina , whom he met in Gottlieb Grunz's sausage factory when she was working as a nurse there.

Mike's opponent since issue 5/1982 is called Gierschlund Wolf , a notorious crook and day thief . In the beginning, he geared his whole life to just getting Mike into the saucepan. But his own ineptitude and overconfidence repeatedly thwart his plans.

A typical Mike story usually starts with Mike's father looking for a temporary job for his son in the local daily newspaper (Sülzberger Bote) so that he can “ supplement his pocket money” . Mike then rushes into his new job with such euphoria that in the end something always goes terribly wrong and he loses the job he has just acquired.

The concept was changed in issue 11/1986, and many Mike stories have since become adventure stories in which Mike and Dr. Karl Höhn (and later Tina) travels the world.

The stories about Gierschmund Wolf from here onwards often consist of individual adventures without reference to the Mike adventures in which he and his neighbor Donald Dachs appear. Often the two are portrayed as rivals, but in some stories it becomes clear that they see each other as friends after all. Other recurring characters at Gierschlund Wolf are his girlfriend Eulalia Wolf and his uncle Wolfman Jack from Chicago (who speaks with an American accent) and Donald Dachs' girlfriend Doris Dachs .

The stories about pear are now independent and mostly take place in their neighborhood, which all consist of living everyday objects such as bottles, televisions or the like. In addition to Birne's friends Seppel Seppelhut and Luise Lexikon , his quarrel-seeking neighbor Otto Blödeimer is often involved .

Since the 04/1997 edition, around half of the content has been reprints of older editions (from 1986). The series was discontinued with issue 03/2007.

Mike and the secret of the dwarf forest

The longest Mike comic that has ever appeared is the sequel story "Mike and the Secret of the Dwarf Forest" . It appeared from issue 05/1979 to issue 03/1982 and had 18 episodes on a total of 130 comic pages.

The story is about a camping trip that Mike , Dr. Karl Höhn and Birne in the idyllic dwarf forest, not far from Sülzberg. Arrived at the campsite, Karl promptly gets lost collecting wood, falls into a cave and is rescued by the friendly ranger Wurzelwarz . Mike and pear have now set out to find Dr. Made mockery and also fall into the grotto. From then on, a real fantasy epic relaxes with dwarves , dragons , elves , a mysterious golden key and an evil wizard named Firebeard and his demonic cronies .

Web links

literature

Sebastian F. Otten: MIKE from Mali & Werner; An illustrated comic book bibliography . Edition comicography.