Wittek (comic artist)

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Wittek (* 17th November 1964 in Dinslaken as Thomas Wittke ) is a German cartoonist .

Wittek signs at the Hamburg Comic Festival Heftich

Life

youth

Wittek grew up in Dinslaken on the Lower Rhine with his two brothers. The first graphic influences came from his father Lutz-Peter Wittke, who worked as a technical draftsman at Pintsch Bamag and created cartoons in the Franco-Belgian style of the 1960s in his free time .

From 1978 to 1979 Wittek and his brother Peter produced a comic book every month with one-page books that were about funnies, adventure and superhero stories . In 1984 he worked as part of a job creation scheme as operation repairman at Babcock in Sterkrade . At the end of the 1980s, Wittek completed an apprenticeship as a master copy maker specializing in repro preparation in one of the last advertising agencies without a computer in Essen . During this time he gave himself the pseudonym Wittek (the last two letters in the last name were reversed). Up to now, Wittek has signed drawings and comics with the initials TW and TEWE . In 1991 he moved from Dinslaken to Hamburg, where Wittek did freelance work as an illustrator .

Study and work in Hamburg

In the early 1990s he studied illustration with Erhard Göttlicher , drawing with Anke Feuchtenberger and Klaus Ensikat , animation with Stefan Schabenbeck, book art with Jürgen Seuss and sound music with Asmus Tietchens at the University of Applied Sciences for Design . It was there that he drew articles for the student comic magazine "Uncomfortable" founded by Rainer Penk. For the second issue, the theme was Rock´n Roll, he paid homage to Frank Zappa's album Joe’s Garage . The last issue published his comic "Non Suavis Genese", for which Wittek received his first award.

From June 1995 to June 1996, the one-year comic project Substitute Liquid based on the principle of the silent post arose, also in the University of Applied Sciences for Design : A cartoonist began a comic story with a panel on a DIN A4 page, then this was passed on to the next cartoonist until the page was completed. Hundreds of pages were drawn in this way and finally presented in July 1996 as part of an exhibition in Hamburg's “Café Ohm”. Parts of the project later appeared in the form of a photocopied comic book in Wittek's own publisher "Edition Rostfrass".

In 1996, Wittek led the course "Drawing comics for beginners and advanced learners" for one semester at the Volkshochschule der Stadt Pinneberg . At the end of the same year, Ina Duggen organized “Caricature & Co.” with him in the Pinneberg City Museum. An exhibition about the development of picture history - from the beginnings to the comics from Grandville to Robert Crumb .

With the “uncomfortable” cartoonists Teer, Calle Claus , Björn Kuhnke and Loppe, he brought out two issues of the independent comic magazine “The Feeling” until May 1999 (the second issue with guest artist Anke Feuchtenberger). April 1999 in the Zwerchfell Verlag published the first of a total of five editions of the "Bizarr Bazar", a series of books exclusively with its own comics. The first edition of the "Bizarr Bazar" with the title "The mannered autobiographer" was a collection of short stories linked by a framework plot that were written between September 1994 and November 1998. The autobiographical stories deal with illness (dental treatment), drugs (alcohol / tobacco consumption), childhood and the love for the comics. A second and third edition of the “Bizarr Bazar” followed, a mini-series with the titles “Inferno Carnival” and “Operation Dedorf”. In the two-parter Wittek tells a story with a catastrophic outcome from the Düsseldorf Carnival , which he experienced with his friends Frank and Rainer on May 29, 1990. With the Histerie collection, issues four and five contain a collection of works by Wittek , some of which have not been published, some of which have already been published in various fanzines .

Publications after graduation

From 1997 onwards, Wittek published in the “Edition Rostfrass” the comic book series, photocopied in editions of 30 to 150 copies, “Comiczeichner sind ...”, “Heutelein”, “Schmocka”, “Dogs”, “Chwouhl” and “Boiler” out, some of which continue to this day. Various draftsmen from Wittek's circle of friends, such as Rainer Baldermann, Till Lenecke , Olli Ferreira, René Roggmann, Calle Claus , Christian 3 Rooosen and Haina Fischer worked on these booklets . Parts of the Replacement Fluid project have also been published here.

The “Boiler” comics were created from 1997 together with the friend and comic artist Loppe (actually Olaf Zelewski). The characters in the comic and the world they live in are all made of metal, scrap, tools and machines. On December 12, 1997, the vernissage of the one-month, large “Boiler” exhibition took place in the Harburg culture workshop. The two intend to continue the project.

From 1998 onwards, Wittek worked in the Ully Arndt Studios as an advertising illustrator, cartoon artist and assistant to Michael Verhülsdonk and learned how to use various computer programs. From 2000 to 2001 he illustrated Ully Arndt's weekly series Mecki for the television magazine Hörzu . At the same time he drew the series Livebrain and Spry for the youth magazine Bravo , based on texts by Olli Ferreira.

Chairman of the Comic Art Initiative

From the spring of 2000 to the beginning of 2006, Wittek was the successor to Ulf Harten, 1st chairman of the Initiative Comic Kunst eV (INC. For short) and organized the comic independent festival Heftich , which takes place every year in Hamburg . For booklet 7 on December 4, 2005, as a reaction of defiance to the expanding manga wave , he brought the double feature booklet “Tokyo Punk “(2 times 64 pages with artistic banderole ). The booklet contains mangas by German underground artists.

From September 7th to November 9th, 2002 he presented his first major solo exhibition in the Grober Unfug comic gallery in Berlin-Kreuzberg .

In Minden Tageblatt comic strip appeared implementation of 6 December 2003 to February 9, 2004 in 44 episodes Wittek of Goethe's Faust, Part 1 .

From 2003 to 2008 he was the editor of the comic anthology " Panik Elektro " , published annually by the Schwarzer Turm publishing house . Each issue was dedicated to a special topic that was worked out by illustrators from the German and international comics scene on almost 300 pages. In order, issues appeared on the subjects of “Autobiographical Horror”, “Superheroes and Science Fiction”, “Love Stories”, “My Biggest Mistake”, “Disco” and “Thursday, January 10th 2008”.

In 2004 Wittek founded the comic studio Alligator Farm in Hamburg-Bahrenfeld together with Karl Nagel , the former candidate for chancellor of the Anarchist Pogo Party of Germany ( APPD ) . Here they filmed an election campaign spot for the APPD that was banned after the first broadcast in 2005. In addition to working on his own projects, such as the "Hunger" story for the Hamburg horror comic magazine "Elbschock" and his collaboration on "Alphatier", the first comic with a superhero in Hamburg, Wittek acted as a drawing teacher and mentor at Alligator Farm . He and Karl Nagel, together with students, unemployed people and comic fans, created Perry - Our Man in Space , the continuation of the " Perry Rhodan " comic adaptation of the same name, which was discontinued in 1975 .

Work after 2006

2006 launched exclusively on Spiegel Online , the comic series "Dr. Hirnhardt's little gene laboratory ”. A coproduction with the graphic artist and copywriter Sven Taucke.

In June 2006, Wittek's “Perry-Rhodan” - parody Chwouhl 3 - Perry Hoden attracted attention during its presentation at the 12th International Comic Salon in Erlangen , not least because of the vehement use of the noise word “Kochonsel” both in the comic itself and as graffiti on walls, furniture and human bodies. Perry Hoden is the result of a year and a half collaboration with the "Crocos" of the Alligator Farm , produced together with Till Felix .

Wittek worked as a colourist for the comic "Energie!" ( Isabel Kreitz , Andreas Knigge et al., Hoffmann and Campe , 2008) (Wittek is not mentioned in the imprint).

Wittek contributed creative illustration elements and comic characters to the Germany-wide "Laces" advertising campaign by Converse in spring 2009.

As part of the cultural capital RUHR.2010 , Wittek's first exhibition took place in January 2010 in the trendy pub "Ulcus" in his native Dinslaken.

Wittek drew the October picture Hamburg-Ottensen for Ulf Hartens Hamburg Total Calendar 2013 .

Private

Wittek earns his living as a graphic designer , editor , publisher , comic artist, drawing teacher, illustrator and graphic artist for commercial animated films. Wittek lives in Hamburg-Altona . Since February 2013 he has been teaching comic drawing in a monthly evening course in his studio in Frappant, Hamburg.

Awards

Also honorable mentions of the ICOM for Bizarr Bazar 1 (1999), Grimm 2 - Rotkäppchen (together with Eckart Breitschuh, 2001), Bizarr Bazar 4 (2003) and Panik Elektro 1 (2004)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In the interview: Wittek, comic artist from Hamburg. . On: stylespion.de on October 3rd, 2008

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wittek
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wittke, Thomas (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German comic artist
DATE OF BIRTH 17th November 1964
PLACE OF BIRTH Dinslaken