König des Comics – Ralf König

Humour, irony and razor sharp observation are his liberating weapons against bigoted prejudice, and gay life, gay clichés, male sensibilities, desires and frustrations, urban neuroses, forays into antiquity and the influence of religion on society are the topics that Ralf König, Gemany’s best-known comic illustrator alongside Moers and Brösel, has called his own. The documentary KING OF COMICS pays tribute to an artist at the height of his creativity. König’s life and art are closely intertwined with the emergent gay community of the late seventies. It all began in a village in Westphalia where at an early age illustrating helped him come out. His ‘adolescent scribbling’ (sic) soon evolved into an assured comic style still informed by a sense of humour that is both frivolous and anarchistic. König’s topics and interests have long gone beyond homosexuality to embrace more universal and philo- sophic subjects, and he will no doubt continue to plumb the depths of social convention ad absurdum. (Berlinale)