Moers, Walter 1957–

PERSONAL:

Born May 24, 1957, in Mönchengladbach, Germany.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Hamburg, Germany.

CAREER:

Cartoonist, artist, and author.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Max-und-Moritz Prize, 1993.

WRITINGS:

SELF-ILLUSTRATED

Little Asshole, Eichborn (Frankfurt, Germany), 1991.

Der alte Sack, ein kleines Arschloch und andere Höhepunkte des Kapitalismus, Eichborn (Frankfurt, Germany), 1993.

Adolf, the Nazi Pig, Eichborn (Frankfurt, Germany), 1999.

Die 13 1/2 Leben des Käpt'n Blaubär, Eichborn (Frankfurt, Germany), 1999, translated by John Brownjohn as The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear, Vintage UK (London, England), 2003.

Ensel und Krete ein Märchen aus Zamonien von Hildegunst von Mythenmetz; mit Erläuterungen aus dem Lexikon der erklärungsbedürftigen Wunder, Daseinsformen und Phänomene Zamoniens und Umgebung von Professor Dr. Abdul Nachtigaller, Eichborn (Frankfurt, Germany), 2000.

Wilde Reise durch die Nacht: nach einundzwanzig Bildern von Gustave Doré, Eichborn (Frankfurt, Germany), 2001, translated as A Wild Ride through the Night, Stecker & Warburg (London, England), 2003.

Rumo & die Wunder im Dunkeln: Ein Roman in zwei Büchern, Piper (Munich, Germany), 2003, translated as Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures: A Novel in Two Books, Stecker & Warburg (London, England), 2004.

The City of Dreaming Books, translated by John Brownjohn, Harvill Secker (London, England), 2006, Vintage Books (New York, NY), 2007.

Author and illustrator of numerous comic books sold in Germany.

SCREENPLAYS

Das kleines Arschloch (animated; title means "The Little Asshole"; based on Moers's book of the same title), Senator Film, 1997.

Käpt'n Blaubär (animated; title means "Capt'n Bluebear"; based on Moers's book), Senator Film, 1999.

Kleine Arschloch und der alte Sack: Das Sterben ist scheiße, (animated; title means "Little Asshole and the Old Fart: Death Sucks"), Senator Film, 2006.

ADAPTATIONS:

Moers's characters and stories have been adapted for German television.

SIDELIGHTS:

Known for his farcical and often tasteless comics, German artist Walter Moers has been condemned by the Catholic Church for obscenity but is nonetheless immensely popular in Germany. Moers has also had English versions of his illustrated novels made available in the United States and Great Britain. His lengthy comic book about Adolf Hitler in modern times, Adolf, the Nazi Pig, has garnered widespread attention, including recognition by several prestigious German publications that previously ignored the author's work as childish. The author's illustrated book The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear, featuring his immensely popular title character, is also available in English.

In Adolf, the Nazi Pig Moers tells the story of Hitler surviving World War II and resurfacing in modern times. Hitler consults a mysterious psychiatrist, who at one point recommends as therapy that he start another war. He is also bewildered by modern advertising that sells everything from McDonald's hamburgers to kosher food. Moers also has the infamous Nazi Hermann Göring surviving the war only to become an assassin for the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.). Göring's "hits" include President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X, until changing attitudes within the government halted his work. Hitler and Göring meet, and Göring helps get Hitler hooked on crack cocaine. Other characters include the late Diana, Princess of Wales, and Mother Theresa, as well as extraterrestrials.

"In Adolf, Hitler is a pathetic figure and not even the most bone-headed neo-Nazi could find anything inspirational in the cartoons," wrote Roger Boyes in the London Times. "The book is offensive, full of smut and silliness, but that is largely the point." Writing in Time International, Ursula Sautter noted: "At its best, the book is funny because of Moers' minimalistic style of caricature, the crazy plot, and the protagonist's idiosyncratic way of talking." The reviewer went on: "But the hitch is this: Adolf, the Nazi Pig is a farce—and nothing but. It never manages to do what the satirical comic art form should do." Although the work has been compared to Maus, an award-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust, many see little resemblance. Michel Friedmann of the Central Council of German Jewry was quoted by Boyes as saying: "It is difficult to call this work politically incorrect, if you accept the premise that Hitler can be a subject of satire in the manner of Art Spiegelman's Maus, raising a bitter laugh but also leaving something stuck in the throat."

Another issue surrounding the publication of Adolf, the Nazi Pig is the idea that there is a growing movement among the current German generation to address the taboos of World War II in an unconventional and satirical manner. However, many questioned whether it is right for Germans to make fun of Hitler. Moers was quoted in the London Times as saying he saw a Japanese Hitler comic book and believed that if they could satirize Hitler and the war, so could he. He is also quoted by Sautter as writing in the book's preface: "In reality I made this book because Adolf Hitler is so easy to draw." To prove his point, Moer shows the six basic parts of Hitler's face and urges readers to try drawing Hitler themselves. The book's popularity in Germany quickly led to three printings.

In The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear Moers treads much safer ground in an epic tale of his immensely popular character that originated as a puppet on German television. The seventy-plus-page illustrated book tells the story of how Captain Bluebear expends thirteen-and-a-half of the twenty-seven lives he is allotted, as are all Bluebears. Rescued by Minipirates who find him floating in a walnut shell on the ocean, his subsequent adventures include being marooned on an island and traveling to exotic places. Throughout his adventure, Bluebear is aided by a copy of Professor Nightingale's Encylopaedia, a graduation gift from the professor's school. Moers combines a liberal use of childish humor with a narrative full of surprises, such as Captain Bluebear's travels into the past and future.

Writing in the London Independent, Martin Chalmers noted that the book is "inexplicably marketed" for an adult audience, although it is clearly a children's book. He commented that while this may have worked in Germany, where many grew up as enormous fans of Captain Bluebear, it is less likely to be a good marketing strategy in either England or the United States. Nevertheless, Chalmers called the book "fun" and added: "There are plenty of occasions here for kids to cry out: ‘Yeuch!’" He also noted that it is a good book to skim through because of the illustrations. In the London Daily Telegraph Bronwen Riley remarked: "Part science fiction, part fairy tale, part myth, part epic, the book is a satire on all these genres and constantly satirises itself." Riley also noted that he found the Bluebear character to often be "smug" but added: "Yet, within the first 15 pages I was carried away by the sheer craziness of it all."

Inspired by the works of nineteenth-century French engraver Gustave Doré, A Wild Ride through the Night concerns the fantastic adventures of the artist as a twelve-year-old boy. After his ship is wrecked at sea, young Gustave is visited by the ghoulish figures of Death and Dementia. To save himself, Gustave makes a deal with the Grim Reaper: if he can successfully perform a series of incredible tasks in one evening's time, his life will be spared. Accompanied by his trusty horse, Pancho Sanso, Gustave attempts to rescue a beautiful damsel from the jaws of a dragon, journeys through a forest filled with evil spirits, and extracts a tooth from the Most Monstrous of All Monsters. According to Sandra Howard in Spectator, Moers "spellbinds and spooks it all up into a well-knitted superscary flight of fancy that should appeal to sophisticated and naive children alike."

In his fantasy adventure Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures: A Novel in Two Books, Moers introduces Rumo the Wolperting, a half-dog, half-deer who possesses incredible sword-fighting skills. When Rumo is kidnapped by the Demonocles and taken to the floating island of Roaming Rock, he befriends a gambling shark grub named Volzotan Smyke, who helps free Rumo from his captors. Upon his return to the city of Wolperting, Rumo discovers its citizens have been captured by Gornab the Ninety-Ninth, the King of Hel, and General Tick-Tock and his Copper Killers. "Moers' greatest strength, as evidenced by the multitude of characters he presents, is his creativity," observed Philadelphia Inquirer critic Elizabeth Fox. "His story is unlike any other; though he seems to pull from the best of other authors—a little J.K. Rowling, a dash of Tolkien and Richard Adams, a sprinkling of the Brothers Grimm—he incorporates it all within his own marvelous originality." According to a contributor in Publishers Weekly, "this rambunctious novel will appeal to fans tired of the usual epic fantasy." Regina Schroeder, reviewing Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures in Booklist, called the work "a brilliantly imagined, well-executed jaunt through strange lands full of wild characters."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 15, 2002, review of The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear, p. 396; July 1, 2006, Regina Schroeder, review of Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures: A Novel in Two Books, p. 43.

Daily Telegraph (London, England), October 28, 2000, Bronwen Riley, review of The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear.

Independent (London, England), October 28, 2000, Martin Chalmers, review of The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear, p. 11.

Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2006, review of Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures, p. 652.

Library Journal, February 15, 2004, Jackie Cassada, review of A Wild Ride through the Night, p. 167; July 1, 2006, Jenne Bergstrom, review of Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures, p. 67.

New York Times Book Review, November 20, 2005, Gregory Cowles, review of The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear, p. 22.

Philadelphia Inquirer, February 26, 2006, Elizabeth Fox, review of Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures.

Publishers Weekly, July 24, 2006, review of Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures, p. 40.

Spectator, February 21, 2004, Sandra Howard, "Here Be Dragons Aplenty," review of A Wild Ride through the Night, p. 36.

Time International, August 17, 1998, Ursula Sautter, review of Adolf, the Nazi Pig, p. 48.

Times (London, England), August 1, 1998, Roger Boyes, review of Adolf, the Nazi Pig, p. 11.

Voice of Youth Advocates, December, 2006, Florence H. Munat, review of Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures, p. 447.

Washington Post Book World, October 15, 2006, Paul Di Filippo, review of Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures, p. 12.