RALF KÖNIG, award-winning German comic book creator, born. Known for his early “coming out” strips that appeared in underground magazines and his books SchwulComix, Sarius and Kondom des Grauens.  His work has been translated into fourteen languages, and sold millions of copies.

In the German-speaking world, König’s comics have a vast Gay fan base. Despite initial skepticism about the prospect of a broader audience due to his works’ frequent setting within the Gay milieu, his comics have achieved considerable popularity among heterosexual readers as well. A few of his comics have been adapted into films, and several have translated into other languages. By 2008, his total publications exceeded 5 million copies. Since November 2017, König is an Ambassador of intaktiv e.V., an association against ritual circumcision of male children.

König’s stories are drawn in an expressive cartoon style. Consistently written with humor, they occasionally deal with serious themes such as the tension between sexual freedom and the risk of HIV-AIDS infection. His work has repeatedly portrayed daily routines of Gay life, often based on personal experiences of himself and his friends. He has also written works that deal centrally with heterosexuals (Der bewegte Mann, Hempels Sofa) and with religious themes, criticizing literalist readings of the bible (Prototyp and Archetyp) as well as Islamic fundamentalism