Martin tom Dieck

Martin tom Dieck studied illustration at the Fachhochschule für Gestaltung in Hamburg, where he still lives and works as a comic artist and illustrator. One of the few German representatives of the independent comics scene, he made his first comics in the German and Swiss magazines Boxer, Strapazin and Jimmy Draht. His first album, 'Der Unschuldige Passagier', was published by Arbeitskreich Stadtzeichner in 1993 - a haunting story about a man who finds himself trapped on a mysterious ship.

In the following later years, Martin tom Dieck did a lengthy, more accessible remake of 'Der Unschuldige Passagier' for the youth comix line of the French Seuil Editions: 'Le Passager Innocent'. From 1996, he is also present in the French review Lapin, published by L'Association. He made among others 'L'Oud Silencieux', published in L'Association's collection Patte de Mouche, and later on reprinted by the German publisher Reprodukt. Also for the French market, he made 'Lingus Savant des Eaux', published by Les Étoiles et Les Cochons in 1996.

In 1997 followed by one of the highlights of his work, 'Hundert Ansichten der Speicherstadt' (Arrache Coeur), a wordless comix ode to the Speicherstadt harbour quarters of Hamburg. Martin tom Dieck's preference for the improvised and the unconscious found expression in his tribute to the late French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. Originally a simple comix homage to Deleuze printed in the French anthology Lapin, with the help of script writer Jens Balzer and the collage powers of Photoshop, he transformed the short story into a refined reflection on repetition and difference in life and of the comix form itself.

In 2001, he cooperated with Balzer again, this time on 'Neue Abenteuer des Unglaublichen Orpheus', published in the Berlin edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine, and in a comic book by Arranche Coeur. Tom Dieck's style is characterized by improvisation (Moebius' 'Le Garage Hermétique' is one of his all-time favorite comix), and high art influences, like Dada and Expressionism.