Manfred Schmidt
(15/4/1913 - 28/7/1999, Germany)
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Manfred Schmidt started his comics career when he was fourteen years old, with the publication of his first cartoon in the German newspaper Bremer Nachrichten. After graduating from high school, he decided to go into the movie business, which he didn't find very rewarding. He returned to drawing, which was temporarily disrupted by his service in World War II. During the retreat at the Eastern Front, Schmidt drew cartoons for the army newspaper, Panzer Voran.
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After the war, Schmidt got his hands on a copy of 'Superman', and he disliked it so much that he created a parody of it, called 'Nick Knatterton', which appeared in the German magazine Quick. It became a great success, eventually appearing as a TV animation, done by Schmidt's own animation studio.
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Manfred Schmidt's position as comic critic in Germany was unique. He wrote many books on the subject, and hosted a TV series on the history of comics, which he injected with the occasional ironic note, borne from his aversion to mainstream comics. Schmidt died in 1999, at the age of 86.
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