Walter Moers

Life

Moers was born in Mönchengladbach. and initially supported himself by doing odd jobs. He began a commercial apprenticeship, but did not finish it. Moers acquired his drawing skills through self-study.

Walter Moers is married and has lived in Hamburg since 1992. He is considered publicity-shy, does not make public appearances, gives his few interviews by e-mail and rarely allows himself to be photographed. Some of the few pictures also date from before 2000, and in the case of some of them it is disputed whether the person depicted is really Walter Moers. His dealings with the public have meanwhile become a kind of trademark, so that he is often dubbed a "phantom". Therefore, biographical information on Moers must be treated with caution, as there are few truly reliable sources. In the course of the publications, Moers's authorship was fictitiously reduced further and further, from author and helper (The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear) to editor and illustrator (Ensel and Krete, The City of Dreaming Books) to second-tier editor (The Alchemaster's Apprentice). However, by repeatedly alluding to works that are usually considered "canonical" through intermedial and intertextual references, sometimes even whole set pieces, Moers blurs or negates the sometimes imaginary boundary between "high literature" and "trivial literature". Because of the many stylistic devices and word creations, translating Moers' novels is considered a particular challenge. For example, the translator of most of the works into English, John Brownjohn, describes how many names had to be Latinised and the large number of anagrams had to be re-imagined. Several works dealt with translation problems based on Walter Moers' works and showed difficulties in translating neologisms and phrasemes.

Comics His best-known comic characters are: Das kleine Arschloch (English: The Little Asshole), a precocious and irreverent little boy who constantly gets one over on the adults. Der alte Sack (English: The Old Curmudgeon), a terminally ill old man in a wheel chair who makes sarcastic comments on what he sees. Adolf, die Nazisau (English: Adolf, the Nazi Swine), an absurd satirical interpretation of Adolf Hitler in today's world. Käpt'n Blaubär (English: Capt'n Bluebear), a sea-faring bear with blue fur, who spins ridiculous pirate yarns, all of which, he claims, are true.