Lona Rietschel (September 21, 1933, in Reppen, district of Weststernberg - December 19, 2017 in Berlin)[1] was a German comic artist.
Lona Rietschel | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 21, 1933 |
| Died | December 19, 2017 |
| Occupation | comic artist |
Life and work edit
Lona Rietschel completed a degree in fashion graphics and animation with the aim of becoming an animated film artist and then worked as a model cutter at the Berlin-Weißensee Academy of Art. As the DEFA studio for animated films was relocated to Dresden and Rietschel did not want to leave Berlin, she applied to the comic magazine Mosaik. She was hired in 1960 after the illustrator Nikol Dimitriades left for West Germany.[2] Lona Rietschel quickly became the magazine's most important illustrator and worked on over 400 issues. She designed the main characters Dig, Dag and Digedag (the final version) as well as Ritter Runkel and secondary characters such as the notorious band of buccaneers "Teufelsbrüder" (German for "Devils Brothers").
When Hannes Hegen left Mosaik in 1975 in a dispute with the publisher and took his characters, the Digedags, with him, new characters were created. Lothar Dräger invented the names and characters of the Abrafaxe and Lona Rietschel took care of the character development. She remained loyal to the monthly magazine until 1999 and regularly drew her Abrafaxe until old age. Both the covers of the anthologies and the motifs for the 2006 calendar were drawn by her. Last but not least, Lona Rietschel's timeless design and her drawing skills made Mosaik a comic legend.[3]
In May 2013, Rietschel was awarded the PENG!Prize for her life's work.[4]
Literature (chronological order) edit
- Matthias Friske: Die Geschichte des 'MOSAIK von Hannes Hegen': A comic legend in the GDR. Lukas-Verlag, Berlin, 2008, ISBN 978-3-86732-034-4.
- Mark Lehmstedt: Die geheime Geschichte der Digedags. The publication and censorship history of the mosaic by Hannes Hegen. Lehmstedt Verlag, Leipzig, 2010, ISBN 978-3-937146-99-7.
- Rietschel, Lona. In: Dietmar Eisold (ed.): Lexikon Künstler in der DDR. Verlag Neues Leben, Berlin, 2010. ISBN 978-3-355-01761-9, p. 773
- Kurzbiografie zu: Rietschel, Lona. In: Wer war wer in der DDR? 5. Ausgabe. Band 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4.
- Klaus D. Schleiter (ed.) and Lona Rietschel: Lona Rietschel - Bilder meines Lebens. Steinchen für Steinchen Verlag, Berlin, 2013, ISBN 978-3-864620-53-9.
References edit
- ^ Das Mosaik-Team trauert um Lona Rietschel. abrafaxe.com, 19 December 2017, retrieved 19 December 2017.
- ^ Matthias Friske: Die Geschichte des „Mosaik" von Hannes Hegen. Eine Comic-Legende in der DDR. Lukas, Berlin 2008, S. 53
- ^ DDR-Comicgröße, FAZ.NET, 20 December 2017, S. 11
- ^ Sabine Buchwald: Münchner Comicfestival 2013 – Die Zeitreisende: Lona Rietschel. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, 29 May 2013, retrieved 19 December 2017.
External links edit
- Literature by and about Lona Rietschel in the German National Library catalogue
- Lona Rietschel at IMDb
- Lona Rietschel. Lambiek (English)
- Lona Rietschel in the Mosapedia
- M. Hüster: Lona Rietschel - Bilder meines Lebens. Review of the MOSAIK special volume on the website of the "Comic Radio Show", June 9, 2013
- Obituary at Der Tagesspiegel
- Axel Seitz: Comic artist Lona Rietschel died on December 19, 2017, on ndr.de/kultur