Markus Mawil Witzel (Germany)

He was born in East Berlin in 1976. He started drawing comics at school and later published them in fanzines. After reunification, he studied graphic design at Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee, where he made even more comics.

His graduation project We Can Still Be Friends, kicked off a successful career with Reprodukt Verlag, and his books have since been translated into over 15 languages. His biggest breakthrough came with the book Kinderland (2014), a touching and humorous graphic novel about childhood in East Germany during the final days of the GDR. Witzel has received numerous awards, including the Max und Moritz Prize, the ICOM Independent Comic Prize, the Wilhelm Busch Prize, and the Rudolph Dirks Award.

Although he loves cycling and dislikes drawing horses, he somehow ended up creating Lucky Luke Saddles Up, a spin-off of the world-famous Lucky Luke series.