Who Is Hansrudi Wascher? Read and Learn!

 Above: logo of the Hansrudi Wascher Fan Klub

                                  " As long as I keep paper and pen in hand,
                                     the world is fine with me."

Hansrudi Wascher

Hansrudi Wascher (we were always told at school in Germany that you wrote a name like that as hyphenated -"Hans-Rudi" but who the heck am I?) was born on the 5th April, 1928, in an Italian area of Switzerland. He was impressed by comic books like 'Tarzan', 'Mandrake' and 'Flash Gordon'. After high school he studied graphic design. Wäscher entered the comic book field in 1953,

The following is from a 2009 entry by Rieke C. Harmsen for the Goethe Institut page on Wascher:
http://www.goethe.de/kue/lit/prj/com/pck/cck/enindex.htm

Hansrudi Wäscher

In the 1950s, his comic characters shaped an entire generation of young people. However, the artist remained almost unknown for many years. Hansrudi Wäscher, born on 5 April 1928 in St Gallen in Switzerland, created several serial stories.

The comics with the jungle boy Akim, Sigurd the knight and Nick the astronaut, which were available from kiosks as Piccolo books in landscape format for twenty pfennigs, were popular among boys and girls alike. As a child in Switzerland, Wäscher loved to read Italian comics. When he moved to Hanover with his parents at the age of 12, he discovered that there were hardly any comics available. He began to come up with his own stories and to draw them.

Courage and perseverance

However, it was still a number of years before he could earn a living from doing this. After he finished school, Wäscher studied to be a poster artist. However, he cut off his education early in order to study commercial art at the Hanover School of Applied Arts. Wäscher received his first pay cheque working as a poster artist and illustrator: he drew the road safety book named Mr Boll for the city of Hanover. However, the Peterle story for the Schwarzwald publishing house was never published. In 1953, Wäscher developed the knight Sigurd for the Walter Lehning publishing house in Hanover.

Just like his role model in the Nibelung saga, the hero had enormous strength. "Everyone should fight injustice as their strength allows", says Sigurd in the sequel 'Das Gottesurteil'. With courage and perseverance, the hero enforced law and order. The adventures of Sigurd the knight have sold in their millions, appearing in over 320 Piccolo books until 1960.

Productive years

These were Hansrudi Wäscher's most productive years: every day he drew an entire comic strip. In 1955, he continued the Akim series, created by the Italian artist Augusto Pedrazza. In 1958, he created the fantasy series Nick the astronaut in the wake of the Sputnik launch. He sometimes worked on four series at the same time. To make the comics exciting despite the routine, he would begin the stories with full-page panels or insert small interim scenes.

Using so-called cliff-hangers, an exciting transition at the end of the book, he ensured that his young readers would buy the next book too. Wäscher's form elements also followed the role models of the time: Sigurd the knight had a blonde quiff and Nick the pilot flew into outer space in fashionable red overalls. Wäscher's stories also caused a positive sensation in the 1950s: "It was a prudish time", he remembers in an interview in 2008. Drawing a woman in a bathing suit caused numerous letters of complaint.

Continuing in the prudish time

Some books were even banned by the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons. This offended him, but it did not stop him from carrying on. But the greatest reward was still the number of children waiting for him when he came home on Fridays with his specimen copies. In 1969, Wäscher moved to the Bastei publishing house in Bergisch-Gladbach. For the publishing house, he developed the Buffalo Bill series for the Lasso books.

In 1982, the ghost stories and the fantasy character Fenrir followed. The old Piccolo books had already become collectors' items by this time. Today, an original Piccolo book is worth up to 1,000 euros. Wäscher's work has only found due recognition over the past few years: in 2008, the 80 year old was awarded the 'Max and Moritz Prize' at the Erlangen International Comic Salon. In 2009, the PENG! prize followed at the Munich Comic Festival. The old man, whose distinguishing feature is his broad moustache, is no longer working on new series of comics. However, he is still available for commissioned work with old themes.

Rieke C. Harmsen
is an art historian and editor of the Evangelischer Pressedienst (epd) news agency in Munich.

Copyright: Goethe-Institut e. V., Online-Redaktion
October 2009

Sadly, I don't think Wascher has attended a convention since Comicfestival Munchen in 2009 which is where the following photographs come from. 

Redaktionelle Bearbeitung: Rainer Scherr
Fotos: Copyright bei den Fotografen

And I doubt that I will ever achieve my goal to one day  write/draw a mini epic featuring Waschersw characters! However, this is just a little nod of respect to the great man!

Below: a 50th anniversary of the character Sigurd led to some "cosplay"! (c)HRW Fan Club

Großes Sigurd-Spektakel auf der Giechburg

	Club feierte “50 Jahre Sigurd” am 06.09.2003