Martin Kellerman

Growing up alongside fellow Swedish hip hop fans, Martin Kellerman took to cartooning, influenced by the works of Max Andersson, Peter Bagge, Robert Crumb, Harvey Pekar, Joe Matt and Mats Jonsson. In 1998, a chain of events led Kellerman to create his best-known work, "Rocky": Having recently been fired from his job as a cartoonist for a pornography magazine and dumped by his girlfriend, he found himself living with his brother in his family's house in the suburbs. He began to draw a comic strip about himself and his current situation - through the alter-ego of a "funny animal" dog named Rocky. The strip first appeared in the free newspaper, Metro. It was picked up by further publications, including "Dagbladet", "Aftonbladet" and "Dagens Nyheter", but was often dropped due to reader complaints over the comic's profanity and sexual content. Some publishers even dismissed it as a rip-off of Fritz the Cat (1972). However, "Rocky" -- and Kellerman -- developed a cult following, and began to receive worldwide praise as it was translated into Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Swedish, English and French, adapted as a play, and produced as a 13-episode CGI-animated TV series.