Wilhelm Busch

Wilhelm Busch was a German painter, poet and satirist, best known for his drawings that were accompanied by wise, satiric, doggerel verse. His Bilderbogen (pictorial broadsheets) are considered to be precursors of the comic strip. In 1859, after study at academies in Duesseldorf, Antwerp, and Munich, Busch began to contribute comic sketches series to Fliegende Blätter and Münchener Bilderbogen, published in Munich. These were followed by his continuous pictorial narratives (bilderposse) short verse-texts. These included his most famous work Max und Moritz and Der heilige Antonius von Padua, Die fromme Helene, Hans Huckebein, Dideldum!, and Herr und Frau Knopp. By 1910 over half a million copies of Max und Moritz and his works had been translated into over 200 languages. In Germany, Busch's work continues in popularity and his writings are widely quoted in German-speaking countries. His style has been copied by innumerable artists.