Chris Scheuer

Award for lifetime achievement in 2025.

• Name — Chris Scheuer • Born — 19 September 1952 • Birthplace — Graz, Styria, Allied-occupied Austria • Died — 11 July 2026 • Occupation — Comics artist Illustrator Storyboard artist • Years Active — 1982–2026

Scheuer was born in Graz on 19 September 1952. His father was a painter, sculptor and art restorer, and encouraged his son's interest in drawing. Scheuer's drawings appeared in the regional press while he was still a schoolboy. He became interested in comics during the 1970s and began publishing professionally in the early 1980s. His first comics appeared in Schwermetall and Comic Forum, and his first album, Sheshiva, was published in Austria in 1983. In 1984, at the first International Comic Salon Erlangen, Scheuer became the first recipient of the Max und Moritz Award for Best German-language Comic Artist. His work also attracted attention in France. Dargaud invited him to contribute to Charlie Mensuel, where he worked with French writer Rodolphe on the series Marie Jade; the pair's stories later also appeared in Pilote et Charlie. Marie Jade was subsequently collected in album form, while Scheuer contributed more than 30 pieces to Schwermetall during the 1980s. Scheuer moved to Hamburg in 1988, where he worked on advertising assignments as well as comics. With writer Wolfgang Mendl he created Sir Ballantime, which was serialized in the comics magazine Moxxito and published as an album by Carlsen Verlag in 1990. He also created Morgana, for which he wrote and drew the story. During the 1990s and 2000s, Scheuer largely withdrew from publishing comics and concentrated on commercial illustration and storyboards for television. He spent part of this period living in Spain and made numerous journeys to India. Scheuer returned to comics with Reiche Ernte, a three-volume series published by Panini Comics in 2019 and 2020. The books adapted horror short stories by Austrian writer Matthias Bauer, with Scheuer handling the adaptation and artwork. Scheuer and Bauer later collaborated on the children's book Vollmond-Legenden: Das Geheimnis der Vampire, published by G&G Verlag in 2023, for which Scheuer provided the illustrations. The first volume of Scheuer's autobiographical graphic novel, Buch I, was published by Edition Aleph in 2023. The book dealt with the first two decades of his life. In 2024, the Kunsthaus Weiz mounted a retrospective exhibition, CHRIS SCHEUER – Die 9. Kunst, Comics, which included comics, storyboards and other work from his career. In 2025, Scheuer published Crocotalk, a project originally conceived in the early 2000s, through the Vienna publisher edition mono/monochrom. That June, the Munich Comic Festival awarded him its PENG! Award for lifetime achievement. Scheuer died on 11 July 2026, at the age of 73.

• Sheshiva (1983) • Marie Jade (with Rodolphe, 1980s) • Morgana (1989–1990) • Sir Ballantime (with Wolfgang Mendl, 1990) • Reiche Ernte (with Matthias Bauer, three volumes, 2019–2020) • Vollmond-Legenden: Das Geheimnis der Vampire (illustrations; with Matthias Bauer, 2023) • Buch I (2023) • Crocotalk (2025)