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Who are you?

I am Austrian, born 1972 in Vienna, and I've worked in almost every occupational field there is, but I'd say my most important professions are cartoonist (1997 to 2009) and analytical lab technician (2002 to current).
I started my artistic career with a monthly cartoon series in an Austrian women's magazine, which was quite popular, so it was picked up by the Austrian Broadcasting Company (ORF) for their website. After that, I created the comic Death and the Maiden, initially for the same website. This comic was also printed in 3 books (the first part of it, and only in German). Aside from that, I also had my own webshop for merchandise and commissioned art.
Since 2009, after the world economy more or less crashed or at least tumbled, I decided to no longer pursue a freelance career, but focused on my scientific qualification instead, leaving artwork for pasttime.
I left Austria and moved to Germany in 2013, where I still reside, and had to face a massive art block that lasted for 8 years. It was a bit frightening, since whenever I attempted to continue working on my comic, I fell either ill or some other drastic event made it impossible for me to focus on my story. It all began with a severe disc prolapse in January 2012 which resulted in my first spinal surgery, and ended in January 2020 with another one (both disc prolapse as well as surgery), not even a month after I had moved to another city. However, as unpleasant as that was, the relocation as well as my introduction to a certain animated cartoon (Hazbin Hotel) somehow reactivated my ability to draw.
As of yet, I am not sure if it will last, but I am dedicated to enjoy every second of it while it does.

I don't get this comic. What's it with parts 1 and 2?
Death and the Maiden was originally published from 2001 to 2004 and is a complete and finished story. My readers wanted to get more, hence the sequel. The original story is part 1, the sequel is part 2.
Part 1 covers the initial meeting of the two protagonists until their first parting.
Part 2 takes up the storyline 2 years after the end of part 1. It is not finished yet; I am planning to do a little rework on the layout of the comic, if I also manage to finish it is still unclear.

What do you mean with "the original version" of this comic?
The German one. I am from Austria, therefore my native language is German.

Does the Maiden have a real name?
Yes, it gets revealed in the second half of part 1. Those who are familiar with the first part of Death & Maiden should already know it, all new readers will have to read on.
She obviously has a last name as well, but that one is not important for the plot and will therefore not be mentioned.

Who is this little guy in the red sweatshirt?
You'll find this question explained under characters.

I have found a mistake in the cartoon - should I tell you?

YES! I am not an English native speaker, so naturally, there will be mistakes. I'd like to have the translation as good as possible, though, so if you're a linguist and would like to change a phrase or correct the grammar - please contact me!
If you find an error in the drawings, you can also tell me. I'm always eager to get a response. You can reach out via Twitter.

Are there other language versions of this comic?
Yes, a Russian one (which does not include the additional strips of the German printed version). There used to be a Slovenian and an Italian translation as well, but the projects died since the sites have been discontinued.
If you are interested in translating the comic to your own native language, please contact me via Twitter. I want to point out though that this is not a job offer, nor is there any financial compensation included. It would only be a fanproject.

Can I repost your comic?
No. Not the entire comic anyway, unless you want to translate it (see above).
If you want to use single panels or images, be my guest (I can hardly stop you anyway ;-), but please refrain from changing the text or putting my drawings into pornographic, racist or political context.

Were you influenced by Terry Prattchet's DEATH or The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy or ....?

Neither nor. I can with full honesty say that I've never ever read one of Pratchett's DEATH-novels. As a matter of fact, I haven't even read one of his diskworld novels, only started with the first book but stopped after 30 pages or so. To tell you the truth: I'm not a big fan of fantasy. Maybe some day I'll read them.

As for Billy & Mandy: Since our cable service stopped broadcasting Cartoon Network around the beginning of the year 2000, I've never even heard of the TV-cartoon series until December 2005. Since then, I have watched a bunch of episodes which I found on the internet, and I found them mildly amusing but not related to my comic at all. As a matter of fact, I've spied several episodes that were clearly ripp-offs of old "Beetlejuice" TV-cartoon episodes, and still being a great fan of that show, I wasn't pleased with this at all. Anyway: I started my series Death & the Maiden at the beginning of 2001, and from what I've learned Billy & Mandy started off around the same time. No influence is therefore possible, since my storyline was already fixed by the time the show aired in the US.

The only influence I fully admit is a sketch from a British/US-comedy show named Assaulted Nuts, in which Death appears, and you will know this Death if you've seen The bogus adventures of Bill and Ted because not only is it the same actor (William Sadler) who's playing Death in this movie but he's also wearing the same make-up and outfit. However, the influence I got was not by said movie but really by this one little sketch. Which all in all wasn't even that funny. But the way Death acted there (like a stubborn, bad tempered child), yes, that certainly influenced my Death a great deal. :-)

Other eventual influences that occured on the run while creating the comic will be pointed out in the little info texts underneath the episodes.


© Nina Ruzicka