König, Ralf

Ralf König (b. 1960) is a German author of comic books written about and for a homosexual audience. He began publishing in gay periodicals and magazines such as Zomix and Rosa Flieder, and his first longer works were originally published by the gay publishing house Verlag rosa Winkel. After coming out as gay in 1979, he describes his works as coming from his own life, often discussing serious issues within the gay community such as sexual freedom and the AIDs crisis in a humorous way. König shares in an interview that humor and irony are often the best tool against discrimination, especially through comics, and thus his comics are a way of introducing and educating a general audience about the gay community. For more information about the life and works of Ralf König, see renowned documentarian Rosa von Praunheim’s film on the author titled König des Comics.