For more than 45 years, Ralf König has been drawing gay comics. When he began creating gay characters in the early 1980s, he was entirely on his own. Today he can look back on an extensive body of work that is unique in the world of drawn narratives. His unmistakable bulbous noses became companions through whom one could laugh heartily, cry without restraint, or sometimes feel outright annoyed.
With Konrad & Paul, he created a gay couple whose stories reflect not only the positive developments of recent decades but also the great tragedies of the community. Like a seismograph, Ralf König traced social shifts, emotional turbulence, and gay love affairs with often biting humor, becoming a chronicler of a world in which sex never got short shrift.
“Sweet Urges – 45 Years of Gay Comics” offers an in-depth look into Ralf König’s drawn universe through over 100 originals. The largest exhibition of the star cartoonist in Austria to date traces the key developments in his comics and illuminates the secret of his success: there is nothing better to laugh at than yourself.
