Author Reading: Reinhard Kleist

Reinhard Kleist, born in 1970 near Cologne, has worked and lived as an illustrator and comic book artist in Berlin since 1996. He made his international breakthrough in 2006 with the biographical comic book Johnny Cash: I See a Darkness, which was awarded the renowned Max and Moritz Prize and nominated for both the Eisner and Harvey Awards. With The Boxer in 2013, Kleist became the first cartoonist to receive the German Youth Literature Prize. In 2017, Kleist once again tackled one of music’s great storytellers in Nick Cave: Mercy on Me, which was simultaneously released in many languages. In 2018, Kleist was honored for his work with the Max and Moritz Prize for Best German Language Comic Book Artist.

In 2021 “Starman” came out in Germany, a Graphic Novel about the life of David Bowie. It was published in English in March 2023 as Starman: Bowie’s Stardust Years. Kleist currently works on part 2 of his Bowie biography, Bowie in Berlin, and will present a sneak preview.