The Cultural Department of the City of Aachen invites you to the lecture "Art Stories" on Friday, March 6 at 4 p.m. at the Centre Charlemagne - Neues Stadtmuseum Aachen, Katschhof 1.

Willi Blöss, Aachen lyricist and illustrator, German Biography Prize 2012, presents his illustrated artist portraits - a pictorial journey through the 30-year history of a unique German comic series from Aachen and a presentation of Willi Blöss' recently published 48th title about the French colleague Claire Bretécher.

Willi Blöss first came into contact with artists' themes in 1996 (at that time still a lecturer in "graphic storytelling" at the Aachen University of Applied Sciences for Design, Boxgraben). Inspired by a collector of Fluxus art from Wiesbaden, he developed the entertaining comic biography "Joseph Beuys - The Smiling Shaman" together with the illustrator Bernd Jünger, which was published in 1998 as a private print by the collector.

Blöss couldn't let go of the idea. He continued to research famous artists from six centuries on his own initiative, wrote the texts and quickly became the sole illustrator of the "Comic Biography" series. Only at the beginning did he realize 6 titles with graphic artist friends.

From 2002, the 32-page booklets with artist portraits in DIN A6 pocket format were published by Willi Blöss Verlag - affordable, graphically virtuoso brochures with high entertainment value and knowledge gain for all age groups, suitable for schools and museums. As of January 2026, 48 titles have been published. The series will be continued with one or two new titles per year.