40 Jahre Ertugrul und Bessy

The man who was supposed to save Bessy.

In November 1983, the classic comic world in Germany had long since passed its zenith. This also applied to the once so successful western series Bessy from Bastei Verlag. After around 900 volumes with increasing reprints, an attempt was nevertheless to be made to get the classic back on the road to success. From 1965 to 1979, Klaus Dill had thrilled readers with his striking cover illustrations and catapulted the magazine print runs to unimagined heights at the time. After Klaus Dill's departure, the crisis surrounding the series continued to worsen and good advice was now expensive. Who or what could save the decline of the Bastei comic flagship now? The beacon of hope was a young man who had been working as a freelancer for Bastei Verlag since 1977 and who is now one of the top stars among illustrators. Ertugul Edirne was born and educated in Turkey and had already realised various covers and comic pages for Bastei Verlag when he was commissioned to implement the new concept. The plan was now to give the previously harsh, realistic cover illustrations an illustrative character in comic style. This was in keeping with the times in the mid-1980s and was also intended to resolve the graphic break from the cover to the inside of the magazine. In this new volume from Heider Verlag, all 69 Bessy covers by the man who was to save Bessy can now be admired for the first time without distracting lettering, without advertising vignettes, in partially revised form, with a new image detail and, above all, in true-to-the-original colours.