Mosaik

Mosaik is a German comic book magazine. First published in December 1955, it is the longest-running German (and European) monthly comic book and the only one originating in East Germany that still exists. Mosaik also appeared in other countries and other languages. In its English-language edition it was published under the title Mosaic.

Mosaik was created by illustrator and caricaturist Hannes Hegen. From 1955 to 1975, the protagonists of Mosaik were Dig, Dag and Digedag, known together as the Digedags. They were replaced in 1976 by Abrax, Brabax and Califax, known together as the Abrafaxe, who are still the main characters today.

More than 200 million issues have been sold from 1955 until today. At the height of its popularity, prior to German reunification, Mosaik had a print run of almost a million copies per month. After reunification, the print run has varied from more than 100,000 in the early 1990s to about 80,000 in 2007.

The East German publisher Verlag Neues Leben, in East Berlin, had wanted to counter Western comics and magazines with a magazine of their own when Hannes Hegen approached them with his ideas for Mosaik and the Digedags. Reaching an agreement with Neues Leben, Hegen created the first issue of Mosaik for publishing in December 1955. Mosaik was published quarterly until July 1957, when it switched to a monthly schedule that has continued uninterrupted to this day. To support the schedule, the publisher hired additional artists, colorists and writers to support Hegen – a team which became known as the Mosaik-Kollektiv (Mosaik Collective). Only Hegen was credited on the cover, however.

In 1975, Hegen left the publisher over a disagreement and took the rights to the Digedags characters with him. The Mosaik-Kollektiv, not wanting to end publication of Mosaik, together created new characters to replace the Digedags. The final versions of the Abrafaxe were created by writer Lothar Dräger and artist Lona Rietschel. During the half-year period of creating the new characters and stories, reprints of old Digedags stories were run in Mosaik, until the new characters premiered in January 1976.

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