Sigurd #1

History

Hansrudi Wäscher created Sigurd in 1953 for the Walter Lehning Verlag in Hannover — originally envisioning a loose Nibelungenlied adaptation, though Lehning steered him toward a straightforward medieval knight series instead. After Lehning's bankruptcy in 1968, Norbert Hethke — himself a dedicated Wäscher fan — founded Norbert Hethke Verlag in Schönau in 1977 and gradually became the primary steward of all major Wäscher properties, reprinting the classic piccolo runs in multiple formats while also commissioning entirely new stories. By the mid-1980s Wäscher worked almost exclusively for Hethke, contributing new covers and story material; the 1991 hardcover Sonderband series was the culmination of that partnership, launching a prestige-format run in which the first fourteen albums presented fresh adventures before transitioning to archival reprints.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published March 1991 by Norbert Hethke Verlag (Schönau, Germany); subtitled 'Hongo, der Teufel' (Hongo, the Devil); ISBN 3-89207-417-8.
• The issue reprints material from the original Walter Lehning Verlag Sigurd piccolo series (1953), specifically issues #1–14 of that run, collected into hardcover album format for the first time in this prestige edition.
• The first 14 volumes of the 1991 Hethke hardcover series contained newly written episodes, distinguishing them from later volumes in the same run which reverted to archival reprints.
• The series was issued as a limited collector's edition of 1,500 numbered copies for volume 1.
• Characters featured include Sigurd von Eckbertstein, his companions Bodo and Cassim, and the villain Hongo der Teufel; the plot synopsis notes Sigurd discovers his enchanted sword that is meant to make him invincible.
• Sigurd was created in 1953 by Hansrudi Wäscher — his first and most famous comic character — for Walter Lehning Verlag, where the original piccolo run reached 324 issues before the publisher's closure in 1968.
• Norbert Hethke Verlag began reprinting and extending Sigurd in various formats from 1977 onward; from the mid-1980s Wäscher worked almost exclusively for Hethke, and in 1993 Wäscher was certified by Guinness World Records as the most productive German comic author.
• The Sigurd character subsequently expanded into radio drama adaptations, trading card series (launched 1994), phone-card companion booklets (from 1992), and a 2011 iPhone app release of the classic piccolo booklets.

Full credits