Nikita Mandryka
Nikita Mandryka ( born October 20, 1940 in Bizerte ) is a French comic book artist. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Kalkus, Nik, Karl Kruss, Calequsse, Calgus and Kilkoz. In France he is known by the series Concombre Masqué in which are told the absurd adventures of a masked cucumber that lives in a cactus bunker and is friends with a kohlrabi.
Mandryka could in 1956 to publish a cartoon in a magazine. His professional career began in 1964 with a job at the Vaillant magazine. From 1965 he was responsible for Pilote. The rejection of a sequence of Concombre Masqué by the then chief editor René Goscinny led to a break with Pilote. Goscinny failed the sequence in which the cucumber long stones watching over ten pages in a Japanese garden while growing the publication. Mandryka then founded with Claire Bretécher and Gotlib the magazine L' Écho of Savanes. In 1979 he became chief editor of the magazine Charlie mensuel, as the pilots appeared at Dargaud. In 1984 he took over the editorship in Pilote.
In German language was published in 1997 in Carlsen The planet with no memory, a series of Massimiliano Frezzato to the Mandryka contributed the text.
Awards
Mandryka received the 1994 Grand Prix de la Ville d' Angoulême at the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d' Angoulême.