Hartlepool cartoonist celebrates as work published internationally

A Hartlepool cartoonist is celebrating international success after seeing his work published in French and Italian.
Cartoonist Richard Short.Cartoonist Richard Short.
Cartoonist Richard Short.

Richard Short, 36, is the creator of the satirical Klaus Comics series set in his hometown.

Originally from Clavering, Richard has been etching the four-panel cartoon strips for a number of years and has had five books published in English by Nobrow and Breakdown Press.

The French cover of the Klaus book by Richard Short.The French cover of the Klaus book by Richard Short.
The French cover of the Klaus book by Richard Short.
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The cartoon centres around Klaus the cat, who is surrounded by “rats” with human features.

Richard, who started drawing his creations while working as a lawyer in Newcastle in 2009 and has spent the past eight years working in London, says Hartlepool is still a running theme in his drawings, with familiar locations in the background.

And now his successful works have been adapted and translated into books for both a French and Italian audience, by French publisher Warum and Italian publisher Oblomov Edizioni - with a further translation into Russian planned for later this year.

Richard, who works for a legal consultancy in the capital, said: “I have been doing it for ages now and had just been thinking of giving up on it when I was contacted by French and Italian publishers around a similar time.”

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The French edition with be 130 pages of Richard’s work from his third and fourth book; while the Italian version will incorporate work from his third, fourth and fifth book, across 230 pages.

The comic which is targeted at adults due to the humour, has seen Richard, work directly with both publishers on the translations, with Richard even travelling to Italy for the launch.

He said: “It is really nice. I have been doing my job during the day and then getting emails from publishers asking me to explain some of the translations over the last few months.

“I went to Naples for the launch last month and that was really exciting.”

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In the translated copies, some of the characters names have been changed, along with some dialect words such as ‘howay’ and specific place names, but aspects of its Hartlepool origins remain, including references to Crimdon and St Hilda’s Church.

Previously his work has featured in The Big Issue Taiwan and have been translated into German, Finnish and Spanish. A 10 page comic by Richard will also feature in Adobe’s 99U magazine in June.

To check out the English version of the book visit: http://nobrow.net/shop/klaus-pre-order and http://www.breakdownpress.com/store/klaus-magazine-3