Since the beginning of 2023, my website has had a new look. Thanks are due above all to the outstanding agency fischhase. My appearance reflects a metamorphosis that my professional work has undergone since 2017. A brief outline:

I trained as a designer and illustrator because I've wanted to be a comic artist since I was a kid (well, almost, see: paleontologist). Some people just become comic artists by drawing comics and just don't stop. But the drawing people also want to make a living (why being a comic artist is not so easy is a whole other story). Thankfully, I have been able to officially make a living as an illustrator since 2005. I took my pen into the field every day for a wide variety of clients, and learned a lot. Over the years, my livelihood became more and more stable and my small network gave me a grateful client base.

But the more I was a service provider, the more I moved away from my heart's desire, which was to draw comics. It's hard to do both if you want to put down your pencil and have a life. On top of that, there was the great uncertainty of what I wanted to tell in the first place. And if I could think of something, whether I would be able to put it into words at all.

Years passed. More than a decade passed. At the Comic Salon in Erlangen, I was all too often hit by the "Erlangen Blues", the simple reminder that two years had passed again. Two years in which I had once again not made a comic of my own, let alone submitted it to a publisher. In Erlangen you are surrounded by great comic artists. Here you can really recharge your batteries with enthusiasm and inspiration among like-minded people. The Erlangen blues were soon over.

Because the good news is: we humans grow and learn, including me. And in 2017, I met Matze Ross. Matze is an author, comic nerd, horror film lover, cineaste in general - in short: a match made in heaven. He had a story, and it fit! I felt ready and invested: Strength, love and time, a lot of time. Half a year later a concept was ready, which I sent to a few publishers. And Splitter said yes!

And here it begins: my "Artist's Journey" (a term coined by Steven Pressfield, derived from the Hero's Journey). As an artist, I no longer want to just draw what others call out at me, I now want to let my own voice ring out. I want to shout obscenities together with my monsters. So much has built up that I had not expressed. And Matze's "One Damned Handshake" offers me all that. His story is a stage on which I can finally show what else belongs to my repertoire. Service provider Jan Bintakies can create likeable, heartfelt, child-friendly characters, accurate content and informative illustrations. Comic artist Jan will make your faces melt!

And that's exactly what this website shows. It shows my previous work as an illustrator, and also the joy and appreciation that comes with it. And it shows the new, the sequential art that is now coming towards us on a new level. I hope you feel at home here. I already do.