Hans-Georg Barber, who uses the pseudonym Atak, studied visual communication at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. In 1989 he co-founded the avantgarde comics group and magazine Renate, and in 1992 his first graphic novel, Atak – The Flowers of Romance, was published. Besides illustration, he has ventured into animation. Along with his brother, he created the music video for the band Monoland.
He now holds a Professorship in Illustration at the Kunsthochschule Burg Giebichenstein Halle – an art college in the town of Halle, close to Leipzig in the former East Germany. Atak’s work is bright, bold and colourful. A style he puts to fantastic use in Topsy Turvy World, an absurdist picture book about right and wrong, and Atak’s first book with Flying Eye. Atak divides his time between Berlin and Stockholm.