Who is/was Istvan Vasarhelyi?

[Joerg Polzfusz]

Hi!

Istvan Vasarhelyi (or most likely more correct Istvàn Vàsàrhelyi) was/is at least an Hungarian author of film-related books dealing with topics like „how to create a cartoon/silhouette animation/…“. One aspect of his career made me curious: His books have not only been published in Hungary (late 1960s, early 1970s), but he also appears as co-author/contributor/illustrator in various German books released in Eastern Germany, Western Germany and Switzerland. And on top, his style of drawing cartoon characters looks "familiar" to me. (Even though I would have said that his characters are from cartoons made in the former ČSSR.)

So, why/how did he became "famous" enough to also contribute to books in the German language? Was he a famous Hungarian cartoonist back in 60s/70s? Did he do this professionally (without being mentioned on e.g. IMDB)? Or was he "only" a very skilled amateur (who maybe even represented Hungary in the UNICA competitions)?

(I've already asked this question in other places, but I never received an answer.)

 

Jörg