Inspired by Art Spiegelman's statement that the future of comics lies in its past, "Vita Obscura" refers to the early American Sunday pages of the 1910s and 1920s. In each episode, Simon Schwartz dedicates himself to an unknown, eccentric, yet always true biography: readers will encounter, among others, the vagrant and the only Emperor of the USA, Joshua Norton, the various doppelgängers of Ivan the Terrible's son, the blind musical genius Moondog, and the terrible monster Pulgasari. And who stole Albert Einstein's brain? In line with each biography, this comic series constantly reinvents itself - whether as a collage, charcoal drawing, or relief. This is the complete edition of the series that has been published in "Der Freitag" since January 2012, including previously unpublished pages and a foreword by Andreas Platthaus.