Marko Djurdjević is the only German to draw covers for the legendary Marvel Comics - By Anna Catherin Loll

Marko Djurdjević thinks perfect superheroes are boring. The star of the international illustrators' scene is much more interested in the dark side of his characters. And that may be because this 30-year-old German Serb had to go through some dark days himself on his road to success.

Journalists explain the world as if they were professors of political science while business consultants divide their weekends up into effective units of time - according to the clichés. But what do the creators of superheroes do? They have incredible powers and endless courage. At least, that is what you might think upon meeting Marko Djurdjević.

No other German illustrator does covers for Marvel Comics and Djurdjević has been working exclusively for Marvel since 2006. The New York publisher gave birth to the likes of Spider-Man, Daredevil and the X-Men. In July, Djurdjević will be accorded a further honor that no other artist has received - Marvel is to publish a book about him.

Djurdjević is a star in the international firmament of illustrators. "Marko Djurdjević is not just a god, he's the god," an Australian fan wrote about a cover that Djurdjević recently drew to complete the Daredevil series. "Marko Djurdjević doing another Daredevil cover, how many times can he make everyone else look like infants playing at his game? Look at the depth he gets." But where does this depth come from?

Djurdjević was born and grew up in the western German city of Koblenz, the son of a teacher and a clothes salesman. He speaks his parents' native Serbian fluently and feels Serbian, not German. Germany does not appear to have done much in his youth to make him feel differently. Looking back, Djurdjević talks about a "Koblenz vacuum," devoid of inspiration and impulses. He says he has been painting since he was two. "Drawing was like a reflex for me," he said. "I always preferred that to playing outside. Whenever something bad happens to you, you go back into your own world and you can lose yourself in it."

In school, Djurdjević spent lessons staring into space or sketching musclemen. Teachers thought the boy was rather stupid and his parents did not encourage him. "Before I had any success, 98 percent of people assured me I was incapable of anything," Djurdjević said. But he adds that it was the constant rejection that made him strong. "Well, I'll just have to do 500 times better, I told myself." He shrugs his shoulders. And there were doubts. But he says he always felt that he was good at something.

It was lucky for him that he had that inner faith because after those teenage years without encouragement, things got worse. Two semesters at the Mannheim University of Applied Sciences felt like nothing but rejection. He was told that he was far too stuck on his own style. So the then 21-year-old Djurdjević decided to go to Berlin and work as a freelancer. There was little work and it was badly paid. Too proud to borrow money, he ate cat food - and he usually could not pay the rent, either. It would have been easier to find work as a graphic artist, he says, but that was not the way he wanted to earn his living. "I wanted to be true to myself," he said, with a classic hero's smile. "The battle was worth it."

In June 2003, he took the advice of a friend and presented some of his works in the artists' forum conceptart.org. By the following day, they had had 15,000 hits. It was his breakthrough. "Illustrators I had always admired were suddenly calling me to tell me how good they thought my stuff was," said Djurdjević. He met the founders of conceptart, who became three of his best friends. Djurdjević spent two and a half years working at Massive Black, their newly founded business in San Francisco, doing computer game designs for big names like Sony and Electronic Arts.

But in 2006, Djurdjević met his wife, Jelena, and wanted to go back to Berlin for her sake. Life seems to reward Djurdjević for his brave efforts even when it comes to love - right at that time, he found a message from the Marvel talent manager. The editor in chief had seen his work on the Internet, it said, and loved it. Would Djurdjević like to work for Marvel?

In January, his exclusive contract with the publisher was extended for five more years. In order to pass on his knowledge, Djurdjević is in the process of founding a school of drawing next to his studio in the Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg. He says he wants to give to others what he once sought for in vain.

Given his history, it is hardly surprising that Djurdjević is not very impressed with flawless supermen. "Heroes are human beings that can achieve great things but who also experience terrible tragedies and huge losses," he said. It is typical for his heroes that they are far removed from the divine. He often portrays them as sad, battle-weary and disturbed. "Heroes don't have to be handsome," he added. "They have to prove themselves by the things they do."