thumb|Cover of a German collected edition of Nick Knatterton comics.
Nick Knatterton is the name of a West German comic strip and the name of its main character, a private detective. The strip was drawn by (1913–1999) from 1950 to 1959.
It was initially released in the German magazine Quick.
The visual style of the comics is cartoony, but still realistic enough for the comic to be taken as a (at least mostly) serious detective comic. It is characterised by its unique style of humour, most of which derives from allusions to current political affairs in the Federal Republic of Germany of the 1950s. The character next appeared in the magazine Die Landpost in 1946; the story was called "Der Schuß in den künstlichen Hinterkopf", German for "The shot in the artificial back of the head".
Schmidt recalled that in 1950 he came into possession of a Superman comic brought from the United States and started parodying the way the comic was narrated:
<blockquote>Soon after the war I got my hands on a colourful comic brought from the United States, which was called Superman. The comic had a visual story where bubbles filled with text came out of people's mouths, noses, ears and foreheads depending on what they said, heard, smelled or even thought. Swirls around a person's head meant they were losing consciousness, and stars represented a blow to the chin or other sensitive body part. The course of the events, which would fill many pages in a novel, was concentrated into one small picture, saving almost 95 percent of the reading time.
I decided to start parodying this completely primitive style of storytelling so thoroughly that no one would care about such bubble-filled stupid literature meant for illiterates. (Manfred Schmidt in 1970.))</blockquote>
This explanation can not be seen as entirely truthful, as Schmidt had already drawn comics since his childhood and also used speech bubbles in an experienced manner.
Knatterton always dresses in a Sherlock Holmes-style green plaid overcoat and cap, and smokes a pipe. His overcoat is based on Sherlock Holmes as seen in the 1930s, as Schmidt has mentioned the character as being inspired by Holmes played by Hans Albers in the 1937 film The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes. Sometimes the text box itself is explained by another text box. At the time, text boxes in comics were peculiar and unusual forms of narrative, and they can be compared to instructions, where pictures and words complement each other. and are available on DVD not only in Germany but also dubbed in Finland where it earned a Gold Record in three months. The show is narrated, with the narrator being in fact the only voice actor. Characters merely squeak when they are shown talking, and the narrator then explains what was said. Knatterton himself often voices out the conclusions of his deductions by saying "Conclusion" (German: "(Ich) kombiniere!", literally: "I'm concluding!", Finnish: "Johtopäätös!"), followed by the conclusion itself.