His youth in Bremen revealed multiple talents: alongside his first publications in the Bremen News and the Weser newspaper, he played the saxophone and banjo in the jazz band Les Huit. Graduating from the Neue Gymnasium in 1931, he turned to film but found only menial jobs.
His move to Berlin in 1933 to become a director resulted in a simple position as a camera apprentice. During the war, he worked for Deutsche Zeichenfilm GmbH, controlled by the Ministry of Propaganda, as an attempt to avoid conscription. Mobilized in 1942 as a military cartographer, he joined a propaganda company and drew for the newspaper Panzer Voran as well as anti-American leaflets.
The post-war period saw him contribute to the pacifist magazine Pinguin published by Rowohlt. His discovery of Superman comics inspired him to create a parody of this "primitive and boring narrative form." Nick Knatterton, a parodic detective inspired by Hans Albers' Sherlock Holmes and the Nat Pinkerton novels of his youth, appeared in Quick as early as 1950.
The phenomenal success enriched Schmidt, who acquired a yacht named "Knatterton" and adapted his hero into animated films. However, the pressure of weekly production gradually exhausted him. In 1959, he wanted to kill off or marry off his character, but reader protests dissuaded him. Writer's block, resistant even to psychiatric help, finally forced him to abandon the series.
His reconversion into travel journalism for Quick was accompanied by a notable collaboration with Loriot for the column "La lettre très ouverte" (The Very Open Letter) (1957-1961). Politically oriented to the left, he defined himself as an "Edelkommunist" and saw the GDR as a counter-model to West Germany.
The 1960s saw him diversify his activities: comic book critic, author of theoretical books, creator of animated television series, radio scriptwriter, advertising designer, and travel writer. His style remains constantly marked by a naive and joyful humor, sometimes tinged with irony.
