Anthanasios Petrou was born in 1971 in Thessaloniki and studied French literature, linguistics, and sociolinguistics in Thessaloniki and Paris. In 2005, Petrou completed his studies at the AKTO school of art in Athens. In 2002, he won first prize in the young talent category in »9« magazine’s comics competition, which is organized in cooperation with AKTO. Between 2004 and 2010, he worked for »9«, which published his graphic novels and comic strips, as well as for »Galera« and »Vavel«, among other magazines. He participated in numerous exhibitions in Athens, Thessaloniki, and Mytilini, as well as in Serbia, China, Sardinia, and Poland.
Petrou published the graphic novels »Der Trommler und sein Freund« (2008; tr: The Drummer and His Friend) and »Die Leiche« (2011; tr: The Corpse), the latter of which has also appeared in French translation under the title »Le Croque-Mort«. The story is about a Greek undertaker who must guard a dead man’s corpse for two days while anticipating his daughter’s return from abroad. The subtly designed images are filled with warm colors. With a text by Dimitris Vanellis based on short stories by Kaváfis, Caryotakis, and Papadiamantis, inter alia, in 2012 he published »Yousouri und andere Fantasy-Geschichten« (tr: Yousouri and Other Fantasy Stories), which was voted best Greek comic book of 2012 at the Comicdom in Athens in 2013. For »Schauspieler« (2013), Petrou created a series of portraits that were awarded the Greek prize for illustration. Among other works, Petrou followed up with »Die Karwoche des Junkies« (2015; tr: The Junkie’s Holy Week), again with a text by Dimitris Vanellis based on a short story by M. Karagatsis, as well as »The Marathon Battle« (2015), accompanied by a text by Katerina Servi. »Gra-Gru« (2017) earned Petrou and co-authors Tasos Zafiriades and Yannis Palavos the prizes for best Greek comic book and best scenario at the Comicdom Awards. In 2016, he participated in the creation of the volume »Der kälteste Sommer – Fluchtgeschichten nachgezeichnet« (tr: The Coldest Summer – Tracing Stories of Escape) by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Athens, which brings together three refugee stories in pictures and two essays on refugee policies.
Petrou has taught Sketch-Comics-Cartoon and graphic design at AKTO since 2012. He lives in Athens