Henryk Jerzy Chmielewski (7 June 1923 – 22 January 2021), also known under his pseudonym Papcio Chmiel, was a Polish comic book artist and journalist.

The last, thirty first book of the main series was published in 2008, but Chmielewski continued to create other works, such as artbooks, with his characters.

[8][9] On 1 September 1947, Chmielewski started working as a graphic artist in the Świat Przygód (The World of Adventures), a magazine aimed at children and teenagers.

Once Świat Przygód couldn't obtain the newest issue of this newspaper, Chmielewski was asked to draw his own episodes of King's adventures, so the magazine could avoid abruptly ending the series without explanation.

[17] The comic was not published immediately, as the Świat Młodych editor in chief was initially sceptical about it, fearing – despite the thaw – that publishing a comic might cause troubles with the Main Office of Control of Press, Publications and Shows (Polish: Główny Urząd Kontroli Prasy, Publikacji i Widowisk), which had the right to censor newspapers.

[18] Only after the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik 1 satellite on 4 October 1957, Świat Młodych decided to start publishing Romek i A'Tomek, because of its space-based storyline.

[19] The first episode debuted on the front cover of 22 October issue, although it was referred to as a "picture story" (Polish: historyjka obrazkowa) rather than a comic.

[20] The characters became popular and Chmielewski started creating subsequent episodes (no longer set in space), under the title Tytus, Romek i A'Tomek.

In 1964, he also launched the Klub Tytusa (Tytus Club) in Świat Młodych, with humorous articles presented as written by the chimpanzee himself.

During the story, the main characters would also try to find their first jobs and earn money to visit a scout camp, learn about conserving historical monuments and fight with superstitions.

[23] Although the comics were initially not planned to be a series,[22] Chmielewski was asked to create a second book, this time dealing with traffic laws.

[27] Before the fall of Communism in Poland in 1989, the main topics and sometimes even specific adventures of the comics were not chosen by Chmielewski himself, but rather by his publishers.

[31][32] While Chmielewski planned to portray a positive view of the United States in Journey Around a Quarter of the World, such as his characters becoming stuntmen in Hollywood,[33] the publishers wanted to stress the existence of racism.