Born in 1935, Jiří Šalamoun studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and also at the Hochschulle für Graphik und Buchkunst in Leipzig.
His first animated film dates back to 1963, directed by Gen Deitch. The character Maxipes Fík was born in 1975, when Jiří Šalamoun drew the first series of the popular animated tales. The first episode of Maxipes Fík was broadcast in 1975.
Jiří Šalamoun also worked as a book designer, illustrator and editor, and he received multiple awards throughout his career.
After the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the URSS in 1968 he requested to be released from the Communist Party, but the party expelled him instead.
