Born in 1954, the cartoonist completed a one-week internship at the Kauka publishing house (Fix & Foxi) in 1972. He was then offered the opportunity to work at the publishing house from 1973 and to train as a comic artist there. The sale of the Kauka publishing house in 1973 put an end to this offer. In the same year, Astalos discovered MAD and contacted Herbert Feuerstein. As Feuerstein was working on a new direction for the magazine, they had their first meeting in Frankfurt in the spring of 1974. Astalos received his first assignment for MAD. The comic parody did not appear until the end of 1974 because of the five-month lead time at the time. From 1975 onwards, he worked regularly as a copywriter, ideas writer and illustrator for MAD. Astalos also produced illustrations for advertisements, as well as designs for editorial pages and puzzles for Mickey Mouse. He was an advisor to the Mickey Mouse editorial team on two youth projects. He also developed ideas and concepts for RTL, worked with designs and storyboards on animated films, and on newspaper and magazine concepts for young people. He also works as a consultant for youth advertising.