From Avant-garde to Historical Knowledge Transfer

We know Afghanistan almost exclusively as a war zone. First the civil war, then the Soviets, then the Americans. But...

We know Afghanistan almost exclusively as a war zone. First the civil war, then the Soviets, then the Americans. But Maren Amini shows us a completely different picture. Her father was born there in 1953. Even as a boy he did not conform to expectations. He was more interested in art than religion. In the 1970s he experienced a culture shock. The hippie movement discovered the country and the young man was fascinated by it. Although he successfully trained as a graphic designer in Kabul and was offered a job as an architectural draftsman, Ahmadjan, who grew up in poverty, declined. Instead he ended up in Hamburg, but had to return without a valid residence permit. He was drafted into military service and then got caught up in the chaos of the civil war. He wavered between his young, newly founded family, his homeland and his self-discovery. 

Illustrator Maren Amini combines her father's exciting life story with the Persian epic "The Conference of the Birds" and was rightly awarded the comic book prize by the Berthold Leibinger Foundation for this.

 

A memory of the war. Not a pleasant memory. The first-person narrator sits at home, alone and lonely. Only a...

A memory of the war. Not a pleasant memory. The first-person narrator sits at home, alone and lonely. Only a black cat keeps her company. Her thoughts wander as she leafs through her photo album. We jump back several decades. The Second World War is raging. We don't know exactly where. We only know that the narrator is a little girl who misses her father. He is probably a soldier at the front, and will he ever return? We don't know. Together with her mother, she leaves the city for the village. They are both strangers there, just like the Ukrainian forced labourers. Among them is little Anna, whom the narrator befriends. For a brief moment we feel happiness, but then Anna dies in a hail of bullets from a fighter plane. 

More than half a century later, the narrator plants a small tree in her memory - a kind of memorial. Just like this comic. For Anna and many other war children.

An unsuccessful suicide attempt, an empty house, the idea of a flat-sharing community: We are in the early 1980s. It's...

An unsuccessful suicide attempt, an empty house, the idea of a flat-sharing community: We are in the early 1980s. It's the flat of the depressive Frieder, his friend Höppner, his girlfriend Vera, the drug dealer Harry and the arsonist Pauline. A motley crew that soon attracts the attention of the authorities. It's all about drugs, first sex and a stolen draft notice. 

In the Auerhaus (based on Madness' Our House), the residents find a place of refuge and grow up in a way. Bov Berg's original novel is brilliantly illustrated by Janne Marie Dauer. Even the author himself thinks so. A great insight into a bygone era full of trials and tribulations. 

This story makes it clear: comics are not always for children and they are not always funny either. It is...

This story makes it clear: comics are not always for children and they are not always funny either. It is about the difficult life in a patchwork family. It is about handing over children between separated parents, about feelings of guilt, about fears and arguments. When are the children where? How is Christmas celebrated? Is the school backpack packed, who signs off the school lunch? In order to cope better with the separation, the separated Nora and Viktor go to a therapist together. But his suggestions are not always met with approval - sometimes they raise questions. Nora's new partner tries to set up a normal family life. But when he criticizes her son, things get difficult. 

Antonia Kühn takes an exciting look behind the facade of separated parents and their children.

When comic artists write autobiographies, they do so in comic form, don't they? ...

When comic artists write autobiographies, they do so in comic form, don't they? 

Austrian Chris Scheuer has certainly chosen to do just that. The author, who first came to prominence with his books in the 1980s, simply calls his new book Book 1, in which he outlines the first 20 years of his life. He tells of an accidental arson, experiences with a priest who beat him up, with reproachful teachers, drugs and a spell in prison, and his travels across Europe, where he ate chips from the rubbish bin or stolen caviar. It is about his encounter with the hippie movement and his confrontation with state power. It seems to have been a full life. After all, Scheuer experienced more in his first 20 years than many people do in their entire lives.

On a train journey, author Dahmen gets into a conversation with his father. Inspired, he began researching his own family...

On a train journey, author Dahmen gets into a conversation with his father. Inspired, he began researching his own family history. For eight years he pored over photo albums and diaries, writing about things that other families often sweep under the carpet. What role did his own grandparents play during the Nazi era? Dealing with one's own history is sometimes painful. How much of what has been told is true and how much is not? 

Tobi Dahmen takes an unflinching approach and uses fantastic pictures to show what traces the war has left behind, even decades later. A book so informative and entertaining that some people would like to see it used in schools.

Giessen illustrator Andreas Eikenroth is a fan of Georg Büchner. Dantons Tod is the third time he has illustrated a...

Giessen illustrator Andreas Eikenroth is a fan of Georg Büchner. Dantons Tod is the third time he has illustrated a play by the prematurely deceased author. The speciality: The employee of the Städtisches Büchner-Theater designs each scene like a stage set. Each page is read in a single sweep from top to bottom. There are no single panels as in other comics. 

Those who read the graphic novel do not necessarily need to know the play. The artwork stands on its own and gives an entirely new perspective on the almost classic material. Of course, there are many literary adaptations, but this one deals with the subject in its own way and also graphically shows the artist's love of the theatre.

An adaptation of a fairy tale or legend by Sascha Hommer from Hamburg. For the first time in years, a...

An adaptation of a fairy tale or legend by Sascha Hommer from Hamburg. For the first time in years, a longer story from his pen. He has taken on the original by Wilhelm Hauff, who created classics of German romantic literature such as Kalif Storch, Zwerg Nase, Der kleine Muck and Das kalte Herz. Those who read the comic may remember the 1950 DEFA film - a classic. In the comic, Hommer sticks closely to the original. The illustrator himself grew up in the Black Forest, where the play is set. Charcoal burner Peter Munk exchanges his heart for a stone and becomes rich, but also cold. Even his mother senses this, as does his wife. All the money in the world is no use if you are alone and friendless. But as Munk still has one wish left, a trick helps him to get his heart back in the end. In the end, he realises that envy, resentment and greed are bad negotiating partners...

Die Sea-Watch – ein Rettungsschiff im Mittelmeer und darauf der junge Zeichner Adrian Pourviseh. 2019 geht er als Dolmetscher und...

Die Sea-Watch – ein Rettungsschiff im Mittelmeer und darauf der junge Zeichner Adrian Pourviseh. 2019 geht er als Dolmetscher und Fotograf auf das Schiff und dokumentiert seine Erlebnisse tagebuchartig. Der Leser lernt viel über das Überleben auf See, über internationale Abmachungen, über Menschenrechte und darüber, wie schwierig es ist, Geflüchtete vor dem Ertrinken oder dem Push-Back zu retten, obwohl sie quasi direkt vor der eigenen Nase auftauchen. 

Der Comic ist mit einer Trigger-Warnung versehen, denn das, was der Zeichner erlebt hat und zeigt, ist schwere Kost. Nicht nur, weil die Menschen, die gerettet werden, schwerste Verletzungen haben, sondern auch weil sie zum politischen Spielball werden, etwa zwischen Lybien, Italien oder der EU. Der Comic ist eindringlich, nah dran und authentisch und zeigt dadurch auch, was die Situation der Geflüchteten mit ihren Helfern macht. 

A trip home to mum and dad. From the big city back to the small town. Back to where the...

A trip home to mum and dad. From the big city back to the small town. Back to where the protagonist, Ika, grew up and where her parents and sister still live. Everything is the same as always, except that the father has changed, has become strange. Rumour has it that he wants to sell the house where the family lives. Divorce, emigration. But Ika, too, remains largely elusive. Life in the city seems far away. Her eyes remain hidden behind her light glasses. Only towards the end do we see her desperate gaze. One senses the helplessness and despair that the transformation of a close relative can cause. 

The title is ambiguous. On the one hand, it is synonymous with a conspiracy theory; on the other, the protagonist wants to go back to the beginning. A family story full of pain and rage. 

A brilliant debut that rightly won the Max and Moritz Award for the best German-language debut at the Erlangen Comic...

A brilliant debut that rightly won the Max and Moritz Award for the best German-language debut at the Erlangen Comic Salon. If Quentin Tarantino makes comics, he definitely makes comics like this. The very first pages are reminiscent of Pulp Fiction. 

Three mentally disturbed crooks drive to their first victims: small-time crooks counting the money from a robbery. Shots are fired in the apartment next door. The story becomes slapstick. A hitman is added, then a prostitute, a stoner and a couple who kill themselves because of a serious illness. The film jumps from one bombshell to the next. Everything is so absurd and grotesque that even though everyone is dead in the end, the reader has to laugh despite the tragedy.

Prefabricated blocks of flats, Berlin-Lichtenberg: It is not easy to live here anyway. Siblings Tâm and Dennis are the children...

Prefabricated blocks of flats, Berlin-Lichtenberg: It is not easy to live here anyway. Siblings Tâm and Dennis are the children of Vietnamese workers. Alex lives with his mother in the neighbourhood. Because he is often alone, he keeps an eye on the area with a drone. Of course, he soon makes a strange observation. What follows is a cut-off finger, a Vietnamese girl, human traffickers and the surprising discovery that Alex's father hasn't disappeared after all. But his business is less than respectable. 

Berlin-based Mikael Ross tells a fast-paced, multi-layered comic. His characters are never cold, they live from their fears, their dreams, their disappointments. Although he draws in black and white, you can feel the oppressive concrete heat of Berlin at every point in the story, which alternates between prefabricated buildings and allotment gardens. Suspenseful and surprising in the end.

The successful book by author Marc-Uwe Kling as a comic adaptation. One year after the first volume, the second and...

The successful book by author Marc-Uwe Kling as a comic adaptation. One year after the first volume, the second and final collection of comic strips has been published. The bestselling author has teamed up with illustrator Bernd Kissel for this. It is about the unusual friendship between an author and his neighbour, the kangaroo. All too often, the animal holds up a mirror to humans. The conversations between the two are about corona, Nazis, Putin - or simply about back pain. This results in stories in which each of us can find ourselves. Sometimes humorous, sometimes biting. But always lovingly illustrated. More than 300 episodes are printed in the book. Unfortunately, the series has been discontinued. The last sentence from the kangaroo: ‘See you later Alligator’ should therefore remain as it is...

A prison inmate who drags two guards behind him, an attempted murder, a fellow inmate who becomes his only friend...

A prison inmate who drags two guards behind him, an attempted murder, a fellow inmate who becomes his only friend behind bars and who dreams of one day making a living as an ice-cream vendor. Digger is one of the most unusual stories I've read in 2024. Loving, melancholic and brutal and tough at the same time. We don't know exactly why Digger has to go to prison. But as the first-person narrator, he is convinced that he belongs behind the thick walls. He stands out among the other inmates, tall and fat. He clearly has enemies in prison. The knife plunged into his stomach does little damage, thanks to his thick layer of fat. The fact that he escapes in the end, almost like the Count of Monte Cristo, and gives his friend a happy ending, makes the story a source of encouragement in difficult times.

Longing, loneliness, childhood fears - in four episodes, illustrator Franz Suess tells stories full of destiny. These are people who...

Longing, loneliness, childhood fears - in four episodes, illustrator Franz Suess tells stories full of destiny. These are people who are rarely the subject of comics. Lonely, old, overweight - in search of quick sex, an ideal world or simply peace and quiet. Two stories are devoted to young Michael. Apparently he has a date with Simon. He waits for him in a cheap café. The 'first time' is to take place in the toilet and goes badly wrong. Just like Brigitte's date in the second story, who throws her lover out of the flat. Little Tobias has to go to the village to visit his grandfather, who is suffering from dementia, and experiences a series of embarrassments before the reader meets Michael again in the last story and finds out how his story with Simon continues. The story is told mainly through faces, sometimes expressionless, sometimes emotionless - which will always be memorable.

 

A dissatisfied actor, his female fans - and their exaggerated, almost morbid fantasies. Illustrator Olivia Vieweg, who has been in...

A dissatisfied actor, his female fans - and their exaggerated, almost morbid fantasies. Illustrator Olivia Vieweg, who has been in the business for years and has been attending comic conventions and travelling as a fangirl since she was a young girl, knows what she's drawing about. But of course she goes one better. When actor Allan Dale is fed up with his career as an actor in schmaltzy films and cancels all his contracts, three of his toughest fans hatch a plan. At gunpoint, they kidnap the man and force him to act out their own scripts. After a brief back-and-forth, the victim agrees with his captors to act together for a week - after which his lover will try to get a serious role as Macbeth. 

Illustrator Vieweg draws on her own experiences in the fan scene to create an exaggerated picture. One can only hope never to fall into the clutches of such overzealous fangirls...

If you know the TV series Fleabag, you will love Fungirl. The first images show the protagonist flying naked through...

If you know the TV series Fleabag, you will love Fungirl. The first images show the protagonist flying naked through the air and landing in front of an erupting volcano. Only to wake up the next moment and explain to the astonished fireman who has put out the fire that she was masturbating... And so it goes on. To earn money, she works in a funeral parlour - and then likes to take a nap in the coffin. Or she prepares a dead squirrel in front of a school class to introduce the children to her profession. 

Ultimately, of course, it's all about what you do with and in your life. What is the point - and why? A fast-paced story full of desires and absurdities. In which the main character goes off the rails more than once and goes against all conventions. Quirky, absurd - great fun.

If there is an example of an avant-garde comic, this is it. In a small format, with full-page experimental drawings,...

If there is an example of an avant-garde comic, this is it. In a small format, with full-page experimental drawings, Nando von Arb may only be presenting his second book, but it immediately won the Max and Moritz Prize at the Erlangen Comic Salon as the best German-language comic publication. Stylistically, he opens up a new dimension. 

The story is about panic attacks, which the illustrator depicts episodically. The pictures seem to have been drawn under the influence of LSD and give a new meaning to the term "ninth art". Interestingly, the horror depicted also has comic elements. So far from being depressing, the book shows the possibilities of the comic medium. Anyone who opens the book will be plunged into an unparalleled frenzy of images that will whet the appetite for new stories by the 31-year-old artist. 

Death and how we deal with it. This is the main theme that Leipzig-based illustrator and caricaturist Schwarwel explores in...

Death and how we deal with it. This is the main theme that Leipzig-based illustrator and caricaturist Schwarwel explores in this graphic novel. With clear lines and black and white images, his style is reminiscent of the American Charles Burns. The content is about fears, doubts, depression and the fight against it. Confronting the illness and learning to live with it. With this autobiographical comic, Schwarwel wants to encourage readers and empower them to deal with their own psychological burdens. In five chapters (Denial, Anger, Negotiation, Depression and Acceptance), he tells a dramatic story full of misfortune and suffering. Family and friends are plagued by illness and death - too much for the adolescent, who also has the normal worries of a teenager. What do I want to be when I grow up? What happens next? With this book, which is supported by the Funus Foundation, Schwarwel addresses topics that are still taboo or stigmatised. 

Konrad and Paul are back. Ralf König's mismatched gay couple once again experience all kinds of crazy and bizarre encounters....

Konrad and Paul are back. Ralf König's mismatched gay couple once again experience all kinds of crazy and bizarre encounters. Above all, of course, it is Paul who causes a lot of trouble with his unbridled and naive horniness. The stories were created on the Internet. Two parts have now been published in the book. The first is about the bear meeting in Cologne, where Paul receives guests from Amsterdam. Konrad also gets a new i-Phone, Paul's nephew comes out and falls in love with a trans man, Paul turns 60, a porn film is made and Konrad has a near-accident. And, of course, a so-called psücharter also plays a role. Just everyday madness, some of which the illustrator König has experienced in a similar form (at least the accident). It's about getting older, couple relationships, being gay. In other words, all the themes that the Cologne cartoonist has been tackling for years and for which his fan community loves him so much.