Berlinoir Books from Germany
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
BOOKS Berlinoir FROM Current Graphic Novels from Germany GERMANY Aktuelle Graphic Novels aus Deutschland www.book-fair.com #fbm15 b blog.buchmesse.de Thanks to the generous funding by the Federal Foreign Office this book collection will be on show on German collective stands at many book fairs worldwide in 2015. Wir danken dem Auswärtigen Amt für die großzügige Unterstützung dank derer diese Buchkollektion 2015 an deutschen Gemeinschaftsständen auf vielen Buchmessen weltweit zu sehen sein wird. We are grateful to Andreas Platthaus, deputy head of feuilleton of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, who acted as curator for the selection of this year‘s titles. Unser Dank gilt auch Andreas Platthaus, stellvertretender Feuilleton- leiter der Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung, der als Kurator in diesem Jahr die Titelauswahl übernommen hat. CONTENTS 18 Silent Night 25 Steam Noir: 31 The Sharks of Lagos, INHALT Stille Nacht Copperheart 3 Volume 4: The Ghosts 18 Hotel Hades Steam Noir: of the Sea 4 F oreword 19 Sandman Das Kupferherz 3 Die Haie von Lagos, The Best Days of Sandmann 26 Vasmer’s Brother Bd. 4: Die Geister Humanity 19 Autumn of Decisions Vasmers Bruder des Meeres German-language Herbst der 26 Quicksand 31 Vita obscura comics, between Entscheidung Treibsand 32 Friends a love of genre 20 Don’t Forget to Wash 27 Yallabyebye 32 Miracles and fascination for Out the Salt 28 Tempest Curse, Wunder the classics Vergiss nicht das Salz Volume 1 34 Leschek’s Flight Andreas Platthaus auszuwaschen Tempest Curse, Bd. 1 Lescheks Flug 20 The Dream of Olympia 28 The Last Days of 34 The Right Here Right 8 Vorwort Der Traum von Olympia Mankind Now Thing Die besten Tage der 21 Berlinoir Die letzten Tage der 35 Gleisdreieck. Berlin Menschheit 21 Barry Hoden Menschheit 1981 Deutschsprachige 22 Konrad and Paul: 29 Ambient Comics 35 Stories of Mr. Keuner Comics zwischen A Spaceship Named 29 Snirk’s Café: Geschichten vom Liebe zum Genre Desire The Voodoo Chicken Herrn Keuner und Faszination für Konrad und Paul: from Curaçao 36 Antoinette Returns die Klassiker Raumstation Sehnsucht Snirks Café: Antoinette kehrt zurück Andreas Platthaus 22 Gung Ho, Volume 1: Das Voodoohuhn 36 Irmina Black Sheep von Curacao 13 Graphic Novels Gung Ho, Bd. 1: 30 Jahdolf and the 37 Appendix 14 The Salt River Schwarze Schafe Great Caribbean Reich Anhang Der salzige Fluss 23 Making Friends in Jahdolf und das 38 Index of Publishers 15 Down and Out Bangalore Großkaribische Reich Verlagsverzeichnis Penner 24 The World-Fixer 30 Anna’s Paradise, 39 Index of Illustrators 15 Mortals Like Grass Like Der Weltverbesserer Volume 2: The Shepherd and Comicwriters Mensch wie Gras wie 24 Franz Kafka’s Non-Stop Annas Paradies, Verzeichnis der 16 Berlin Blues Laughter Machine Bd. 2: Der Hirte Illustratoren und Herr Lehmann Franz Kafkas Nonstop Szenaristen 17 Superlacrimella Lachmaschine 40 Picture Credits 17 There Was Something 25 Land of Children Bildrechte Once Kinderland 40 Imprint Da war mal was Impressum 4 T HE BEST DAYS OF HUMANITY find better is just a matter of taste. As a form of story German-language comics, between a love of genre and telling, comics have long since tapped in to all the fascination for the classics possibilities already conquered by literature, painting and, indeed, music. It stands on an equal footing with In a conversation with the American literary magazine, these arts (and like them, it sometimes also hits below “The Paris Review” (No. 210, Fall 2014), Chris Ware, the belt). who is without doubt the most internationally influ ential comics illustrator working today, explained inci In recent years, following the triumphant marketing of sively how “Rhythm is one of the most important graphic novels on the Germanspeaking market, even aspects of comics, and not just a rhythm of words, but the most prestigious of our literary publishers are now of words in concert with images and colours, all within trying their hand at comics – mostly with little com the com position of a page and, ultimately, a book”. This mercial success, but with admirably highbrow content. musical definition of the aesthetic of comics builds on And, with their special editions and regular columns our ideas of a symphonic composition. In so doing, it on comics, respected German literary magazines like ties in with the prevailing hierarchy of aesthetical con “Schreibheft”, “Die Neue Rundschau”, “Text + Kritik” siderations in music whose art reached a high point in and “Bella Triste” have stolen a march on other illus the 19th cen tury. This may be a good way of explaining trious periodicals, such as the “The Paris Review”, the principle of how comics work, but in its generalisa whose piece with Chris Ware was only the second inter tion, Ware’s highsounding description is illsuited to view about comics it has carried in its 56year history ex plaining the diversity of comics. (the first was a talk with Robert Crumb in the summer of 2010). It is no exaggeration to speak of a boom in Just like music, comics can be categorised into serious the Germanlanguage comics scene, which is now mak and entertaining forms. There are largescale works that ing moves to overtake the other comics cultures that make use of the whole range of instruments, as well as raced ahead decades ago – even before it has caught up intentionally minimalist stories that one can compare with them. to the orchestration of chamber music. We have comics aimed at the massmarket, comics that stretch the bor It was the same paradox that Walter Ulbricht once ders of the art form, and comics that improvise freely. called upon the socialist system to accomplish in its Today’s comics authors leave out nothing, from genre competition with the capitalist West. That idea proved literature through to the classics. Which of these you an illusion. In the world of comics, however, it is an 5 achievable aspiration. In terms of quantity, it probably And this doesn’t necessarily involve highbrow preten is illusory to compare the Germanspeaking production sions. For instance, in his book “Barry Hoden – In to the big markets of Japan, France and the USA; we Space, No One Can Hear You Grunt” → p. 21, one of the lack the commercially important massmarket. But in best known German comics authors around the terms of quality, Germanlanguage comics have indeed world, Ralph König, persists with his longstanding attained the level of their role models, with some strain of homoerotic parody. But rather than Aris already being produced that really stand out in inter tophanes (whom König used for his comic “Lysistrata”), national comparisons. here he takes the material for his drastic and sexually explicit humour from the trashy “Perry Rhodan” scifi Noteworthy are the many adaptations of the classics – figure of the penny dreadfuls first published in the the recasting of the literary canon as comics. Not 1960s. Meanwhile, in “Silent Night” → p. 18, Frank that this is something that hasn’t already happened Flöthmann tackles the most famous story of all: the before elsewhere, not least with the American “Classics Christmas story. And he takes his wellknown title Illustrated” series of the 1940s, which drew upon widely literally, performing an exercise in wordless narration. respected novels to provide a counterbalance to the All the speech bubbles in Flöthmann’s comic contain rather murky image of comics. Nevertheless, many only symbols. As such the illustrator, who was born recent works in German have involved new approaches in 1967, is following in a specifically German tradition to familiar stories. They include the laconic, minimalist that began in 1934 with the almost wordless “Father adaptations by Nicolas Mahler → p. 24 of books by Robert and Son” of e.o. plauen, which is still perhaps the best Musil and Thomas Bernhard (latest example: “The known of all German comics, even today. WorldFixer”), and the visually intricate projects of the Gutenberg book club, whose illustrators have turned There are also nofrills literary adaptations, which to texts by E.T.A. Hoffmann, Arthur Schnitzler and attempt nothing more than a retelling of their originals. Albert Camus, giving them an entirely new dimension. They include Tim Dinter’s “Berlin Blues” → p. 16, The comic – and here we must concur with Chris based on the bestselling 2001 novel by Sven Regener, Ware – is an art form in its own right, subject to its or Karl Kraus’s “The Last Days of Mankind” → p. 28 as own rules. Anyone who knows how to follow those adapted by Reinhard Pietsch and David Boller, who rules will be able to glean something new from stories tapped the unique potential of comics to create a drasti that are very familiar but of a different provenance. cally reduced version. They see the comic as a readers’ guide or an introduction to the original prose, while 6 Dinter at least manages to add an atmosphere to the Lindner and Hoffmann produced their comic in novel he has illustrated, which Regener’s original cooper ation with the Forum for Contemporary History, didn’t possess because it did not dwell on detailed which is the Leipzig branch of the German House descriptions of the Berlin streets. of History in Bonn. The fact that institutions such as this are discovering the narrative power of comics So here we are: Berlin. It’s not simply that so many demonstrates the broad acceptance that this storytell Ger man illustrators live and work in the capital; the ing format now enjoys in the Germanspeaking world. metropolis is also becoming increasingly popular as a But in topics of recent history, there is still a huge setting for stories.