By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 5/24/2016
Quiet and brooding, while still warm and with a great delicacy, Barbara Yelin’s Irmina takes the author’s own discovery of her grandmother’s World War II era diaries and letters, and applies the resulting biography to higher philosophical heights that really concern the way any of us encounter the world. Irmina is a young German girl […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 6/9/2015
The Comicfestival München (Munich Comics Festival) was held last weekend, and numerous comics and graphic novels were honored with the Peng! Award, and the ICOM Independent Comics Award.
Tagesspiegel reports on the winners of the Peng!, and has incredible photos!
The nominees and winners (
):
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
GHETTO BROTHER: EINE GESCHICHTE AUS DER BRONX von Julian Voloj & Claudia Ahlering (avant)
GUNG HO von Benjamin von Eckartsberg & Thomas von Kumman (Cross Cult)
IRMINA von Barbara Yelin (Reprodukt)
DER TRAUM VON OLYMPIA von Reinhard Kleist (Carlsen)
DAS UPGRADE von Ulf S. Graupner und Sascha Wüstefeld (Cross Cult)
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
DER ARABER VON MORGEN von Riad Sattouf (Knaus)
DER ATTENTÄTER von Henrik Rehr (Jacoby & Steward)
AYA von Clément Oubrerie und Marguerite Abouet (Reprodukt)
BLACKSAD # 5: Amerillo von Juan Diaz Canales und Juanjo Guarnido (Carlsen)
DER SCHIELENDE HUND von Étienne Davodeau (Egmont)
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
LOCKE & KEY # 6: ALPHA & OMEGA von Joe Hill und Gabriel Rodriquez (Panini)
PEANUTS – AUF ZU DEN STERNEN, CHARLIE BROWN von Vicky Scott u. a. (Cross Cult)
RACHEL RISING von Terry Moore (Schreiber & Leser)
SANDMAN: OUVERTÜRE # 1 von Neil Gaiman und J. H. Williams III (Panini)
HIER von Richard McGuire (Dumont)
.
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ALFONZ
COMIX
REDDITION
DIE SPRECHBLASE
TAGESSPIEGEL
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
DER COMIC – GESCHICHTE, STILE, KÜNSTLER von Klaus Schikowski (Reclam)
DAS COMIC!-JAHRBUCH 2015 (ICOM)
DEUTSCHE COMICFORSCHUNG von Eckard Sackmann (auch Hg.)
GOING WEST – DER BLICK DES COMICS RICHTUNG WESTEN von Alexander Braun
75 JAHRE MARVEL. VON DEN ANFÄNGEN BIS INS 3. JAHRTAUSEND von Roy Thomas (Taschen)
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
FLIEGENPAPIER von Hans Hillmann (avant)
DIE HAIE VON LAGOS von Matthias Schultheiss (Splitter)
LITTLE NEMO GESAMTAUSGABE von Winsor McCay (Taschen)
SPIROU-GESAMTAUSGABE von André Franquin (Carlsen)
TARZAN von Burne Hogarth (Bocola)
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
BAYMAX – RIESIGES ROBOWABOHU
GEMMA BOVERY – EIN SOMMER MIT FLAUBERT
X-MEN: ZUKUNFT IST VERGANGENHEIT
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
BEETLEBUM von Johannes Kretzschmar
A HOUSE DIVIDED von Haiko Hörnig und Marius Pawlitza
NiGuNeGu von Oliver Mielke und Hannes Radke
SCHISSLAWENG von Marvin Clifford
WORMWORLDSAGA von Daniel Lieske
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
BILLY BAT von Naoki Urasawa und Takashi Nagasaki (Carlsen)
DER GOURMET von Jiro Taniguchi (Carlsen)
GUTE NACHT, PUNPUN von Inio Asano (Tokyopop)
MAGICAL GIRL OF THE END von Kentaro Sato (Tokyopop)
DIE MONSTER MÄDCHEN von Okayado (kaze)
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
78 TAGE AUF DER STRASSE DES HASSES von David Füleki (Tokyopop)
KIMI HE: WORTE AN DICH von Christina Plaka (Carlsen)
LOST CTRL von Evelyne Park (Carlsen)
MARTILLO’S MYSTERIOUS BOOKS von Luisa Velontrova (Tokyopop)
TEMPEST CURSE von Martina Peters (Carlsen)
From Tom Bunk’s blog: http://bunkstuff.blogspot.com/
In addition, Tom Bunk received a Lifetime Achievement Award, and Eckart Schott of Salleck Publications was honored for special services for the Munich comics scene.
On the same day, ICOM (Interessenverband Comic e.V., The Comic, Cartoon, Illustration and Cartoons Interest Group) announced their awards spotlighting independent comics. The link to the award winners is here, along with an index of past German comics award winners. (ICOM dates back to 1994.)
„Als ich mal auf hoher See verschollen war“ von Maximilian Hillerzeder (Edition Kwimbi)
„Insel Karkinos“ von Tim Gaedke
„The Right Here Right Now Thing“ von Paulina Stulin (Jaja Verlag)
„Die kleine blaue Melancholie“ von Yi „Yinfinity“ Luo
„Ach so ist das?!“ von Martina Schradi (Zwerchfell Verlag)
Comic Solidarity (Eva Junker, Lukas Wilde, Sebastian Kempke)
„Mister Origami“ von Bastian Baier und Robert Mühlich (Zwerchfell Verlag)
„Mondo 2“ Herausgeber: Tim Gaedke
„Oh 3“ (Zwerchfell Verlag)
„Penner“ von Christopher Burgholz (Jaja Verlag)
Hillerkiller von Maximilian Hillerzeder
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 6/3/2015
Every other year, Munich hosts the Munich Comic Festival (Comicfestival München), which, like other continental comics festivals, offers a diverse international guest list while still celebrating the local talent!
For those who kann nicht Deustsch sprechen, here’s the official greeting:
The Munich Comic Festival is the second largest comic event of its kind in Germany and is alternating every other year with the Comic Salon in Erlangen. In 2015 it takes place from June 4 to June 7 with some of the exhibitions starting earlier and continuing after the festival. From Mai 7 to June 9 the exhibition “The Beatles in Comics” will be shown in the Valentin-Karlstadt-Musäum. Other exhibitions to be shown deal with Will Eisner at the Jewish Museum, Paco Roca and Jordi Lafebre will present their artwork in person at the Instituto Cervantes, Tom Bunk, who will be get our Peng! Award for his life’s work , will show his artwork in the Amerikahaus. And finally, the quaint Beer and Octoberfest Museum in the oldest private house of Munich will be in on the Festival.
Main location of the Festival from June 4 to 7 is the Alte Kongresshalle (Old Congress Hall) neighboring on the Oktoberfest site. Here, among other things, one can find the book fair of all the comic publishers under one roof. Also there will be drawing workshops and prominent comic artist will be available for autographs. There will also be various presentations and lectures as well as exhibits, e.g. the exhibit of artwork from our guest country Great Britain. There will also be a cosplay contest. Many prominent artists like Don Rosa, Dave McKean, Posy Simmonds, Jock, François Walthéry, Bryan Talbot, Vicki Scott, Goran Sudžuka, Rufus Dayglo or Denis Kitchen will once again be guests of the Festival.
In 2013 the Munich Comic Festival had some 12,000 visitors, not counting the many people who visited exhibits that were shown at various locations for free.
Let’s condense that: the second largest comics festival in Germany, in Munich next to the Oktoberfest grounds. (BAR-CON!) The German equivalent of Angoulême. Lots of British cartoonists. Rosa, McKean, Kitchen.
So, what’s going on? Well… Click on the blue headlines below for more information!
Upper Floor
Panel rooms (and map key) (accessible to the left of the autographing stage)
Kids under 10 are free, teens 11-18 €15 for four days, adults €20 for four days! Thursday through Sunday.
Yes, actual installations! Beatles! The Spirit! Uncle Scrooge! Tom Bunk at the Amerika Haus!
Here’s a local map!
(Or you can download the guidebook!) (It’s got a welcome message from the Lord Mayor of Munich! Which makes sense, since funding comes from local cultural agencies.)
Okay… this one gets highlighted!
PREMIERE DER MUSIK-COMIC-SHOW STING ILLUSTRATED
Yup, that’s the German. And it pretty much describes what it is… Here’s the Google translation:
Together with the Palatinate cartoonist Dennis Hauck the Munich songwriter Alex Sebastian took the complete works of Sting before: The two sat among others lyrics hits like “King of Pain” or “Message in a Bottle” in amusing comic stories about, but also made before more obscure Album titles not just what can happen when it is cloudy, but do not want to rain? Why not move the better combating rivals from one day to the other? Why takes the Queen even a taxi to the train station? How do you make a woman’s right?
The result is a unique live show with comic projections that applies not only to die-hard fans Sting, but for every music and comic lovers a must. After several previews the official premiere will now take place as part of the Comic Festival.
(Which might also mean sketching!) Wow! Don Rosa will be autographing for 14 hours over 4 days, including one 4-hour block! Get there early!
Categories: Best German-Language Comic, Best European Comic, Best North American Comic, Best Comics Reporting, Best Books about Comics, Best Reprint, Best Film Adapation, Best Webcomic, Best Asian Manga, Best German Manga!
(FREE! But offsite. Saturday only.)
The MVG (the Munich transit agency) is sponsoring a comics competition. Just go to the show, and draw a comic under the theme “Simply Mobile”. The winner gets €200 and publication in MVGinfo, a magazine of 150,000 circulation.
This is kinda cool… each attendee gets a ticket, and uses that to vote for their favorite cosplayer! The ballots will then be used in a raffle! Oh, and if you come in costume on Saturday, your admission is half off!
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 4/3/2015
[When visiting the German-language sites below, I suggest using Google Chrome, or another web browser which allows for easy translation of German. And if you read only one thing from this post, it should be this.]
Guten Tag!
Germany… it’s a bit of a conundrum in Continental comics.
Smack dab in the middle of Europe, it gets a lot of comics imported from other countries, mostly from neighboring Belgium and France. It has a bit of a comics tradition, especially with “Sarkasmus”. Satirical and social commentary, usually featuring tricksters, has been a literary tradition of Germany since at least Til Eulenspiegel, and even the official comics museum in Hannover, Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst Wilhelm Busch, features as much emphasis on caricature and editorial cartoons as it does on comics.
Yet, with numerous outlets for comics for both children and adults (Micky Maus Magazin sold over a million copies weekly at its peak, and there are numerous comics aimed at adults), there haven’t been many notable comics produced until recently. However, with the rise of the Internet and the worldwide popularity of manga, coupled with American publishers acquiring titles which are then licensed worldwide, there is a vibrant comics scene in Germany, and many titles worthy of export.An interesting ripple… A lot of Germans speak and read English, as the two languages are closely related linguistically, and many students learn it early in school. It is not uncommon to walk into a German comics shop and see a wall full of the latest Wednesday comics imported from the U.S. (actually Diamond UK). Fans, regardless of nationality, hate to wait for the translation, and will read the comics in the original American. Does this impact the circulation of the licensed translations? Probably not… as with America, there seems to be two markets: comics shops aimed at collectors, newsstands aimed at the general reader. Generally, with the superhero soap opera comics, the German publisher will collect multiple issues into an omnibus-style magazine, either as a thick digest, or a slimmer square-bound magazine. (Click the Panini link below for examples.)
So, here’s a brief introduction, with a few suggestions for further exploration if you’re curious.
The Goethe Institute has a great introductory website for German comics! (It also includes links to various sites and publishers.)
[Anyone have a list of German comics translated into English?]
Rupolphe Töpffer, from Geneva, Switzerland, is one of the forefathers of comics, creative during the first half of the Nineteenth Century. Writing originally in French, his influence spread to Germany and the United States. (The University Press of Mississippi has published two massive volumes on his work.)
Wilhelm Busch is the godfather of German comics. An illustrator and writer, he is best known for “Max und Moritz”, a cautionary tale of two scamps. (You can read an old English translation here.) His satirical poetry caused many an uproar, and he was censored for satirizing the hypocrisy of the Catholic church.
Dr. Erika Fuchs is the second-most influential person in German comics. From 1951 until retiring in 1988, she was the chief editor and translator of Disney comics in Germany. Her high standards and references to classical German texts gained her renown among Disney fans. Her use of verbs as onomatopoeia and soundless events (such as “shiver” or “gulp”) has influenced Internet chat dialogue in Germany, where the use of such terms (such as *runs away*) is known as Erikativ. (A detailed explanation for grammaticists, linguists, and Donaldists can be found here, with animated comparisons between the original English comics and German translations. Please note that Disney comics no longer use machine lettering.)
Here’s a “Comics Messe” list of conventions in German-speaking Europe.
The biggest comics show in Germany is held in northern Bavaria: the International Comics Salon Erlangen. A biennial comics art festival, it is the German equivalent of Angoulême, although not yet as crowded. (2014 attendance: 25,000) They award the Max und Moritz Preis via a jury, with one audience-voted prize. The titles are international in scope, honoring both local cartoonists as well as translated works. (Read my recap of the 2012 show.)
Those are BUILDINGS. There are 11 total. And, no, it’s not the biggest in Germany.
The other big show? The Frankurt Book Fair. A massive publishing trade show, they allow the public in on the weekend. Since comics have always been popular, publishers and organizers know to schedule events to entice fans. They even host the German Cosplay championship! Of course, there’s also an award: the annual Deutsche Cartoonpreis.
Since 2006, the Frankfurt Book Fair and Carlsen Verlag have awarded the “German Cartoon Prize for new talent”. Since 2012 the “German Cartoon Prize” in categories A and B have been awarded.
“A” stands for cartoonists who have not yet published a book. “B” is for cartoonists who have already published at least one book.
You can buy the anthology book here. Here are the winners from last year:
Cartoonprize Category A: Hannes Richert (far left), Category B: Rattelschneck, first prize (far right); Oli Hilbring, second prize (second from right). Third prize: Dorthe Landschulz.
Wilhelm Busch – Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst
In addition to the greater part of Wilhelm Busch’s complete artistic oeuvre, the German Museum for Caricature and Graphic Art in the George Garden in Hannover is home to a collection of more than 35.000 works by internationally celebrated representatives of the art of pictorial satire.
Among those represented are such great names from the past as Hogarth, Daumier, Grandville and Goya, as well as popular “modern classics” of the world of humour such as Ungerer, Sempé and Loriot. And of course, Wilhelm Busch simply can’t be left out.
(Yeah, Amazon also has a German branch…)
34 titles! (Wow! That French “Beauty and the Beast” comic looks amazing!)
MyComics.de, a very robust comics site! (Their blog!)
Carlsen Verlag, strong in German manga, but also strong in licensed and original work
Ehapa, owned by powerhouse Egmont. As with other Egmont houses throughout Europe, they publish, almost exclusively, licensed titles aimed at kids. That means Disney, Asterix, Lucky Luke, as well as other imports. (Jaw dropping fact: Micky Maus Magazin has a weekly circulation of 125,000, and a weekly readership of 623,000! 10.7% of kids ages 6-13! Of course, adults read it too! To put that into perspective… there are some 54 million kids age 5-17 in the U.S.! Imagine five million kids reading a comic book each week….)
Panini Comics Deutschland Once owned by Marvel in the 1990s, Panini is best known in the U.S. for their sticker albums. In Germany, they license just about every American comics title available.
Reprodukt is a publisher of liter
ary graphic novels. If you flip through their catalogs, you’ll see the usual suspects. A very good list!
Avant Verlag is a general publisher, but has a very strong catalog of original German graphic novels, as well as imports.
Tokyopop [No! Really!] Apparently, Kodansha and Viz haven’t figured out the German market yet, so Tokyopop has the German licenses for Deathnote, Bleach, Hetalia… as well as publishing local talent.
“Fritz Haarmann, one of the most brutal serial killer in Europe, worked as an informant for the Hanover police. Night after night he roamed the waiting rooms of the station looking for young, unaccompanied men. With the help of his police identification card he could gain the trust of his victims. He led them to his apartment, raped them and with a sexual frenzy, bit them in the throat.” (One of the inspiration for “M”, and the subject of Fassbinder’s “The Tenderness of Wolves”.)
Readily available in the United States. English translation of Busch’s work.
Comics in German have now made it into the mainstream of society. For this reason, more and more publishers are now showing an interest in the new forms of storytelling that are unique to this illustrated genre. Our selection demonstrates this with a wealth of new names, who represent a broad spectrum of both subject matter and graphical techniques. It was the term “graphic novel” that first broke the ice. Booksellers and readers alike expect that the comics listed under this heading will offer meaningful content as well as a wide diversity of styles. For instance, it is now just as common to see journalism in comic form as it is to find experimental design work in terms of page architecture or picture structure.
At the same time, an intriguing development can be seen with the rapid growth in the number of literary adaptations. This means comics are tapping into entirely new strata of readership.
They are now gaining some cachet among the sort of booklovers who would, until now, have been sceptical of the quality of their subject matter.
From fairy tales to novellas and novels, every literary genre now seems to provide a suitable challenge for the comics illustrator. Publishers such as Suhrkamp and Edition Büchergilde have even launched their own special comics series for adaptations of famous works.
German-language comics have therefore broken into a field that was hitherto covered only by foreign language publications. And new opportunities are emerging for illustrators, who for years have complained about the dearth of good stories. The enthusiastic reactions of readers and critics alike to the new works make it clear that the comic has now arrived in the German book market[Heilig Bimbam! Emil and the Detectives!?!]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 6/21/2014
Every two years, the city of Erlangen, Germany hosts the Erlangen Comics Salon.
In a nutshell, it’s the German version of Angoulême. It’s not as crazy or as big, as the German comics scene is about ten years behind the United States in development. (Which is curious, giving the ubiquitous Franco-Belgian and American comics found at bookstores and newsstands nationwide.)
The show has been running since 1984, and one of the highlights is the awarding of the Max und Moritz Preis, named after the world-famous characters created by Wilhelm Busch. When I attended in 1994, it was held in an opera house, and was preceded by a comedic acrobat troupe.
We present the winners, some of which have been translated to or from German. Many are German cartoonists, and deserve wider recognition. I know there is at least one American comics editor attending this year, so there is hope that these and other nominated titles will find their way to American shelves and shores! You can sample all twenty-five nominees here!
Lifetime Achievement Award
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Best German-speaking comic artist
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Best German-language Comic
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Best International Comic
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Yeah, the same manga-ka who created “Pluto” and “Monster”! Not yet translated into English!
Here’s the Wikipedia description:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Bat
“The story begins in 1949 and follows Japanese-American comic book artist Kevin Yamagata as he draws the popular detective series “Billy Bat”. When he learns he may have unconsciously copied the character from an image he saw while serving in occupied Japan, he returns to Japan to get permission to use Billy Bat from its original creator. Upon arriving there, however, he becomes embroiled in a web of murder, cover-ups, and prophecy that all leads back to Billy Bat.”
Heilige Fledermaus!
Best German-language Comic Strip
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Best Comic for Children
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Best Student Comic
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The professor who won a MuM Preis in 1994 for Spacedog! (Mostly wordless, but published in the U.S. by Gingko Press.)
Special Jury Award
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They are translators for numerous books and publishers.
Audience Award
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The 25 titles nominated for the “Max und Moritz“-Award 2014
Translated from the Galician.
Translated from “Anya’s Ghost”. (Yes, Tokyopop Germany is still in business. I wonder if they are making good on their former U.S. obligations?)
See above.
Translated from the Japanese edition.
Translated from the North American edition.
Translated from the French edition.
Due to be published by Macmillan/Picador in the U.S. in October 2014. UK edition published by Random House/Jonathan Cape in May 2013.
German.
German.
German.
Published in the U.S. by Abrams/Self Made Hero as “A Chinese Life”.
A rare Swiss comic strip! (Most continental newspapers publish few comic strips, nothing like those found in the U.S. or the International Herald-Tribune.)
The original novel was translated into English as “The Karnau Tapes”.
See above. An ongoing series from NoBrow.
Her website: http://www.birgit-weyhe.de/ A family biography, as the author researches her family tree, and finds secrets buried therein. (I’ll be giving this to my mother for Christmas.)
A translation of the Pantheon book.
A memoir of the author, as a four-year-old in Germany, 1948.
Translated from the French edition.
See above.
Translated from the French. Published in English as “Weapons of Mass Diplomacy” by Self Made Hero.
Hey! Marc-Oliver! If the creators aren’t there to pick up the award, does the translator get to make the speech?
See above.
Published in English! Yaoi manga. deviantART: http://soen.deviantart.com/
See above.
Translated from the Finnish. |
Former nominees and winners can be found here.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 6/10/2012
.
Every two years, the northern Bavaria city of Erlangen hosts the pre-eminent comics event in Germany. A bit like Angoulême, although smaller in scale, with a bit of American comic-con-ness, the city actively promotes the International Comics Salon. There are art exhibits, academic and popular topics discussed on panels, and the Max-und-Moritz Preis, presented to the very best of German-language comics.
Since most German youth learn English in grade school, many are fluent, and the language has infiltrated the slang. Many comics shops have a Diamond-supplied American sector, as fans are not willing to “wait for the translation”. This influence, overlapped with the continental comics of French and Belgian comics, and the strange hybrid of Disney comics created in Europe, has created a culture similar to the U.S. comics scene of the early 1990s. Superheroes are known, but do not dominate, although any multimedia property will find a spot on the local newsstands (Disney/Egmont/Ehapa’s Micky Maus Magazin weekly rules, offering extras with each issue, and selling about 180,000 copies a week for about $4.) Publishers, bookstores, and libraries know the medium, and know how to market the books.
However, there hasn’t been a visible comics community until recently. Germany is overshadowed by France and Belgium, there are few comics published in newspapers or magazines, and European fandom in general is low-key. This all changed with the east-west invasion of the millennium, as the American beachhead of Marvel and DC was bolstered by the influx of literary comics. From Japan came the manga/anime tsunami, and like America, young comics readers were quickly seduced.
Today, there is a strong community of German comics creators producing stellar work, and finding success overseas. (Baby’s In Black and Ulli Lust being two recent examples.) There are enough comics events in Germany to support a cosplay tournament (Erlangen hosts a preliminary round, with the finals at the Frankfurt Book Fair!) Not only do Ehapa and Carlsen import popular comics from America and Asia, but smaller presses also translate literary comics from the U. S. (Charles Burns was one of the few American guests at this year’s show).
I attended the show in 1994, and was quite fortunate that this was my first comic con experience. (When I lived in Omaha, the local shows were science-fiction conventions, with a bit of comics thrown in to entice fans.)
as a German, I dont know most of the stuff they are mentioning; most comics here are strictly on the funny sidde of the spectrum, and some of that stuff is absolutely great. Very idiomatic though, so it probably does not translate very well ( Fil, Walter Moers ). Ralf Koenig , however , is a riot and should absolutely translate. If you can, check him out.
Thank you very much for covering this news (to be frank, I’m working for a publisher which is very happy to represent one of the Max & Moritz Award winning titles). Just one curious question: Why is “the German comics scene … about ten years behind” the US “in development”?
I know, I know – in many other countries, the market, publications etc. are more developed than the German comics market – but to extend this to the whole “scene” (!?) would be exaggerated, to my mind.
Herr Schwarz:
Yes, I referred to comics publishing. I know German fans are just as fanatical as Americans… more so when one realizes that many German fans buy and read the American editions instead of waiting for the licensed translations! (I only did this when Micky Maus Magazin serialized “The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck”!)
While manga is as developed as the American market (and probably even more robust, given the original manga works being created in Germany), I don’t see the wide selection of titles that I find in the U.S. or Montreal. Of course, there are more readers of English and French than of German, so I might be biased in that regards.
Granted, it’s been a few years since I last visited Hannover, and I don’t surf Der Spiegel or the comics boards, so it’s possible that it might be only five years behind. ;) The art schools in Germany are more accepting of comics, especially as a critical medium (thanks to Wilhelm Busch).
I do want to see more German imports into the U.S.! (Especially Carlsen’s Haarmann!)
The above list has many titles that make me curious. We’ll see what appears at the Sondermanns and DCP in October. (And with Finland as the guest, I hope to see more great comics from Europe!)
Mr Adair,
thanks for the quick response. Indeed, a lot has happened in German comics publishing in the last 5-10 years. I’m afraid I haven’t been to US comics festivals (snif), so I cannot really compare – but at least we never had such a big variety of quality comics by German-speaking authors and artists like nowadays. Many indie / small publishers’ titles are not present at book stores though, so lack of book distribution power (or: lack of interest of book sellers) is an issue here, I think. If you visit Germany sometime, I’d recommend check out comic shops and please don’t miss out on the next Comic-Salon in Erlangen in 2016. :-) The Sondermann Award is history though, as is the comics centre at Frankfurt Book Fair, unfortunately.