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© Unsplash Mika Laaksonen

A House with Many Windows - Comics & Graphic Novels from Germany

Current comics from Germany, Austria and Switzerland artfully tell of life crises, contemporary history and social challenges: They show the effects of historical events on people's lives. They analyze the relationship between the individual and their environment. And they find artistic images for the dramas of everyday life. Instead of fictional material, new German-language comic publications are increasingly focusing on factual themes, which are dealt with in the form of biographies, autobiographies, comic reportages or autofictional stories.

The current comic collection provides a comprehensive overview of the market. The 28 titles from different publishers not only show the whole range of topics, but also give a good impression of the different styles and approaches of the authors from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Single title

Scheiblettenkind Cover

My class always hovered over me

(Scheiblettenkind)

‘Cheese slice girl’, ‘dirty cow’, ‘chav’ – just a few of the names Eva Müller’s protagonist was called all the...

‘Cheese slice girl’, ‘dirty cow’, ‘chav’ – just a few of the names Eva Müller’s protagonist was called all the time by other children when she was younger. Slurs designed to exclude her and put her in her place because she wasn’t from a privileged background.In this autofictional graphic novel, she tells her own story and the story of her family. With clear, powerful, impressive images of astonishing aesthetic variety, she depicts her grandparents’ rural origins, her parents’ working-class milieu in West Germany, the experience of growing up uneducated and poor, social shame, the stench of deep-frying fat, her cheap clothes, her alienation from her origins and finally her emancipation as an artist – and the self-doubt that she still can’t shake off, no matter how successful she is.

Publisher:
Topic:
Graphic novel
ISBN:
978-3-518-47287-3
Author:
Eva Müller
Pages:
279
Price:
€ 28.00
Vatermilch 2 Cover

The Man on the Moon. Beneath the Surface (vol. 2)

(Vatermilch 2 - Unter der Oberfläche)

Munich, 1977: Rufus Himmelstoss is no more. As far as his family are concerned. And the police. And himself. Once...

Munich, 1977: Rufus Himmelstoss is no more. As far as his family are concerned. And the police. And himself. Once a cocksure blowhard, he’s now been living on the streets for two years, taking refuge in alcohol and sarcasm with equal elan. But Rufus realises he needs to get a move on if he wants to be a better father to his son from afar, as he’s experiencing alarming blackouts – and they’re growing more frequent and intense. Time to make a smart move …In the second instalment of his ‘groundbreaking comic’ (Andreas Platthaus, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), Uli Oesterle once again effortlessly combines narrative depth with fast-paced suspense and masterful dialogue.

Publisher:
Topic:
Graphic novel
ISBN:
978-3-551-71159-5
Author:
Uli Oesterle
Pages:
144
Price:
€ 25.00
Das Zeitraum Cover

The Time Pocket

(Der Zeitraum)

Seven days to submit a perfect composition, two children with minds of their own and a woman who won’t give...

Seven days to submit a perfect composition, two children with minds of their own and a woman who won’t give up. As a mother and artist, sometimes you just want a quiet minute to yourself. Raising two children by yourself in a tiny house is easier said than done. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a parallel world where time stands still and you can just be yourself?Lisa Frühbeis deftly contrasts the grey everyday world with a colourful, carefree dream world that every parent would undoubtedly love to escape to sometimes. But is perfection in every aspect of life actually a goal worth striving for?

Publisher:
Topic:
Graphic novel
ISBN:
978-3-551-71086-4
Author:
Lisa Frübeis
Pages:
144
Price:
€ 18.00
Diebe und Laien Cover

Thieves and Amateurs

(Diebe und Laien)

The interwoven stories of people on the fringes of society: Astrid, who discovers that she has been burgled. The police...

The interwoven stories of people on the fringes of society: Astrid, who discovers that she has been burgled. The police give her little hope of finding the culprit. She herself suspects the postman, observes him and finally breaks into his flat. The postman increasingly loses himself in his sexual relationship with Konrad, who repeatedly takes advantage of him until he can’t stand it any more. And then there is Matthias, his son from a failed marriage. A selfish bastard who is driven solely by his desire for a smartphone. Why not just steal the things you can’t afford? Franz Suess tells his stories in a bizarre and eccentric, mischievous and exciting way and presents his protagonists with a great deal of affection.

Publisher:
Topic:
Graphic novel
ISBN:
978-3-96445-076-0
Author:
Franz Suess
Pages:
378
Price:
€ 29.00
Coming of H Cover

Coming of H

(Coming of H)

Back in the late 1990s, Hamed is growing up in a provincial town in west Germany. Alternating between skating in...

Back in the late 1990s, Hamed is growing up in a provincial town in west Germany. Alternating between skating in abandoned buildings, smoking spliffs, spraying graffiti and finishing school, he lurches towards graduation and adulthood. A provincial adolescence with all the trimmings: Hamed experiences his first love, works towards his future dream of being an illustrator and worries about his best friend, who after experimenting with various drugs has moved on to the notorious ‘H’. While all that is going on, Hamed barely notices how his family, who moved to Germany from Iran years before, is falling apart. A sensitively told story about immigration and different generations, about coming to Germany and experiencing failure there.

Publisher:
Topic:
Graphic novel
ISBN:
978-3-96445-079-1
Author:
Hamed Eshrat
Pages:
176
Price:
€ 26.00
Gerne würdest du allen so viel sagen Cover

You Would Like to Tell Everyone Everything

(Gerne würdest du allen so viel sagen - Unterbrochene Gespräche des 20. Jahrhunderts)

You Would Like to Tell Everyone Everything presents sixteen documentary comic stories by some of Berlin’s top artists. The stories...

You Would Like to Tell Everyone Everything presents sixteen documentary comic stories by some of Berlin’s top artists. The stories range from seminal events of twentieth-century history to the current challenges facing democracy.The collection is divided into three strands. Firstly, personal stories of war and displacement that have been handed down the generations. Secondly, stories where authors offer insights into biographical experiences. And thirdly, ones that share contemporary observations in the context of remembering. Through these stories, the book holds up a mirror to the twentieth century.

Publisher:
ISBN:
978-3-96445-075-3
Author:
Monika Powalisz, Kai Pfeiffer (Ed.)
Pages:
320
Price:
€ 28.00
Unter rotem Staub Cover

Under Red Dust

(Unter rotem Staub)

Under Red Dust is a work of in-depth, first-hand reportage that uses the medium of a comic book to reveal...

Under Red Dust is a work of in-depth, first-hand reportage that uses the medium of a comic book to reveal things that would otherwise be lost between the lines. When an Aboriginal friend dies in police custody, Jan Bauer looks into the background behind the incident and makes some astonishing discoveries. The deeper he delves into the past and the more he learns about Warlpiri culture, the more clearly a history of oppression and violence comes into view – a history that stretches from hunter-gatherer times to the present day, and far beyond it into the timeless, mythological dimension of the Dreamtime. 

Publisher:
ISBN:
978-3-96445-085-2
Author:
Jan Bauer
Pages:
256
Price:
€ 26.00
Das Schimmern der See Cover

The shimmering Sea

(Das Schimmern der See)

It’s the summer of 2021. Photographer Adrian Pourviseh has just set off from Sicily on his first mission aboard the...

It’s the summer of 2021. Photographer Adrian Pourviseh has just set off from Sicily on his first mission aboard the Sea-Watch 3. His job is to document the rescue of refugees in the Mediterranean. When the rescue crew arrive in international waters, they find a wooden boat with over 400 passengers that is taking on water. Then they receive a message from the Libyan coastguard threatening to detain them unless the rescue ship turns around. The coastguards, supported by the EU, are determined to take the refugees back to Libya. And so an absurd chase ensues … 

Publisher:
Topic:
Graphic novel
ISBN:
978-3-96445-100-2
Author:
Adrian Purviseh
Pages:
224
Price:
€ 26.00
Rude girl Cover

Rude Girl

(Rude Girl)

We can go anywhere, work anywhere, live anywhere – just as long as we have the right skin colour, the...

We can go anywhere, work anywhere, live anywhere – just as long as we have the right skin colour, the right education and, most important of all, the right passport. While teaching at a US college as part of an exchange programme, Birgit Weyhe is accused of cultural appropriation: is she exploiting her privilege as a white author when she tells stories about Black people? Birgit gets to know Priscilla Layne, an African American professor of German studies with Caribbean roots, who in her youth joined the skinhead movement and became a ‘rude girl’. How ought Birgit to tell a life story like that? In this biography, that question becomes a narrative level in its own right. Nominated for the 2023 Leipzig Book Fair Prize.

Publisher:
Topic:
Graphic novel
ISBN:
978-3-96445-068-5
Author:
Birgit Weyhe
Pages:
312
Price:
€ 26.00
Kiela und das letzte Geleit Cover

Kiela and the Last Voyage

(Kiela und das letzte Geleit)

Can death be overcome? Kiela’s brother Quin died very young from a heart condition, and she is struggling to come...

Can death be overcome? Kiela’s brother Quin died very young from a heart condition, and she is struggling to come to terms with it. It is little consolation that Quin (like Kiela herself) had signed a contract with Helsheim, a company that guarantees its customers safe passage to the afterlife.One day, a thought crosses Kiela’s mind: could Helsheim make contact with the realm of the dead and help her to see Quin one last time? Soon after, she meets a boy at her school wearing a Helsheim uniform. That encounter paves the way for an incredible adventure …

Publisher:
Topic:
Graphic novel
ISBN:
978-3-7539-0955-4
Author:
Sozan Coskun
Pages:
196
Price:
€ 10.00
Melek + ich

Melek + me

(Melek + ich)

Nici is a scientist who likes to get drunk in the bar next door. She secretly builds Melek, a body...

Nici is a scientist who likes to get drunk in the bar next door. She secretly builds Melek, a body she can use to travel to parallel dimensions. In one of these dimensions, she meets Nici – herself – in Melek’s body and begins a relationship with her.In a debut work that blends romance, sci-fi and character drama, Lina Ehrentraut transports us to a parallel world where everything seems effortlessly possible: dual identities, queer relationships, self-love. But for how long? Ehrentraut’s black and white comic sequences and colourfully painted illustrations skilfully guide readers through the various narrative levels.2022 Max & Moritz Awards: best German-language debut comic

Publisher:
Topic:
Graphic novel
ISBN:
978-3-03731-215-5
Author:
Lina Ehrentraut
Pages:
240
Price:
€ 25.00
Die Tänzerin des König Cover

Dancing for the King

(Die Tänzerin des Königs)

Princess Violet is descended from an ancient line of dragons and lives with her family in the kingdom of Asteria....

Princess Violet is descended from an ancient line of dragons and lives with her family in the kingdom of Asteria. When they are attacked, Violet and her handmaid are forced to flee. Their path takes them to Nordra, a land ruled by Kane Varian: an unpredictable young king who detests dragons …

Publisher:
Topic:
Graphic novel
ISBN:
978-3-7539-0584-6
Author:
Jenny Liz, Sabrina Steinert
Pages:
172
Price:
€ 7.00
Heinrich Heine eine Lebensfahrt Cover

Heinrich Heine - A journey through life

(Heinrich Heine - Eine Lebensfahrt)

‘It was in the dreary month of November, The gloomy days grew shorter, The wind tore the foliage off the trees, As I...

‘It was in the dreary month of November, The gloomy days grew shorter, The wind tore the foliage off the trees, As I approached the German border.’So begins Heinrich Heine’s most famous work, Germany: A Winter’s Tale. Artfully interweaving poetry, prose and journalism, Heine speaks about themes of social, philosophical and personal significance: flight, exile, censorship, nationalism, Europe, love, beauty, nature, fairy tales. Heine is regarded as both the most modern and the most controversial author in the German literary canon. Gaby von Borstel and Peter Eickmeyer have created a visual world to match his mastery of the written word.

Publisher:
Topic:
Graphic novel
ISBN:
978-3-95839-452-0
Author:
Gabi von Borstel
Illustrator:
Peter Eickmeyer
Pages:
64
Price:
€ 18.00
Verdammter Handschlag Cover

A doomed handshake

(Ein verdammter Handschlag)

What would you do if a stranger offered you 6,000 euros for a handshake? Luca doesn’t have to think long,...

What would you do if a stranger offered you 6,000 euros for a handshake? Luca doesn’t have to think long, because he could really use the money: he’s broke, he’s been chucked out of his flat by his quarrelsome ex and he’s in debt to a dangerous pair of gangsters. Luca enthusiastically agrees, but that’s just a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire: Benedikt Bosch wants Luca’s soul in exchange for the money. The black wizard has sold his own soul to the demon Faffnir in exchange for good fortune and endless success. But because the deal is transferable, Bosch is off the hook if he can find someone stupid enough to take his place. Now Luca has to quickly find someone else to take on the deal, because the countdown is on – he only has 24 hours left!

Publisher:
Topic:
Graphic novel
ISBN:
978-3-95839-462-9
Author:
Matze Ross
Illustrator:
Jan Bintakies
Pages:
168
Price:
€ 25.00
Games cover

Games - On the trail of Afghan refugees

(Games - Auf den Spuren der Flüchtenden aus Afghanistan)

Five fates – one story. A young woman and four young men from crisis-hit Afghanistan share their experiences of fleeing...

Five fates – one story. A young woman and four young men from crisis-hit Afghanistan share their experiences of fleeing to Europe: the dangers they endured, the decisions they had to make – and why they never turned back. They also talk about their lives back home: forced marriages, the violence of the Taliban, what it’s like to be part of a family of smugglers and then encounter the other side of the business as a refugee.An exciting, visually powerful non-fiction comic based on interviews, with explanatory texts and infographics to provide context and additional information. 

Publisher:
Topic:
Graphic novel
ISBN:
978-3-98721-253-6
Author:
Patrick Oberholzer
Pages:
96
Price:
€ 22.00
Schattenspiel Cover

A game of shadows

(Schattenspiel)

Karlotta’s day-to-day life changes abruptly when the summer holidays are over. At night, she enters a dream world where she...

Karlotta’s day-to-day life changes abruptly when the summer holidays are over. At night, she enters a dream world where she is called Charlotte and leads a life of adventure. Karlotta has had enough of her monotonous life and wants to be Charlotte in her very ordinary world too. It eventually gets to the point where she no longer knows who she is.Luise Mirdita’s powerfully illustrated debut work tells a story of searching for identity and fleeing from reality. It encourages us to see the good things in ourselves and to have a healthy relationship with role models.

Publisher:
Topic:
Graphic novel
ISBN:
978-3-910648-02-9
Author:
Luise Mirdita
Pages:
296
Price:
€ 22.00
Memento Mori Cover

Memento Mori

(Memento Mori)

Romi is sceptical when her friend gives her a ticket to the Memento Mori circus. The main attraction is apparently...

Romi is sceptical when her friend gives her a ticket to the Memento Mori circus. The main attraction is apparently an artist who leaps from the high wire to deadly depths each evening.But Romi’s visit to the circus is different from what she expects. The show is dominated by morbid figures and attractions. She feels mysteriously drawn to Auris the clown, and the two of them soon turn out to have more in common than she’d ever have thought possible.A coming-of-age story that blends dark romance and fairy tale, with a dash of Tim Burton.

Publisher:
Topic:
Graphic novel
ISBN:
978-3-910648-03-6
Author:
Julia Schlax
Pages:
220
Price:
€ 14.00
Abba Hallo ! cover

Abba Hallo!

(Abba Hallo!)

Konrad and Paul are trying to get through the second winter of the Covid pandemic, still wearing masks, but feeling...

Konrad and Paul are trying to get through the second winter of the Covid pandemic, still wearing masks, but feeling more and more impatient to go out partying, have fun and listen to the new album by ABBA. Aside from the pandemic, however, they also have other worries. That’s hardly surprising these days. But after decades of seemingly peaceful, problem-free coexistence, these two very different characters suddenly – and with good reason – start to ask themselves a frightening question: what if their love has run its course?Nominated for the 2023 PENG! – Munich Comic Award.

Publisher:
Topic:
Graphic novel
ISBN:
978-3-498-00347-0
Author:
Ralf König
Pages:
192
Price:
€ 25.00
Die Farbe der Erinnerung Cover

Emmie Arbel - The Color of Memory

(Emmie Arbel - Die Farbe der Erinnerung)

In 1942, Emmie Arbel (who was born in The Hague in 1937) and her Jewish family are deported by the...

In 1942, Emmie Arbel (who was born in The Hague in 1937) and her Jewish family are deported by the Nazis. As a child, she survives the Ravensbrück and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. She is eight when the war ends. Her parents and grandparents have been murdered in the Holocaust.Emmie is adopted by a foster family, who in 1949 emigrate to Israel. In the kibbutz, she feels isolated and out of place – until, as a young woman, she takes her life into her own hands.Today, Emmie Arbel lives near Haifa. She often travels to Germany to talk about her first-hand experiences of the Nazi atrocities. Based on many in-person meetings and in-depth conversations, Barbara Yelin has created a powerful work of biography and memory.

Publisher:
Topic:
Graphic novel
ISBN:
978-3-95640-396-5
Author:
Barbara Yelin
Pages:
192
Price:
€ 29.00
Genossin Kuckuck Cover

Comrade Cuckoo

(Genossin Kuckuck)

Comrade Cuckoo is a graphic novel that blends fantasy and autobiography. The story spans from a 1960s childhood in the...

Comrade Cuckoo is a graphic novel that blends fantasy and autobiography. The story spans from a 1960s childhood in the village of Pritschitanow up to the privatisation of state-owned assets and industries in the 1990s. Kerstin arrives too late: her grandmother has already been buried and the photo album she was promised is nowhere to be found. She can no longer get away from the old village school where her grandmother taught Russian and Kerstin herself grew up. Kerstin is pestered by Effi about an unfulfilled promise. Meanwhile, Sternemann and Greiff, who have returned to the village intent on revenge, discover who really had them put in the home back then.

Publisher:
Topic:
Graphic novel
ISBN:
978-3-95640-346-0
Author:
Anke Feuchtenberger
Pages:
448
Price:
€ 44.00

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