| German comics | |
|---|---|
| Earliest publications | Mid-1930s |
| Publishers | Carlsen Egmont Panini Blue Ocean Splitter |
| Publications | Mosaik Kleines Arschloch Der bewegte Mann |
| Creators | Lyonel Feininger e.o.plauen Hansrudi Wäscher Hannes Hegen Brösel |
| Series | "Vater und Sohn" "Nick Knatterton" "Werner" "Fix and Foxi" |
| Languages | German |
| Related articles | |
| Dutch comics Hungarian comics Czech comics | |
German comics arecomics written in theGerman language or by German-speaking creators, for the major comic markets inGermany,Austria, andSwitzerland, with spill-overs into the neighboring, but lesser, comic markets ofLiechtenstein,Luxembourg andGerman-speaking Belgium.
The market for comics in German language is not as large or strong in sales as in most otherEuropean countries: comics account for only approximately 3% of printed matter in Germany. The main publishers of original material are Schwarzer Turm, Weissblech Comics, Gringo Comics, and Zwerchfell Verlag.
On the othe hand, there continues to be a large presence of translated material in the German language market.Panini Comics holds licensing agreements to publish translatedMarvel andDC Comics, among other things. Other comic publishers of licensed versions of foreign language material, particularly those fromFranco-Belgian origin (which started to become a major force on theGermancomics scene from the late-1960s onward, presently eclipsing native productions), includeEgmont Ehapa,Carlsen Comics,Splitter [de] and others.
The German comic has many early forerunners. In the 19th century, satire publications likeSimplicissimus andFliegende Blätter featured many caricatures that became internationally well-known. At around the same time,Rodolphe Töpffer (Switzerland) andWilhelm Busch (Germany) published manycomic strips. They are now generally recognized as pioneers of the comic form, predating the development of theAmerican comic strip. German born and influenced artistsRudolph Dirks andLyonel Feininger brought the innovations to American Sunday papers.
For most of the post-World War II 20th century, the German-speaking comic market was dominated by translated importations likeThe Adventures of Tintin (German:Tim und Struppi),Asterix, andMicky Maus. Notable German comic translators areErika Fuchs (Micky Maus),Gudrun Penndorf [de] (Asterix) andHerbert Feuerstein (Mad). Towards the end of the century, superheroes, manga, andCalvin and Hobbes began to have a large presence in the translated comic market. However, there were some successful German creations during this time.
Between 1934 and 1937, the comic stripVater und Sohn ("Father and Son") appeared in the weekly illustrated magazineBerliner Illustrirte Zeitung. It was one of the most popular German strips of all time. It was created byErich Ohser, under the pseudonyme.o.plauen (which stands for "Erich Ohser fromPlauen" and was adopted by him after being blacklisted by theNazis for his political cartoons).
Comic books were not published inNazi Germany because such literature was banned under theNazi party.[1] The reaction of theSS towards the comic book characterSuperman was negative because the creator of Superman wasJewish, even though they regarded themselves as the primary representatives of themaster race and were themselves trying to create asuper race:
Jerry Siegel is a fellow who is intellectually and physically circumcised and has his headquarters in New York. He invented a colorful character that boasts a striking appearance, a strong body, and a red swim suit. ... The creative Israelite named this pleasing character with an overdeveloped body and underdeveloped brain 'Superman.'
— from the SS magazineDas Schwarze Korps (April 25, 1940)[2][3]
In post-war (the 1950s and 1960s) West Germany, comic books and strips were largely inspired by American models. Comic books for children and young people were developed, such asRolf Kauka'sFix and Foxi and adventure comics likeSigurd andNick byHansrudi Wäscher. After 1960 the West German publishers commissioned foreign artists and studios.Bessy was a Belgian production for the German market,Wendy [de] was produced in Britain, andGespenster Geschichten was drawn by Spanish artists. Despite dubious art quality and increasing resistance from educators, these comics were very popular.
Of somewhat better quality were the comics in weekly news magazines. In the 1950s, the seriesNick Knatterton by Manfred Schmidt was published in the news magazineQuick. The detective story strip was inspired by Schmidt's dislike ofSuperman, and was in part intended as a parody. The news magazineStern had several comics:Reinhold das Nashorn [de] (byLoriot),Der kleine Herr Jakob [de] (byHans Jürgen Press),Jimmy das Gummipferd andTaró. Since 1953 the television magazineHörzu has a long-running comic with the hedgehogMecki. Germany has also popular advertising comic books likeLurchi,Max und Luzie,Mike der Taschengeldexperte, andKnax.
Comics in East Germany were less various in comparison with those in the west, but were more consistently of high quality. The most prominent publication wasMosaik, in whichHannes Hegen chronicled the adventures of the Digedags. When Hegen left in 1975, he took the characters with him.Mosaik continued without him and the characters were replaced by the Abrafaxe. The comic magazineAtze presented complete short stories with political contents, often depicting everyday life in the GDR, the history of the workers' movement or the communist anti-fascist resistance movement. More popular were the continuing stories of the two miceFix und Fax (not to be confused withKauka's Fix and Foxi) that bookended every issue ofAtze.[4]
The first successful German-language comic strip with speech balloons was 1927 the Austrian daily stripTobias Seicherl inDas Kleine Blatt.
Popular German-language comics in Switzerland areGlobi andPapa Moll.
Until the beginning of the 1980s, German comics remained to a large extent limited to children's comics. Much as in the American comic scene, creators interested in making more sophisticated comics have had to battle the prejudice that comics are a medium that is only suitable for children.
Sometimes political cartoonists from satirical magazines likePardon andTitanic tried the medium comics, presenting caricatures byChlodwig Poth [de],Volker Ernsting [de],F. K. Waechter,Robert Gernhardt,Marie Marcks, andHans Traxler [de]. Since the mid-1980s, German-speaking artists have been developingalternative and avant-garde comics. This development was led by figures such asGerhard Seyfried,Brösel, whose characterWerner captured the zeitgeist of young people in West Germany during the 1980s,Ralf König (Der bewegte Mann),Walter Moers (Kleines Arschloch); andMatthias Schultheiss, who gained international acclaim, largely by working for French publications. An influential avant-garde comic magazine has been the SwissStrapazin [de] since 1984. Another alternative comics magazine isMoga Mobo, published since 1994.
In 2000,Comicforum debuted on the web and acted as a hub for German comic creators. In 2004, it was recognized by theInteressenverband Comic, describing it as a factor the German comic landscape can no longer be imagined without.[5]
On the occasion of the 2018 Erlangen Comic Salon, theGoethe-Institut that promotes German literature worldwide, published an overview on current German comic publications.[6]
The most prestigious comic award for German-language comic artists is theMax & Moritz Prize.
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