Comics, that document and explain (Portfolio)

Was sind das für Comics

Comics are able to document experiences or scientific processes. The Combination of text and visuals makes history emotionally tangible or knowledge accessible. It is possible to draw people in even with supposedly dry subjects. The comics are drawn with analog methods, digital one or a mixture of both. Urban Sketching, classic storytelling and theoretical analysis interlink to somenthing new.

My comics are often published in English and German at the same time. Most comics are are accessible to screen readers adding a text based version to the visual version of the comic. Please use the contact form at the bottom of the page to inquire for commissions and contract work.

Biography of Lili Fürst

graphic short story (German) for the exhibition “Kinderemigration aus Frankfurt am Main – Child emigration from Frankfurt am Main” at Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, biography/history/psychology/journalism, published 01.09.2021. Excerpt from the comic colored in black, white and petrol with pink accents. View over the skyline of a maritime city without sky scrapers. Somebody calls: Oh, der Hafen von Trelleborg, bald sind wir in Malmö. A child surrounded by a large group of other children at the train station. The child in detail with a white suitcase in their hand and all the others just sketched. There are pink circles symbolically draw on the belly of the child. In the foreground a steam engine of a train and in the background a big sign saying: Utgång. A grown-up person reads from a list, only some words can be understood: Martin Lempert … ?. At the side a couple, one with a black hat and one with a white coat. In another panel, the couple walks up a flight of stairs with the child following them. They talk and only the words Lili and Malmö are written out in the speechbubbles. There are again symbolic pink circles on the belly of the child.

Minicomics Series – 22 Plastic Plankton

Das Minicomic “Plastic Plankton” links biolgoy and chemistry to socially relevant topic of pollution of the environment. In the minicomics series, short explanatory comics have been published regularly since 2010. The can be read as one-pager online or on paper to leaf through in selected book shops. Excerpt from the comic. A seagull dives into the ocean to catch a fish. Enlarged the outlines of different kind of plankton are displayed. Plankton has been in the ocean millions of years. It is tiny, moves little, and is propelled by ocean currents. Virioplankton, a virus with a hexagonal head and a long shaft is shown. A marker indicates a size of 0,01 micrometers. Bakterioplankton, an elongated bacterium displayed with its cell nucleus and cell details. A marker indicates one micrometer. Phytoplankton, a roundish plankton body with a sharp tip and two little whips is displayed. A marker indicates 50 micrometers. Zooplankton, a little crab with long tentacles is displayed. A marker indicates 50 micrometers. In a vertical cross section through the ocean different animals and marine life forms are connected to a food chain network. At the ocean surface a ship with huge containers passes by and above the seagull. Plastic has been part of life on earth for more than 100 years and has been integrated into long and branched food chains. In the ocean it accumulates pollutants. It is overgrown and eaten.

Diverser Lesen

Header Image as a logo for the reading challenge #DiverserLesen, documenting diversity in readers and their diverse approaches of reading literature, pubulished am 01.09.2021. The logo for the challenge #DiverserLesen shows a group of people reading in different ways. The logo was created by Illi Anna Heger as dark violet line art colored in different shades of brown and violet. In the middle above the group are the letters »div«, the symbol for an acoustic signal and in German short Braille the word »lesen«, meaning reading, written with the Braille letters »l % c«. The group of people described from left to right: Two people of Color with short black hair. The grown up sits in an electrical wheel chair and navigates the attached screen with their eyes. The child next to them points with their finger to the screen. In front of them a black person reads a book cross-legged and has a hat on their long curly hair. Behind them a person of color reads on an electronic Braille reader on their knees. Their long hair is cut with bangs and on their sweater a Star of David in knitted in. Two black persons read a book together while lying on the floor. The grown up wears their curls short and has glasses. the child wears their hair in Afro-puffs. Two people of color hold hands and read a printed book together, one of them wears a hijab and the other her dark hear with an undercut. A white person with skirt and long blond hair reads a huge printed magazine. She leans a against a table where a white haired black person sits and reads Braille on paper. In front of the table lies a white person with bald head, beard, a genderqueer tattoo on their upper arm, with headphone and mobile in their hands. In front of them a three year old kid with overalls and an picture book in their hands. On the right, a black person with a short Afro, sitting in a manual wheel chair. Their mobile on their lab, the listen to a book on their headphone. At the far right, a white person with shoulder length hair and a blond beard, reading a zine. They are short of stature..

Herero Corner Waterbergstraße

graphic documentation, published 18.04.2021, first published in German for Literatur Portal Bayern, 15.10.2020. Excerpt from the comic. At Herero- corner of Waterbergstraße, I study the street sign at the intersection. I am reminded of the street map of Munich of 1935: von-Trotha-Straße crosses Waterbergstraße, which crosses von-Erckert-Straße, and Tangastraße, and Gorch-Foch-Straße, Niobestrasse, Taku-Fort-Straße, Samoastraße, Sansibarstraße, Windhukerstraße, Tsingtauerstraße, Togostraße, Iltisstraße and more. In 1933, Munich city council renames many streets. 26 of them celebrate colonial conquests. After World War 1 this is common practice. Ganghoferstraße is renamed von-Trotha-Straße. Since 2007 it is called Hererostraße. Waterbergstraße still honors the site of the encirclement battle.

Concerted Action Decolonize München

graphic recording of a concerted political art action in Munich, German town history/German colonial history, published 30.09.2020. Fineliner sketch with aquarell colorizing, two people with microphones in their hands next to an amplification set in front of a high wooden fence at Von-Erkert-Platz.

Queer Comic Conversations

Comic Dokumentation of a conversation as webcomic for Goethe-Institut Neuseeland, published Juli to Dezember 2020. The comic was developed in cooperation with Sam Orchard. We worked on almost all panels together, green for Sam in New Zealand, magenta for Illi in Germany. 3 panel comic excerpt: Illi and Sam are sitting amongst trees on a picnic blanket and continue their conversation. Sam: It's nice to have lots of spaces for different parts of who I am. Illi: We have this big trans meeting twice a year. People from all over the trans spectrum come together, because we dream of having a shared house. Sam takes crisps from a bag. In front of both of them are plates with fruit and a bottle labeled Soda. Sam: It is great to have spaces for all of us together and for specific groups. Illi: And then, there is chosen family. Illi and Sam are suddenly in open white space on some kind of grey rug. Sam: Yes! Let's talk about that next month!

Ist das diese Gerechtigkeit

comic documentation of a court case (German) for the so called NSU murders. The journalistic Comic is based on court case notes of the NGO NSU-Watch and the sketches that where done at court. 2 panel excerpt of the comic: Above two panels that are next to each other the time day in a little blue box: 12:00 and the text: Mittagspause und Zeit für die Verteidiger mit Zschäpe zu sprechen, die noch nichts von dem Ablehnungsgesuch weiß. In blue framed panel, Zschäpe and Grasel sit at the end of the dock in front of a lap top. The people are quickly sketched and their name annotated in blue boxes. At the other end of the dock sit Sturm, Heer and Stahl and discuss something. Above them the text: Beate Zschäpe, die Hauptangeklagte, hat eine Anwältin und vier Anwälte. Mit Borchert und Grasel spricht sie. Mit Sturm, Stahl und Heer hat sie seit Monaten nicht geredet. Die drei aus der Verteidigung zu entlassen wurde abgelehnt. In reddish brown framed panel, two people are speaking with each other in a stair case. The time in a reddish box says: 12:10. One person carrying a big sketch pad asks: Müssen wir jetzt alles mitnehmen? A blonde person with a tie and bit down from the first replies: Ja und nachher wird wieder durchleuchtet.

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