German comics
Encyclopedia
German comics are comics
written in the German language
or by German speaking creators, for the comic markets in Germany
, Austria
and Switzerland
.
The German language comic market is not as large or strong in sales as in most other European 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.
There continues to be a large presence of translated material in the German language market. Panini Comics
holds licensing agreements to publish translated Marvel
and DC Comics
, among other things. Other comic publishers of licensed versions of foreign language material include Ehapa, Carlsen Comics
, and others.
(Switzerland) and Wilhelm Busch
(Germany) published many comic strip
s. They are now generally recognized as pioneers of the comic form, predating the development of the American
comic strip. German born and influenced artists Rudolph Dirks
and Lyonel 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 like The Adventures of Tintin
(German: Tim und Struppi), Asterix
, and Donald Duck
. Towards the end of the century, superheroes, manga, and Calvin 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 silent comic strip Vater und Sohn (Father and Son) appeared in newspapers. It was one of the most popular German strips of all time. It was created by Erich Ohser, under the pseudonym e.o. plauen
(which stands for erich ohser from plauen and was adopted by him after being blacklisted by the Nazis for his political cartoons).
Comic books never began to be published in Nazi Germany
because such literature was banned under the Nazi party “Smut and Trash” decree of 4 February 1933. The reaction of the SS towards the comic book character Superman
was negative because the creator of Superman was Jewish, even though they regarded themselves as the primary representatives of the master race
and were themselves trying to create a super 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 magazine Das Schwarze Korps
- April 25, 1940
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 as Sigurd by Hansrudi Wäscher (the complete works of Hansrudi Wäscher and new stories of Sigurd are published by Norbert Hethke). Despite dubious art quality and increasing resistance from educators, these comics were read in great quantities. Of somewhat better quality was the serial Jimmy das Gummipferd, which appeared for 25 years (beginning in 1953) in the magazine Stern.
In the 1950s, the series Nick Knatterton
by Manfred Schmidt was published. The detective story strip was inspired by Schmidt's dislike of Superman
, and was in part intended as a parody.
Comics in East Germany were less various in comparison to the west, but were more consistently of high quality. The most prominent publication was Mosaik
, in which Hannes 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 magazine Atze 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 mice Fix und Fax that bookended every issue of Atze
Up to the beginning of the 1980s, German comics remained to a large extant limited to children's comics (such as Rolf Kauka
's Fix and Foxi
- not to be confused with Atze's Fix und Fax) and what few works were produced for older readers were generally formulaic. However, there are examples of exceptional children's comics, such as Walter Moers
' Captain Bluebear and Kleines Arschloch. Much like 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.
Since the mid 1980s, German speaking artists have been developing alternative and avant garde comics. This development was led by figures such as Brösel, whose character Werner
captured the zeitgeist of young people in West Germany during the 1980s; Ralf König
(Der bewegte Mann); or Matthias Schultheiss, who gained international acclaim (largely by working in the French market).
Comics
Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...
written in the German language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
or by German speaking creators, for the comic markets in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
and Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
.
The German language comic market is not as large or strong in sales as in most other European 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.
There continues to be a large presence of translated material in the German language market. Panini Comics
Panini Comics
Panini Comics is an Italian comic book publisher. A division of Panini Group, best known for their collectible stickers, it is headquartered in Modena, Italy...
holds licensing agreements to publish translated Marvel
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
and DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
, among other things. Other comic publishers of licensed versions of foreign language material include Ehapa, Carlsen Comics
Carlsen Verlag
Carlsen Verlag is a subsidiary of the homonymous Danish publishing house which in turn belongs to the Swedish media company Bonnier. The branch was founded on 25 April 1953 in Hamburg. The publisher's program focuses on books for children Carlsen Verlag is a subsidiary of the homonymous Danish...
, and others.
History
The German comic has many early forerunners. In the 19th century, the satire publication Simplicissimus featured many caricatures which became internationally well-known. At around the same time, Rodolphe TöpfferRodolphe Töpffer
Rodolphe Töpffer was a Swiss teacher, author, painter, cartoonist, and caricature artist. He is also considered to be the first modern comic creator.- Biography :...
(Switzerland) and Wilhelm Busch
Wilhelm Busch
Wilhelm Busch was an influential German caricaturist, painter, and poet who is famed for his satirical picture stories with rhymed texts....
(Germany) published many comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
s. They are now generally recognized as pioneers of the comic form, predating the development of the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comic strip. German born and influenced artists Rudolph Dirks
Rudolph Dirks
Rudolph Dirks was one of the earliest and most noted comic strip artists....
and Lyonel Feininger
Lyonel Feininger
Lyonel Charles Feininger was a German-American painter, and a leading exponent of Expressionism. He also worked as a caricaturist and comic strip artist.-Life and work:...
brought the innovations to American Sunday papers.
For most of the post-World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
20th century, the German speaking comic market was dominated by translated importations like The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin is a series of classic comic books created by Belgian artist , who wrote under the pen name of Hergé...
(German: Tim und Struppi), Asterix
Asterix
Asterix or The Adventures of Asterix is a series of French comic books written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo . The series first appeared in French in the magazine Pilote on October 29, 1959...
, and Donald Duck
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie. Donald is most...
. Towards the end of the century, superheroes, manga, and Calvin and Hobbes
Calvin and Hobbes
Calvin and Hobbes is a syndicated daily comic strip that was written and illustrated by American cartoonist Bill Watterson, and syndicated from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995. It follows the humorous antics of Calvin, a precocious and adventurous six-year-old boy, and Hobbes, his...
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 silent comic strip Vater und Sohn (Father and Son) appeared in newspapers. It was one of the most popular German strips of all time. It was created by Erich Ohser, under the pseudonym e.o. plauen
E.O. Plauen
E. O. Plauen was the pseudonym of Erich Ohser , a German cartoonist best known for his strip Vater und Sohn .-Life and work:...
(which stands for erich ohser from plauen and was adopted by him after being blacklisted by the Nazis for his political cartoons).
Comic books never began to be published in Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
because such literature was banned under the Nazi party “Smut and Trash” decree of 4 February 1933. The reaction of the SS towards the comic book character Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
was negative because the creator of Superman was Jewish, even though they regarded themselves as the primary representatives of the master race
Master race
Master race was a phrase and concept originating in the slave-holding Southern US. The later phrase Herrenvolk , interpreted as 'master race', was a concept in Nazi ideology in which the Nordic peoples, one of the branches of what in the late-19th and early-20th century was called the Aryan race,...
and were themselves trying to create a super race
Super race
A super race is a future race of improved humans that it is proposed be created from present day human beings by deploying various means such as eugenics, genetic engineering, yoga, or nanotechnology and brain-computer interfacing to accelerate the process of human evolution.-Aryan super race:The...
: "Jerry Siegel
Jerry Siegel
Jerome "Jerry" Siegel , who also used pseudonyms including Joe Carter, Jerry Ess, and Herbert S...
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 magazine Das Schwarze Korps
Das Schwarze Korps
Das Schwarze Korps was the official newspaper of the Schutzstaffel . This newspaper was published on Wednesdays and distributed free of charge. Each SS member was supposed to read the publication and urge others to do so as well...
- April 25, 1940
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 as Sigurd by Hansrudi Wäscher (the complete works of Hansrudi Wäscher and new stories of Sigurd are published by Norbert Hethke). Despite dubious art quality and increasing resistance from educators, these comics were read in great quantities. Of somewhat better quality was the serial Jimmy das Gummipferd, which appeared for 25 years (beginning in 1953) in the magazine Stern.
In the 1950s, the series Nick Knatterton
Nick Knatterton
Nick Knatterton is a German comic strip character, drawn by Manfred Schmidt from 1950 to 1959. The name is alluding to Nick Carter and Nat Pinkerton...
by Manfred Schmidt was published. The detective story strip was inspired by Schmidt's dislike of Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
, and was in part intended as a parody.
Comics in East Germany were less various in comparison to the west, but were more consistently of high quality. The most prominent publication was Mosaik
Mosaik
Mosaik is a German comic book. First published in December 1955, it is the longest-running German monthly comic book and the only one originating in East Germany that still exists. Mosaik also appeared in other countries and other languages...
, in which Hannes Hegen
Hannes Hegen
Hannes Hegen is a German illustrator and caricaturist and is most famous for creating the East German comic book Mosaik and its original protagonists, the Digedags.He studied at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and at the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig...
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 magazine Atze 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 mice Fix und Fax that bookended every issue of Atze
Up to the beginning of the 1980s, German comics remained to a large extant limited to children's comics (such as Rolf Kauka
Rolf Kauka
Rolf Kauka was a comic artist, most famous for the series Fix and Foxi....
's Fix and Foxi
Fix and Foxi
Fix und Foxi, created by the comic book editor Rolf Kauka, is the most successful and best known German comic series. The weekly magazine, taking its name from the two fox protagonists, was published for more than 40 years between 1953 and 1994...
- not to be confused with Atze's Fix und Fax) and what few works were produced for older readers were generally formulaic. However, there are examples of exceptional children's comics, such as Walter Moers
Walter Moers
Walter Moers is one of the best-known and commercially most successful German comic creators and authors.-Life and work:...
' Captain Bluebear and Kleines Arschloch. Much like 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.
Since the mid 1980s, German speaking artists have been developing alternative and avant garde comics. This development was led by figures such as Brösel, whose character Werner
Werner (comics)
Werner is a fictional character, appearing in a number of German comic books and animated films. He was created by Brösel . Werner is the most successful German comic character of all time with over 10 million books sold and over 13 million film admissions...
captured the zeitgeist of young people in West Germany during the 1980s; Ralf König
Ralf König
Ralf König is one of the best known and most commercially successful German comic book creators. His books have been translated into many languages...
(Der bewegte Mann); or Matthias Schultheiss, who gained international acclaim (largely by working in the French market).
See also
- List of German comic books
- List of comic creators#Germany
External links
- German comics page by the Goethe-InstitutGoethe-InstitutThe Goethe-Institut is a non-profit German cultural institution operational worldwide, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange and relations. The Goethe-Institut also fosters knowledge about Germany by providing information on German...
- Complete list of comic strips printed in German newspapers 2007 (German language)
- Webcomic-Verzeichnis List of German language webcomicWebcomicWebcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....
s