“Sola” begins with the narration of a dream in luminous shapes and colours: a house in which light shines in every corner, surrounded by a flowering garden – a utopian place of refuge, communal togetherness and a life in harmony with nature. But like in a moment of awakening, the harmonious ideal breaks against a reality that offers neither security nor confidence. It is a reality in which crises like climate change threaten the fragile balance of the environment and call the certainties of our everyday lives into question.

In her new book, Malwine Stauss uses radiant watercolours to create a deeply personal insight into an emotional world shaped by the tensions, fears and hopes of our present time. With multi-layered graphic compositions that are abstract and accessible at the same time, “Sola” offers an expressive visual language that invites us to pause for thought.

Loosely and yet meaningfully, Alice Socal describes the experiences of her pregnancies in an interplay of irony and perplexity. Combining text and image, she organizes her doubts, fears, expectations and wonders of this special time. In the leading roles: a cat as alter ego, a dog as boyfriend and a seal as the pregnancy itself.
“Wie lange noch” is documentary and reflection at the same time. The narrative in comic form proves to be the perfect medium, both for the humorous contemplation of personal insights and for the analysis of identity issues between desire and reality – as woman, partner, artist and mother-to-be.

Boris the Potato Child is the son of Aglaé, the former queen of the land of Marylène. Like a tyrant he rules over his household and his mother, whom he henceforth calls Bubble. Together with Sabine, a vengeful warrior French fry, he reforms the country’s military and self-government to further consolidate his authority. In peaceful Marylène, nothing will ever be the same again …

“Boris, das Kartoffelkind” delivers a bitter critique of our consumerist impulses and abuses, wrapped up in a dramatic story with extraordinary characters. Mixing world history, literature, and pop culture from the myths of classical antiquity to the Beatles and Simone de Beauvoir, Anne Simon has created in Marylène a world of abundant visual imagination.

Mina and her father live in a hollowed-out tree stump next to a pond on the edge of a forest. Mina lives in her own little world where nothing ever bothers her, until one day, her father brings home a suspicious surprise from the woods. Should Mina trust her father—or listen to her own instincts?

From the creator of the acclaimed and beloved picture book “Pokko and the Drum” comes an emotionally resonant story about trust, worry, and loyalty between a daughter and her father.

Translated from English by Rita Fürstenau.

One imagines that existence as a stone is rather cold and hard. Does a stone have feelings? Of course not! But far from it. Nadine Redlich shows us what nobody thinks is possible in her new book: stones have feelings. They are sensitive and soft contemporaries who like to be touched and sometimes get out of their skin. They mostly lie around stupidly, are often exposed to moods (of nature and their own), and although they are very old and think they have seen everything already, they surprise themselves again and again. Nadine Redlich’s stones soften and move, who would have thought?

Bob is a dedicated mail carrier. With his spaceship, he delivers letters and packages to every corner of the universe. In his latest adventure, our lone postman from space has to team-up with a new colleague Marcella, to deliver a single letter. What seems to be a simple task at first, soon turns into a chaotic journey from one end of the galaxy to the other. If that isn`t enough, someone else also casts an eye on the mysterious envelope and secretly starts to follow the two …
The exciting new volume of the comic series impresses with a humorous narrative style, imaginative worldbuilding and charming characters. Bob’s adventures are as harrowing as they are hilarious and come in reduced yet detailed drawings with plenty to discover.

Translated from French by Ulrich Pröfrock.

In Norse mythology, Heimdall is the guardian among the gods. He is not particularly brave, at least not as brave as his powerful brother Thor or his father, the all-knowing creator god Odin. But Heimdall has a gift: he sees everything, even his own eyebrows. That’s why it is his job to be vigilant. Day and night, he sits watching on the roof of Valhalla while everything goes its regular course: every day the warriors train in battle, every evening their wounds are healed and they can carouse together – Valhalla is a true warrior’s paradise. But soon they will join the gods in the final battle. When the great wolf eats the sun and thus ushers in Ragnarok, the end of the world, Heimdall will have to warn them all in time with his big horn. His eyes fixed on the sun, he waits and wanders off with his thoughts. What if he fails?

In striking black-and-white drawings, Max Baitinger takes up motifs and forms of the old Icelandic gods’ songs. Seen through the eyes of the brooding god Heimdall, the saga of the downfall of the world becomes a relatable and comical tale of human fears and doubts.

In Norse mythology, Heimdall is the guardian among the gods. He is not particularly brave, at least not as brave as his powerful brother Thor or his father, the all-knowing creator god Odin. But Heimdall has a gift: he sees everything, even his own eyebrows. That’s why it is his job to be vigilant. Day and night, he sits watching on the roof of Valhalla while everything goes its regular course: every day the warriors train in battle, every evening their wounds are healed and they can carouse together – Valhalla is a true warrior’s paradise. But soon they will join the gods in the final battle. When the great wolf eats the sun and thus ushers in Ragnarok, the end of the world, Heimdall will have to warn them all in time with his big horn. His eyes fixed on the sun, he waits and wanders off with his thoughts.

In striking black-and-white drawings, Max Baitinger takes up motifs and forms of the old Icelandic gods’ songs. Seen through the eyes of the brooding god Heimdall, the saga of the downfall of the world becomes a relatable and comical tale of human fears and doubts.

Dinner is served! The students of the class for Illustration & Comics at the Kunsthochschule Kassel are offering a diverse menu of comics, cartoons and illustrations. There is something for every taste: from stories about unusual everyday encounters to poetic animal fables and maritime eroticism.

The student anthology “Triebwerk” is published for the tenth time this year. It features a varied selection of comics and illustrations, created in the previous semesters in the class for
Illustration & Comics at the Kunsthochschule Kassel with Professor Hendrik Dorgathen and LfbA Robert Deutsch and Klara Charlotte Zeitz. Students with different personal backgrounds, working methods and freely chosen contents have contributed to this book. A uniform color concept and the wonderful illustrations by the student Ebony Schneeweiß on the cover pages provide a visual framework for the various works. 

With contributions from: Frieda Bauer, Lois Brendel, Inga-Lisa Burmester, Tessi Cuko, Laura Dörner, Sebastian Gneiting, Yue Guan, Stefan Hahn, Daniela Heller, Karen Hertfelder, Jiaqi Hou, You Jia, Melanie Lüdtke, Anna Metta, Sophie Nicklas, Marlene Ochs, Jolanda Obleser, Carolin Pysalski, Robin Rösing, Viktoriia Rozentsveih, Ebony Schneeweiß, Hyunsoo Shin, Nicole Skrzypczyk, Jiyeong Tak und Chiny Udeani.