The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

I guess it’s the problem for all comics artists getting recognition from a largely indifferent public. There are a few names who have just about reached public consciousness in France, Japan and the USA but almost everywhere else their work remains the passion of a bunch of devotees. Germany is probably one of the countries further down the recognition scale, so when a national newspaper chooses to cover your story and it is the usually dry, fairly conservative, Die Welt then perhaps the veil is slowly lifting. This is an article written by Brigitte Preissler as she visits with 4 of Germany’s best comic talent. We are big fans of Mawil here at FPI – he allowed us to print some translations in our last catalogue (if you are looking for his work in English Top Shelf published Beach Safari a few years back) and Reinhard Kleist’s Cash comics bio looks one which may well get picked up for translation, looking like a major piece of work. The original article is here (in German) and thanks go to our buyer Isobel for this translation. The title four in a row more or less translates as ‘Winners’ although the term as used here refers to winning at a German board game.

Germany’s most important comic artists in one room

The comic artists Mawil, Reinhard Kleist, Andreas Michalke (there is a write-up on Andreas here by the Goethe Institut) and Fil (again, check out some info – in English – courtesy of the Goethe Institut) all work together in a Berlin studio, making their characters such as Supahasi, Didi & Stulle and Johnny Cash direct neighbours. This is a visit to their home in Prenzlauer Berg.

(illustration from Amerika by Reinhard Kleist, published by Reprodukt)

Andreas Michalke has cleared his desk specially. The tabletop looks newly wiped, pencils neatly arranged next to his newly printed comic ‘Bigbeatland’. Right now though, his work doesn’t stand a chance of getting any attention, amidst the many bizarre sights here. This is a shared studio which Michalke and Didi & Stulle creator Fil founded in 2000. Subsequently they were joined by fellow comic artists Mawil and Reinhard Kleist.

(Geschicten aus dem Comicgarten image by Andreas Michalke, later collected by Reprodukt)

I get the opportunity of an undisturbed inspection when Michalke leaves the room to get some coffee. “Unfortunately I can’t make it here, the machine is all mouldy”, he explains. He then leaves us alone with a three-eyed monster made from green papier-mâché, which stares down from a shelf, overlooking this pig sty of a room. In a corner, a half eaten slice of Pizza sits atop a pile of jumbled paper; in a half empty cola bottle floats a white blue ball of fluff. Lift one of the many torn colourful booklets that are lying around everywhere and you expect something long-legged and black to come crawling at you from beneath them.

2 guys, 1 with long hair and glasses and someone wearing flip flops and woolly socks which are starting to unravel are bending over some sketches. We hear sentences like: “Give it your all when you’re doing the colouring, the blood’s got to really splatter!” The longhaired one is the writer Tobias O. Meissner. He is just visiting, like us, and is conferring with Reinhard Kleist regarding his third volume of “Berlinoir” which is due to be released in the autumn. The jointly produced comic series takes place in a fictional city, inhabited by fascist vampires. The page they are currently working on shows a mean looking chap dressed in a black cape.

(Cash – I See a Darkness by Reinhard Kleist, published Carlsen Comics)

“Work is made easier because I am a fan of Reinhard’s”, Meissner says. His idol and his book “Lovecraft” won the Max & Moritz Award at the Comicsalon Erlangen 1996 for Best German Comic Album. Currently he is making headlines with his Johnny Cash comic biography “I see a Darkness” which is now also due to come out in France, from renowned publisher Dargaud. Kleist is also joint publisher of an Elvis Presley comic anthology, due out this summer. “Actually, I never really liked him. My dad used to listen to his music all the time”, Kleist says. According to him though, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s biography offers plenty of material for horror scenarios. And those, on the other hand, are right up his street.

(Did & Stulle by Fil, published Reprodukt)

When asked where Fil works, Kleist and Meissner just point towards a pile of torn up pieces of paper, comic books and pencils, scattered next to a computer keyboard lying on the sticky carpet. Fil himself is nowhere to be seen, but at least Michalke has now returned with the coffee. He is one of the founders of “Mamba”, the first German comic newspaper which is now a bi-monthly supplement in the “Jungle World” newspaper.

Despite this foray towards a journalistic format, Michalke isn’t a fan of this work method. In any case, any contact to the outside world, via fax or landline phone, from within the studio, is impossible. There are no computers either. “Multitasking only wastes time”, he says. And time is valuable: after all, the reason they founded the studio was to create a more professional work atmosphere, instead of working at home and getting distracted by the TV.

Mawil is the only one who uses the computer a lot and enjoys doing so – but preferably at home. “Whether I go taptaptap or scratchscratchscratch doesn’t matter, really”, he explains in true comic lingo. The 30 year old’s openness towards digital technology might be down to his age, with him being around ten years younger than the others. The colouring of large areas in his comics – like “Meister Lampe” or “The Band” – are also easier to manage on a computer than say Reinhard Kleist’s shaded colour gradation. Right now Mawil is working on a collection of autobiographical stories which he is planning to title “Action Sorgenkind”. (Aktion Sorgenkind is a well known German charity for children with disabilities, Sorgenkind meaning worry or problem child and Aktion meaning as much as Charity Cause. Mawil uses Action instead of Aktion turning the Sorgenkind in to some kind of action man.)

(Meister Lampe by Mawil, published Reprodukt)

“I see a Filness”, Kleist suddenly says. Wearing a thick woolly hat, the Didi & Stulle artist and stage entertainer appears in the room. He can’t think of a quick comeback to Kleist’s Cash comic “I see a Darkness” allusion. He counters: “Are you finally going to put a vampire version of myself into “Berlinoir”? You could just draw yourself, with less hair.”

Without waiting for a reply he begins to draw – but not on the floor as expected, but standing up on a cluttered drawing lectern. “Maedchenworld” is the name of his latest work. The story is about a girl, Gemma, and her parents, two gay electro punks.

Homosexuals with children, three-eyed monsters and cola bottles in which new life is beginning to grow – along with the four artists there seems to be a range of species worthy of protection living in this cave like biotope in Prenzlauer Berg. It should be declared a nature reserve.