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.

“Like a spotlight, one decision leaves an entire life in shadow. The darkness swallows the memories. Even if someone asks about him. Then, like a hammer, the ending shatters any words about travel, friends, family and happiness.”

After the sudden suicide of their father, two siblings begin a silent correspondence: she writes to him, he sends drawings back. Each filled page makes visible what words often lack. The dialogue opens a world full of enchanted memories, riddles and feelings that, as intimate as they may be, bring to light something universal: That nothing is as one expects, fears, or hopes. Sister and brother let themselves be accompanied a short way through their present and their past. In the forest of their childhood, on the way through the valley, in multi-layered image-word compositions and allegorical and occasionally ironic drawings they show that in the end a place is often surprisingly more than just a catastrophe.

At the eastern edge of the world, there lives a dog-headed giant of indescribable power, more animal than man. And because he’s so powerful, he starts to wonder: Is there no one who is more powerful than me? Reprobus goes on a journey that will change him forever and will take him to an emperor, the devil and a hermit, and will make him a traveler among worlds.
Reprobus means “the rejected” and his story is an ancient legend that is still alive today. His search for the most powerful ruler of the world first appeared in Eastern stories and exerted a lasting fascination on the Western world of thought, which was reflected over centuries in numerous stories and the visual arts, and in a Christian variant that founded the legend of Saint Christopher. In his debut comic, Markus Färber tells his version of this story through powerful images.

(This extract shows a selection of pages of the book.)

In her collection of cartoons and comics Nadine Redlich plucks apart a bouquet of emotions. Anyone who can relate to phobia, lethargy, stress, panic or resignation will take great pleasure when viewing the results of Redlich‘s intense examination. That much I, as a phobic patient, can promise.

Today starts off badly for little bat Pascaline: it’s her first day of kindergarten and she has to go, just like everyone else, but she refuses. “Never, not ever!” she declares. She’s NOT going. And nothing—not even her parents pulling her by her feet—will change her mind. She shrieks so loudly that, well, her parents shrink to the size of peanuts. Ha! Now Pascaline can hide them under her wings and take them to kindergarten. This could be fun! But what will happen at the end of the day when all the parents come to pick up their little bat children?

In „Niemals Nie Nicht!” award-winning picture book creator Beatrice Alemagna reminds us that small children need their parents to be close by … but not too close.

Translated from French by Irène Bluche.