Impressive and atmospherically dense scenarios – Isabel Kreitz
Isabel Kreitz (Hamburg) has gotten numerous awards and is among Germany’s most ambitious female comic artists. Her comics examine both phenomenon of youth culture and also the historic and political occasions of German history. She always integrates her protagonists inside a historic context, usually having a local link with Hamburg.
A vintage illustration of her jobs are the comic Die Entdeckung der Curry-Wurst (2005). Basing her focus on the novella by Uwe Timm, the artist links National Socialism using the contained in strongly contrasting black and white-colored images, concentrating on the German procedure for accepting the terms using the past. Her polished utilization of light and shade reflects the influence of Will Eisner, her great example.
She found the right setting for Schlechte Laune (2000), her first comic, which marks the start of a set concerning the tragic fate from the train-surfer Ralf, within the catacombs and subterranean-train network from the town of Hamburg. This youth, disfigured by any sort of accident, appears within the subterranean system. There he meets other fellow sufferers, along with whom he attempts to survive inside a parallel world. Within the comics Ohne Peilung (1995) and Totenstill (1997), Kreitz once more uses hidden-away places for example bunkers and sewers like a metaphor for that remains of National Socialism. Kreitz stresses the political indifference from the more youthful generation and also the naive way they view neo-Nazism, along with the poor attitude of society and contemporary witnesses. In her own comic Waffenhndler (1998), she pillories political and business connections and cliques which have existed past the Third Reich, still pulling strings without anyone's knowledge to this day.
Along with Laura Bartels, Isabel Kreitz created a comic book for German World Famine Relief about foreign help with Bolivia. Regardless of the intense theme, the duo were able to embellish the informative a part of Die Leidenschaft plusieurs Herrn Lhrs (2001) by having an exciting and upbeat story in regards to a potato-loving chef. Within this comic, this idealistic comic artist’s talent for humour is within evidence. She's sometimes needed to earn her coping with humorous math comic strips like the Ottifanten and her very own series Heiss Fettig (i.e. hot and greasy), that takes devote a quick-food joint. For that 258-page comic Die Sache durch Sorge (i.e. the company with Sorge / 2008), Kreitz researched the storyline of Richard Sorge, who had been “Stalins Spion in Tokio” (i.e. Stalin’s spy in Tokyo, japan) – thus the subtitle from the comic too.
Various myths and legends have popped up round the bon vivant Sorge. Within the GDR he was revered as part of the Communist resistance, as they found scarecely any recognition within the historic narrative of West Germany in those days. Beginning in 1933, Sorge spied around the German ambassador Eugen Ott for that Soviet military secret service and also on Nazi grandees residing in Tokyo, japan. He was performed in the mid 1940s following his arrest through the Japanese secret service. In her own thrillingly-told comic, Kreitz handles the questionable figure of Richard Sorge and divulges how he grew to become a football for political interests after his dying.
Comic adaptations of Erich Kstner classics for example Pnkchen und Anton and Emil und die Detektive (2008) are targeted at children and youthful people. Here, Kreitz orients herself stylistically around the original sketches by Walter Trier and lovingly provides scenes with information on Berlin’s big-city existence within the 1920’s. In 2002, Isabel Kreitz was honoured using the Max and Moritz Award in the 15th Comic Salon Erlangen as well as German comic artist.
Isabel Kreitz meticulously researches the historic locations on her comics, with her realistic drawing style creates impressive and simultaneously atmospherically dense scenarios.
Within the volume Deutschland. Ein Bilderbuch (i.e. Germany: an image book / 2011) Isabel Kreitz depicts importewnt occasions from German History. Rapid narratives, which came about regarding the the 60th anniversary from the German Federal Republic and were first printed within the daily newspaper "Frankfurter Rundschau" illustrate the beginning of regarding the Berlin Walls in 1961, the 1999 Berlin Love Parade and the development of the Euro in 2002. The amount concludes using the personal bankruptcy from the investment bank Lehman Siblings and also the 2008 economic and economic crisis bound track of it – and awaits its continuation.
Matthias Schneider
is really a cultural researcher, freelance cultural journalist and curator of film programs and exhibitions about comics.
: Goethe-Institut e. V. Online-Redaktion
The month of january 2013
