German Graphic Novel Week: Lecture and Q&A Session with Dr. Brett Sterling

Over the past 20 years, comics in German-speaking Europe have gone from being dismissed as childish and derivative to an accepted and respected part of the cultural landscape. While the comics market in Germany has long been dominated by translated imports from the US, France, Belgium, and—more recently—Japan, an upswell of domestic production since the 2000s has established a vibrant, independent scene of comics creators that is highly individualized and creatively experimental. Although recent German-language comics have shown a predilection for autobiographical and historical subjects, current social, environmental, and technological developments have generated numerous works that look ahead to the future of our planet and our species. Recent comics by Frauke Berger, Jens Harder, Judith Kranz, Julija Zejn/Matthias Lehmann and others present readers with disparate visions of the future: hostile planets dominated by toxic plants; technocratic societies bent on predicting the future through computation; AI avatars that assume the thoughts and memories of the deceased; humanity’s attempts to engage with species beyond Earth. This talk will explore how German-speaking artists have used the medium of comics to explore the possible ramifications of humanity’s most pressing issues, including climate collapse, societal unrest, as well as the rapid advance of AI. What challenges await us in the years to come, and how can comics serve as a fruitful format for envisioning the good, as well as the bad, that may emerge in the world of tomorrow?