International Graphic Novels in WashU Libraries Exhibition

October 14 – November 12 | Olin Library Lobby

Visit the lobby of Olin Library to see a pop-up display highlighting international and foreign-language graphic novels from the WashU Libraries’ collections. Selections from the collection will be available to check out. 

Screening of Fritz Lang's M 

November 3 | 6pm | Busch Hall, Room 100

M: Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder, directed by Fritz Lang (1931), is a masterpiece of early German cinema. It has influenced filmmakers for decades and in 1990 inspired an American illustrator, Jon J Muth, to re-create the story in the form of a graphic novel. Filmmaker and playwright Frauke Thielecke will give a short talk titled "From Screen to Page: Fritz Lang's M Reimagined."

Lecture and Q&A Session with Nora Krug,  Author and Illustrator of Heimat (Belonging)

November 5 | 5pm (reception at 4:30) | Wilson Hall, Room 214

In her works of graphic memoir and graphic journalism (Belonging, Diaries of War, and On Tyranny), author and illustrator Nora Krug explores the moral reckonings tied to guilt, war, and state violence.  The author will be signing books after the lecture and copies of Belonging, Diaries of War, and On Tyranny will be available to purchase. 

About the speaker:

Nora Krug is a German-American author and artist. Her books have been published in 21 countries, and her illustrations have been recognized with gold and silver medals by both the Society of Illustrators and the NY Art Directors Club. Krug is a recipient of fellowships from Yale University’s Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, the American Academy in Berlin, Fulbright, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Maurice Sendak Foundation, and others. Her books are included in the Library of Congress and the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University. Krug was named Moira Gemmill Illustrator of the Year and 2019 Book Illustration Prize Winner by the Victoria and Albert Museum. Her visual memoir Heimat /Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home, about WWII and her own German family history, was chosen as a best book of the year by the New York Times, The Guardian, NPR, Kirkus Review, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Boston Globe. It was the winner of the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award, the Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize, the Art Directors Club Gold and Discipline Winner Cubes, the Society of Illustrators Silver Medal, and the British Book Design and Production Award, among others. Her collaboration with historian Timothy Snyder, a graphic edition of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century was named a Best Graphic Novel of 2021 by the New York Times, a New York Times Editor’s Choice, and one of Germany’s Most Beautiful Books of 2022 .Diaries of War: Two Visual Accounts from Ukraine and Russia, her book of graphic journalism that chronicles the contrasting experiences of a Ukrainian journalist and a Russian artist, both grappling with the realities of Russia’s renewed invasion of Ukraine in 2022, won the Overseas Press Club’s Best Cartoon Award runner-up citation and was named one of Germany’s Most Beautiful Books of 2024. Her visual biography, Kamikaze, about a surviving Japanese WWII pilot, was included in Houghton Mifflin’s Best American Comics and Best Non-Required Reading, and her animations were shown at the Sundance Film Festival. Krug is Associate Professor of Illustration at the Parsons School of Design in New York City. She holds a B.A. Honours degree in Performance Design from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, a Diplom in Visual Communications from the University of Arts Berlin, and an M.F.A. in Illustration as a Visual Essay from the School of Visual Arts in New York.

Lecture and Q&A Session with Dr. Brett Sterling, scholar of German and comics

November 6 | 4:30pm | Olin Library, Room 142

“The World of Tomorrow: Visions of the Future in Contemporary German-language Comics”

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? 

About the speaker:

Brett E. Sterling is Associate Professor of German and Vice Chair of the Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Arkansas. His research and teaching interests include the intersection of literature and political engagement, German-language comics, and the works of Austrian exile author Hermann Broch. He has published and presented widely on German-language comics, including the work of Jens Harder, Nicolas Mahler, Barbara Yelin, Ulli Lust, and Birgit Weyhe. He is co-founder and served as co-organizer of the Comics Studies Network in the German Studies Association, and is co-founder of the Southeastern Conference Comics Studies Network. 

His current book project, Contemporary German-language Comics: A History, is under contract with The Ohio State University Press.

Teachers’ Workshop

November 7 | 9:00am – 2:00pm (breakfast begins at 8:30) | Hillman Hall, Caleres Lounge

“Teaching with Comics and Graphic Novels in the (German) Language Classroom”

This workshop will provide inspiration and concrete suggestions for incorporating comics and graphic novels into the language classroom. The morning session, led by Brett Sterling, will focus on different ways to use and adapt comics and graphic novels, including in lower-level courses. In the afternoon there will be a tour of the WashU Libraries’ collection of German graphic novels and contemporary literature. Breakfast and lunch are provided. 

German Graphic Novel Week is Sponsored by:

Department of Comparative Literature & Thought

Department of English

Center for the Humanities