International Literature Festival Berlin: the Comic-Manifesto

September 3, 2013 at 08:00 pm Opening: »Comics from Berlin. Pictures of a City« in Haus der Berliner Festspiele. As part of this exhibition, a manifesto has been released on September 2. The exhibition will be open during the festival through September 15. To sign the manifesto, fill this form.

The Manifesto

German comics are celebrated in the features pages, are translated into numerous
languages and receive prizes and awards at international festivals. Comic readings and
comic exhibitions enjoy high numbers of attendees, especially among the younger
generation, and comics are increasingly the object of academic works. It is the comic
illustrators, comic publishers and other actors who have gained recognition of the
German comic practically without outside help. While film, music, theatre and other arts –
quite rightly – are given public funding, the illustrators, scriptwriters and publishing
employees in the area of comics have only been able to achieve their considerable
successes by exploiting themselves. It goes without saying that they would have been
able to develop their potentials considerably better if they had had access to greater
resources.

The contemporary comic is formally innovative and its contents of high quality. Its spectrum
ranges from the comic strip to the graphic novel. Powerful stories on socially relevant
topics are characteristic of its image in the media today. The wide range of styles and the
ongoing experimental innovations stand for the artistic modernity of a medium whose
various potentials are a long way from being exhausted.

No serious critic is in doubt today about the fact that the comic is an independent form
of art that has earned its place on equal terms alongside literature, theatre, film or opera.
It is a scandal that this fact does not already enjoy general consensus.

We therefore demand that the comic be afforded the same respect as literature
and the visual arts and that it receive the corresponding funding. Like all other art
forms, the comic depends on state and private support.

The number of excellent up-and-coming illustrators, most of whom have received their
education state art universities, is growing all the time. However, there are no scholarships
that can pave the way towards an existence as an artist for talented illustrators.
Creating a graphic novel or a comic album often takes longer than a year and hardly any
publishers can afford to pay the livelihood of an artist for such a long time.

We therefore demand that financial support be granted to comic projects.

And finally: Funding requires the coordination of and discussion about ist measures.
We still do not have an own professorship for comics in Germany, still do not have an
institution that could act as a central point of contact and place of communicative
encounters with a Europe-wide image for those working in the medium.

We therefore demand the establishment of a German Comic institute that brings
together artists, carries out academic study of their work and provides cultural
education.

COMICS ARE ART.
THIS IS A FACT THAT CULTURAL POLICYMAKERS NEED TO UNDERSTAND.

the first signatories of the Comic Manifesto (on the 2nd of September 2013):

Titus Ackermann [Illustrator / Comic Author / Publisher]
Ahne [Author]
ATAK / Prof. Barber [Comic Artist]
Jim Avignon [Artist]
Bela B. [Musician]
Anna Bas Backer [Comic Artist]
Jan Bauer [Director of Animated Film]
Bodo Birk [Director of the International Comic Salon Erlangen]
Gregor Breitkopf [Publisher]
Susanne Buddenberg [Comic Author]
Karoline Bofinger [Comic Editor]
Thomas Böhm [Head of Programme ilb]
Wolf Böwig [Photojournalist]
Romy Blümel [Illustrator]
Ingo Clauß [Curator Weserburg Bremen]
Maikel Das [Comic Artist / Publisher]
Diceindustries [Artist]
Martin tom Dieck [Artist / Professor]
Tim Dinter [Illustrator]
Tinet Elmgren [Comic Artist]
Prof. Anke Feuchtenberger [Artist]
Achim Frenz [Museum Director Caricatura Museum Frankfurt]
Cornelia Funke [Author of Books for Children and Young People]
Anna Gabai [Curator and Pedagogue]
Nadja Gebhardt [Editor]
Rolf Giesen [Film Scholar / Film Journalist / Writer of Non-Fiction]
Thomas Gilke [Communication Designer]
Moritz Götze [Artist]
Laëtitia Graffart [Editor]
Oliver Grajewski [Visual Artist]
Andreas Grasskamp [Biologist]
Lukas Grasskamp [Jurist]
Prof.Dr. Walter Grasskamp [Art Historian]
Jonas Greulich [Regisseur / Comic Artist / Publisher]
Thomas Gronle [Illustrator / Comic Author / Publisher]
Prof. Dr. Dietrich Grünewald [Vorsitzender der ComFor]
Volker Hamann [Editor REDDITION / ALFONZ / COMIC REPORT]
Jens Harder [Comic Artist]
Jutta Harms [Press]
Jakob Hein [Author]
Thomas Henseler [Comic author]
Gregor Hinz [Comic Artist]
Matthias Hofmann [Editor ALFONZ / COMIC REPORT]
Sascha Hommer [Comic Artist]
Prof. Markus Huber [Artist / Professor at Art College]
Christiane Mennicke-Schwarz [Art Historian and Curator]
Dr. Edmund Jacoby [Publisher]
Andreas C. Knigge [Publicist]
Filip Kolek [Press Spokesman]
Brigitte Kronauer [Author]
Prof. Eike König [Graphic Design / Illustration]
Peter Auge Lorenz [Comic Library Renate]
Ulli Lust [Comic Artist]
Marijpol [Comic Artist]
Mawil [Comic Artist]
Jens Meinrenken [Art Historian]
René Mounajed [Historian and Comic Researcher]
Stefan Neuhaus [Art Pedagogue BDK]
Paul Paetzel [Illustrator]
Felix Pestemer [Comic Artist]
Kai Pfeiffer [Comic Artist]
Dirk Rehm [Publisher]
Daniel Richter [Artist]
Ulrich Schreiber [Festival Director ilb]
Mona Schütze [Editor]
Simon Schwartz [Comic Artist]
Gerhard Seyfried [Comic Artist / Author]
Bela Sobottke [Comic Artist]
Mikkel Sommer [Comic Artist]
Elke R. Steiner [Comic Artist]
Nicola Stuart [Publisher]
Dr. Joachim Trinkwitz
[Bonner Online-Bibliographie for Comic research / ComFor]
Johann Ulrich [Publisher]
Michael Vogt [Comic Artist]
Prof. Henning Wagenbreth [Universität der Künste / Illustration Class]
Susanne Weiß [Director of the Heidelberger Kunstverein]
Birgit Weyhe [Comic Artist]
Ulrich Wickert [Journalist / Author]
Michael Wiesler [Comic Bookseller]
Sebastian Wolter [Publisher]
Barbara Yelin [Comic Artist]
Dr. Thomas von Steinaecker [Author / Journalist / TV Director]
Volker Zimmermann [Translator / Publisher]