For the tenth anniversary of the Berlin Jaja Verlag, publisher Annette Köhn has presented a “finely illustrated work” (according to the publisher’s motto), which uses the example of a normal – here even Corona-free – working day to show how it works with the publication of comics .
The publisher’s explicit claim to make beautiful books is reflected in the book “Publishing” (132 S., 23 €) fulfilled: Large format, colored, a splendid cover that you like to pick up, ribbon bookmark included.
As a comic artist, Köhn, a graduate of the Weissensee School of Art, comes from the spontaneity of the sketch festivals, from drawing together in the studio community “Musenstube” (today the publishing house) and from events such as 24-hour drawing. Accordingly, her drawing style is quite casual, which goes well with the relaxed atmosphere in the office.
We follow the daily routine of the publisher, who still struggles a bit with being the boss. This can be seen, among other things, in the fact that coffee is almost always drunk in the tiny office in Neukölln. In addition to the protagonist, the interns and colleague draftsmen (the “muses”), various neighbors and the studio dog, the so-called “publishing companies” also appear again and again, fantasy figures only visible to the reader and the publisher.
A few times even the fourth wall is broken through to the audience in order to explain the processes. The focus is on the routine activities, the bureaucracy, which make up a large part of everyday life: writing invoices, getting packages ready, coordinating appointments.
The DHL courier is coming! Finally!
One would have liked to have listened to authors’ conversations to see how feedback rounds run on the “Platform for the next generation of German comics” (so Köhn about Jaja). Probably just as friendly as the rest of the day-to-day work.
After all: An artist, Maki Shimizu (“Über Leben”), comes over to chat and simply brings her cartoon characters with her.
[Ausstellung zum Jubiläum des Jaja-Verlages sowie weiterer Verlage im Comixbad Wedding noch bis zum 26. November, Bibliothek am Luisenbad, Badstraße 39,13357 Berlin.]
The two most successful titles by far from the publisher, Paulina Stulin’s “Bei mir Heimat” and Büke Schwarz’s “Jein”, also appear in the book. They have allowed the publisher to rely less on cross-financing comic book publications through illustrated cookbooks, calendars and other things and to invest more in the design and distribution of the comics.
Stulin receives a casual e-mail in which she says she is completing her comic as a 600-page project that has been quietly prepared for years. And the excited wait for the first delivery of the “Yes and No” books hot off the press is the tension driver in the otherwise calm flow of events on the day described. The result is what is perhaps the strangest double-page splash in comic history: The DHL courier is coming! Finally!
