Robert Deutsch: "Alan Turing"

In artistic acrylic paintings evoking the 1950s, illustrator Robert Deutsch approaches the biography of British mathematician and computer science pioneer Alan Turing. A sophisticated page architecture conveys in a playful yet complex way the bizarre aspects of Turing's personality as well as the tragic aspects of his life as a homosexual at a time when this was a punishable offense in Great Britain.

- Lars from Toerne

Hamed Eshrat: "VENUSTRANSIT"

This comic tells a banal story: the protagonist, Ben, is dissatisfied with his job situation and would prefer to just draw. In the course of the story, his girlfriend leaves him.

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But the way Hamed Eshrat tells it is what makes it so special. With virtuoso and accurate strokes, he makes the images dance without them becoming an end in themselves. They serve the narrative without reservation, so that you won't want to put the comic down until you've finished reading it.

- David Basler

Anke Feuchtenberger: "A German animal in the German forest"

Promising, uncanny: the stories about Kerstin and Effe Erre seem to burst out of the forest undergrowth and the animal worlds that repeatedly come to the fore in the pages presented; this is an impressive work in the making.

- Brigitte Helbling

Jul Gordon: "In the park"

An eccentric, wonderfully trashy story, a fine and unusual way of translating it into pictures: The sketches and storyboard tell of a comic's potential, the imminent completion of which is absolutely to be wished for.

- Brigitte Helbling

Lea Maria Heinrich "Lucky Boy"

With "Lucky Boy", Leipzig-based illustrator Lea Maria Heinrich has created a prison story that makes extensive use of flashbacks. Her knowledge of the prison system is based on visits to the relevant facilities. The drawing style - clear and limited to a few color tones - is extremely individual and concise, the page architecture varied and yet clear.

- Frank Druffner

Nienke Klöffer: "A virtuous head"

"Nienke Klöffer's debut is amazing, because in "A Virtuous Head" she tells the story of the last year in the life of the French revolutionary Robespierre consistently from his perspective. This means that we as readers see the dramatic events through Robespierre's eyes, and only when a mirror comes into the picture do we also see him. Nienke Klöffer also takes this strictly subjective narrative style into account by always using panels of the same size."

- Andreas Platthaus

René Rogge: "Plus minus zero"

In his graphic novel "Plus minus zero", René Rogge captures the tiredness and lethargy of the current generation in their mid-twenties. In a clear formal language, he addresses the forlornness of a generation that can hardly find a way out of passivity between the loss of ideologies, the oversupply of opportunities and all-round family support and encouragement. The generation's lack of structure, thematized in this way, finds its counterpart in an impressively strict and reduced graphic structure.

- Stefanie Stegmann

Schwarwel: "Soul Eater - Hope"

"Hoffnung" is the third book in the "Seelenfresser" series, which is designed as a tetralogy. The Leipzig-based comic author and animator Schwarwel takes us deep into East Germany, deep into the cosmos of trucker Hardy, his unstable wife Nova, his lover Babsi and the Penn brothers Psycho-Peter, Klausi and Panzermeyer. Anarchic power meets artistic virtuosity - comics in top form.

- Florian Höllerer

Ji Hyun Yu. "Candide or Optimism"

"Voltaire's 'Candide' is one of the great classics of world literature. Light-footed, funny and at the same time full of philosophical abysses. It takes a lot of chutzpah to take on such a work for a comic adaptation. Ji Hyun Yu exceeds all expectations. A comic that is bursting with innovative ideas and yet is something that testifies to great art and does full justice to Voltaire: an entertaining, in-depth reading pleasure."

- Thomas von Steinaecker‍