André Breinbauer: "Medusa and Perseus"

The sheer delight in the medium of comics - the realization of which in "Medusa and Perseus" reveals a highly skilled hand - delighted the jury. Two stories from antiquity are handled in a light and unconventional way; turning the pages is a pleasure in itself: What will await us on the next double-page spread? The overall project, some of which is already available, is ambitious in the most beautiful way; the end result should be readable from two sides, and this absolutely corresponds to the two central figures - Perseus as a monster hunter, Medusa, the "monster", as an "anarchistic rebellion" (here Breinbauer quotes Hélène Cixous in his synopsis) against the "phallocracy". What such a confrontation can be in the comic, sensually, virtuously drawn, remains the subject of cheerful (we are not quoting Nietzsche here) expectation.

- Brigitte Helbling

Jennifer Daniel: "The expert opinion"

Those were the days when you could smoke anywhere and drinking and driving was a trivial offense! The graphic novel "Das Gutachten" is set in Bonn at the end of the 1970s and skilfully and convincingly mixes the themes of the time, such as alcoholism and its serious consequences in road traffic, rebellious youth, old power structures, the traumatizing consequences of the Second World War and the cover-up of the Nazi past. This is perfectly complemented by a drawing style reminiscent of the decor and mood of the "International Morning Pint" with Werner Höfer (the glasses!) on ARD.

- David Basler

Hendrik Dorgathen: "Pretty Deep Space"

What Hendrik Dorgathen is doing with "Pretty Deep Space" is the rebirth of science fiction from the spirit of the past: on the basis of role models such as Asimov, Moebius and Kubrick, the space epic is given a future again. Dorgathen's multi-hundred-page space opera is a feast of colors, fables and shapes. And at the same time a hopeful parable about overcoming manipulation and misanthropy through legitimacy and love. Not a legitimacy or a love that corresponds to the expectations of our society, but according to a new understanding of sociality developed stringently from the model of a future community. Because like all sophisticated science fiction, "Pretty Deep Space" creates a utopia. And tells a heroic story that gives hope for humanity - precisely because the heroes of this story grow beyond the boundaries of the species.

- Andreas Platthaus

Hamed Eshrat: "Coming of H"

"Coming of H" - a witty play on the English pronunciation of the letter "H", "Eitsch" - announces a coming of age narrative for the protagonist Hamed and also quietly hints at the presence of drugs (H = heroin) in it. Hamed Eshrat ("Venustransit") is no newcomer to the jury or to the European comics scene, but here he draws on (auto-)biographical material - his early childhood in Iran, his journey to Germany, his father's failure in this new life. We are promised a narrative from the perspective of the young Hamed - skateboarder, sprayer - in the Westphalian province; the elaborate pages suggest a dynamic and confident comic narrative. We look forward to the further progress of this personal account by a great illustrator.

-Brigitte Helbling

Andrew Humphreys and Olivier Kugler: "The great British fish & chips"

In "The Great British Fish & Chips", Olivier Kugler and Andrew Humphreys take a close look at THE British national dish: from its Jewish origins to cod from Iceland and Norway to vinegar from a Japanese company. Kugler and Humphreys show global connections that can be applied to many areas and provide important food for thought, especially in times of growing nationalism. Kugler's full-page graphic condensation of the insights already gained and the team's plans for further extensive research on site promise a comic reportage that is as substantial as it is enjoyable.

- Barbara Buchholz

Charlotte Müller: "A house with many windows"

Charlotte Müller has rare artistic strengths:

- Courage, because the subject of her book "A House with Many Windows" is maximally unsexy, but through truthfulness and inner richness she has turned it into a feat.

- Independence, because it dispenses with all market and genre expectations as well as the notorious success accelerators of grandiosity, virtuosity and self-promotion.

- Exceptional sense of form, because every word, every picture speaks for itself and is given weight by the ascetic composition.

- The author has an extraordinary feeling for language, as she cleverly selects the tragedy and dignity of entire destinies from the sometimes awkward self-disclosures of elderly people in a care home, which are characterized by a dwindling overview.

The result is real literature.

- Petra Morsbach

Bianca Schaalburg: "The scent of pine trees"

What happens to you when you learn that Jews had to leave their home because of your family and that your grandfather was a member of the NSDAP? The author succeeds on the one hand with her research, where she puts herself in the picture, and on the other hand with flashbacks to tell a family story that cannot answer many of her questions, but nevertheless leads to an exciting, informative and compelling examination of a past that is characterized by guilt and repression.

- David Basler

Thomas von Steinaecker and David von Bassewitz: "Stockhausen - The man who came from Sirius"

On the one hand, this large-scale comic project is a biographical portrayal of Karlheinz Stockhausen and traces how the composer became an icon of electronic music and the avant-garde. On the other hand, it tells the multi-phase story of the adolescent Thomas von Steinaecker's admiration for Stockhausen, which culminates in a long series of friendly encounters. A virtuoso storyboard by Thomas von Steinaecker and David von Bassewitz's characterful and variable visual design allow both strands to intertwine and oscillate between heroic story and critical distancing.

- Florian Höllerer

Birgit Weyhe: "Rude Girl"

"Rude Girl" tells the life of Crystal, a professor of German studies whose parents and relatives immigrated to the USA from the Caribbean in the 1970s. However, Birgit Weyhe finds a special form for this story by closely involving Crystal in the creation of the comic and also realizing this accompaniment in her drawings and narrative. On the one hand, she tells the story of Crystal's upbringing, her feelings of alienation, exclusion, abuse and the almost unresolvable tensions between her peers' attributions, her family's ideas and Crystal's own wishes. On the other hand, on a second narrative level, she cleverly reflects the sensitivity of current post-colonial discourses on cultural appropriation by taking up Crystal's accompanying comments on the character and the comic in her drawings, weaving them in and comparing them with her own attitudes and perceptions.

- Stefanie Stegmann