Graphic novels are constantly growing in popularity.
Ever more bookshops and libraries are including comics as a permanent part of their assortment and presenting them prominently. The arts sections of newspapers report on them regularly, and general interest publishing houses are becoming more interested in the graphic novel segment. Film adaptations have made a number of titles even better known.
But what are graphic novels, really? When, in the 1970s, the multifaceted comics author Will Eisner added a sub-header to the cover of his comic, A Contract with God, describing it as a “graphic novel”, he was trying to make it clear that his comic should be seen as a work of literature, and that the stories in it were intended for an adult readership. The fact that it was released with a literary publisher, and even had a hard cover and smaller book format, was a further concession to the target audience with its preconceptions about a work of literature. Building on that book, today a whole segment has developed, which is formally categorised as a comic and has branched out into many different areas of subject matter. Above all, a graphic novel is self-contained like a normal novel, unlike comics series which involve regular sequels.
Now, according to journalist Andreas Platthaus of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, German-language graphic novels have made it into the social mainstream. “That’s why more and more publishers are getting interested in the unique new storytelling opportunities provided by illustrated books,” he says. “Our selection documents this with a large number of new names who stand for breadth of content as well as graphic style.”
38 titles from 21 publishers, selected by Andreas Platthaus, deputy head of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung arts section.
Catalogue Graphic Novels 2013

Germany: a land of many cultures. It is fascinating to see the many different literary perspectives in 2012, regarding what “the present” used to be, what it is and what it could be. This is diversity that can only be discovered through reading.
For six decades now, the defining characteristic of our literature has been its preoccupation with a concept of the present that sprawls a long way back into the past. The effort to come to terms with Germany’s 20th century history is an overpowering subject which forms an inexhaustible narrative chapter that still persists today.
The Frankfurt Book Fair congratulates the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin (lcb) on its 50th anniversary, and with this collection we have made our own contribution to that celebration. Not only did the lcb select the titles included, it also supplied the foreword to the exhibition catalogue, which also includes a short summary of the institute’s history.
102 titles from 47 publishers – selected by the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin
Accompanying catalogue in German and English, with notes and a foreword by Jürgen Jakob Becker, Thorsten Dönges and Thomas Geiger, who are responsible for the programme of activities at the lcb.
Catalogue new literary releases 2013

An urban life is a life of contradictions.
The question of how we want our lives in the city to look is also the question of whom the city should belong to. The desire for urban living is tied to cultural and social diversity, which can’t be achieved through the homogenizing effect of the market. This at least is the opinion of Christian Schmidt, a researcher into urban culture, who evaluates his own very personal experiences of life in Leipzig in the foreword of the catalogue to this collection. The choice of books shines a spotlight on changing urban environments; it reveals aspects of the city as a place for engaging in civic and artistic activities, and it highlights a number of innovations in urban development.
89 titles from 44 publishers
Accompanying catalogue in German and English, with notes and a foreword by Christian Schmidt, researcher into urban culture.
Catalogue Urban Living 2013