The Kangaroo Comics – Well, I can do it better in our illustrated review – ntower

When Kangaroo Records came out a few years ago, no one could have guessed the popularity of young artists Mark Owe and the Communist Kangaroo. Originally published as a loose body of texts and gradually expanded, the Records, Manifesto, and other collections tell of the daily discussions and observations of the two protagonists. Just for the sake of this obvious, we’re talking about a temporarily unemployed cabaret artist and a kangaroo with a bag and everything.

Cuteness and banter often lie in the conversations of this asymmetric couple, who also share an apartment at some point. The term engagement should be used carefully here, because after all it seems the kangaroo simply decided to live with Marc-Uwe. In the course of individual chapters, some of the stories are also intertwined or picked up again later, sometimes in one of the following books.

Topics of dialogue between the two cover general social problems, criticism of the state, housing forms, protest culture, capitalism and Marxism, to name a few. Marc-Uwe Kling also uses his hero to discuss uncomfortable theses and opinions, often on the border between superficial and dark humor. In doing so, he managed to capture a large target group, even schoolchildren and great intellectuals are now reading his books. In addition to printed books, the published audiobooks and Kling readings, which were also very popular, should not be ignored.

There are now provisions for kangaroo lovers, even if not in the usual way. We leave kangaroo records and data behind and today we dedicate ourselves to kangaroo comics. Because for some time now, ZEIT publishes a new comic strip online almost every day, updated almost daily. In these comics, artist Bernd Kessel (Saar Legenden, Munchausen) and author Mark-Uwe Kling (Quality Land) present new adventures of communist kangaroo and cabaret artist Mark Owe.

This anthology by Carlsen Verlag contains all of the ZEIT online comics from 2021 as well as a few unpublished materials. Kling captures the subjects of the moment in question on a daily basis and thus allows us to participate in a record that now allows us to rediscover some things or remind us of events from the past year that we may have already suppressed. In addition to the two heroes, some well-known and new characters appear in the comics. Here I especially liked the episodes with the neighbor who, because of his offspring, does not sleep much and always has to be careful what he says to his daughter.

Bernd Kessel finds a great line of animation in his drawings, which are presented in a humorous way and immediately inspired me. In my opinion, the switch from a book to a comic was a success, although die-hard fans of the template may have a stomachache. However, it is not infrequent that the kangaroo also destroys the artistic activities of the painter and the author, who also appear here as characters. Whether these are completely different artists or the fourth wall is broken, I leave it to your imagination.

Whether it’s lockdown, homeschooling, the climate crisis, anti-vaccination opponents, schnapps, or the federal election. The year 2021 was rich in humor possibilities for artists Kling and Kissel, who were able to fully develop. It’s always great to see how the two artists have managed to pack content and feedback into the intended structure of four panels a day. More palettes are available on the weekends, and these strips are colorful too, while the regular daytime strips come in classic shades of gray with a depth effect.

Kangaroo comics – so me Could that be better?” It comes in a landscape format and a hardcover about 200 pages thick and has inspired my son and I. As a rule, two day ribbons are printed on one page and then a full-page weekend ribbon in color every few pages. Divided into months, we get We the readers are on an annual chronology of all that 2021 has and what the artist and author has addressed objectively.

If you want to get an idea of ​​the artwork, you can do it at ONLINE TIME or also in Carlsen Publishing.