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As her students make a run at find their footing, Germanys frightening tribalist movement rises to meet them.
Drawn to Berlindoesnt remind me of any other books.
I dont usually think in German, but thats a good word.
There are people I like, for example Joe Sacco.
But his stuff is quite different, more like comic journalism.
Maybe a couple others.
So you went in blind.I did, which was kind of scary.
There were some things about the complexity of trauma that I didnt understand in the beginning.
Those became a bit clearer to me as I went along.
I wanted to include the ethical struggle in the book because I think its important to have that conversation.
I made rules for myself about not sensationalizing people or their stories.
With the two main characters, I was kind of checking in a bit.
And then a few other rules made it okay for me.
I think its a conversation a lot of people are having right now.
Nonfiction comics are kind of a Wild West territory.
Comic journalism hasnt existed for very long I wouldnt call thiscomic journalism, but there are elements of that.
Thats what makes it exciting, but also complicated and messy and scary.
Thats a very specific kind of trauma that I didnt have access to.
They both like it, but they didnt want their real names to be there.
I was a bit…
I had been doing Hungover Bear for a while.
I had been doing a weekly or biweekly comic for three years, and fast.
So I set a certain pace for myself, but I couldnt meet it.
Some days I would draw for ten hours, and I still couldnt keep up.
When youre portraying real people, its important to be sensitive.
There also has to be a lot of continuity in a longer piece.
The only passage set in Syria is about a chocolate factory.
The process of editing was also really difficult.
So the hardest part was the drawing … and the writing … and the editing.Yeah.
The inking was okay.
The inking was my favorite part.
The original pages were 11-by-17.
Thats also part of the reason it took a long time.
To draw and ink one of those pages would take around six hours.
I actually want to do a Hungover Bear book at some point.
It would be a longer narrative:Hungover Bear in the Cave of Love.
But I havent found time to write it yet.
Was it originally more of a downer ending?It was just more of an abrupt ending.
If I wrote the book now, though, itd be a less hopeful ending.
I think the ending is overly hopeful.
Because of whats happened since then?Yeah.
Its really getting mainstream.
Its in the book; it was already happening.
But I was hopeful that Germany was going to swerve away from this.
Now I feel less optimistic.
And in certain parts of East Germany, theyre in power and theyre the number-one party.
Thats where these protests take place and where some refugee shelters have been burned.
I didnt include this in the book, but West Germany and East Germany have different educational systems.
But East German schools taught that Nazism was something thatWest Germanshad done.
They never used the We.
Parts of the South actually have to deal with immigration and changing demographics.
The Rust Belt not as much.
You write in the book that AFD shuns Nazi imagery and the fontFraktur.
Its logo and colors look almost progressive.Thats one of the reasons why I wanted to include that chapter.
The font they use is Bold Futura, which you see in Wes Anderson movies and onSesame Street.
Germany is steeped in great design, and theyre co-opting that.
Their imagery can be disturbing, but its more of a soft or subtle racism.
I want to talk about memes and how theyre constructed, and fonts like Fraktur.
So I never went back to that guy.
Now I need a new dentist.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Drawn to Berlin:Exclusive Excerpt
Illustrations are courtesy of Ali Fitzgerald.
