Alpha-Comic Verlag

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The Alpha Comic Verlag was the publishing house Sonnenberg belonging Verlag from Nuremberg which existed from 1984 to 2000 and Comics brought out for adults. It published U-Comix , Schwermetall and comic books by well-known artists such as Ralf König , Édika , Franquin and Margerin . Due to several proceedings initiated by the Meiningen public prosecutor's office , including against Ralf König's Das Kondom des Horens , there was a broad solidarity movement in the comic scene and music circles, which, however, although there was no conviction, due to the costs of the proceedings and the confiscation and duration of the proceedings the resulting economic damage could not prevent bankruptcy.

History of the publisher

When the publishing house was founded in 1984, the bankruptcy estate of the Volksverlag was taken over. The U-Comix series was continued until 1997, Schwermetall until 1999, and various older issues were sold out in anthologies. From 1986 onwards, successful series of albums for adult readers were launched. The most extensive series were U-Comix presents (89 albums), Schwermetall presents (84 albums), U-Comix classics (11 albums) and Alpha-Comic presents (10 albums). In these mostly single albums by various comic authors such as Franquin , Moebius , Édika , Paul Gillon or Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri ( Druuna ) were summarized. Rocky Luke and Baston , parodies of Lucky Luke and Gaston were also great successes . Publishing director Achim Schnurrer described the second half of the 1980s as "... the most successful years for U-COMICS" and, in parallel with Alpha, founded Die Edition Kunst der Comics , an independent publisher for sophisticated or erotic comic literature by artists such as Guido Sieber and Lorenzo Mattotti . In 1993, both publishers moved to Sonneberg in Thuringia, which Schnurrer (because of the more stringent press law in this new federal state) considered a mistake.

Criminal proceedings

On July 25, 1995, several dozen police officers on behalf of the Meiningen public prosecutor's office searched Alpha Comic Verlag "on suspicion of disseminating violence-glorifying, pornographic and National Socialist writings" and confiscated over 150 different comics, although none of the comics had been checked by the Federal Inspectorate for Writings Harmful to Young People had been indexed . In a follow-up operation, the police searched 1200 bookstores across Germany. During this action, in addition to the comics from Alpha Verlag that were objected to by the public prosecutor, other works such as B. Walter Moers ' Little Asshole or the Pulitzer Prize- winning comic mouse from Art Spiegelman confiscated, although the search warrant only checks whether indexed works are set up in such a way that they are accessible to children and young people.

When the trial opened at the Meiningen Regional Court in 1998, the works objected to by the public prosecutor's office had shrunk from 150 to 10, and the original stumbling block, Das Kondom des Horens , was no longer among them. While the proceedings were still in progress, the public prosecutor applied for three other plants to be discontinued. Finally, a single page of the comic remained alcove secrets of Ferocius as factual relevance left. The book was confiscated and the three main responsible persons at the publishing house were sentenced to a fine of 2500 DM each for jointly committed distribution of pornographic writings . Due to alleged procedural errors, the public prosecutor's office appealed to the Federal Court of Justice . In 1999, the latter referred the proceedings back to the Meiningen Chamber. In 2001, the case against one was fined 15,000 DM set , which accepted the publishers because it had "conducted psychological and physical force" her the "already at the limits of the third round of the process."

literature

  • Roland Seim , Josef Spiegel (ed.): “From 18” - censored, discussed, suppressed. Examples from the cultural history of the Federal Republic of Germany. "The third degree". A catalog book. 6. Reprint of the 3rd improved, revised and updated edition. Telos Verlag, Münster 2002, ISBN 3-933060-01-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Censorship Sampler (CD)
  2. ↑ Alpha Comic Verlag at Comicguide.de
  3. ↑ s. Achim Schnurrer: That was U-COMICS (PDF file, p. 6f; accessed on March 9, 2017)
  4. ^ Spiegel: Danger in Default 1996
  5. ↑ Roland Seim "No Sex, please!" - Comic and Censorship ( Memento from November 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 158 kB)
  6. ^ Publishers' trial diary ( Memento from September 11, 2004 in the Internet Archive )