Huck Finn

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Huck Finn is a comic novel by Olivia Vieweg from 2013. The coloring of the adaptation of Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was partly done by Ines Korth.

Creation and publication

In 2011, Suhrkamp Verlag started a new series of graphic novels curated by Andreas Platthaus with Nicolas Mahler's adaptation of Thomas Bernhard's novel Alte Meister . The requirement for this was the implementation of works from the company's own program as comics. Olivia Vieweg recommended herself for the project because she had previously sent her diploma thesis at the Bauhaus University Weimar , the comic Endzeit , to Platthaus. Upon request, she decided on Huckleberry Finn , although The Wizard of Oz would also have accepted. She made a few sample pages and was hired after an appointment with the publisher in February 2012.

Olivia Vieweg was previously only familiar with the material from an anime television series from the 1970s to 1990s. In preparation, she read the novel in several stages in order to keep the plot better and decided during a vacation in Greece which episodes she wanted to implement from it. Vieweg modernized the plot and moved it to the Saale . This was important to her in order not to limit her research to books. On her blog, she documented a trip to Halle that she took for this purpose. She liked " the sound of 'Halle an der Saale' [and also] the beautiful contrasts between the picturesque nature and the prefabricated building areas ". She told the MDR that she would have refused the order if Suhrkamp had not allowed this transfer of the subject. Preparation and implementation took place almost all year round in 2012, while she also worked as an illustrator for the children's book series Vampirinternat Schloss Schauerfels and colorist for the comic series Silberpfeil . In contrast, Ines Korth from Düsseldorf created a large part of the coloring for Huck Finn .

The volume was published in May 2013. It is marketed as "Die (sic) graphic novel". Olivia Vieweg doesn't really care about this term, and she stands by it because it makes it easier for new readers to access. She draws comparisons to marketing expressions such as “Fragrance” for perfume or “Blockbuster” for film, but also says that Huck Finn “is and will of course be a comic”. A translation into Spanish was published in June 2014.

action

The plot follows roughly that of the original in broad terms and in some details . Only the episodes described under The Duke and the King and Jim's Escape have been completely deleted. The story begins in the real city of Halle an der Saale and takes place in 2013. In the prologue, Tom and “his boys” decided to form a gang. Over beer and hand-rolled cigarettes, one indulges in violent fantasies about the crimes to be committed and decides that anyone who wants to join the gang must agree that their family will be "smashed" by the others in the event of betrayal. Since Huck Finn has no one to blackmail his loyalty through, he cannot be accepted. But the childish things get on his nerves anyway and he says goodbye.

After the death of his mother, Huck was withdrawn from his alcoholic father by the social welfare office and given care to a widow. While strolling through Halle, he eases his bladder in front of the "Mississippi" brothel and is reprimanded by the stateless 19-year-old Asian prostitute Jin. But her pimp Maik rudely chases her to a suitor. A little later, Huck is picked up by his father, who is abstinent for a short time. He kidnaps Huck in order to educate him according to his ideas, which Huck initially likes. Soon, however, the father starts drinking again and locks Huck in a hut against his will. Huck escapes and fakes a murder on him with the blood of a dead cat in order to suggest to his father that there is no longer any point in pursuing him.

With a found raft, he drives down the Saale and camps on an island. There he meets Jin, who ran away from her pimp because he wanted to sell her to Cologne , where her life would have been even harder. Jin fears that Maik has written a reward for her and that she is wanted. Huck explores Maik's hangout and can confirm that. Together they plan to drift from the Saale into the Elbe to Hamburg, where Jin's sister lives. One morning while Jin is sleeping, Huck runs into two bounty hunters sent by Maik. He briefly considers betraying Jin, but then decides against it and feigns a contagious disease. That's why they even give him some money for a doctor.

Huck and Jin continue their raft trip during the night and are rammed by a ferry. The raft is destroyed, the two of them are able to escape to the bank and, drenched, are taken in by the apparently nice Krüger family. Huck feels at home straight away, while Jin senses that something is in the air and that the clan's father is being groped. She decides to take care of repairing the raft. The Krügers have been in a bloody feud with the shepherd family for 30 years. At an event in the kindergarten where everyone is encouraged to be friendly, the two clan fathers are seething. When a teenage couple in love from both families runs away together, the argument escalates. Even Benny Krüger, who was about the same age as Huck and was friends with, was subsequently killed. Meanwhile, Jin has repaired the raft, and together they continue the journey.

As a result, the remaining problems resolve themselves. Jin and Huck learn from the "friendly bounty hunters" that Maik has been arrested with a large amount of cocaine. Jin already read in the newspaper some time ago that Huck's father had died and confesses that to him. He takes it calmly. Together they move back to Halle and Huck calls Tom on the mobile phone.

reception

According to Jan Leichsenring ( literaturkritik.de ), the strength of the narrative lies in “ emphasizing the presence of this subject without defusing the plot or trimming it down for a younger target group. "Viewegs Huck Finn " opens up a new perspective on the novel, but also works perfectly as a stand-alone work "," could just as well have always been a comic and nothing else. “For Verena Fischer-Zernin from Hamburger Abendblatt , the modernization of the subject“ works surprisingly well in a playful way ”. Only the episode with the family feud is " not sufficiently plausible " , despite some aptly worked out figures . Sebastian Hammelehle says on Spiegel Online that this “ at least doesn't bother ”. He particularly sees the “ undogmatic, anti-educational and, at the same time, all the more humane attitude ” of Twain's novel successfully implemented. Frank Neubauer essentially agrees with this in his criticism for Zack magazine . In his words, Vieweg cleverly incorporates “ Twain's social criticism. […] One could almost think that our society has hardly changed in the almost 130 years […]. "

Hammelehle perceives the drawing style as " independent, warm-hearted, very atmospheric and so casual that you can immerse yourself in the story as quickly as Finn in the hall ". He also praises the facial expressions of the characters, which, according to Fischer-Zernin, " the Manga- tried draftsman " succeeds with just a few strokes. What she describes as "the beauty of nature, which even a shampoo bottle in the river and wind turbines on the horizon cannot harm ", also has eerie and unreal undertones for Leichsenring. He sees parallels to Jirō Taniguchi , in particular The Walking Man , but also Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter . For Martin Jurgeit in the Comix magazine, “ Olivia Vieweg's manga roots are clearly reflected in the stringent narrative rhythm and drawing style ”.

Both Fischer-Zernin and Hammelehen are taken with the red tones of Vieweg and Korth, and their “ summery mood ”. Neubauer also praises the earth-colored pictures.

A report on the author and work was broadcast in July 2013 in the Thuringia Journal of the MDR. On 3sat was Huck Finn presented as "cultural time children's book Tip" in August, 2013.

expenditure

Web links

  • Olivia Vieweg: Huckleberry Finn. Retrieved June 8, 2014 ( Huck Finn developer blog , last updated November 1, 2012).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Matthias Hofmann: Suhrkamp goes graphic novel: "Good comics need their time". Comic Report, 2011, accessed on May 29, 2014 (interview with Andreas Platthaus).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Matthias Hofmann: “The boys and I have decided to start a gang.” On the trail of Huckleberry Finn . In: Zack . No. 171 . Mosaik Steinchen for Steinchen Verlag, September 2013, ISSN  1438-2792 , DNB  020631308 , p. 34–36 (interview with Olivia Vieweg).
  3. ↑ Lars von Törne: Portrait of the cartoonist Olivia Vieweg. The world changer. Der Tagesspiegel , July 29, 2013, accessed on June 7, 2014 (presumably it is Huckleberry Finn (original title: Huckleberry no Bōken ) from 1976 or its successor series The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn ( Huckleberry Finn Monogatari )).
  4. ^ A b c Frank Neubauer: Spotlights. Huck Finn . In: Zack . No. 169 . Mosaik Steinchen for Steinchen Verlag, July 2013, ISSN  1438-2792 , DNB  020631308 , p. 50 .
  5. ↑ a b book box. "Huck Finn. The Graphic Novel" by Olivia Vieweg. MDR , July 30, 2013, archived from the original on July 14, 2014 ; accessed on June 15, 2016 (transcription of a broadcast of the MDR Thüringen Journal): “I was totally happy that the publisher was so enthusiastic about the idea of ​​bringing history into the present. Without that I wouldn't have done it, because just using an illustration as a template wouldn't have been the same fun. Then it would have been a commissioned work that you might have noticed. "
  6. ↑ Martin Boisen: Deutsche Comics: Mai 2013. Comic Report, July 13, 2013, accessed on June 8, 2014 .
  7. ↑ Olivia Vieweg and Mark Twain. (PDF) Impedimenta, accessed on June 24, 2014 (Spanish, advertising brochure, volume, however, has already appeared one week after the specified date).
  8. ↑ a b Jan Leichsenring: From the Mississippi to the Saale. Olivia Vieweg's comic adaptation of Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". literaturkritik.de , August 1, 2013, accessed June 7, 2014 .
  9. ↑ a b c Verena Fischer-Zernin: The raft to freedom. Olivia Vieweg tells and draws “Huck Finn” based on “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain. Hamburger Abendblatt , August 1, 2013, accessed on June 7, 2014 (taken from the online edition).
  10. ↑ a b c Sebastian Hammelehle: "Huck Finn" as a graphic novel: Free space, I'll bring a lady! Spiegel Online , July 3, 2013, accessed June 7, 2014 .
  11. ^ Martin Jurgeit: Graphic Novels . In: Comix . No. 6/2011 . JNK, Verlag Jurgeit, Krismann & Nobst, Berlin 2011, DNB  1014791847 , p. 51 .
  12. ↑ Michael Schmitt: At the great river. The Kulturzeit children's book tip in August 2013. 3sat , August 2, 2013, accessed on June 8, 2014 .