Jason Lutes

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Jason Lutes (born December 7, 1967 in New Jersey ) is an American comic artist , best known for his historical graphic novel trilogy Berlin . Lutes is a lecturer at the Center for Cartoon Studies ( CCS ) art school in Hartford , Vermont.

Life

Lutes started drawing when he was four to five years old. When he was eight, he took his parents on a trip to Europe for the first time in France, where he was enthusiastic about comics such as Tintin and Asterix . After graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), he got the opportunity to work for the comic publisher Fantagraphics in 1991 . There he was employed as assistant to the art director, but he gave up this position after a year. His first comic strip appeared in 1993 in The Stranger , a Seattle city ​​magazine . He got a permanent position at The Stranger and became the magazine's art director. In 1995 he gave up this work in order to be able to devote himself entirely to his own works. For two years, Lutes researched exclusively for a large-scale graphic novel about the “fascinating” Berlin of the 1920s.

He has lived on a farm in Vermont with his partner Becka Warren since 2007 and has two children with her. Since spring 2008 he has been teaching at the Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS) in Hartford , Vermont.

Works

Fool

The strips that appeared in The Stranger were later included in his first graphic novel The Jar of Fools (German title: Narren ). In it, he describes a few days from the life of an unemployed magician, placing particular emphasis on the portrayal of the protagonists 'feelings. The characters' motives for action are illustrated in dream sequences and flashbacks. For fools, Lutes received the Xeric Grant Award . Jar of Fools was initially self-published in 1994 and was published in 1997 by the Canadian publisher Drawn & Quarterly . The German edition was published by Carlsen Verlag in 1999 .

Fall fall

For the psychological crime story The Fall (German title: Herbstfall ), he worked with the comic author Ed Brubaker , who also took up crime and action themes in his earlier works. A young man is involved in a murder case nine years ago and is torn from his unspectacular life. The Fall was published in an anthology on Dark Horse and in 2001 as an album on Drawn & Quarterly . The German edition was published by Reprodukt in 2004 .

Berlin

In 1996 Lutes began preparations for his historical comic novel Berlin, which is set in Berlin during the late Weimar Republic . It begins in September 1928 and ends in January 1933 and describes various fates during this time. The comic impresses with the depiction of the historical cityscape and the different view of the political and social changes of this time depending on the character. This includes the love story between a young art student and an older journalist as well as the problems of a single mother.

Berlin was conceived by Lutes in 24 chapters, the first of which was published in 1998. In 2001 the first eight chapters were combined into the volume Berlin - City of Stones . In Germany, Carlsen Comics brought out this first volume of the planned trilogy in 2003 under the title Berlin - Steinerne Stadt . The second volume in German was also published by Carlsen in 2008 under the title Berlin - Bleierne Stadt , volume three came out at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2018 under the title "Berlin - Flirrende Stadt" ( Berlin - City of Lights ).

The German complete edition was published in January 2019 in a hardcover and larger format of 19.80 × 26.50 cm.

style

Lutes read a lot of superhero comics like The Avengers in his youth . In the late 1970s he discovered the comic magazine Heavy Metal , in which American and European comics were published for an adult audience. He was impressed and influenced by European comics through several trips to Europe. Today his role models include Wilhelm Busch , Rodolphe Töpffer , Osamu Tezuka , Hergé , Art Spiegelman , Chester Brown , Ben Katchor and David Mazzucchelli . According to Lutes, each of these cartoonists has advanced the medium in impressive and unprecedented ways.

Lutes is a representative of the realistic drawing style, in which many elements of the Ligne claire by Hergé and Vittorio Giardino can be found. Often parts of a scene are enlarged, a foot on the pavement, a hand waving goodbye. He dispenses with gray tones and plays with the contrast between black and white. The figures move in front of detailed backgrounds.

One of his role models is Scott McCloud , and it was precisely this that led to criticism of his early work. Due to the uncompromising structure of the comics, based on McCloud's theories, there is sometimes a lack of tension and surprises. But “such experiments [.] Have long since become rarer.” McCloud himself found this early work so convincing that he used a few panels from Jar of Fools for documentation in his book Reinvent Comics .

Andreas Platthaus thinks Berlin is groundbreaking, namely "something like the starting signal for the graphic novel campaign of the German comic publishers."

Publications

Berlin trilogy

Movies

  • Jason Lutes' "Berlin: City of Smoke". TV report, USA, 2008, 2:07 min., Director: Jamin Brophy-Warren, production: Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Internet publication: August 22, 2008 by WSJ, online video.
  • Comic author Jason Lutes: A Berlin Panopticon of the 1920s. Television report, Germany, 2019, 3:08 min., Moderation: Constantin Schreiber , director: Alex Jakubowski, production: hr-Fernsehen , series: Nachtmagazin , first broadcast: February 5, 2019 on Das Erste , notice from ARD . Conversation with Lutes on the occasion of a book signing in a comic book shop in Frankfurt a. M.
  • Book: "Berlin" by Jason Lutes. TV report, Germany, 2019, 5:26 min., Book: Lotar Schüler, camera: Eyk Boklage, production: 3sat , series: Kulturzeit , first broadcast: February 6, 2019 on arte, notice from ARD , online video available until on February 7, 2024.
  • Comic art: Berlin in the 1930s. TV report, Germany, 2019, 2:04 min., Book: Kolja Kandziora, camera: M. Chmella, J. Eisel, production: arte , series: arte Journal , first broadcast: March 24, 2019 by arte, online video by arte, available until March 23, 2039.

Radio

  • Comic author Jason Lutes - A Berlin panopticon of the 20s. Talk, Germany, 2019, 7:52 min., Moderation: Andrea Heinze, production: Deutschlandfunk , series: Corso , first broadcast: February 4, 2019, transcript.

Web links

Berlin trilogy

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jason Lutes. In: Lambiek Comiclopedia , April 25, 2008.
  2. ↑ a b Lecturer list: CCS Faculty. In: Center for Cartoon Studies , accessed October 11, 2019.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Julina Morrow: 15 Questions. ( Memento from June 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). In: Sequential Highway , November 8, 2012, interview.
  4. ↑ a b Profile: Jason Lutes. ( Memento from March 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). In: Read Yourself RAW , 2006.
  5. ↑ Andrea Heinze: Comic author Jason Lutes - A Berlin Panopticon of the 20s. In: Deutschlandfunk , February 4, 2019, interview.
  6. ↑ a b Spring in Vermont. In: jlutes.wordpress.com , April 22, 2008.
  7. ↑ Jason Lutes. In: Drawn & Quarterly , accessed October 11, 2019.
  8. ^ Regula Freuler: Before the downfall. In: NZZ , October 19, 2008.
  9. ↑ a b Andreas Platthaus : The black and white miracle. In: faz.net , September 11, 2018, discussion of the complete edition of Berlin .
personal data
SURNAME Lutes, Jason
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American comic artist
DATE OF BIRTH 7th December 1967
PLACE OF BIRTH New Jersey