"Travel - it leaves you speechless, then it turns you into a storyteller." (Ibn Battuta).
In other words, whoever travels can tell something. Spoken, photographed or drawn. Graphic Travelogues are dedicated to this form. Various travel comics already exist, often initiated by the Goethe-Institut - but scattered, sometimes difficult to find. Graphic Travelogues collects old treasures, creates new ones and presents them in a new setting. Join us on this special journey, experience and immerse yourself in new worlds.
On the go with the pen
Where did our artists go? You can track their travel routes and destinations on the map. Discover known and unknown places and experience them from a new, drawn perspective. Simply zoom in and click on the illustrations!
Dreaming of traveling - this has become a bestseller in times of the pandemic. We, too, are quenching a little wanderlust. With Graphic Travelogues #Murals we continue our exciting journey and reach a new dimension. Our artists conquer the public space with their travel stories.
The Berlin comic artist Leonard Ermel moved to Brussels for six months - to the secret European capital of comics. With his digital diary sketches, he has found a remedy for the feeling of being a stranger.
In 2017, Sebastian was invited to the Aké Arts & Book Festival in Lagos. There, he met many interesting people, including some from northern Nigeria, who persuaded him to leave the busy city and visit their homeland.
Nino Paula Bulling's comic reportages are always political and leave plenty of room for the perspectives of the interlocutors. Bulling remembers the month in Paris in 2012 primarily through the people and places she encountered.
Sebastian Lörscher spent five months in Haiti. He lived in the dusty metropolis of Port-au-Prince and roamed the deep nowhere of the surrounding countryside. He met the poor and the rich. He danced at voodoo festivals and cheered at cockfights. And everywhere he went, he drew.
Reinhard Kleist's travel sketches and watercolours from Algeria: 10 miniatures, almost all in colour. Sandy brown. Lots of vivid blue Alleyways full of steps and rows or networks of small balconies with colourful curtains billowing in the wind.
The list of countries from which the Berlin illustrator Reinhard Kleist brought along his travel sketches is long. He was also in China on behalf of the Goethe-Institut for a workshop with local comic artists.
Travelling to Vietnam is not uncommon for Indians. But looking at the country through Reinhard Kleist’s sketches is different from trawling the Instagram feed of the tourists.
Paulina Stulin herself was on an Erasmus exchange in Krakow ten years ago. And her stay made a deep impression on her. She simply loves the rough and the ornate, the medieval architecture coupled with prefabricated buildings, and, of course, also the nature of the Slavic soul. The perfect setting for her comic The Right Here, Right Now Thing with its clearly autobiographical protagonist.
In his explorations in Tokyo, Dirk Schwieger does not follow his individual interests or impulses, but works through the tasks that his followers give him on his blog. He published the comic experiment Moresukine - Weekly from Tokyo on a weekly basis. It offers impressions from Tokyo in particular and Japanese (popular) culture in general.
The illustrator and comic artist Olivier Kugler travels the world as a reportage artist. In Laos, he accompanied a veterinarian into the jungle to care for loggers' working elephants. French vet Bertrand Bouchard invited the London-based cartoonist to travel with him deep into the jungle for a few days and record what they experience.
Jens Harder actually wanted to research the rapid changes in Beijing that have transformed China's capital from a seemingly endless two-story village into a mega-metropolis dotted with skyscrapers in just a few years. But on location, the state's compulsion to control and the draftsman's sense of freedom clashed mightily.
In Saint-Victor-sur-Rhins Gregor, Hinz takes us to the small community of the same name in the French Auvergne-Rhone-Alps region. His picture story is composed of a series of fragments painted with felt-tip pens, which tell of his travel impressions with a wink.
Jens Harder rambled through Lima for five hours without a plan, without a goal. The outcome consists of fleeting, marginal observations that show lengthy research isn’t always necessary.
Graphic Travelogues collects old treasures, creates new ones and presents them in a new setting: We have gone back to the drawing and cooking table – stay tuned for the most flavorsome dishes and illustrations to feed your soul, nourish your mind, and delight your palate. Welcome to Graphic Travelogues Culinary! Enjoy!
Learn more about our well-known artists, including Barbara Yelin, Reinhard Kleist and Sarnath Banerjee. All with proven comic expertise and sometimes with more, sometimes with less travel experience in the respective country.
Graphic Travelogues presents travel experiences by comic artists from different countries, illuminates and identifies recurring topics. From sketches to graphic novels, graphic diaries and travel drawings, we collect treasures here and question concepts and motivations, techniques and experiences.
Travel Sketching Seven things and the discovery of slowness
Travel memories that remain unfazed by the deluge of selfies: while some people bring countless smartphone photos home with them from every vacation, travel sketchers use brush and paper to record their impressions.
