Hello! I warmly welcome you to the first review of comics on Ramtatta.de!

In the past few days, I have received several shipments from various publishers. I am head over heels in comics and sinking into the drawn worlds.

I want to start with a series from the "The Next Art" publisher. It's called Pure Fruits and is free. The series consists of many short comics by artists who work for this publisher. You can find a variety of styles there, but all at a rather artistic, abstract level. Issue 2 is colorful, while in Issue 3 the colors are significantly reduced to neon blue, neon orange, brown, and white. I find the color style of this issue very successful and appealing. I also think the sponsorship in both issues is really cool. There is advertising, but it doesn't really come across as advertising since the featured artists in the magazine illustrated the ads – so it doesn't actually appear as advertising at all. While I didn't discover an overarching theme in the comics of Issue 2, in Issue 3 it is "the meaning (of life)".

Regarding the stories (but not all):

In both issues, I noticed the quirky illustrations by Gregor Hinz. They are childlike, and the characters are about people having an adventure with animals. I particularly found the comic in Issue 3 very funny. A man by the campfire with a lion and a very small horse discuss how "great" the day was. "And when it’s at its best, one should leave." So they decide to stone themselves, as they can no longer expect anything from life. I don't want to spoil the bitterly funny ending.

Another story from Issue 2 by Sarah Zeese is about a nighttime excursion of a group of raccoons. Nicely drawn, but they don't really do anything special. Just raccoons ;-)

Franziska Ludwig illustrated a poem by Christian Morgenstern called "Der Hecht und der heilige Sankt Anton" in Issue 2. The drawings somehow remind me of women's magazines, which is not meant to be a bad thing (and yes, I have held my mom's magazines before).

The cool comic about Jerome D Silk in Issue 2 requires closer examination. In the black and white drawings by James Novak, there are many details. The individual "panels" (that is, little pictures) are not separated by frames but rather blend into each other. James Novak also forgoes text here. So if you just skim through the comic, you end up with a lot of ink without a real plot. If you look more closely, you can recognize the life story of Jerome D Silk.

I find the comic by Volker Sponholz in Issue 2 somewhat nice. It tells the story of an annoyed daughter as she is left by her father at the train station. It seems very important to Volker Sponholz to visualize sounds and music in his comic.

In a completely different style, Volker Sponholz draws a comic in Issue 3 about a man who is visibly annoyed while taking a walk. Three pages go by in which the man just walks. Then he stops. Looks at the sea, walks a bit further, and then sees a flat stone. In the next two pages, you see him picking it up and flicking it into the water. After that, he continues on visibly relaxed.

I find "Ab durch die Mitte" by Tim Eckhorst very cool in Issue 3. He has a striking (how should I put it) advertising style (maybe that doesn't really fit either). In any case, his illustrations are very striking! He draws very accurately. He can draw people and cars excellently. His drawings have many shades but not so much that things disappear into black (or in this issue, brown). I also found the plot amusing, as he manages to change the storyline three times in 6 pages without it seeming forced.

There are then "Schwanz and tits" in Timo Schulz's "Glücklich Sterben" in Issue 3 ;-).

James Novak also presents himself from his good side again in Issue 3. This time with text and panels. An agent story about the meaning of life.

I find the story of "Gott & Zwacki" by Jens Rassmus very worth reading.

A sad story about the death of a friend's child is told to us with artistic images (again in that women's magazine style) by Franziska Ludwig as a conclusion.

You can also download the current issue from the website.

Pure Fruits 2: ISBN 978-3-939400-36-3
Pure Fruits 3: ISBN 978-3-939400-40-0