The management team of Edition Moderne: Claudio Barandun, Julia Marti and Marie-France Lombardo. © Anne Morgenstern/Edition Moderne
Edition Moderne is a legendary publishing house that has made the art form of comics known in German-speaking countries. Founded more than 40 years ago in Zurich, the house is now struggling to survive.
Frank Schmolke, for example. The Munich native, whose rousing graphic novel "Night in Paradise" has just been made into a film with Jürgen Vogel in the lead role, says of Edition Moderne: "You have made me the illustrator I am today." Or Bernadette Schweihoff, who presented the most narratively and artistically exciting comic of the past year with "Treib". She knows: "If we don't want to bring up the rear in graphic literature in the German-speaking world, then we can only prevent this if we save 'modernity'. We owe nothing less than a new art form to the pioneer of avant-garde comics." Then there is Nicolas Mahler, the minimalist with the pencil from Vienna, who is convinced: "The continued existence of Edition Moderne is important in order to channel perhaps unwieldy works into cultural life through perseverance."
Edition Moderne was founded in 1981 by David Basler in Zurich
One male and two male artists who are completely different in their work. However, they are united by their desire for new forms of dramaturgical and graphic expression – and currently also by their concern for Edition Moderne. The publishing house, which was founded in Zurich in 1981 by David Basler and has developed into a locomotive for comic art, is in economic distress.
In his studio in Markt Indersdorf: Frank Schmolke. © Roswitha Höltl
Claudio Barandun, Julia Marti and Marie-France Lombardo have been managing the company since 2019. "We had to tackle extensive restructuring," Barandun explains in an interview with our newspaper. "This affected and still affects almost all areas." The effects of the pandemic, rapidly rising production costs, inflation, and also the publishing house in Switzerland with its wage costs and the euro/franc exchange rate would make things even more difficult. The publisher sums up the 2020 to 2022 financial years as follows: "We can report stable sales figures that almost compensate for the increased production costs – but not the amount of work that was and is necessary for this. When we took over the publishing house, we did so with its debts and also bore the wage costs for a position ourselves for 2022 – not counting the countless overtime hours. Now our own funds have been exhausted and we can no longer compensate for the resulting hole in the coffers." Although the autumn program is not endangered - but if it continues as before, "we will run out of money in spring 2024".
Has released her debut "Treib" at Edition Moderne: Bernadette Schweihoff. © Frank Gottlieb
But that would be a real loss. And that's why it's not just Schweihoff, Schmolke and Mahler who stand up for the house, but also many illustrators, journalists, colleagues from other publishers – and readers. The Swiss launched a crowdfunding campaign last Wednesday (May 17, 2023). The goal is 100,000 Swiss francs. "We need time. And we can buy them with it," says Barandun. Anyone who supports the team with ten francs will be immortalized on the "Hall of Fame" in the publishing house bookstore – for 5000 there's a private reading by an author.
Bernadette Schweihoff's new book is scheduled to be published by Edition Moderne in 2024
It is not only for Schweihoff that a lot depends on the success of the campaign. She is currently working on her new book. The story takes place in Munich shortly before the Second World War. "There are predators, a ghost, a great German writer, criminals and a little girl," she says. More is not revealed at this point. Suffice it to say that Edition Moderne plans to publish the work in autumn 2024. Let's look forward to it.