Congratulations!

The winning works of the main categories are awarded € 300 each and receive a GINCO trophy in the form of our avatar, Artie the "Bildkröte".
Previously, Artie had been 3D-printed from recycled materials. This year, Artie is made from hand-poured artisanal concrete, to serve as a mini planter, a candy keeper or clutter collector. Original Artie design by Kami Wallner, trophy by Lisa Rau and 2022 illustrations by Martina Peters. (Discover the collaborative nature of Artie here.)

BEST WEBCOMIC

Der Zeitraum/ A Fraction of Time

by Lisa Frühbeis
Link: https://tapas.io/series/A-Fraction-of-Time

"Lisa Frühbeis' comic about a composer and single mother who discovers a strange door into a parallel world on a remote island convinced us as a jury. The comic was published in 2021 between September and November, in a total of 15 episodes on the webcomic platform Tapastic.

"A Fraction of Time" is not only our favorite in the webcomic category, but in the jury's overall ranking, along with one other title, it achieved the highest score in all categories. For us, this was proof that webcomics and print comics can inspire in equal measure. The use of simple lines and colors to create masterful image compositions makes this comic an absolute model for the modern comic on the web. It was important to us as a jury to have a category that highlights the web as a medium and to nominate titles that also exploit it in a special way.

Lisa Frühbeis has succeeded in a grandiose way in creating a captivating story using the scroll-down principle. That's why we're honoring her comic "A Fraction of Time" as the best comic in the "Webcomics" category." – Ralf Singh

BEST PRINTCOMIC

Vasja, dein Opa

by Anna Rakhmanko & Mikkel Sommer
Link: http://www.rotopolpress.de/
produkte/vasja-dein-opa

"The author Anna Rakhmanko retells the moving story of her great-aunt "Lyuba", who in 1941 as a little girl was taken with her family one night by Soviet soldiers from their home in a Romanian village and deported to Siberia. The journey there is marked by inconceivable hardships and dangers; life in the north, where the family must live and work from then on, is hard. Not all family members survive.

Anna Rakhmanko renders the narrative very vividly, one almost has the feeling one hears the voice of "Grandma Lyuba" as she tells of her joy from the child's perspective when the family is able to collect a few buckets of cloudberries on the journey. Drawing-wise, Mikkel Sommer sets the story with rough, pointed strokes, leaving plenty of room for the narrative to unfold. The furrowed faces, the hard work and the barren landscape are given a representative character in the almost woodcut-like images. This is quite appropriate, because like Rakhmanko's family, an estimated 1.2 million people were deported from their homes in Romania, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to faraway places in the course of the USSR's extensive ethnic deportations between 1941 and 1942. Little is still read about this massive form of political violence and oppression. With its authentic eyewitness account, "Vasja, Your Grandpa" provides an important insight into a part of world history that is written not only by state leaders, but above all by the people. The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, in the context of which abduction by Russia is also reported, gives "Vasja, dein Opa" a shocking topicality.

Formally, "Vasja, dein Opa" shows very impressively how story and artwork in the medium of comics can merge into a coherent and sophisticated overall work, while both levels retain an independent high quality. For the jury, "Vasja, dein Opa" is the clear winner in the print comic category." – Rilana Kubassa

BEST COMIC FOR YOUNG READERS

Das Ungeheuer von Lake Oddleigh

by Tor Freeman (Comic) & Dominik Merscheid (Translation to German)

Link: https://pe-ri-dot.com/collections/polle

"Oddly, English, German translation: "seltsam, sonderbar". Perhaps also "schrullig" (quirky)?
In a town with almost the same name and pronounced the same way, the duo of Chief Inspector Jessie and Sergeant Sid have already been investigating a whole series of strange incidents, which can be read at Reprodukt Verlag. Today, however, we'll be talking about a story that appeared in POLLE, the comic magazine for children, and in which the two of them find themselves at the lake in the small town of Oddleigh. In this, probably a monster drives his mischief and puts the inhabitants into fear and terror, as well as seventeen-trope ballad mood. But in a world full of talking animals, perhaps even a monster in a lake is not quite what it seems.

With "The Monster of Lake Oddleigh," London-based children's author and illustrator Tor Freeman has created a humorous declaration of love for classic British detective stories, garnished with sea bears, sailor's yarns, and the peace of mind of two lovers. Drawing-wise, she demonstrates wonderful timing that knows how to convey her humor well. Her style is pencil-loose and light on her feet, the coloring simple but coherent. It's all magnificently charmingly translated by Dominik Merscheid.

We're awarding "The Monster of Lake Oddleigh" as the best children's and young adult comic, but if I'm honest, it's simply a comic for anyone with a thing for warmly quirky detective stories." – Ines Korth

BEST SELFPUBLISHING COMIC

Warnebi

by Wiebke Bolduan

Link: https://wiebkebolduan.
myportfolio.com/warnebi-comic

"Warnebi the Pink Lagoon - and its souvenir store, that is the central place in the life of Anders, the protagonist of the self-published short comic. Anders is employed at the Warnebi souvenir store and Bolduan manages to accurately show us a wonderful picture of the monotony of Anders' life in the first scene: It's raining and no one feels like visiting a lagoon in the rain, even if it is pink. But surrounded by pink merchandise, Anders nevertheless dutifully sits out his working hours.
We as readers also learn that Anders actually has another colleague, but he just doesn't show up today. After the work is done, Anders goes to Nille, who is supposed to help him out of his sensory alienation as a life coach.

Wiebke Bolduan has created a real gem here. The drawing style is loose and reduced but at the same time razor-sharp precise, gets by with only 2 colors (plus pencil hatching), shows a believable, vivid world in which believable, vivid characters live.

Anders has to ask himself questions that most people have probably asked themselves before: What do I actually want in my life and am I where I belong? All too often, these questions are answered in stories with grandiose adventures, with mighty battles, fought against clear problems, with a clean ending: NOW all is well. But how often does something like this really happen? How much more often don't we feel like Anders, who doesn't really know what his problem is in the first place? In Nille, Anders has a great mentor. Not because she takes him into a monomyth, but because she helps him as a coach and sometimes just asks the right questions.

As someone who has experience with therapy and depression myself, I was deeply touched by the normalcy with which it is shown here that someone recognizes that they need help and then goes and gets that help.
In the end, not so much has changed. But the first steps have been taken.

I love this comic. I love the characters, I love how thoughtfully they and their problems are handled, I love how real and believable this story is told, I even love the Pink Lagoon, even if we never learn why it's pink.

10/10 points, I would come by even in the rain and enjoy a pink drink with a Warnebi plushie." – Kami Wallner

COMICS OF THE HEART

This category was created by the 2021 committee to award individual favorites "close to their hearts" with 100 Euros each. The 2022 committee kept the category.

ZACK! by Volker Schmitt & Màriam Ben-Arab,
awarded by Ralf Singh:

"The comic tells the story of a young girl who helps a stranded pirate find his crew again. In the process, she learns to appreciate the value of her own family. With its fantastic artwork, the comic is a highlight of this year's submissions and is absolutely worth reading for any age group."
Link: https://www.kibitz-verlag.de/b%C3%BCcher/zack/

FÜRCHTETAL by Christine Färber & Markus Färber,
awarded by Ines Korth:

"Grief forces everyone into their own scenario. In the comic strip "Fürchtetal," the siblings Christine and Markus Färber work through the suicide of their father in an impressively haunting ink style that is often reminiscent of woodcuts. It's about remembering, remembering one's own childhood, remembering a person who somehow hasn't been around for a while, and grieving. The loss of a parent, which begins long before the actual death, the clinging to the past that was so beautiful, the inability to comprehend the incomprehensible in the face of mental illness, all this gripped me and took me with it, perhaps even more than I would have liked."
Link: http://www.rotopolpress.de/produkte/fuerchtetal

DAS GUTE AM ENDE DES TAGES by Greta von Richthofen,
awarded by Kathrin Klinger:

"The autobiographical comic tells of how the main character gives up her apartment in the spring of 2020 after her exams to travel to Spain with her husband. It is one of the first "Corona comics" and Greta manages to tell authentically, humorously and without self-pity about what it was like when the pandemic turned all plans upside down."
Link: http://www.dasguteamendedestages.de/