After being associated primarily with children for years, the comic book industry in Germany is witnessing a remarkable growth in adult readership. Even though it does not exceed one-tenth of the French market, which is currently the largest and most significant in Europe, the shift in the German comics market with the rising demand for comic books by adults aged 25 to 80, promises a bright future.
Germany’s homegrown illustrated books industry was largely made up by just a handful of authors. However, the fall of the Berlin Wall has allowed many artists from East Germany and Eastern European countries such as Poland, Romania, Ukraine as well as the Baltic States, to settle in Berlin and work or practice their hobby of producing comics, especially political satires.
The growth of the industry has seen the birth of a number of publishing houses in Berlin; Reprodukt in 2001 and Jaja-Verlag in 2011. Renowned Swiss publishing house, Edition Moderne, has been translating French and American comics into German. Since 2005, majority of the German publishing houses have focused more on commissioning German comic titles than importing foreign titles translated to German.