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Kugelblitz - German-Japanese Comic Project

2 Jul 2005 Category: Events & Exhibitions, Graphics, Illustration, Japan, Worldwide

We’ve mentioned the “German year in Japan 2005/2006″ a couple of times already on PingMag since they really seem to be holding nice events! Always introducing new sides of Germany to Japanese people, the event kicking off today continues this tradition. Kugelblitz, a German- Japanese comic project, is a collaborative exhibition of the comic groups MOGA MOBO (Berlin) and NouNouHou (Tokyo).

As a part of the opening party, the creator speaks about themselves briefly: “In Germany, it is hard to make living only by being cartoonist,” Jonas Greulich says. It seems that this situation actually forces them to diversify their activities and try out new things because just they can’t limit themselves to comics. Naturally, members of MOGA MOBO are active in various fields such as illustration, animation, art and events. They created a free comic magazine called “MOGA MOBO” back in 1994, which has reached it’s 100th issue recently. Amazing! “If there aren’t enough comics, I can make some.”- that’s the spirit.

Next comes Japanese creative collective, NouNouHou. Like MOGA MOBO, NouNouHou is the title of the self-published comic magazine they created. Hoping to produce their own media where they can express themselves freely, this project has started in 1998. Smelly gives a speech on behalf of the group. He is so entertaining and makes everybody laugh. Later I find out that he is an artistic perfomer combining art, music, theater and comedy. No wonder he was so entertaining to watch!! By the way, his brother Takashi Okazaki’s comic “AFROSAMURAI” is about to broadcast in the US as an animated series (and Samuel L. Jackson does one of the character’s voices)! Go- NouNouHou!

There is only one thing I want to complain about, though. While creators were giving their speeches at the party, there were quite a few people chatting on the back. It got so loud at one point that the organizer had to warn them to turn their volumes down. Bit of a shame, really. Aren’t we grown-ups? We should be all supportive especially when cool events like this one are provided for free!

Written by Kyoko

magazine, *NouNouHou* and *MOGA MOBO*

*AFROSAMURAI* by Takashi Okazaki

fabric installation done by Kaori Kuniyasu

Hiroyuki Hiwatashi's works

Thomas Gronle's works

at exhibition

NouNouHou(L-R)Takashi Okazaki, Ryoji Shibasaki, Kaori Kuniyasu, MELLY

NouNouHou(L-R)Hiroyuki Hiwatashi, Motonobu Hattori

MOGA MOBO((L-R)Titus Ackermann, Thomas Gronle, Jonas Greulich

at the party

3 Comments

Hey there, thanks you dropped us a line about the review of our exhibition! Thanks a lot!!! We really enjoyed the exhibition and we met a lot of great and interesting people in Tokyo! By the way: I didnt notice people chatting in the back while the opening speach was held…I was far to exited, hahaha! See you next time in Berlin: TITUS

Posted by: Titus Ackermann on August 4th, 2005 at 11:19 pm
Hey guys, awsome Party. I enjoyed the website. \^o^/

Posted by: Jessica Alcon on April 6th, 2006 at 1:24 pm
is it monster ? =)

Posted by: kurye on February 16th, 2008 at 10:50 pm

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