Grand Design Communications is working with DTV, the agents for publisher Klett Kinderbuch to represent domestic rights for Anke Kuhl’s award winning graphic novel Manno! My Childhood As It Really Really Was.
The title, Manno! roughly translates as “C’mon!”, and tells a series of hilarious yet touching vignettes the author’s childhood growing up in the 1970s in a small town in West Germany. It’s a world where her sister, Eva, is her constant companion and her constant foe. Theirs is a world of discovery, of understanding, and of heartbreak and fear too, lovingly rendered in this touching book that will appeal to children and adults.
Manno! has been recognized as one of the best all-ages German graphic novels. Published in February 2020 by Klett Kinderbuch, Manno! was already recognized as something special, winning the Berthold Leibinger Foundation Comicbuchpreis (Comic Book Prize).
“It took only the first three episodes of Manno! to enchant the jury with its humor, its vibrant language, and its wonderful snapshots from a completely normal child’s life as it arcs between euphoria and catastrophe.” said Brigitte Helbling, of the Berthold Leibinger Foundation. “The stories are loosely connected into a memoir of a childhood, whose completed structure as a comic for all ages stirs the greatest anticipation.”
In July, Manno! was awarded the Max und Moritz-Preis for Best Children’s Comic. The prize jury wrote, “The characters are lovingly drawn, but not prettified. Their facial expressions are impressively relevant and accurate. Even in the bunny rabbits Blacky and Stupsi, the feelings are immediately recognizable.”
Torsten Adair of the US comics and graphics novel news site The Beat covered the awards, writing of Manno! “WOW! One nice thing about foreign comics awards is the delight of discovery! Anke Kuhl is a lauded illustrator of children’s books in Germany, and this is her first comics work. No English editions, yet.”
Click on the video below to view Anke Kuhl acceptance speech for Manno! being named the Best Graphic Novel for Children.
Kulh’s graphic novel has received praise in the media as well. Der Spiegel Online, the website of the largest news weekly magazine in the country, wrote “It couldn’t be better. I wish Anke Kuhl would resurrect my childhood with her wonderful line. An incredibly funny picture book for – really! – the whole family”.
Andreas Platthaus, a comics and animation historian and Literary Editor for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, praised the book, writing in March 2020 “What we read [in Manno!] is of timeless brilliance.”
“When I saw Manno! I recognized a lot of similar qualities with the kinds of graphic novels that are very popular in the United States now, especially stories of girls growing up, like Nat Enough by Maria Scrivan and the works of Raina Telgemeier,” said GDC’s David Bernstein. “We’re happy to be working with DTV and Klett Kinderbuch to represent this excellent graphic novel to American publishers.”