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Just came home from a mourning ceremony for Jutta Harms, who died shortly before Christmas.
#Comics people know her well, though most of you may not. At least in Germany, the recent, growing acceptance of comics as an art form as well as as a platform for feminist discourse is unthinkable without Jutta laying the groundwork since the early 90‘s, tirelessly translating, curating, shepherding artists and connecting the dots of local comic scenes dispersed all over Europe.
(1/5)
obituary (-/~)
She was a trailblazer, and a very kind one at that, even caring for the weirdest and angstiest nerds like myself.
The last years, I was always looking forward to having closer relations once my next book would be done. This will never happen now, and I am heartbroken 💙
obituary (-/~)
But I am all the more thankful to have had her around me during very formative years. It left a deep impression on me when she finally left her secure job at a law firm for good in order to concentrate on the precarious life of a freelance comic connectrix.
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She taught me that you can be sharp and funny without having to be cold. And showed me there is a way to know people, to see into their hearts, down to the dirty ground, and still like them – that turning your back on humanity, as well-founded as it may be, is eventually a cop-out, the easy way out. And while that extra mile is so much harder, it‘s going to be an amazing trip.
(5/5)
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I got to know Jutta during my intern years at the publishing company #Reprodukt around the turn of the millenium. She had just translated and published Debbie Drechsler‘s “Daddy‘s Girl”, and as much as I appreciated her work, I can only share her overt enthusiasm in hindsight when imagining what an utter oddity this must have been for the cis-bro fanboy comics scene of the nineties: a woman publishing the account of a female survivor of childhood sexual abuse.
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