Starkes Ding
In this black-and-white graphic novel, printed on thick paper, the design often skilfully interacts with the illustrations. The story by Lika Nüssli tells the tale of her father who, as a boy in the early 1950s, was forced into child labour for several years on a farm in Toggenburg. Drawings of different sizes featuring thick black strokes and handwritten text, both beneath the pictures and in the speech bubbles, are arranged freely on the white pages, without the frames that are characteristic of the genre. In between are some nearly empty pages which feature diary-style notes made by Nüssli’s father in the 2000s (often including weather reports), presented in a typewriter font. These form a parallel story rich in associations. Page numbers and some occasional explanations of dialect words are placed at the foot of the page in the same typeface. The close collaboration between the author and the design team is exemplified by a single page printed in black, visible in the edges, which marks the moment in the story when the boy’s parents hand him over to start working. The material is treated with great sensitivity, and the pace and rhythm are outstanding. The book highlights how any story reconstructed from memory will necessarily contain gaps, and it also conveys the urgency and intensity with which it was told during the pandemic, when the author’s father was already over 80 years old.
