Anna Haifisch’s Von Spatz

German illustrator Anna Haifisch will read from her latest graphic novel Von Spatz. An absurdist tale about artists in crisis, Von Spatz follows a mentally exhausted Walt Disney trying to recover at the Von Spatz Rehabilitation Center. There Disney meets Tomi Ungerer and Saul Steinberg, and together, they embark on a regimen of relaxation and art therapy. Expanding on her graphic exploration of the anxieties of artists in her weekly comic The Artist, Haifisch looks at the fervent drive and crippling insecurities of the average artist and places those same issues on the shoulders of three celebrated 20th century artists.

Anna Haifisch was born in 1986 in Leipzig, Germany. She studied at the Academy of Visual Arts, Leipzig (2004-2011) and worked as a screenprinter for Kayrock Screenprinting in Brooklyn. In 2013 she co-founded the comics and graphics festival “The Millionaires Club.” She draws the weekly comic The Artistfor vice.com. Her books in English include Drifter (Perfectly Acceptable Press), The Artist (Breakdown Press), and most recently Von Spatz (Drawn and Quarterly). Anna lives and works in Leipzig. She appears at MoCCA with the support of the Goethe-Institut and Rotopol Press.