RÃ hner (Rohner)

Previously published in German by Ropol Press, Röhner is a delightfully detailed field guide to the every day tasks of living in an apartment – making coffee, watering plants, and maintaining order and a careful balance with neighbors – until that order is upset. Max Baitinger’s dry humor and precise drawings deftly personify his über persnickety protagonist, simply referred to as P., whose regimented life is disrupted by the arrival of Röhner, an unloved houseguest, who imposes upon his psyche and offsets the careful balance with his gregarious, omnipresent neighbor. Devious tricks and hilarious imaginations of Röhner’s elimination take shape, from painstakingly making up Röhner’s guestroom and then piercing the air mattress to cause a slow leak – to visions of an exploding coffee pot tearing off Röhner’s face. Baitinger has three books published in German and Röhner is his first English language publication.

Born in Penzberg, Upper Bavaria in 1982, Max Baitinger has been drawing comics since his apprenticeship as a carpenter. He studied illustration at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig. His work is influenced by the Duden Pictorial Dictionary of 1992, Beautiful Living; Stories by Luise Boege, and Alexander Kluge. As described by a critic, he “designs whole worlds with a few lines.” His book Heimdall was honorably mentioned at the International Comic Salon Erlangen 2014 (ICOM). The German version of Röhner was a finalist for the comic book award of the Berthold Leibinger Foundation and has been featured on The Geothe Institute website and by It’s Nice. Baitinger is an organizer of “The Millionaires Club” comic festival in Leipzig and he and works as a freelance cartoonist, illustrator and animator.