To “hire” a person, that’s what the feeling tells you, can’t actually be a good thing. And indeed, the “Verdingung” is a scandal in Swiss history. This particularly affected children from the poorest backgrounds, who had to slave away in agriculture as de facto forced laborers without rights. One of these children was the father of Lika Nüssli, who tells of his time as a contract boy in the 1940s in her book “Starkes Ding”, which was awarded the best Swiss comic in 2022. She does this with a very original, deliberately naïve style inspired by Swiss Senntumsmalerei. In the comic bar in the city library in HP8, Nüssli, who also made a comic about her mother’s dementia (“Don’t forget yourself”), talks to Barbara Yelin about “Strong thing”.
Comic Bar with Lika Nüssli and Barbara Yelin, Thursday, Jan. 26, 7 p.m., City Library in HP8, Hans-Preißinger-Str. 8, free entry