From the Big Bad Wolf to Donald Duck - Animals in Comics
Special Exhibition
© GRIMMWELT Kassel, Foto Nicolas Wefers
© GRIMMWELT Kassel, Foto Nicolas Wefers
© GRIMMWELT Kassel, Foto Nicolas Wefers
© 2025 PAWS Inc.
© GRIMMWELT Kassel, Foto Nicolas Wefers
© GRIMMWELT Kassel, Foto Nicolas Wefers
Whether in the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales or in contemporary comics – animals play essential roles. They appear as heroes or antiheroes, opponents or allies, loyal companions or enchanted humans. Often, they serve as projections of human traits, emotions, desires, fears, and values. Stories with anthropomorphic animals invite us to reflect on the real-life, everyday relationship between humans and animals.
Comics, as a highly popular medium, offer especially vivid portrayals and have made anthropomorphic animal characters into stars. Original drawings, sketches, studies, and merchandise – curated by art historian and comic expert Dr. Alexander Braun – provide insights into the humor, artistry, and history of comics up to the present day.
Animals have shaped the stories of comics in distinctive and profound ways – whether it’s the unlucky Donald Duck, the lazy and gluttonous Garfield, or the Wolf from Fables, inspired by Grimm’s fairy tales. 19th-century picture sheets, considered precursors to comics, feature animals as fairy tale heroes, role models, or even clichés.
The exhibition invites visitors to reflect on common stereotypes, explore different perspectives on human-animal relationships, encounter a variety of comic animal characters, create their own comics, and even transform themselves into animals.
Children receive a free activity booklet, the Puzzle Trail, encouraging creative engagement with the comic world, from Donald Duck to Garfield and fantastical animal characters.
Curated by Dr. Alexander Braun.
A comprehensive catalogue will be published alongside the exhibition.
The exhibition is generously sponsored by the City of Kassel (documenta city) and the Hessian Cultural Foundation.
© GRIMMWELT Kassel, Foto Nicolas Wefers
© GRIMMWELT Kassel, Foto Nicolas Wefers
© GRIMMWELT Kassel, Foto Nicolas Wefers
Dr. Alexander Braun
Born in Dortmund in 1966, Dr. Alexander Braun earned his PhD in art history in 1995 with a dissertation on American installation artist Robert Gober. His career as a visual artist included exhibitions in Germany, Austria, the UK, Spain, and the US. He has received prestigious grants and awards, including the Stiftung Kunstfonds (2011), the Bonn Art Prize (2009), and an artist residency at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas (1999).
Since 2008, Braun has focused increasingly on curating exhibitions about comics in museums. In 2010, he founded the German Academy of Comic Art. So far, he has curated 24 museum exhibitions on the subject, including Pioneers of the Comic (Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, 2016) and Comics! Mangas! Graphic Novels! (Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, 2017).
More than 20 extensive publications on the history of comics have been released. In 2015 and 2020, Alexander Braun became the only German to receive an “Eisner Award” in the USA — the “Oscar” of the comic world — for his trilingual volumes on the work of Winsor McCay and George Herriman (published by Taschen Verlag). Braun has also been awarded the Munich-based “Peng” Prize four times so far. In 2022, his scholarly achievements were honored with a Max and Moritz Prize in Erlangen.
Since its founding in 2019, Braun has primarily dedicated himself to the “schauraum: comic + cartoon” in Dortmund, where he has curated nine exhibitions to date — most recently the highly successful shows “The Simpsons – It Doesn’t Get Any More Yellow.” and “Black Comics - From Colonialism to Black Panther” Alexander Braun lives in Bad Honnef near Bonn.
Alexej Tchernyi
© Foto: Norbert Miguletz
»Es ist verblüffend, wie wenig sich bislang die Literatur- oder Kunstgeschichte mit dem Motiv des vermenschlichten Tiers im Comic beschäftigt hat. Eine ganze Traditionslinie von Goethe über Jean de La Fontaine bis zurück zu Aesop in der Antike kennt die Literaturform der Fabel oder volkstümlichen Märchendichtung. Der Comic des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts ist diesbezüglich die Quintessenz, ein gigantisches finales Feuerwerk.«
Learn more with our events and public guided tours (in German) around the special exhibition:
I, ANIMAL. From the Big Bad Wolf to Donald Duck — Animals in Comics
Director | Programme Manager GRIMMWELT Kassel
Jan Sauerwald
Curator
Dr. Alexander Braun
Exhibition concept
Dr. Alexander Braun
Julia Ronge, Claudia Roßkopf, Johanna Rüskamp, Jan Sauerwald
Production
Björn Wolf
Graphic Design
Studio Terhedebrügge
Illustrations
(Exhibition, Puzzle Trail)
Nadine Redlich
Illustration
(Exhibition motif)
Ralf Marczinczik
Education
Julia Ronge, Johanna Rüskamp
Communication
Katja Blum, Antje Haferkamp, Filip Kolek, Johanna Rüskamp
Administration
Stefanie Büscher, Christine Großberndt, Johanna Rüskamp, Lina Schmidt, Timo Vogt
Media
Sophie Hilbert, Rolf Tonhäuser, ZweiNullEins
Light
Armin Jakob/Jabatech, Landwehr + Schultz
Arthandling | Installation | Conservation support
Srećko Barišić, Kulturelle Dienste with Dr. Alexander Braun, Antje Kreuzberg
Editing
Rea Triyandafilidis
Translation
Neville Williamson
Supervision of the Grimm Collection of the City of Kassel
Kilian Knop, Marie-Louise Lange, Daniel Rothen
Interview installation
Hannah Leonie Prinzler
Concept interview installation
Claudia Roßkopf
Design interview installation
Maraccuja Grafikdesign | Carina Engelmann
Interview partners
Prof. Mathias Antlfinger, Dr. Karsten Brensing, Derk Ehlert, Dr. Meret
Fehlmann, Fabian Frank, Giselle, Prof. Ute Hörner, Prof. Dr. Christian
Jaser, Prof. Dr. Elena Korowin, Josephine Mark, Lotte
We would like to thank all contributors
Janosch Feiertag, Dieter Fuchs, Udo Giese, H & S
Kunststofftechnik, Heinrich Hartleb, Kurt Heerdt & Sohn, Die
Holzmeisterei, Julius Kress oHG, Walter Peter, Print und Rahmen, Tobias
Sieber, Ingo Stoffelshaus, Malermeister Heiko Wiktor, Werbetechnik Zinke
We would like to thank the sponsors of the exhibition
documenta Stadt Kassel
Landkreis Kassel
Hessische Kulturstiftung
We would like to thank the sponsors of the Puzzle Trail
Gerhard-Fieseler-Stiftung
If, despite careful checking, the rights of third parties (e.g. copyright) have been infringed, please notify us accordingly.