Summaries of double 52
Erschienen am 1.10.2025
We Still Need a Superhero
Folk Puppets and Comic Book Figures (p. 6–9)
In this essay, Daria Ivanova-Hololobova explores parallels between European puppet heroes such as Kasper and Punch and the superheroes of Marvel and DC. Despite their flaws as tricksters, drunkards or even killers, these figures share with modern superheroes one defining trait: invincibility. Tracing mythological roots from antiquity to the present, Ivanova-Hololobova shows how puppet characters embody survival strategies to oppose death and the devil. In today’s Ukraine this tradition continues as the Kosak is reimagined as a puppet superhero and protector.
Kasper, go Home!
Tracing a Figure between Ruins and Safe Houses (p. 10–11)
Christine Zeides reflects on the Masterclass Kasper 3.0 at the festival Kasper? Kasper! in Magdeburg, where twelve puppetry students from Germany, Poland and Ukraine reimagined the comic puppet. Their lecture performance placed Kasper alongside the Ukrainian Kosak, confronting themes of violence, death and survival, and resulting in a search for a resistance figure who survives not by means of force but through solidarity, humour and fragile hands joined across different borders.
Kasper as a Narrative Principle
In Search of Kasper’s Roots and Utopian Potential (p. 12–15)
In her theatre studies–based reflections, Jessica Hölzl...
Erschienen am 1.10.2025
