Navigationen: Amazing Superbugs. Das grosse Krabbeln im Comic (vol. 26 issue 1 2026)

Whether Spider-Man, Ant-Man, Killer Moth, Queen Bee or The Wasp - a large number of superheroes, villains and supporting characters in the comic cosmos are inspired by insects and arachnids. This is surprising at first, as these small animals are often perceived as creeping, crawling, despised creatures - they are both essential and often overlooked parts of nature.

Yet it is precisely these often misunderstood and unwelcome creatures that have served for centuries as inspiration for a wide variety of visual and written narratives, particularly in comics. The contributions in this issue of Navigationen are based on a workshop jointly organized by the Siegen SFB 1472 Transformationen des Populären and the Clemens Sels Museum Neuss on the occasion of the exhibition "Amazing Superbugs: Das grosse Krabbeln im Comic", which took place in 2024/25 at the Feld-Haus - Museum für Populäre Druckgrafik, a branch of the Neuss museum.
They examine the many facets of aesthetic and narrative representations of insects and spiders and take a media, comic and cultural studies-based look at their significance in contemporary visual cultures. The focus is on works of art by Amelie von Wulffen, Holocaust comics by Art Spiegelman, Leopold Maurer and Regina Hofer, as well as the socio-political impact of superheroes such as Spider-Man, Ant-Man and The Wasp. The issue is rounded off with an interview with Thomas Schmitz-Lippert and Susanne Flimm from Cöln Comic Haus and a documentation of the Amazing Superbugs exhibition.