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Thomas Henseler

© Anna Schmelz
© Anna Schmelz

Please introduce yourself in two or three sentences.
Thomas Henseler studied illustration at the Fachhochschule Aachen, and animation in Potsdam at the Konrad Wolf Film University of Babelsberg. After graduation, together with Susanne Buddenberg he founded the company Zoom und Tinte, and specialized in sequential illustration. He also hosts educational workshops in the fields of politics and culture.

From 2014 to 2016 Thomas Henseler was a substitute professor for the fundamentals of design at Fachhochschule Münster, in the design department.

What career experience do you have in your field of consultation?
In 2011 my first graphic novel, Grenzfall (Borderline Case) was published. It was followed by additional historical comics centred on the history of the GDR: Berlin: Geteilte Stadt (Berlin: Divided City, 2012); Tunnel 57: Eine Fluchtgeschichte als Comic (Tunnel 57: An Escape Story in Comic Form, 2013), DDR: Geschichte zum Einkleben (GDR: Adhesive History, 2015); Meine freie deutsche Jugend (My Free German Youth, 2020); Das Haus, das in einem anderen Land stand (The House That Stood in A Different Country, 2022).

What are typical questions that participants might ask you in a consultation session?
How can I finance my project? What opportunities for funding are available? How can I make contacts at publishers? How can I best present my project? How can I work as efficiently as possible?

What are some of your professional achievements?
Thomas Henseler is a founding member of the Deutscher Comicverein e.V., which cooperated with the Berlin Senate to initiate the Berlin Comic Stipend in 2018.

What languages do you offer consultation sessions in?
German and also English.

Where can you be found in the internet/on social media?
https://www.bpb.de/themen/deutschlandarchiv/515949/wie-ein-film-in-zeitlupe/

What piece of advice would you offer anyone interested in working in your professional field?
Keep at it; drawing means a lifetime of learning, and you can always get better and freer. It’s great when after working for years in a quiet room you can present your work to the public at a reading and get their reaction.