Reading and Discussion How I tried to be a good person

Ulli Lust in Conversation with Zak Sally

Join Berlin-based comic artist Ulli Lust and Minneapolis-based artist and musician Zak Sally for a reading and discussion of their recent works.
 
In Wie ich versuchte, ein guter Mensch zu sein (How I Tried to Be a Good Person), Ulli Lust takes the readers on the hilarious, yet emotionally complex journey of a young Viennese artist torn between two men. The graphic novel is a powerful memoir that blends personal experiences—stories of sexual obsession, gender conflict, and self-liberation—with broader themes, such as female empowerment, alternative family arrangements, domestic violence, and refugee policies. Lust presents her female character neither as a victim nor a perpetrator, but as a woman overwhelmed by her various roles as partner, lover, and mother.
 
Lust, born in Vienna, is one of Berlin's most lauded comics artists. In 2009, she published her prize-winning first autobiographical graphic novel Today is the last day of the rest of your life, reflecting on a heroic hitchhiking trip of two Punk girls. She has illustrated numerous books, including a graphic adaptation of Marcel Beyer’s Flughunde. Her graphic novel Wie ich versuchte, ein guter Mensch zu sein (How I Tried to Be a Good Person) was published by Suhrkamp in 2017. This summer, Fantagraphics Books releases the English translation.
 
Zak Sally reads from his memoir Folrath, an account of the time when he forged a Greyhound bus pass and traveled the American West with no destination in sight. Sally self-published his first comic zine on a photocopier at the age of thirteen and has been making comics and zines ever since. His work shares with Lust revealing autobiographical details of youthful wanderlust with little regard for consequences. 

Attendance is free, but space is limited so we kindly ask everyone to register in advance via Eventbrite.
 

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