Miss Tschoermaenie

The 64-page comic novel tells the story of how Merkel went from being young “Angie” to becoming Germany's first woman chancellor. Adorned with a crown and wearing the German flag as a sash, Merkel is depicted on the book's cover standing on a podium with a look that is deliberately modest and unmistakably triumphant. Her eyes are droopy, her mouth is slightly contorted, and her hands are held high giving the victory sign. Below her, a group of politicians appears to be annoyed.

“She's hard to read, and considers things very thoroughly,” said the cartoonist Heiko Sakurai, who, together with the journalist Miriam Hollstein, was behind Merkel's transformation into a comic book heroine. “We see that she's thinking, and that she likes to keep her cards close to her chest. To me this is really what the drawing represents.”

For Sakurai, Merkel's eyes were the most important part. As a cartoonist, he was used to sketching her, but for the biographical book he had to show Merkel when she wasn't well-known – as a child growing up in East Germany, as a physics student at university, and as a young professional in the German cabinet under Chancellor Helmut Kohl following the fall of communism.

“This was very interesting to explore. I saw that there were certain facial characteristics that have stayed constant throughout her life,” Sakurai said.

Hollstein says she was inspired by the best-selling French comic book series about Nicholas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni – “Sarko the First”, “The Hidden Face of Sarko”, and “Carla & Carlito”. But while that series pokes fun at their leader and First Lady, “Miss Tschoermaenie” is much kinder to the chancellor.

“We wanted to both amuse and educate readers about the main points in her life,” Hollstein told reporters in Berlin.

The comic book is framed around an imaginary conversation between former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and former premier of Bavaria Edmund Stoiber after Merkel - to their shock and dismay - defeats them in the election. Both men are depicted crying into their beer wondering how this could have possibly happened.

Despite frequent criticism that Merkel lacks charisma, she has earned a reputation for her politicial toughness and intelligence. Throughout the comic, Merkel appears mysterious, always with a sphinx like smile. In one speech balloon, Hollstein writes her saying one thing, while in a second thought balloon she is plotting and thinking something else.

Heiko Sakurai and Miriam Hollstein wonder if their comic book star, Angela Merkel, will read "Miss Tschoermaenie".

According to Heiko Sakurai, "I think she would like some parts, but others, not so much."

vj/dpa/Reuters/AP
Editor: Michael Lawton