"Röhner expertly shows off Max's inventive draftsmanship, droll wit, and precise cartooning. It's one of my favorite books for 2020." —Gina Wynbrandt, author of Someone Please Have Sex With Me
"Max is such a good observer of interpersonal relations, and therefore a great storyteller. Needless to say that his drawings are magnetic. I keep staring at them and think: How did he do that? Röhner is one of my favorite books." —Anna Haifisch, author of The Artist
"Designs whole worlds with a few lines." —Sabine Danek, Critic
"Baitinger leaves the reader in the dark about the big picture. He prefers to show details: how the protagonist spins his appointment calendar in the air to indicate that he has no time. The way aluminium confetti pours out of a letter onto a shag rug. Baitinger breaks up an everyday matter like brewing coffee into many small steps, each in an individual image: ‘Switch on boiler. Insert pot. Fill tank. Insert filter." —Josa Mania-Schlegel, journalist at Krautreporter
Previously published in German by Rotopol Press, Röhner is a delightfully detailed field guide to the every day tasks of living in an apartment — making coffee, watering plants, and maintaining order and a careful balance with neighbors — until that order is upset.
Max Baitinger’s dry humor and precise drawings deftly personify his über persnickety protagonist, simply referred to as P., whose regimented life is disrupted by the arrival of Röhner, an unloved house guest, who imposes upon his psyche and offsets the careful balance with his gregarious, omnipresent neighbor. Devious tricks and hilarious imaginations of Röhner’s elimination take shape, from painstakingly making up Röhner’s guestroom and then piercing the air mattress to cause a slow leak — to visions of an exploding coffee pot tearing off Röhner’s face.
