For four days, current topics of the comics market and focal points of the Salon will be examined in about 30 lectures and panel discussions: Comics and politics, the role artists and graphic literature are playing in the processes of transformation in the Arab world, the societal function of comics in Russia and Indonesia, the depiction of war, violence and representations of death in graphic literature (in connection with the Kunstpalais Erlangen’s exhibition “töten”), trademark und copyright law in the digital age, the DC Relaunch, the heavyweight panel on the topic of “What’s up in the German comics market?” … Interviews with selected artists and a lecture series by the German Society for Comics Studies (Gesellschaft für Comicforschung, ComFor) in which the Salon’s topics are addressed on a scientific level augment the programme of the Comic Podium that is not just geared toward professionals, but also toward a wider audience.