Illi Anna Heger's Grammatical Futurity

Illi Anna Heger's 2013 comic-zine, Xier packt xiesen Koffer, proffers new possibilities for gender-inclusive German language with the introduction of their gender-neutral pronouns: xier (personal pronoun), dier (article or relative pronoun), and xies-(possessive pronoun). In addition to providing brief histories of German comics studies, zine culture, and gender-neutral language in German, this article examines the comic-zine's structure to posit that its hybrid form is central in communicating its vision for inclusive language that creates space for all gender identities.