As a teacher of German, I previously felt frustrated by the lack of authentic reading materials that were both comprehensible and appealing to first-, second- and third-year university students of German. With the explosion in comic production over the last ten years in Germany, however, I can now offer my students an enormous variety of compelling graphic texts. Indeed, I firmly believe that as the famed author of Maus, Art Spiegelman, puts it: “Comics are the gateway drug to literacy.” With this conviction, I am applying for funding to attend the Comic Salon in Erlangen, Germany in May 2018. The Salon is the world’s largest, most important German-language comic festival, attracting around 25,000 German-speaking artists, authors, publishers and students of graphic literature. I wish to attend author readings, signings, workshops, discussions, exhibitions, presentations and films. By attending, I could place my finger on the pulse of the dynamic German comic scene. I could meet with authors and artists in person and open up lines of communication between them, my colleagues and students. In addition, I could purchase for our comics collection in the LRC many of the limited print comics made by young artists only at such events. I would also buy from used comic book sellers old East and West German comics that are typically hard to locate outside of Germany. Attendance at the Salon would allow me to enhance the collection that all our German language program students have access to and ultimately promote literacy among our students.