Finished Art

Or Grey's Anatomy, or Downton Abbey, or whatever keeps my brain focused enough on the task at hand. So maybe containing less abs and fight scenes? Shhh.

***

Hey, if you want to come talk, read and make comics in a cool café as depicted above, tomorrow is the special Xmas edition of Panel Up, Berlin's monthly English-language comics meetup at Sankt Oberholz! Bring your fave comics, buy a beer, draw a thing - it's awesome.

And as for this blog, this is the last thing I post before I take off to spend time at home in California (yes, I know, whatever) for three weeks. Want a piece of the action? The Traveling Tip Jar is still open through tomorrow!

 See you in 2015! Don't trip on the way out.

P.S. If you are able, search for and feast your eyes on the video for the song below - it's probably my favorite video of the year.

[ Night Terrors of 1927 (feat. Tegan and Sara) - When You Were Mine ]

MOS #16 - The End

[ Soundtrack: U2 - Every Breaking Wave (Live in Helsinki, 2010) ]

Version française.

The End.

Funnily enough, as I was putting the final touches on this I happened to be in the exact same place at the exact same time of year as during the scenes depicted in the two bottom panels - namely Lyon, France, explaining to friends where I was and what I was doing, not unlike the visit that came after my thesis defense in October 2010. I even slept in the bedroom where I can be seen hiding out and being completely wiped out from life. Life is a cycle, and autobio just brings that out, it would seem.

This is the final instalment of Master of Survival #2 and therefore of Master of Survival itself. So what happens next? I realize this brings the story to a fairly harsh stop - which on the other hand is how it felt graduating after two years of moving and a grueling thesis - but fear not, there is still more to come!

I originally wrote a short epilogue for the story, which didn't make it into Vol. 2 due to time constraints. There are also a few bonus comics, episodes that didn't make it into the main story for timing/storytelling/flow reasons, plus a couple that were drawn in 2010 and that I just didn't want to put online at the time. And I've got notes down for a longer epilogue as well that brings us a bit more up to speed on what moving to Germany has been like since my grad student days.

All of this should tie up the main story quite nicely and fill in any holes remaining in my comic archival of my transitional period in Berlin, 2010-2014. They are currently planned for a bonus, final MOS mini to be debuted in the spring.

In the meantime, if you want a hard copy of these comics, they are as always available in my store.

Bis bald...

#MOS 15

[ Soundtrack: Die Toten Hosen - Nur zu Besuch (live) ]

Version française.

***

There's one update left... Aaah!

Until then, perhaps you want to check out this Christmas sale I have going on in my store? Or maybe you want to grab all of my minicomics for free by pledging on Patreon, or snag a postcard or personalized art (even an avatar!) by throwing some money into the Traveling Tip Jar for my trip to NorCal in three weeks. Up to you!

9.11.2014

If you were in Berlin a couple weeks ago, you might have seen this installation that was put up to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Wall. It was pretty cool.

***

Peeps! I returned safely (but incubating Con Crud) from the UK last week, and I loved it immensely. Thought Bubble was both my first major convention and my first convention abroad, and it delivered on sooooo many levels. I also enjoyed London for two days prior and would definitely like to return to both places (I think I've heard about "the north" from too many Londoners - Leeds put my preconceived ideas of rundown urban sadness to shame). Thanks to everyone who hosted me, took me out on the town, bought comics from me and spotted me £20 when my bank card stopped working!

Master of Survival will return next week with its penultimate episode(!). You can already get a hard copy of the full run on my store - all my minis are on sale this holiday season!

[ Kraftklub - Wie ich ]

>> Patreon! <<

MOS #14

* Vacation in Sweden.

[ Soundtrack:  U2 - City of Blinding Lights (Live) ]

Version française.

***

Berliners! I will be at Zinefest Berlin this Saturday until 6PM - with Volume 2 of Master of Survival, hot off the presses and containing THE NOT YET PUBLISHED FINAL EPISODES! I'm also selling small sketches! Come say hi!!

Experience

***

I'm going to Lyon for two weeks on Friday! Woot! I have missed my old stomping grounds.

And when I come back I have a ten-day turnaround before hitting up Thought Bubble, via London for two days. It's gonna be a crazy few weeks, I tell you what.

And hey - if you wanna support my trip to Thought Bubble, please feel free to do so by visiting the Traveling Tip Jar page. I am selling postcards (of this), custom-drawn postcards, sketches and even avatars there to cover the (high) costs of traveling to England with a brand-new print run.

A bientôt!

[ BANKS - Beggin For Thread ]

Productive

Yep sorry the emo comics just keep coming.

Speaking of productive, I'm hard at work on penciling, inking and translating the final pages for Master of Survival! I will be doing this as well during my trip to Lyon in ten days, towards which you can donate! You can also donate towards my trip to the UK for Thought Bubble, where I aim to have Master of Survival #2 all fresh and shiny. Just click on the Traveling Tip Jar logo on the sidebar, there.

[ Finch - Inferium ]

Friday Fanart: Finch

Against all expectations, one of my favorite bands, Finch, reformed last year and put out a new record this week called Back To Oblivion. I sketched this after listening to this teaser.

You can listen to the album here and order it here.

[ Finch -  Further From The Few ]

Stop and Listen

I did a rough version of this comic for OFF LIFE'S #QuickDraw challenge a few weeks ago; I liked the suggested theme a lot. It was relevant.

***

Also, hot dang, I got some shiny new postcards! These will be sent out to readers who donate 5€ via the Traveling Tip Jar towards my upcoming trips to Lyon, London, Leeds and California (sadly I'm not going anyplace in California that starts with L, at least not on purpose). There are also sketches and even personalized avatars available! Preorders for my Lyon trip will close October 15.

[ Fink - Looking Too Closely ]

[Franco-German] Comic Workshop!

Noémie apparaît avec l'aimable autorisation de moi-même. 

Noémie erscheint mit freundlicher Genehmigung von mir selber. 

J'ai le plaisir d'annoncer que j'animerai un atelier de création de bande dessinée le jeudi 9 octobre à l'Info-Café Berlin-Paris de l'OFAJ! Les participants seront invités à réaliser une BD de 1 à 2 planches en tandem sur le thème (vaste) de l'amitié franco-allemande. L'entrée est gratuite et les inscriptions sont d'ores et déjà ouvertes à l'adresse cafeberlinparis@ofaj.org, avec "Atelier BD franco-allemand" dans le sujet.

"L'amitié franco-allemande au fil des cases" - jeudi 9 octobre, 16h30-19h 

Dans le cadre des Oktobertreffs 2014

Info-Café Berlin-Paris de l'OFAJ - Molkenmarkt 1 - Berlin-Mitte (U2 Klosterstraße, S/U Alexanderplatz ou Jannowitzbrücke).

Langues parlées: français et allemand.

Am Donnerstag, 9. Oktober leite ich erneut einen deutsch-französischen Comic-Workshop im Info-Café Berlin-Paris des DFJW! TeilnehmerInnen werden dazu eingeladen, zu zweit einen 1- bis 2-seitigen Comic zum Thema der deutsch-französischen Freundschaft zu zeichnen. Eintritt ist frei, Anmeldung erfolgt bereits unter cafeberlinparis@dfjw.org mit dem Vermerk "Deutsch-Französischer Comic-Workshop".

"Deutsch-französische Freundschaft in Comic-Form" - Donnerstag, 9. Oktober, 16.30 - 19 Uhr - im Rahmen der Oktobertreffs 2014

Info-Café Berlin-Paris des DFJW - Molkenmarkt 1 - Berlin-Mitte (U2 Klosterstraße, S/U Alexanderplatz oder Jannowitzbrücke).

Sprachen: Deutsch und Französisch.

Commitment

Yes, I have always worn glasses. And yes, that is a new haircut.

***

You can now preorder postcards and original art from my trips to France, the UK and California, all of which are happening this fall/winter! Original travel comics are also up for preorder. It all goes down right here! EDIT: I fixed the Donate button! It works now, I swear!

Also, I'm discontinuing sales of this sticker in my store on September 15. It will only be available thereafter in very limited quantities at Zinefest Berlin and Thought Bubble. Grab it while you can!

[ Beatsteaks - DNA ]

Money, Money, Money (Announcing the Traveling Tip Jar!)

As I've mentioned previously, I'm going to be tabling at Thought Bubble! Hurrah! I've never tabled at such a big event before and I am super excited to meet new people and hang with comics peeps.

As I've maybe not mentioned previously: travel and lodging for Thought Bubble is costing me LOTS of €€ -- not to mention printing new comics and swag so that I can, like, have stuff to sell there. To help cover these costs, I've set up a new thing called the Traveling Tip Jar, which is basically an ongoing version of the traveling fundraisers I've done before.

Donating to my travels can get you different levels of artsy souvenirs: anywhere from a printed or hand-drawn postcard to a personalized avatar, as well as a digital pre-order of any travel comics I'll be doing and the originals of the travel comic itself. 
In addition to Thought Bubble, I also have added two other trips I have planned: Lyon, France in October and California over the holidays! Details here or by clicking on the image above.

Also, you can really help out by subscribing to my Patreon! 

Patreon is a great tool for helping me focus on my own projects, and any pledge is insanely welcome. Patrons get access to exclusive updates on whatever I'm working on - thumbnails, line art, bits of scripts, the works - plus digital and/or printed minis according to the tier they pledge at.

Also, if we hit $75 in pledges per comic, I will be able to spend considerably more time on personal projects, and will release a brand-new digital autobio mini called Chronicling The Madness* to celebrate! 

And finally, this store page will help you out with any comic-purchasing needs. If you're after original art, I have some originals currently on sale on Etsy until October 3. All of my digital comics are also now available as free-or-pay-what-you-want on Gumroad. 

Every little bit helps immensely in making sure I can do what I love and give you comics you enjoy. Thank you for your attention! 

* Wouldn't you like to know.

MOS #13

[ Soundtrack: Tegan and Sara - On Directing (live) ]

English version here.

(Bon, entre nous, le CM que je saccage dans ce post était l'un de mes cours préférés de Master 2. Merci à Nad d'avoir fourni le support!)*

Redoing an exam "for the first time in my life" was clearly a blow to my academic pride, as 2010 comic-writing me will tell you. Thank goodness I lived to tell the tale and be embarrassed at drawing my own script. 

Also, I just remembered that I drew my very first travel comic during this trip! You can see it in its bilingual French/English glory here.

***

I am closing in on the end of this story!! There are just three episodes to go. I want to have Master of Survival #2 finished and ready to print in time for Zinefest Berlin and Thought Bubble, where I will be Nov. 8 and Nov. 15-16 respectively. To that end, keep your eyes peeled for a special announcement later this week!

* The class mentioned here was actually one of my favorites in my thesis year. Thanks Nad for sending me the material which I then proceeded to make light of! 

Support this comic on Patreon!

Prayers

I'm back! I took the past month off from updating here so I could focus more on other projects. Please have what I like to refer to as one of my "Christian blogger moments".

If you like Christian blogger moments, why then, I invite you to step right over to the blogs of these fine folks which I have been reading of late: Preston Yancey, Hilary Yancey, Bethany Suckrow, Emily Maynard and Allison Vesterfelt.

Coming up next: a new Master of Survival page and a big announcement. Stay tuned!

[ Finch - New Kid ]

Friday Sketchpost: re:publica 14, Day 3

And that's all from me, folks! Until next year...

"at re:publica 14 part 2" comic + links to most of the depicted speakers here.

Part 1 of the recap comic here.

More sketches here.

[ U2 - Stay (Faraway, So Close!) (live) ]

at re:publica 14 - part 2

And that was my experience of re:publica 14! Thanks again to the people who made it possible - you know who you are.

People appearing in this comic (among others): Kate Miltner, Frau Dingens, Jan Mölleken, schwarzblond, Dedalus Root, Eva Horn.

Part 1 of the comic.
Sketchposts #1 and #2 (forthcoming).

[ Darren Hayes - Don't Give Up ]

Friday Sketchpost: re:publica 14, Day 2

Long time, no sketch dump! In keeping with this week's comic, here are some of the sketches I did during my first day at Berlin's re:publica in May (which was Day 2 of the conference). Few places are as great for drawing from life as an event full of people and speakers. Enjoy! (I apologize for not translating the German due to time constraints.)

"at re:publica 14" recap comic + links to most of the depicted speakers here.

Part 2 of the recap comic and more sketches next week.

[ The Acid - Creeper ]

at re:publica 14

To be continued...

Readers! Back in May I was given the opportunity by a generous fan to attend two days of this year's re:publica conference, which by and large is my favorite conference to attend in Berlin. As a way of giving back and documenting my time there, I drew this comic, as well as a bunch of sketches that I will be posting too.

Day 2 (which was Day 3 of the conference) will follow next week!

People featured in this comic (among others): Jars of Clay, The Acid, Teresa Bücker, Johnny Häusler, Anne Wizorek, Kübra Gümüşay, Silan Bekjarov, Lars Müllenhaupt, Paletas Berlin, Farmer McGlitter, Ulrich Schnauss.

[ Ulrich Schnauss - I Take Comfort In Your Ignorance ]

Woods

Oh hey! I've been working on a big thing that's gonna go up the next couple of weeks. This here is a thing I drew a couple months ago that originally featured a very popular poem with a very heavily guarded copyright.

Working hard this month on an application for another thing, as well as on various freelance gigs. I'm planning to get the next Master of Survival online before the month is out. There aren't that many left...

See you next week!

[ Amanda Palmer - Dear Old House ]

"Both"

This week's post is actually a kindly authorized repost of a piece currently featured on the blog of Heimat Zine, who were my lovely table neighbors at last year's Zinefest Berlin. It was drawn in response to a prompt on the theme of secrecy. More info on this piece can be found over here!

More comics coming soon. In the meantime, I do occasional updates on my goings-on via my Patreon feed, which can be accessed by throwing a mere $1 at me whenever I post a new comic. I get to buy more Oreos, you get to see which episode of Orange Is The New Black I'm on, everyone wins.

[ Linkin Park - Irisdescent ]

Übergangsweise

[ Finch - Bury Me (demo) ]

Proposals

I was going to post this last week, then I got sidetracked by current events.

The wedding was all kinds of awesome! Now my friends, they are married. Crazy! And there was chicken for breakfast on Sunday. What a world!

I'm off to Stockholm tomorrow! See you when I get back.

[ Cooper - This Year ]

MOS #12

[ Soundtrack: Laura Imbruglia - Wouldn't Be Surprised (Live) ]

Version française.

Spoiler alert: I didn't move out. To this day, I still feel a low-level wave of panic whenever someone in the building starts drilling. I visualize most sounds when I hear them (kind of like imagining a landscape), so the kind of noise depicted here pretty much beats the will to live out of me. 

***

In current news: I'm going to Stockholm in less than a month to see my sister's graduation ceremony and bid a temporary farewell as my family will be moving base to California for a year. It costs a lot to visit Sweden and as a result I'm offering art to help cover the costs. Check it out here!

If you want to help but don't want to clutter your office with personalized art (why??), you can click the Flattr button on this page or pledge a monthly donation via Patreon.

The Clairikine Hits Stockholm Art Drive!

Photo: Tommie Hansen - CC BY 2.0

The dates: June 4 - 11, 2014

The plan: visiting Stockholm for my sister's graduation. Hitting up fave haunts. Fangirling X-Men: Days of Future Past. Grabbing a starköl. People moving! Things changing! What!
The goods: I've got some very limited personalized postcards (sketches or poetry!) and I'm opening up six commission slots, four of which are The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo or X-Men themed. See below!
I am also going to give it a shot with a Google Hangout to talk about Berlin, Stockholm, comics and my cat for 45 minutes. I promise I'm good company.
Slots are reserved by clicking the donate button at the end of the post and specifying in the note to the seller what slot you want. I will then e-mail you to confirm the slot reservation.
Delivery dates are estimated. All prices include shipping to Europe; please add 3€ for shipping outside of Europe.

Celebrate the past ten years of Stockholm rootedness and help fund the madness!

**ORDERS ARE CLOSED! Thanks to everyone who donated! **

Pickup Line

The real question is: is it a pickup line-in or line-out? *ba-dum-kshh*


***

COMIC INVASION BERLIN was a huge success!

u look so tired/happy

Thanks to everyone who came out, said hi, bought comics and contributed to my bike fund by buying postcard sketches! Thanks also to my excellent table neighbors and friends for letting me take bathroom/beer/burger/oxygen breaks (note to self: hire a table buddy!).

In case you missed it, the lovely folks at FluxFM had me and festival organiser Marc Seestaedt over recently to chat about Comic Invasion, as well as about the Berlin comics scene and our personal projects. You can listen to me draw a blank on how to say "I don't know if people can tell I'm not German", in German, on the recording here. (There's also a gorgeous shot of the neighborhood around the FluxFM offices as seen from their roof. And of me pulling a face.)

Hot on those heels, I'm pleased to announce that I will be tabling at Thought Bubble Sequential Arts Festival in Leeds this year! There will most definitely be some kind of fundraiser to help pay for travel and lodging, as well as details on where I'll be at, closer to the festival date in November. I'm super-excited and will try to make a UK jaunt of it!

And speaking of fundraisers, I'm traveling to Stockholm from June 4-11, so, y'know... Watch this space! 

[ Jars of Clay - After The Fight ]

M.O.S. #11

[ Soundtrack: Fever Ray - Now's The Only Time I Know ]

Version française.

***

Things that have changed since I wrote and drew this episode:

• The amount of people in this comic that still live in Berlin (par for the course, really)
• I can barely remember liking the guy in question
• I'm not deathly afraid of shading nor spotting blacks
• My lettering looks less like it was tracked onto the page by a bunch of crickets on acid

Things that have not changed since I wrote and drew this episode:

• I still go to this church
• I still don't know how to read German men
• I still ride that S-Bahn
• I still feel both rootless and at home in Berlin

On a side note: the title of this episode is another nod to Ariel Schrag's High School Comic Chronicles, the third volume of which is called Potential and was a big influence in coming up with Master of Survival. (The other volumes are referenced here and here).