5 Jahre

I moved to Berlin five years ago today. I'm very happy that I stuck around.

[ Matchbox Twenty - Parade ]

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! <<

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 ]

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).

Comic Invasion Berlin!

I'm tabling at Comic Invasion Berlin next weekend, y'all! It will be my first actual comic arts festival and I am totally excited. Come see me at table 25a from 12:00 until the hour I keel over! I will have my minis, stickers, some original art and will be doing sketches too.

That's my bird up there dodging UFO laser fire, by the way.

MOS #10

[Soundtrack: Marvin - "Closer" (Live at Intersoup)]

Version française.

Here's my dad at the Tacheles in April 2010:

***

So, DUDES -- after a long-a** hiatus, Master of Survival is back!!

There are about six episodes left to go, plus some bonus comics. How fast the comic updates depends greatly on you. It goes like this: via my Patreon page, you can pledge to donate one dollar or more per episode of Master of Survival (or filler comic between updates). The higher the pledges are, the more I can afford to focus on updating.

Patrons get charged every month depending on how many new comics I've posted (expect no more than 4 and no less than 3), and have access to weekly-ish, exclusive blog posts about whatever I'm working on.

A note on the habitual translation of the episodes: nearly all forthcoming episodes are written in English, and will be translated into French when time permits. Any episode written in French will be posted in English and French simultaneously.

That's enough on my end, I hope you enjoy the second instalment of this comic and I look forward to giving you more new pages!

Wednesday Workpost: GTD Personalentwicklung

Last December I was asked to illustrate a greeting card for GTD-Personalentwicklung, a small Berlin-based organisation specializing in human resources development. I  highly enjoyed the assignment, and it gave me the opportunity to do something you don't often see here - use colors!

This is the illustration I created for the card; you can see the full visual on my Behance portfolio as well as on the German site Dasauge.de.

Auf, auf!

[ Death Cab For Cutie - Lightness ]

Friday Sketchpost: Joe Czarnecki presents The Icarus Project

Last weekend was Berlin-dwelling guitarist Joe Czarnecki's first concert in two years. I've been a fan of his work since moving here and was super-happy to hear new music and old classics, some of them revisited.

Of course, if you want to practice drawing hands, why not use a tapping guitarist's hands for reference? It's not like they move or anything.

Joe's album Watch Now is one of my favorite records, right up there on my list of indispensable instrumental guitar music along with Kaki King and Kelli Rudick. Check it out!

[ Joe Czarnecki - Ocean (live) ]

Winter is here

Whew! That's my last post before my own personal getaway to the sunny climes of Sweden for some holiday cheer and familial watching of television. While I'm there I'll be wrapping up the daily Little Tiny Adventstüren posts I've been doing (and which you can follow on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and Facebook)!

In the New Year we'll be having a big ole recap of the madness that was 2013. Until then, I advise you to get thee hence to a place that sells Glühwein and get toasted in my honor (I'm turning a year older at some point too).

I've failed thus far to actually get toasted on Glühwein myself, which may be for the best as I've been alternating between wrapping up work and sitting in front of TV shows with tea and a cold. Deliverance is nigh, though! Catch you on the flip side.

[ Linkin Park x Steve Aoki - A Light That Never Comes ]

[UPDATED] ANNOUNCING: Comics workshop + Zinefest Berlin!

* "So how do you do the bise, exactly?"

"Uhhhh, I have no idea... Couldn't we just shake hands instead?"

UPDATE [18/10/2013]: Due to illness (the organisers', not mine!), the book fair  and the comics workshop have both been postponed to a date which is TBA.

People of Berlin! This fall is going to be happenin', and it's going to be happenin' big.

First of all, the Info-Café Berlin-Paris is holding a comics and book fair on Saturday, October 19* at Molkenmarkt 1 (behind the Rotes Rathaus on the other side of that massive street, the yellow building with the flags).  I will be tabling there from 11 AM to 12:30PM roughly, with Cardialement #1 and #2, Master of Survival #1 and stickers, and I will be offering small postcard sketches!

During the book fair, from 1PM to 3PM, I will also be hosting my third Franco-German comics workshop. This time the topic is "Franco-German friendship from panel to panel." Participants will be paired up in bilingual teams and walked through the process of creating a comic that fits the topic, start to finish.

Signups for this free workshop are currently open - you can sign up by e-mailing cafeberlinparis@dfjw.org. Please note that the workshop will only be in French and German! This kind of workshop can be a great activity for tandem partners.

Secondly, I am insanely excited to be tabling the following weekend at Zinefest Berlin in Kreuzberg on the 26th and 27th of October!

I can only highly recommend this event as I walked in last year with 30€ of cash and walked out with 30€ worth of excellent zines and comics. In addition to the previously mentioned minicomics, stickers and commissions, I will also have a couple surprises. Come on over, say hello, and grab some cake! For there will be cake.

See you there! Clairikine out.

[ Arcade Fire - Reflektor ]

Zugverspätung

* "The train to Westkreuz via Gesundbrunnen is subject to a delay of 18 minutes."

This situation is best experienced when you've been out three nights in a row and all you want for the rest of eternity is your bed.

*** 

Also, if you live in certain parts of Berlin or Stockholm, you may have recently seen the STICKERS I have ordered (thanks to Josh "Caffeinated Toothpaste" Bauman for his advice)! They now come free with any purchase in my store. Perfect for expressing your urban twentysomething angst!

I will also have them for sale at markets this fall/winter in Berlin - more on that soon.

Life imitates art on Södermalm (right photo courtesy of Mattias Davén, insane  mug courtesy of myself).

[ Arctic Monkeys - Snap Out of It ]

Comicomat!

Last Saturday the Comicomat landed at Haus Schwarzenberg's Hoffest!

The Comicomat is basically a photobooth, but with comics. For a donation of their choice, visitors can sit in front of a one-way mirror and get their picture drawn by a rotation of cartoonists; the proceeds are then split between the artists.

A blog for the Comicomat is forthcoming; in the meantime, enjoy these shots (by Alise)!

Wednesday Workpost: Staffellauf!

In order to raise funds for social projects, my church participated in last week's Berliner Wasserbetriebe relay race in Tiergarten. I was asked to draw a few cartoons to use in the thank-you cards sent to donors. Even though it poured rain the day of the race, it was a success and much money was raised. Hooray!

One of the supported projects is a new church project in Friedrichshain (accordingly called Projekt:Kirche).

[ Arcade Fire - Ready To Start ]

Hashtag white college graduate multitalented trilingual Berlin-dwelling EU citizen cartoonist problems.

(On a related note, I am totally for hire!)

[ Placebo - Passive Aggressive ]

MOS #9

[ Soundtrack: Tegan and Sara - Knife Going In (live) ]

Version française

Thus concludes the first half of Master of Survival. The events in the next update date back to late April 2010, and guys, I'm going to take that as my cue to halt Master of Survival updates until May 5th.  Gasp! [*EDIT: SEE BELOW*]
The reasons for this are twofold; mainly, I have a lot on my real-life plate at the moment that requires my attention. BUT ALSO, following this page, all Master of Survival pages are not yet drawn and will therefore be BRAND NEW*! You're excited, aren't you? That's the idea.

I will still be posting stuff to the blog on occasion, and if all goes according to plan, there will be other good stuff that will start to trickle down around mid- to late May on the blog as well. Until then... Happy Easter, and see you next week!

* Except for one, but shh.

Ainsi se termine la première moitié de Master of Survival. La prochaine note traitera de la fin avril 2010, et je prends donc cette occasion pour marquer une pause dans les mises à jour de MOS jusqu'au 5 mai. [*UPDATE: VOIR CI-DESSOUS] Il y a deux raisons pour cela, la principale étant que dans la vraie vie j'ai quelque peu du pain sur la proverbiale planche. MAIS AUSSI, et à partir du post suivant, toutes les pages de Master of Survival doivent encore être dessinées, et seront donc FLAMBANT NEUVES*! Palpitant, non? Effectivement.

Je continuerai de poster sur le blog jusque là, et si tout se passe comme je veux, il y aura d'autres bonnes choses qui commenceront à apparaître autour de la deuxième quinzaine de mai. En attendant, joyeuses Pâques, et à la semaine prochaine!

* Sauf une, mais chut.

[February 27: Obviously this didn't happen, due mainly to my need to find a job, followed by picking up freelance comics and illustration work while holding down a new part-time job and freelancing in other areas. I am now working on new pages and the comic will update again beginning April 1, 2014 (no joke).
February 27, 2014: Clairement, ma pause a duré beaucoup plus longtemps, d'abord parce que j'ai dû retrouver du travail et ensuite en raison de divers boulots en BD et en illustration qui sont arrivés au moment où j'ai retrouvé du travail. Je me suis remise à dessiner de nouvelles pages et celles-ci paraîtront à partir du 1er avril 2014 (si si!)]

MOS #8

[ Kaki King - Falling Day (Live on Jimmy Fallon) ]

Traduction à venir.

When I was a young'un in high school, I once had to compose an extensive sort-of essay project-thing on a theme I got to pick out along with a project buddy. (It was called "Travaux Personnels Encadrés" and it was to my French baccaulaureate what the Extended Essay is to the IB program.) As I had spent most of my previous years infatuated with the late Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, I chose to write my part of the essay on the figure of the suffering artist as embodied by Cobain (also on the roster were Baudelaire and Renaud).
Much of the project involved sitting long hours at my desk making notes on Cobain through my readings of his journals, lyrics and of Charles R. Cross' Heavier Than Heaven (amazing book), which was insanely fun (even if the subject matter was very dark). At this moment a lightbulb went on in my head that I wanted to write about artists. And so, during my internship in 2010, it so happened that I ended up being able to do that very thing, several times, in fact. This is the "what I dreamed of in high school" refers to in this comic - I was actually unaware of Mrs. King's work until well after I'd finished my Bachelor's, which is when I was more open to adopting my dad's love of instrumental guitar. She wrote some great answers to my questions - although currently I can't link you to the interview (conducted in French) because the site is partly down. And she was very gracious to sign my album cover and shake my hand.

Also, if you're into good melodies, great guitar and sweet drumming, you should definitely check out Junior. Kaki's new stuff is equally pleasing.

The next Master of Survival page involves Easter weekend and will therefore go up on Good Friday (March 29) as a contribution to the all-round "hey guys, it's Easter" chitter-chatter. Until then I will be posting a couple other things and trying to not break my coffee fast.

Lorsque je fus une jeunette au lycée, j'ai dû m'atteler à la divine tâche des Travaux Personnels Encadrés (en première ET en Terminale, mes petits). Comme j'avais passé une bonne partie des années précédentes à faire une fixation sur feu Kurt Cobain et Nirvana, j'ai choisi de faire ma partie sur la figure de l'artiste maudit telle que Cobain l'incarnait (ma binôme était chargée de Renaud, et Baudelaire fut des nôtres aussi.) Un bon morceau du projet consistait à passer de longues heures à mon bureau à prendre des notes sur Cobain à l'aide de ses Journaux, de ses textes de chanson et de la (génialissime) biographie "Heavier Than Heaven" de Charles R. Cross, et c'était vraiment sympa, même si le sujet était bien sombre. C'est à ce moment que s'alluma la proverbiale ampoule dans ma tête - ce que j'avais envie de faire, c'était d'écrire sur des artistes. Et donc, pendant mon stage en 2010, il s'est avéré que j'ai eu l'occasion de le faire, plusieurs fois même. C'est à cela que fait allusion "ce dont je rêvais depuis le lycée", puisque j'ai découvert la musique de Mme King bien après la fin de ma Licence, à une période où j'étais plus ouverte à la guitare instrumentale tant prisée par mon paternel. Elle a écrit de super réponses à mes questions (quoique je ne peux actuellement pas vous linker à l'article en question), et elle était très gracieuse après le concert.
Par ailleurs, si vous aimez de bonnes mélodies, de la bonne gratte et de la bonne batterie, vous feriez mieux d'écouter l'album Junior. Ses nouveaux morceaux sont également plaisants.

La prochaine page de Master of Survival traitant du weekend de Pâques, elle sera mise en ligne le vendredi 29 mars (alias le vendredi saint) pour contribuer à l'ambiance générale ce jour-là. En attendant, je posterai un ou deux trucs et tenterai de ne pas briser mon carême sans café.

Scène ouverte franco-allemande!

I was at the Théâtre au fil des nuages' Franco-German Open Mic last Thursday! They gave me one of their custom-made notebooks so I could make some brushpen sketches of the artists. I didn't manage to get everyone's names, but you can find out more about the event on their Facebook page!

J'étais à la scène ouverte franco-allemande du Théâtre au fil des nuages la semaine dernière et j'ai fait des dessins! Plus d'infos (et les noms de tous les artistes) sur leur page Facebook.

MOS #6

[ Le Peuple De L'Herbe - Look Up! (live) ]

Traduction en français.

At this stage of my life, I was able to communicate verbally without actually being in possession of a mouth. This is a skill I lost when I completed my internship.

MOS #5

[ Jars of Clay - Mirrors & Smoke (live) ]

English translation here. Traduction en français ici.
Danke an Tonia.

***

(Français ci-dessous) 

May I present to you ... The prehistory of Clairikine.

This is one of the very first pages I drew for Master of Survival (because I originally drew it out of order) - in fact, it's one of the very first comic pages I've ever drawn, period, unless you count those 150+ pages of comic strips that I drew between age seven and nine and that made no sense. You can tell in many ways, of course, but one of them is that I was just starting out doing autobio comics and I had almost zero filter for what I wanted to talk about.

Recently a protagonist in an autobio comic that I admire very much stated that autobio comics were the best, but they could also be the worst, and you had to be careful making them. I think that the reasons for this are very similar to the reasons why you die inside when you read your old journals from high school. I happen to have journalled compulsively for over half my life, and there's a lot of material that I don't even want to read, because I'm not 14, or 16, or 21 anymore. Putting something in a comic that's openly personal sets it in stone, in a way, in the same way that journaling does. And while I'm usually very happy to tell my stories, it's always a little annoying to see a picture of yourself when you were a few years younger/inexperienced, even if everyone else thinks it's cute.

Applied to this particular page, I took a very long time to figure out whether I wanted to post it. Relationships, or lack thereof, are a highly personal thing, and the comics I write about them now always go through an extra round of questioning before I post them. Ultimately it's a question of what is relatable vs. what is comfortable to say about yourself. This comic ended up getting the green light because relationships were one of the many questions I had about my future at the time, and it made sense to have a page that directly touched upon that. Also, though my skills have improved significantly since I drew this, I chose the keep the original artwork as an example of how they've evolved from the time of my first endeavours to make Master of Survival.


Laissez-moi vous présenter... La préhistoire de Clairikine.

Il s'agit ici d'une des toutes premières planches que j'ai dessinées pour Master of Survival (les ayant d'abord dessinées dans le désordre) - en fait, c'est même l'une des premières planches de BD que j'aie jamais dessinées de ma vie, si l'on ne compte pas les 150 et quelques strips dessinés entre mes sept et neuf ans et qui sont plutôt vides de sens. On peut noter que cette planche est plus ancienne sous plusieurs angles, bien sûr; mais l'un d'entre eux, pour moi, c'est surtout le fait que je commençais à peine à dessiner des BD autobiographiques, et j'avais quasiment zéro censure sur ce que je choisissais d'aborder.

Récemment, un des protagonistes d'une BD autobio que j'admire beaucoup a dit que la BD autobiographique, ça peut être complètement génial comme ça peut être complètement horrible, et qu'en les créant, il fallait faire gaffe. Je pense que les raisons pour cela sont très semblables aux raisons pour lesquelles on meurt intérieurement lorsqu'on relit ses journaux intimes du lycée. Pour ma part, j'écris compulsivement dans des carnets depuis plus de la moitié de ma courte vie, et il y a foison de choses dedans que je ne veux plus jamais lire, parce que je n'ai plus ni 14, ni 16, ni 21 ans. Mettre quelque chose d'ouvertement personnel dans une BD, c'est le graver dans la pierre d'une certaine façon, de la même manière que lorsqu'on l'écrit dans un journal intime. Et même si de façon générale je raconte volontiers mes histoires, c'est toujours un peu énervant de voir une photo de soi lorsque l'on avait trois ans d'âge et d'expérience en moins (même si tout le monde trouve qu'on est craquante dessus.)

Quant à cette planche, j'ai mis très longtemps à décider si je voulais la poster ou non. Les relations (ou bien le manque de relation) sont pour moi une chose hautement personnelle, et les BD que j'écris à leur sujet aujourd'hui passent par une ronde supplémentaire d'interrogations avant d'être mises en ligne. Au final, il s'agit d'un conflit entre faire du bien au lecteur et me mettre moi-même mal à l'aise. J'ai fini par donner le feu vert à cette planche pour la simple raison qu'à cette époque, les relations amoureuses figuraient parmi mes nombreuses interrogations sur l'avenir, et c'était plutôt logique du coup qu'il y ait une planche qui traite directement de la question. En ce qui concerne le style de dessin, qui s'est nettement amélioré depuis, j'ai choisi de conserver la planche originelle en guise d'indicateur de mon évolution depuis le commencement de ce premier projet.

MOS #4

It's not a fluke, guys - I originally wrote this comic in French. The translation is here!

I still attend this church three years later. The fact they were playing The Whitest Boy Alive before the service did play into my decision.

Trois ans plus tard, je fréquente toujours cette église. Le fait qu'ils passent du Whitest Boy Alive a contribué à ma décision.

[ The Whitest Boy Alive - Keep A Secret ]

***

I'm back from France! It was loads of fun and way too short.

I'd like to thank everyone again who donated to the fundraiser; the postcards should arrive within the week. The PDF of the travel comic will be sent out by the beginning of March. Merci encore!!

Je suis de retour de France! C'était super sympa et beaucoup trop court.

J'aimerais encore remercier tous ceux qui ont contribué financièrement au voyage; les cartes postales devraient arriver dans le courant de la semaine. Le PDF du carnet de voyage sera envoyé d'ici début mars. Thanks again!!