Clairikine Comics

March 21, 2023

Status Report

A four-panel comic in black and white, entitled "2022 Year In Review". The first panel has the caption "smiling wider" and shows Claire as seen in a Zoom call, drawing at their desk and smiling into the camera. The second panel has the caption "crying more" and shows Claire walking down Kaiserdamm street in Berlin wearing a hoodie, jeans jacket and jeans and Chucks, listening to music on her phone and crying. In the third panel, with the caption "laughing deeper", Claire is sitting on the U-Bahn, looking at something on her phone and laughing loudly ("Huh-HA-HA-HA") while someone sitting next to her looks at them. In the fourth panel, with the caption "and crying more", we see Claire sitting on the couch at home, clutching a stuffed IKEA shark, and sobbing.

Yeah girl, access those emotions stored in the body!! Wait, what do you mean they're a package deal 🥲

[ John-Allison Weiss - Different Now ]

If you'd like to support my comics, you can become a patron or leave a tip!

February 17, 2023

Friday Fanart: Still Jealous (Tegan and Sara)

a black and white cartoon of Claire lying on a bed in the dark, wearing pajamas, looking up at the ceiling, arms folded under her chest. Next to her on the bed is a heart. Placed all around the bed are lyrics from Tegan and Sara's "I Can't Take It": "I can't take it, I can't take it, I can't take it, I can't take it, I can whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa, I can whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa"

[ Tegan and Sara - I Can't Take It (Tegan's version) ]

A black-and-white ink drawing of Claire, a white person with messy chin-length hair, wearing a plaid T-shirt, skinny jeans and Chucks, as they are seen from the side standing up, expresssionless, holding a classically shaped heart in one hand. The handwritten captions are lyrics from Tegan and Sara's "So Jealous": "Do you see my problem if I never explain it?"

[ Tegan and Sara - So Jealous (Tegan's version) ]

A year ago Still Jealous was released, a re-recording of Tegan and Sara's classic So Jealous album where each recorded their own own version of the other's songs. I of course made some fanart for it because these songs still resonated with me like nothing else does, 15+ years after I heard them for the first time. Also this week I believe there was an international holiday, something to do with hearts?

***

I'm thrilled to be part of the 24 Stunden Comic Tag am Wannsee exhibit at Berlin's neurotitan galerie from February 18 to March 11! I will be exhibiting original pages from my comic written and penciled during the 2019 edition, and selling the brand-new zine of that comic!! If you're in Berlin, there's a chance I'll see you at the vernissage, Saturday, February 18 from 18:00! I must say I am psyched to be exhibiting in a place like this! Aah! Do drop by!

February 7, 2023

Hourly Comics Day 2023

00:00 Awake with fox plushie. 00:30 asleep with fox plushie. 7:00 Snooze my phone saying to wake up wake up wake up wake up. 8:00 up, shower listening to Tegan and Sara singing "I should start working on myself again". 8:30 breakfast with toast, lachs and a rapid test for work. Listening to news radio was a mistake.

An Intro to Berlin Bike Path Typology (Berliner Comic Fenster 2022)

A black-and white comic opening with a title screen that says "An Intro to Berlin Bike Path Typology by Clairikine", with a drawing of a bike path street sign. First panel: a bike path full of puddles, with the caption "Great Lakes". Second panel: a bike path made out of two slabs of concrete with a gap between them, with the caption "Just gonna put a slab of concrete here, that'll work". Third panel: a six-lane street downtown with cars and a bus, but no bike path or cyclists. The caption says "404 bike path not found".

Fourth panel: a bike path at night with a tree next to it and bumps in the path created by the tree's roots, with the caption "Oh no. Oh no no no no no". Fifth panel: a bike path with a bus stop next to it, and the caption "Just gonna put a bus stop here". Sixth panel: Claire biking down a bike path full of ice and sludge and swearing, with the caption "Snow sludge ice nightmare". Seventh panel: a smooth and wide bike path at night, with a tree on one side and buildings in the distance, and the caption "Bliss".

I submitted this comic for this year's season of the Berliner Comic Fenster program, through which local cartoonists get to have their comics aired on Berlin's subway TV in partnership with Comic Invasion! If you were on the U-Bahn last weekend, you may have seen it aired.

You'll find more recent comics aired by myself and other artists here, including my comic "Treasure Hunt" (from 2020). You can also read my 2019 entry, "Okay", here.

Also: submissions are currently open for next year! Deadline is November 7.

[ Tegan and Sara - Pretty Shitty Time ]

September 27, 2022

A Break

When your brain sits on you, you listen 🧠

[ My Chemical Romance - I'm Not Okay (I Promise) ]

August 16, 2022

Signs of Summertime (2022 edition)

It's hot. Not much else to add, really. Or rather, too much to add! Have a comic.

***

I am tabling in a few places the next few weeks! Find me online at Fanzineist Vienna from August 11 through September 11, and IRL at Art Horse Bazar on August 28 and Comics & The Beast on September 3 (both in Berlin).

[ Rina Sawayama - This Hell ]

July 19, 2022

Haircut Goals

And so the longer hair lived to fight another few weeks 🎸

Also, have you heard Morgan's stuff? You should listen to Morgan's stuff! 🎧🎹⌨️💽

June 28, 2022

How Autobio Cartoonists Socialize

A four-panel black and white comic. In the first panel, HX and Claire are hanging out outside at night drinking a 0% beer and a glass of Rotkäppchen, respectively. Claire says "The last hangover I had was after I drank 33cl of this." HX says "Haha, Rotkäppchen is the mind-killer." In the second panel, Claire responds with "Rotkäppchen is the little-death" and HX laughs. Claire continues: "Rotkäppchen will pass through me, and I will remain." HX laughs some more. In the third panel, HX says "That's going in a comic." Claire points at them and says "DO it. And if you don't do it in a month, I'll do it." In the fourth panel, Claire says "And if you DO do it, I'll make a comic about THIS exchange" and HX laughs some more. A caption at the bottom says "How autobio cartoonists socialize."

I did the comic first lol (my friend HX is rad, check out their stuff!)

May 31, 2022

Tuesday Fanart: My Chemical Romance, "The Foundations of Decay"

A black and white illustration with lyrics from My Chemical Romance's "The Foundations of Decay". It shows Claire wearing a plaid shirt, chin length messy hair and black Chucks, standing with her back to us and staring out onto a dark pool of water filled with ruins. Text in the top left says "You must fix your heart" and in the bottom right says "and build an altar where it swells".

🎶 Let it flood, let it flood, let it wash away 🎶

Before this song came out I was familiar with a grand total of three MCR songs, a number which has exponentially increased since then. My neighbors are thrilled.

~~(I pulled these lyrics from Genius.com, they may or may not be accurate.)~~ Now that the song has been extensively toured and transcribed, I've updated the lyrics accordingly!

[ My Chemical Romance - The Foundations of Decay ]

May 24, 2022

Vessel

A two-page comic in black and white, captioned throughout with lines from a poem. On the first page, the first panel shows an empty hallway in a small apartment, with windows on the left, a door in the back, and a few doors and a mirror on the right. Text above says "I have learned not to trust that anything will last." The second panel shows Sondra and Lex standing in the hallway and getting ready to leave. Sondra, a short woman with long black curly hair, is wearing a nice black cardigan and a black skirt and holding a purse, and is chatting animatedly while Lex, a taller woman with short red hair, is pulling on a vest and smiling. Caption says "Not the good, not the bad." In the third panel, Lex leans over and kisses Sondra on the cheek; Sondra is delighted. Text says "learned to not get attached". The fourth panel shows Lex and Sondra standing outside, downtown, at night, near a subway, while a few people are walking by. They are both checking something on Lex' phone. Text says "I've learned not to believe those who leave will come back." The fifth panel shows them sitting on a subway next to a person with curly hair and glasses reading a newspaper; Lex is cuddling Sondra, who has her head on her shoulder and is smiling with her eyes closed, while Lex is resting her chin on her head and staring off at something off-panel. Text says "And I've heard otherwise, but those lies never track."

On the second page, the first panel shows the sign at the entrance to an outdoor cinema at night, with a movie reel projector and a deer head painted onto it. String lights are hanging off both sides of the sign. Text says "But deep inside your eyes," The text follows into panel 2, where we see Sondra and Lex standing in a line with other people, including a person with a plaid shirt and long black hair, a couple of men smiling at each other (one with short curly hair and the other bald), a woman with an undercut and curly hair and glasses sitting in a wheelchair, a woman with long black hair standing behind her and chatting with a taller woman with broad shoulders and black curly hair, and a small child with curly hair standing in front of them. Sondra is checking her phone and Lex is looking up at the lights. Text says "something turns on the light". In the third panel, Sondra and Lex are saying hi to friends of theirs they've run into: a tall woman with long blonde hair and a striped sweater; a shorter person with glasses and curly hair, holding a drink; and a small blond man with stubble and a plaid shirt. Text says "And it feels like I'm worthy, like I'll be alright". In the fourth panel, Lex and Sondra are holding hands while making their way over to an amphitheater style seating to sit down. Various people are sitting there already. Sondra is pointing to an empty spot. The fifth panel is a close-up of Lex and Sondra's handholding while sitting down. Text says "I have learned that my heart's in a shell made of glass". The final panel shows the amphitheater from behind, with everyone including Lex and Sondra and a couple of men (one wearing a cowboy hat, one wearing a plaid shirt) sitting down to watch the movie on a large screen pitched on the grass in front of a fence, with a handful of stars visible. The screen shows five wavy lines, almost like a rainbow. Text says "And - I know now - it's safe for that vessel to crack."

Lex and Sondra return! I drew this for Comic Invasion Berlin's Queer Movie Night, featuring a queer comics exhibit and a screening of the documentary No Straight Lines.

Thanks to everyone who came by and made this a very special evening — and also to everyone at the main festival who stopped by my table, asked me what I was fangirling, bought zines and generally made my first IRL Comic Invasion since 2019 a resounding success! Special thanks go to Ash and Henna aka HX for being such awesome tabling buddies.

My new zines collecting autobio comics from 2016 to 2022 are now all available for purchase in my store!

[ twenty one pilots - Formidable ]