The English version of my comic on one aspect of Germany’s colonial involvement at the turn of last century, a text-only, screenreadable, version is included.
Comic Documentation : Corner of Herero- and Waterbergstraße
Background of the Comic
This Comic on the colonial history of Germany was first published in German for and at Literatur Portal Bayern. The narrator from Munich, walks through one of the streets of their town, Herero Straße. It was renamed twice, in 1933 and 2007. We follow them on their walk through the street and see their subjective view of historic events.
One needs to understand history to understand current events, like joint civilian efforts for the renaming those streets, which currently pay tribute to mass murderers and places of mass murder. And where colonial occupation of the African continent is concerned, the German Empire, constituted in 1871 was right up among the front runners. The visual version of this comic is followed by a text-only version available for screenreaders.
Visual version of the comic
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We launched our comic book, Queer Comic Conversations, at Goethe-Institut New Zealand in Wellington. I was there virtually on screen.
Minicomic 16 : Story of the castle
Background to Comic
I love to use my comics to share my understanding of theories. The analogy of a house for explaining deconstruction is based on an article in the booklet “Wer andern einen Brunnen gräbt” by Mostafa Akhtar. In 2013 the German version of this comic and its text-only transcript were published as a guest article on the Mädchenmannschaft blog. Below the visual Comic find a text-based version, a screenreadable comic version.
visual version of the comic
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Finished another translation of a minicomic to English, Minicomic 19e Quota of a hundred percent, explaining discrimination at the workplace as a game with levels to be reached.
Hourly Comic Day : 1.2.2021
Background to Comic
For the eleventh year I am drawing at least one panel per hour I am awake. Below the visual Comic find a text-based version, Screenreadable Comic Version.
visual version of the comic
Minicomic 19 : A quota of 100 percent
Background to Comic
I get annoyed with the whining about quota of women on boards of private companies. One get the misleading impression there is only one axis of discrimination, that is sexism, but there is definitively more. I want to point at the 100% quota on the management level. This is what needs to be removed. The setup of the management floor is a symptom for how society is structured as a whole. Below the visual Comic find a text-based version, Screenreadable Comic Version.
This minicomic uses quotes from four tweets by KhaosKobold, Baranek, Enoerlee and Miinaaa, and cites a blog post by John Scalzi, “Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is”.
visual version of the comic
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Another of the #ScreenreadableComics from my workshop: Messy Parent Gender Transition by Joris Bas Backer transcribed into pure text by the author.
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Analytical article about my Comic-Zine on alternative genderneutral pronouns by Nichole Neuman. I do love the depth and breadth of her approach, behind paywall for scientific publication: Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies, 56(3-4), 302-321, 2020.
Web Comic Series : Queer Comic Conversations
Introduction
For Goethe-Institut Wellington in New Zealand, Sam Orchard and me and went to have and draw Queer Comic Conversations. Sam Orchard is well know for his web comic Rooster Tails. This web-comic series was published simultaneously in English and German from July to December 2020. In addition to two pages of visual version of the comic, each episode contains a text-based version, a transcript where visual information is written out as text. More on the background on this can be found in my article on #ScreenReadableComics. More information on the background of the comic project can be found at the end of this page.
Comic : Not all by herself
I am interested in queer people that lived before my times, no matter what they identified as. I am fascinated how they broke with clothing standards of their times and how the didn’t.
I would love to rummage through an archive of all people that have ever lived, filled with what they wanted to leave with following generations, with their perspective on their own lives and with those ideas that were of importance to them. A complete archive like that does not exist, but actors_actresses, writers and other artists leave behind their creation and sometimes more in diaries, newspaper articles and biographies.
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This months Queer Comic Conversations are sad and quiet, because of TDOR, trans day of remembrance, on November 20th. Sam Orchard and me participate at a quiet vigil in Munich, virtually in our cooperative comic for Goethe-Institut Neuseeland.
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comic documentation of a protest march against colonial street names in Munich: DECOLONIZE München, walking around side streets and listening to historical backgrounds not commonly know enough.www.annaheger.de/decolonize/
Comic Documentation : Concerted Action Decolonize München
On Sunday, September 27th, a coalition of non-governmental organisations invited round for the concerted action “DECOLONIZE MÜNCHEN – Kolonialstraßen umbenennen” (english: decolonzie Munich – rename colonial streets). It started at 10 am at the end of Von-Erkert-Platz in Trudering, an urban district of Munich.
Transcribing Screenreadable Comics
Introduction
I want my comics to be accessible not only visually, but also tactile and acoustic. Therefore I need a transcription into pure text. Visual elements of the comics have to be described and the pixelated text from the comics image file is typed out. This text is machine-readable. Readers can access it with text-to-speech systems and braille display.
Wanting to make make my comics accessible beyond the visual has a lot to do with my own audience. I wrote about this in my first blog post on screenreadable comics, which includes a list of all the comics already transcribed.
The first workshop “Transcribing Screenreadable Comics” was offered to comic artists in September 2020. The workshop covered three objectives of transcribing comics. Firstly, the comic should gain accessibility for more readers. Secondly, the transcription enables text search and googleability. Thirdly, making comic transcriptions can be a tool of analyzing and getting to know ones own work.
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The second episode of Queer Comic Conversations uploaded yesterday. It’s a cooperation comic between me, nonbinary in Germany, and a trans man from New Zealand. We take each other queer places in our communities and actually did draw into each others panels. The hardest part in working together was finding a time we would both be awake.
Links to the episodes and to an interview we gave for the German comic festival, Comic Salon Erlangen, can be found at www.annaheger.de/qcc
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A reply to a tweet:
+++loving reminder to put pronouns in your bio+++
By doing that, you create a safer space for LGBTIQA+ people, cause you normalize the fact that I can't guess your pronouns from your profile picture or your name.
If it’s safe for you, put em out there!
— Aaron's words🌈 (they/them) (@AaronPhion) August 2, 2020
I do agree with you a lot, but this also increases pressure to out one’s gender on social media, like misgender myself when I cannot be out and pressured to pick on when I am questioning.
Even in pronouns workshops I took out the part where people say their pronouns, as those are not needed because once can adress others directly. Several nonbinary and trans spectrum people came after to thank me specifically for that.
This was not about me doing me or you doing you, but how a general recommendation can end up being hurtful. Also, it was about creating space for others. I see how your recommendation can be a good thing and encouraged people to name their pronoun if they wanted to.
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trans comic reading recommendation for “Gender Queer – A memoir” by Maia Kobabe, about growing up and coming out as nonbinary and asexual, sweet storytelling and theory, more comics on the trans spectrum at annaheger.de/transcomics-en/
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Queer Comic Conversation, in 3.5 hours, Markus Pfalzgraf interviews me and Sam Orchard on #CSEDigital via http://live.flyp.tv/stadt-erlangen/csedigital/
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Queer Comic Conversation Sam Orchard, Markus Pfalzgraf and me talk at #csedigital about the newly released Kiwi-German webseries and its creative process. Sunday, 12th, 10pm (CEST, central European summer time) on live.flyp.tv/stadt-erlangen/csedigital/.