Web Comic Series : Queer Comic Conversations

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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.

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Comic : Not all by herself

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Handwritten title: Not all by herself.

I am interested in queer women who lived before my times, whether they identified as lesbians or not. I am fascinated how they broke with clothing standards of their times and how the didn’t.

Sketch of Erika Mann with hat, jacket and tie.

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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Article : Transcribing Screenreadable Comics

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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 machinereadable. 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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Article : Screen Readable Comics

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Why do they need to be screenreadable?

Pixilated online comic are not accessible to everybody. A screen reader is unable to read out text from image files in .jpg format. A screen reader is a tool that converts text and HTML structures into a form accessible for readers using a speech synthesizer or a braille display. The output is acoustic or tactile. People that surf my website with speech synthesizer or braille display would not have access to the comics. How can I change that?

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Article : sketches and notes hosted here first

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I want more control over my data, therefore I will first publish #immerzeichnen Sketches and part of my tweets and facebook updates here.

Starting this week, this website got its own sketchbook: www.annaheger.de/immerzeichnen. Posting excerpts from my sketchbook and from work in progress projects motivates me to keep going and to sketch regularly. I created the hashtag #immerzeichen to tie these posts together and enable my followers to mute the stream of visual input if necessary.

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Comic Documentation : Erika Mann Exhibition in Monacensia in Hildebrandthaus in Munich

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The Monacensia in Munich invited Bloggers to experience their Erika Mann exhibition. They are part of the pubic library in Munich and host the literary estate of the whole Mann familiy. We were introduced to the house, their archival work, the Erika Mann exhibition and a lyrically live performance. I was watch and listened and kept sketching away.

Introduction of the library: “Monacensia operates as literary memory for Munich”.

3 bloggers in the exhibition

My ink sketches and a view of the Erika Mann Exhibition.

sketchbook and view of Erika Mann exhibition
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Book : Layers of naked

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We took a one week break from our daily lifes and met at Waldschlösschen Academy near Göttingen to write a book with queer short stories. The framework for the book was set by Bram and Mio, the creators of the BuchLabs Series, a collaborative creative writing project for queer authors. Queer life is relevant. Let’s make a book out of it.

We worked layers of experiences into short stories. The stories touch LGBTQ topics and deal with neurodiversity, bigotry, passing, kinds of family, and the meaning of nakedness, illness and joy. I feel full of joy for my stories and elated at the coauthor’s stories that I saw come into existence and grow. I am happy about all the insights I got from them and the input I gave to them.

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Workshop : Nonbinary Gender Label Biographies Bern

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I will participate a the Trans Congress in Bern with a workshop. On Sunday, the 8th of September at 3pm I will facilitate a workshop on sharing our experiences with gender labels. Choosing labels is often not easy for trans people that are not binary trans.

Nonbinary Gender Label Biographies

Finding gender labels that fit and dealing with wrong gender labels is especially hard for nonbinary trans people. This workshop is for all people on the trans spectrum that are not (only) trans men and trans women. You may call yourself nonbinary or not.

The workshop will provide a space for each to talk about how our gender labels changed and provide the opportunity to listen to each other. Finding gender labels that fits is not straight forward, but there is happiness in being seen and understood. The workshop will be held in English and the gender labels may be in any language.

Overview over all workshops.

Comic : Walking home 100 miles

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This is an entry for the DailyComicChallenge, that the comic maker Henna Hoplin started. The topic from the 11.4.2015 was WHAT I DIDN’T KNOW UNTIL… You don’t know stuff until you know it. How did it change how you think or act? Did it? How did it feel to suddenly realize and understand something new or from a totally different point of view?

The story takes play in a childrens camp. When I was 20 I was the arts and crafts teacher there.

Walking Home