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/.
InBrief200707
A reply to two tweets:
The German artist, Illi Anna Heger, has an interesting take on neutral pronouns for the German language.
So, if you're German, I'd recommend reading it!⬇️https://t.co/zD6xjTwoaq— Foeh 🖤 BLM (@Naudh1z) July 6, 2020
interesting read! I've heard of people use these before and while I'm happy they found a solution for themselves, I can't help but feel it may be more universally acceptable to avoid combining sie+er & make a new pronoun to have it avoid sounding more like one or the other… idk
— Zeph 🐎 OnTheRun Comic (@zephuko) July 6, 2020
Thanks for linking to my takes on gender neutral grammar. The project started with merging the existing pronouns, that is right. Then the focus shifted to getting it to work within existing grammatical structures in German.
Changing the first letter to “x” was suggested by a reader and when I implemented it, the pronouns became something beyond a mix of the conventional binary pronouns.
I find something easy, so with the word eindings I stuck the questions you ask to ascertain the grammatical cases, “wer”, “wessen”, “wem”, “wen”. So the new proun ended up having male word endings, really.
The remaining part of the new pronouns, the root “xie” can actually be changed to anything one could want and then have the endings I created. Recommendations for different roots are very welcome and then tested for easy usage.
I really do love the x at the beginning for its mathmatical variable meaning. But then at least two forms are needed anyways, one for everybody without gender marker and one specifically for nonbinary people with their gender marker.
I am open to discussing xier pronouns and their usability, because I soon want to take time to issues version 4.0. with some changes and more grammatical background.
InBrief200501
“Theory of the eggplant” is a comic on my nonbinary identity and how it intersects with orientation. Find the full comic at annaheger.de/minicomic03ecolor.
I started including detailed scripts with my comics to make them accessible to screen readers, so my audience can access them with speech synthesizer or braille display. Do you make screen readable comics as well? I would like to hear about your experience with translating visual to text based content.
Screen Readable Comics
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?
Minicomic 03 : Theory of the eggplant in color
Background to Comic
This comic on my complex identity also in color. There is still the black and white version. Below the visual Comic find a text-based version, Screenreadable Comic Version.
visual version of the comic
Comic : Close by 2020
Background to Comic
A one page comic on how my perception of closeness and distance changed in times of the Corona pandemic.
visual version of the comic
Article : sketches and notes hosted here first
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.
Hourly Comic Day: 1.2.2020
Background of the Comic
2020 is my ten year anniversary of drawing at least one panel per hour I am awake for Hourly Comic Day, translated in 2025. Below the visual Comic find a text-based version, Screenreadable Comic Version.
Visuelle Version des Comics
Minicomic 21 : Happy
Background to Comic
A minicomic with otters on happiness. Below the visual Comic find a text-based version, Screenreadable Comic Version.
visual version of the comic
Comic Documentation : Erika Mann Exhibition in Monacensia in Hildebrandthaus in Munich
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”.
My ink sketches and a view of the Erika Mann Exhibition.
Book : Layers of naked
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.
Workshop : Nonbinary Gender Label Biographies Bern
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 Documentation : Network meeting of Schule-ohne-Rassismus-Schule-mit-Courage
Sketch notes of a networking meeting for high-school students working in school projects against racism and other forms of disrimination. Here four of the many sketches I completed while moving from one workshop to the next.
Comic : Walking home
Background to Comic
A very short comic for the Daily-Comic-Challenge initiated by Henna Hoplin on the topic “What I didn’t know until…”. You don’t know stuff until you do. How did it feel to suddenly realize and understand something new or from a totally different point of view? The memory in the comic is from me working as a councilor at a vacation camp for children when I was 20 years old. The children were sweet but also challenging. What do you do, all by yourself with a child running off into the woods. I was not up for a game of catch back to New York City.
Below the visual Comic find a text-based version, Screenreadable Comic Version.
visual version of the comic
InBrief140918
The printed second issues of Comic Zine „Ethical Sloth – Failing Foucault“ arrived.
Minicomic 20 : What’s a BarCamp?
Background to Comic
This is the English translation of the minicomic, Was ist ein BarCamp?. It was created and translated in cooperation the queer-feminist FemCamp 2014. The minicomic is all about explaining what a bar camp is like. Below the visual Comic find a text-based version, Screenreadable Comic Version.
visual version of the comic
InBrief131219
First printed issues of comic zine “Ethical Sloth – Hang with the gang” arrived.
Minicomic 08 : Exactly
Background to Comic
This is the first safer sex minicomic. This one is about the necessity and difficulty of talking about sexual preferences. The english and the German version are a bit different. I wanted both text and visuals to work and their language specific connotations to work. Below the visual Comic find a text-based version, Screenreadable Comic Version.
visual version of the comic
Minicomic 01 : The sixth finger
Background to Comic
This was my very first MiniComic. The quote is taken from Judith Butler, from her book “Undoing Gender”, Routledge, 2004. There are more minicomics. Below the visual Comic find a text-based version, Screenreadable Comic Version.
Visual version of the comic
Minicomic 03 : Theory of the eggplant
Background to Comic
I had always wanted a Minicomic illustrating my complex identity. In fact, I had been drawing dissected eggplants on pieces of scrap paper for a long time as a tool for explaining. So here it is. Below the visual Comic find a text-based version, Screenreadable Comic Version.
