Comic: Seeing InBetween

Introduction

This queer comic conversation, a collaboration between Rae Lanzerotti and Illi Anna Heger, is about seeing and being seen in between abilities, genders, and spaces. This comic is accessible in different ways: play audio or read text transcripts, and view visual images or get descriptions. All audios are prefaced by text transcript. Keep on scrolling to click through the comic elements of audio and text as you go. All visuals are matched with embedded alt text. Or listen to the complete audio version and use the complete text version of the comic at the bottom of this page.

Scroll and Click Version

The title at the top of the comic panel reads: Seeing Inbetween. Two people are hovering over the arc of the blue earth, with Europe and the USA in focus. Their names and cities are written next to them. The comic has black line-art with pink, yellow and blue coloring and gray tones. On the left, Rae Lanzerotti, from San Francisco, wears an eyepatch, pink headphones, a white shirt, yellow pants and blue shoes. On the right, Illi A. Heger, from Munich, wears glasses, blue headphones, a yellow shirt, white skirt and pink boots and looks over at Rae.

Portrait of Rae with a black eyepatch, curly hair and pink headphones. Rae says: we’re trying to tell a story about what’s important to us, what we want to understand and express about the experience of living in between in various ways

Portrait of Illi with glasses, short hair and blue headphones. Illi says: I think there’s a very precious energy in interacting artistically with another person but also communicating artistically to an audience, into the world
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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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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

Minicomic 16 - Story of the castle, the entire comic is transcribed to plain text
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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

Minicomic 19 : A quota of 100 percent - the entire comic is transcribed to plain text
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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.

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Comic : Not all by herself

Handwritten title: Not all by themself.

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.

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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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”.

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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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

Walking home, the entire comic is transcribed to plain text
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