This is important.

In my defence, I had a 78 hr working week.

If you also follow my Ask-Ephi tumblr: SORRY! Trying to turn the hiddlesvolume down. A little. It's hard.

Barilla doesn't want my money

* Link

Now, I don't have much time to draw but this needed to leave my system. I mean, would you believe your spaghetti could be evil sexist homophobes (or well, made by such)? Obviously, pasta-maker Barilla doesn't want our money... But that's OK. It's not like they have a monopole on pasta as far as I know.
Please don't support a homophobe company who also likes to emphasize that women have "their place" (behind a stove, cooking pasta for a family. Not a gay one though!). Buy your pasta elsewhere - and better even: let them know.

Personal space

Brief intermezzo before continuing my little All-Praise-Korea series.

(Sorry, Mum, it's true - but I do love you very much!)

Phone bitch - evil mode activate

One easy way to make me instantly hate you:

Dude. When you call, let's say a company, and a female voice answers - guess what! It doesn't necessarily mean that you're speaking to some sort of brainless human answering machine. She might actually be the professional you want to talk to!
Welcome to your worst nightmare. Or, as some like to call it, the 21st century.

PS: Dear sexist jerk, should you end up ordering a search report, rest assured that I will celebrate every identified prior art document detrimental to the novelty of your invention with a bottle of champaign. ♡

Landlord letter heart attack

Quickie for means of processing:

This shit is real. Apparently, I misunderstood my contract and never ever paid operating costs since I moved in, plus there's a supplementary payment due to running costs having gone up. Holy shit.
My landlord was pretty nice about it though (as nice as a landlord could possibly be if you're owing him roughly a grand!), noting that he's sure it's just been a misunderstanding and offering payment per installments and stuff.
Still... TT﹏TT

The coffee trap

Will I ever learn?

It've got a similar thing with olives. I think they're absolutely disgusting but everytime I see some at a buffet I have to take a few because "these look kinda yummy". Just to find out that, yep, I still hate olives. Even these ones.

Genius at work

Still not sure how this seemed like a reasonable idea inside my head. Guess it happens to the best of us. (Maybe my brain was frozen.) Glad my boiler works again.

Boobs'n'Butt Pose demystified!

Fun stuff from newbie training: butt radar!
It basically works like this: You're looking back and moving your ass wherever the jammer behind you is.
I think this gave me deep insights...

Strong female characters (all) seem to have had a formative roller derby past!

✿✿✿ Yes, bitchuuus - track your enemies with ur butt, totally helps! ✿✿✿

I liked my nose. Until...

It took me so long to work up the courage for a septum piercing (always found it super hot, but: sharp instruments in the middle of my face, dude!!). Trying to cope with the cruel crushing of my dream through comics. *cry*

Slutwalk

Today the Berlin Slutwalk took place. The organization of the event might have been far from perfect but the cause still is an important one which is why I threw myself into one of my slutty favorite outfits to participate. I'm so sick of having to take into account if I feel ready to bother with imbecile street harassment when I choose what to wear. A dress is not a yes. And it's sad that this needs to be pointed out.

NO can mean a whole lot of things.

NO as in 

NOne of your business // NO, fuck off // NOt now // NOt ever // I have NO interest whatsoever in communicating with you // NOt this time // NO, leave me alone // ...

NO means NO. 

NO never means yes. Unless otherwise noted.

It's really that easy.

Respect my decisions.

My neighbor's not Totoro

Here's my last-minute submission to Pamo's new zine (true story! Her call for submissions came just in time for me to process that experience...)

Still not completely sure about that neighbor of mine. Last Sunday night (or rather Monday morning) at around 1:30am he called me to ask if I wanted to have breakfast together - right now...

Internet problems

I'm afraid I really do this.

Girl Gang wanted

Almost a year ago I moved to Berlin with high expectations. I do love this city but unfortunately I proved rather inefficient in building up a social circle with people who do not leave the country after only a few months. Sooo...

Girl seeks Gang. 

Offering vegan muffins and squeaks of delight for information leading to solving this case. 

HOT!

Puh, it's been way over my optimum operating temperature recently. My iced coffee consumption is breaking all records. I'm clutching at every straw...

A tiny little bit better at least. *slurpingicedcoffee*

A little guide to how to make your feminist friends (or members) happy

First of all, I want to say sorry to my international readers for that these comics are in German (I will provide English transcriptions underneath each comic). This is due to the fact that in the German language there (often) is a noticeable difference between masculine and feminine nouns and this is what this comic is about (partly). It is also about how embarrassingly unusual it still seems to be - even in an academic context - to include the female (identified) half of the population. And it shows that even linguistic inclusion does not always translate into actual inclusion.
Don't get me wrong. Fortunately, there are already several attempts/programs to support women's participation in so-called MINT subjects (Mathematics, Informatics, Natural Sciences, Technology). I do appreciate these efforts but I think it's equally important that these women become "visible" through an appropriate use of language. Because language is not "just words". Words do not only reflect who we are and what is important to us, they also shape our everyday reality. So let's make use of that positive feedback of words and actions - YAY!

I'm looking forward to times when I won't get all excited about something like a "progressive" folder that once doesn't forget to mention 50% of the world's population.

Translation:

Panel 1: "What's this? From the GDCh*?"

Panel 2: "Oh, an invitation... lecture... and commemorative plaque."

Panel 3: "bla... (male and female) scientists decorated in ceremonial act... WOW! How progressive..."

Panel 4: So far: (list of names)

Translation:

Panel 1: "For all non-chemists: the GDCh is the Society of German Chemists* (male form only)."

Panel 2: "Yep. Exactly. And I'm a member nonetheless."

Panel 3: "(Gender) Never has been a problem."

(* this is a direct translation. Interestingly, the English version of their website says "German Chemical Society" which is wonderfully inclusive of all genders.)

Recovery

Sorry for the infrequent updates. Unfortunately, it's not only that I'm currently busy with commission work for a project I'm really excited about (amongst other stuff), but also my SSD drive has been driving me crazy (impairing my very important work and cutting me off from the net - ARGH!!). It was (or is? I'm still regarding the present peace with suspicion...) an odyssey (at the least).
Anyways. If you've ever been in the painful position of having to recover your system using a USB surf stick as your doorway to The Amazing Internets you know what I've gone through...

Also, here's me as frustrated pony:

On the bright side of things, I got a lot done during that time of surf stick agony. For example, I sew a cover for my e-book reader, tidied up my flat, ate a lot of liquorice and finally drew some comics I've been wanting to do for a while, so be prepared and stay tuned. ;)

Eyeliner accident

Let me introduce to you one of my favorite heroines of comics: Kate Leth (also known as KateorDie). This pretty lady isn't only a highly talented artist. She also inspired me to purchase an eyeliner for the very first time in my life.

Unfortunately, it ended like this:

I'm serious! I had eyeliner in my eye and on my nose! I was so desperate that I searched for youtube tutorials. It looks so easy when they do it in front of the camera. I mean, there's no hope for me ever being able to hold my one eye so relaxedly closed to draw an even line on its lid. Without a (un)healthy helping of botox that is. Am I missing a gene? Oh man. How? How????!?

First round

I ran my first round of training yesterday evening. If you think nothing can go wrong during a (supposedly) 20 minute round - stand corrected.
I'm not proud to say this but these stories are 100% true...
(Also: do not draw tiny pictures with a brush.)

Yes, I got lost. I was so excited to get started that I completely forgot to memorize the street where I would have needed to turn right to finish the "round" and get back to my flat.
In my defense: I only recently moved to this area of the city. ^ ^° And the streets in between all those concrete slabs seriously did all have the same name! I've never seen this before but it seems to be some weird Berlin residential area thing?!

To be continued...

PS: If I'll miss my morning run tomorrow it's because I stayed up till now drawing this comic.

The jeans dilemma

And this is why I hate shopping for pants. And why when I do find a fitting pair I wear it till the bitter end when it falls from my ass in rags.

(bigger view on flicker *clickclick*)

I was going to say, I'm not made to fit into jeans. But really the thing is: jeans are not made to fit my behind and my waist at the same time. Be cursed, jeans industry!
It's time for spring and skirt season.

CoE - double-sided desperation and midnight sightseeing

Catching up with diary doodles from before my holidays in good old Austria:

By the way: The Berlinale tickets were for the movie Exremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I both cried and laughed a lot.

The books depicted above are:

• Spera, by many great artists (follow the link to read some unconventional princess stories online and admire the fantastic artwork!)
• Wasserfarbe für Gestalter, by Felix Scheinberger (who's drawings and books I find amazingly inspiring)