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Queer Comic Conversations banner© Illi Anna Heger + Sam Orchard

Queer Comic Conversations

In the comic series Queer Comic Conversations by the artists Illi Anna Heger and Sam Orchard, Illi Anna and Sam take you along on their monthly catch-ups. Illi Anna from Munich and Sam from Wellington meet in different locations, like the CSD, a demonstration, the Munich Pride, Wellington Pride and a gay bar. During their conversations, they cover a range of queer topics such as chosen families and support systems, nonbinary pronouns in both German and English, festivals but also experiences of loss, trauma and violence. Together with us readers, Illi Anna and Sam explore these themes and recommend a variety of queer art and further informational resources throughout their Queer Comic Conversations.
 

drawn portrait of Sam Orchard, sitting next to a pencil © Sam Orchard

Sam Orchard

Sam Orchard  writes comics, essays and children’s books, creates animated videos, podcasts, and resources with the aim of celebrating difference. His ongoing web comic 'Rooster Tails' has been running for over 10 years. Written from his life as a queer transgender man, the comic explores themes of mental health, fat embodiment, nerd culture, trans lives, and caring for a food-obsessed cat.

Sam is also the author of 'Family Portraits', a series of short comic stories that amplify the stories of intersectional identities within Aotearoa’s rainbow communities. Sam’s comics and resources about sexuality, sex and gender have been used internationally by SOGI advocates. Sam is currently working on his first full length graphic novel.

Illi Anna Heger - Portrait new © Illi Anna Heger

Illi Anna Heger

Illi Anna Heger is an author for graphic storytelling, comic journalism and visual explanations. Illi Anna Heger is nonbinary, on the trans masculine spectrum and use they pronouns. They focus on stories and knowledge from and for their intersecting communities and are working on a book of autobiographical graphic short stories.

They live in Munich and were born in the east of Berlin before the wall came down. Back in 2009 they started creating a set of alternative German grammar to complete he and she with the pronoun xier, that does not indicate gender. Having studied several languages in their life time helped immensely to detangle their mother tongue's grammar. Xier, xieser and more are continually improved and are already used by translators.

Episodes

Queer Comic Conversations is a webcomic series by artists Illi Anna Heger (Munich) and Sam Orchard (Wellington) where they discuss similarities and differences about queer and trans lives.The series stretches from July to December 2020; every month, a new episode will be released and is accessible as visual comic and its transcript (text based comic).

Queer Comic Conversations teaser image, July: Pride Parade, two comic figures converse with each other © Illi Anna Heger + Sam Orchard

July: Pride Parade

Queer Comic Conversations teaser image, August: Labels, two comic figures converse with each other © Anna Heger + Sam Orchard

August: Labels

Queer Comic Conversations teaser image, September: Spaces, two comic figures converse with each other © Illi Anna Heger + Sam Orchard

September: Spaces

Artist Talk @ Comic-Salon Erlangen

At this year's International Comic-Salon Erlangen, comic artists Illi Anna Heger and Sam Orchard talk with journalist Markus Pfalzgraf about collaboritive ways of working in unusal times.
 


 

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