Clairikine is a cartoonist from America and France, who is currently living in Berlin. She became a special friend to me during a time of deep soul searching. I’ll be forever grateful for her friendship, especially during that time.
A majority of the Clairikine comics are auto-biographical. She share her experiences as an expat living in Berlin, traveling back to France, the US and Sweden. She won’t shy away from declaring herself as a fangirl when it comes to Dr. Who, Tegan + Sera and Arctic Monkeys (and who would?). What impresses me most about Clairikine as an artist is how honest and personal she is when it comes to more serious subjects, as in her PMS/SAD/grief cartoon featured in the video.
One of my favorite pieces by her I purchased as an official print that we have hanging in our living room – based on a Hunter S. Thompson quote.
She has had her work published many places, like Travels of Adam. But she also does commission work for personal use!
And here’s a little fan girl moment of my own: Together with Adam and Clairikine, I appear in the epilogue of her Master of Survival #3 – a trilingual autobiographical comic. We’re not listed by name – but we know who we are, sitting at St. Oberholz Cafe on Rosenthaler Platz in Berlin. I especially appreciate the sentiment that she expresses in those last few frames of Master of Survival because I can relate to them well.
We shot the interview in 1 minute and 40 seconds (!) at the Berlin Tegel airport in December, when Clairikine was about to fly off to Chicago and I was on my way back to Colorado. So please excuse the noisy background. While it’s true that I wanted to feature a lot of her drawings in the video, it’s also true that for some reason the auto-focus was activated and decided to focus on planes in the background instead of her face. So the rest of the interview is out of focus. Shame.
So I want to thank Claire, as I like to call her, for providing all the extra drawings and for all her engaging and personal work – and for being my friend. THANK YOU!
Places you can find, shop for and support comics by Clairikine:
Random Moving Postcard connection, Claire hung out with me for hours while I shot this video Sunset Time Lapse – In A Berlin Minute (Week 164) – exactly 200 weeks ago!
