Planet Karen
Encyclopedia
Planet Karen is an autobiographical
slice-of-life webcomic
written and drawn by Karen Ellis. It centers on Karen, the Author, who is a goth
woman of unspecified age (probably somewhere in her early or mid-twenties) and resident of Bristol
, England
and her daily life. It is written in a diary style with one strip for every day uploaded approximately 2 weeks after the day.
The comic began its run on March 1, 2006, updating almost daily; a year later (strip #314) it has an average of 11 to 12,000 hits a day. Several strips have been used as teaching aids in Cingular Wireless's Do I.T. Right magazine.
Planet Karen has been praised by renowned DC Comics writer Gail Simone
as one of the most delightful things on the Web. In an Interview with Newsarama
, Simone listed Planet Karen on her list of Ten Things She's Diggin':
It was also featured in Comics International
's Top Ten Comics of 2006 ranked at #1.
In October 2009 a book was published by Soaring Penguin collecting the first 200 strips, entitled Planet Karen: First Contact. This included an introduction by Gail Simone
. A second collection Planet Karen: Second Thoughts is scheduled for publication in the fall of 2011.
In the comic, we get to see typical slice-of-life situations of a young single female artist
(Karen).
Regular themes are the author's relation to others, her friends and romantic interests, her struggles with work, her landlord
and her surroundings, failing electronic devices, psychological issues, and how she reacts to and interacts with all these people, things and occurrences. The creation and drawing
of the comic itself is also a frequent recurring theme and since the comic is in diary style the author directly addresses her diary
and the reader regularly and no consistent fourth wall
is maintained.
woman of unspecified age (probably somewhere in her early or mid-twenties) and lives in Bristol
, England
.
She has black hair. As far as one can tell from the comic, she is of average or below-average height. Although she is not obese, she wants to lose weight and has visited a diet clinic in 2006 and managed to lose at least 8 pounds. (See strip #83)
She is an independent artist who currently works part-time as the receptionist at a cemetery
, but is usually short on money
. This webcomic was obviously the catalyst that helped her develop her artistic personality into a full-blown passion for art and comic creation. She even dreams in comic panels from time to time. In 2006 she wanted to apply for art college, but missed the deadline. Her daily life is otherwise ridden with obstacles, her unhelpful landlord and other stupid people doing their best to make her life harder than necessary.
Her personality traits include a "kiss my ass"-attitude and assertiveness (which is possibly at least in part owed to past life experiences and personal insecurities), but she is an overall amicable character and often shows amazing strength in facing hardships life presents her with. She has a sizable circle of friends
, plays the bass guitar
in a band
and seems to be well liked by others, yet she periodically lives through stretches of time where she feels isolated
, and sometimes also shows signs of severe depression
.
She often lives out a very hedonistic
side of herself, which she uses to balance out the madness life imposes on her. She sometimes (although not constantly) indulged in eating chocolate
and in drinking alcohol
, until she fell ill and was diagnosed as diabetic in late December 2006. Her favorite alcoholic beverage seems to be vodka
. At the start of the comic she also was a regular cigarette
smoker
, but in strip #36 she decided to stop smoking out of financial pressure, and after some struggle is now a non-smoker.
She is a fan of the British TV-Series Doctor Who
(c.f. strip #256 among others), and has expressed disinterest in football (soccer)
during the 2006 FIFA World Cup
. (c.f. strip #102)
In February of 2009 her house burned down, and she was left homeless for a month before finding a new place to live.
Doris
and in the archive. From strip 183 on the date of the corresponding day is noted in the lower right corner of each strip.
The events in one strip can range from minutes to 24 hours and follow no specific regular pattern but are generally located in the same day.
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
slice-of-life webcomic
Webcomic
Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....
written and drawn by Karen Ellis. It centers on Karen, the Author, who is a goth
Goth subculture
The goth subculture is a contemporary subculture found in many countries. It began in England during the early 1980s in the gothic rock scene, an offshoot of the post-punk genre. The goth subculture has survived much longer than others of the same era, and has continued to diversify...
woman of unspecified age (probably somewhere in her early or mid-twenties) and resident of Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and her daily life. It is written in a diary style with one strip for every day uploaded approximately 2 weeks after the day.
The comic began its run on March 1, 2006, updating almost daily; a year later (strip #314) it has an average of 11 to 12,000 hits a day. Several strips have been used as teaching aids in Cingular Wireless's Do I.T. Right magazine.
Planet Karen has been praised by renowned DC Comics writer Gail Simone
Gail Simone
Gail Simone is an American writer of comic books. Best known for penning DC's Birds of Prey, her other notable works include Secret Six, Welcome to Tranquility, The All-New Atom, and Deadpool. In 2007, she took over Wonder Woman...
as one of the most delightful things on the Web. In an Interview with Newsarama
Newsarama
Newsarama is an American website that publishes news, interviews and essays about the American comic book industry.-History:Newsarama began in Summer 1995 as a series of Internet forum postings on the Prodigy comic-book message boards by fan Mike Doran. In these short messages. Doran shared...
, Simone listed Planet Karen on her list of Ten Things She's Diggin':
It was also featured in Comics International
Comics International
Comics International was a British news and reviews magazine about comic books. Founded in 1990, it was published monthly by Quality Communications until 2006...
's Top Ten Comics of 2006 ranked at #1.
In October 2009 a book was published by Soaring Penguin collecting the first 200 strips, entitled Planet Karen: First Contact. This included an introduction by Gail Simone
Gail Simone
Gail Simone is an American writer of comic books. Best known for penning DC's Birds of Prey, her other notable works include Secret Six, Welcome to Tranquility, The All-New Atom, and Deadpool. In 2007, she took over Wonder Woman...
. A second collection Planet Karen: Second Thoughts is scheduled for publication in the fall of 2011.
Synopsis
The comic shows bits and pieces of Karen's life. It began on March 1st 2006 as a printed mini-comic sold through local distribution channels, and later also became available in the webcomic format. During the second half of 2006 the Author dropped the print-run entirely because the comic turned out to be much more successful on the internet.In the comic, we get to see typical slice-of-life situations of a young single female artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
(Karen).
Regular themes are the author's relation to others, her friends and romantic interests, her struggles with work, her landlord
Landlord
A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant . When a juristic person is in this position, the term landlord is used. Other terms include lessor and owner...
and her surroundings, failing electronic devices, psychological issues, and how she reacts to and interacts with all these people, things and occurrences. The creation and drawing
Drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
of the comic itself is also a frequent recurring theme and since the comic is in diary style the author directly addresses her diary
Diary
A diary is a record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. A personal diary may include a person's experiences, and/or thoughts or feelings, including comment on current events outside the writer's direct experience. Someone...
and the reader regularly and no consistent fourth wall
Fourth wall
The fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play...
is maintained.
Karen
Karen is the main focus of this comic. She is a gothGoth subculture
The goth subculture is a contemporary subculture found in many countries. It began in England during the early 1980s in the gothic rock scene, an offshoot of the post-punk genre. The goth subculture has survived much longer than others of the same era, and has continued to diversify...
woman of unspecified age (probably somewhere in her early or mid-twenties) and lives in Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
She has black hair. As far as one can tell from the comic, she is of average or below-average height. Although she is not obese, she wants to lose weight and has visited a diet clinic in 2006 and managed to lose at least 8 pounds. (See strip #83)
She is an independent artist who currently works part-time as the receptionist at a cemetery
Cemetery
A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...
, but is usually short on money
Money
Money is any object or record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value; and, occasionally in the past,...
. This webcomic was obviously the catalyst that helped her develop her artistic personality into a full-blown passion for art and comic creation. She even dreams in comic panels from time to time. In 2006 she wanted to apply for art college, but missed the deadline. Her daily life is otherwise ridden with obstacles, her unhelpful landlord and other stupid people doing their best to make her life harder than necessary.
Her personality traits include a "kiss my ass"-attitude and assertiveness (which is possibly at least in part owed to past life experiences and personal insecurities), but she is an overall amicable character and often shows amazing strength in facing hardships life presents her with. She has a sizable circle of friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
, plays the bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
in a band
Band (music)
In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...
and seems to be well liked by others, yet she periodically lives through stretches of time where she feels isolated
Solitude
Solitude is a state of seclusion or isolation, i.e., lack of contact with people. It may stem from bad relationships, deliberate choice, infectious disease, mental disorders, neurological disorders or circumstances of employment or situation .Short-term solitude is often valued as a time when one...
, and sometimes also shows signs of severe depression
Clinical depression
Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...
.
She often lives out a very hedonistic
Hedonism
Hedonism is a school of thought which argues that pleasure is the only intrinsic good. In very simple terms, a hedonist strives to maximize net pleasure .-Etymology:The name derives from the Greek word for "delight" ....
side of herself, which she uses to balance out the madness life imposes on her. She sometimes (although not constantly) indulged in eating chocolate
Chocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
and in drinking alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
, until she fell ill and was diagnosed as diabetic in late December 2006. Her favorite alcoholic beverage seems to be vodka
Vodka
Vodka , is a distilled beverage. It is composed primarily of water and ethanol with traces of impurities and flavorings. Vodka is made by the distillation of fermented substances such as grains, potatoes, or sometimes fruits....
. At the start of the comic she also was a regular cigarette
Cigarette
A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...
smoker
Tobacco smoking
Tobacco smoking is the practice where tobacco is burned and the resulting smoke is inhaled. The practice may have begun as early as 5000–3000 BCE. Tobacco was introduced to Eurasia in the late 16th century where it followed common trade routes...
, but in strip #36 she decided to stop smoking out of financial pressure, and after some struggle is now a non-smoker.
She is a fan of the British TV-Series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
(c.f. strip #256 among others), and has expressed disinterest in football (soccer)
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
during the 2006 FIFA World Cup
2006 FIFA World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six...
. (c.f. strip #102)
In February of 2009 her house burned down, and she was left homeless for a month before finding a new place to live.
Mari
Apparently Karen's closest friend, Mari, is taller than Karen, blonde, and shares Karen's fashion sense, general tastes and lifestyle. The strip shows Mari conversing and interacting with Karen, but offers no background information about her.Secondary characters
David- A friend of Karen who she goes to movies with and share a good time. A kind of fatherly figure. Wearing a beard, pullovers and trenchcoat. Comes by and brings food. For example Salami, which Karen likes very much.
Doris
- An old mannequin Karen rescued from a junk store. She doubles as wardrobe and Christmas tree. She did not survive the fire of 2009.
Format
Most of the time, the comic uses a 4 panel format (arranged as 2 columns and 2 rows) with each panel of equal size, although exceptions have occurred on occasion.Duration
The author states explicitly and repeatedly that each comic will cover events from a single, distinct day. Since the comic does more or less update daily it progresses in real time, with about 10 to 20 days delay between the day depicted and the publication of the corresponding strip. However, for the first 143 strips the corresponding days are not revealed. From strip 144 on each strip has the date of the corresponding day revealed as mouseoverMouseover
In computing a mouseover, mouse hover or hover box refers to a GUI event that is raised when the user moves or "hovers" the cursor over a particular area of the GUI. The technique is particularly common in web browsers where the URL of a hyperlink can be viewed in the status bar...
and in the archive. From strip 183 on the date of the corresponding day is noted in the lower right corner of each strip.
The events in one strip can range from minutes to 24 hours and follow no specific regular pattern but are generally located in the same day.
External links
- Official Site (Currently updating)
- http://planetkaren.girl-wonder.org
- April 2007 Interview with Karen Ellis for Sequential Tart Webzine
- Soaring Penguin, publisher of paperback collection Planet Karen: First Contact
Reviews
- http://jfwy.josef-stalin.com/index.php?content=Todays_Feature&id=10/01/07
- http://khayem.blogspot.com/2006/09/stripping-down-8-my-field-trip-to.html Adapted from reviews that originally appeared in Comics InternationalComics InternationalComics International was a British news and reviews magazine about comic books. Founded in 1990, it was published monthly by Quality Communications until 2006...
#198 and #200 - Talkaboutcomics interviews the author
- Planet Karen - Hyatt Art Webcomic Spotlight