A few years back, some time before 2015, when I first lived in Berlin, I saw the comics of Marc Seestaedt on the Berlin U-bahn. They were shown as a slideshow, instagram-style, on the double television screens that you see in each carriage of the U-bahn. One screen displays information about your route, while the other, where the comics appeared, features mainly news stories and advertising. I thought this was great and wondered how he was able to organise something like this.
Marc must be good at organising things: he is the founder of Berlin's annual comics festival ComicsInvasionBerlin... some people are able to do this stuff.
I have great memories of tabling at the early ComicsInvasion's. They were the most fun I ever had at a comics festival. Plus the artists and guests in attendance seemed to genuinely appreciate my Comix Reader anthology, which made me feel really good about being involved in comics.
When I moved back to Berlin in 2019 ComicsInvasion had grown from a DIY, punky, alternative thing into a bigger, more established festival. The festival was also running "seasons" of Berliner Fenster comics to be shown on all the U-Bahn screens. Any comics person in Berlin could submit strips. I drew one and sent it. Hooray! But then ... Corona.... I'm not sure if that season ever happened but there was a new call for strips in 2020. This season did happen. I waited a long time for my strip to be shown and the day it was finally scheduled I was heading out of town. But I had like a 10 minute journey on the U-bahn to get to the train station. Perhaps I could still see my strip...??? I didn't see it... although I THINK I might have caught the last panel of the strip for a split second just as I got on the U6. NB the photo I posted here is fake, I just pasted my art over the screens.
Anyway, I just submitted a strip for a NEW season of Berliner Fenster comics. So maybe I still have a chance to see my comic on that screen. Then I will really feel like a Berlin Comic Artist.
