Anna Haifisch gives us a reading of the best of The Artist series

Our final speaker at Nicer Tuesdays November was Leipzig-based illustrator, Anna Haifisch. After seeing Anna speak at Eike König’s After School Club in Offenbach during July this year, we quickly realised the illustrator was a must to speak at Nicer Tuesdays before the year was up, also doubling up as the first comic reading we’ve had at our monthly event.

During her talk, Anna gave an introduction and a sort of “best of” compilation of The Artist; a series of comic episodes Anna initially wrote for Vice, which have since been published in several books and languages too. Taking the audience through some highlights, Anna’s reading took us right back to the beginning, the moment her character first said “Mom, I want to become an artist,” at the age of seven, after its Sunday bath.

From there we followed The Artist as it procrastinated in bed, was let down by a gallery assistant, struggled to find anything interesting to say at dinner parties, had several nervous breakdowns and moved back in with its parents. However, just at the end, Anna read us the next instalment of the series where The Artist finds that maybe having everything wasn’t what he wanted at all.