248:. 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.
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The comic shows bits and pieces of Karen's life. It began on 1 March 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
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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
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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
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PLANET KAREN: A webcomic with everything; heart, brains, humor, drama, and more, created by gifted fangirl Karen Ellis. It’s worth starting at the beginning, but the strip has been even more compelling lately as Karen struggles with a serious health problem. Go read it, you’ll thank
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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.
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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
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A friend of Karen who she goes to movies with and share a good time. A kind of fatherly figure, he wears a beard, pullovers and trenchcoat. David comes by and brings food, for example salami, which Karen likes very
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Most of the time, the comic uses a four-panel format (arranged as two columns and two rows) with each panel of equal size, although exceptions have occurred on occasion.
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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.
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side of herself, which she uses to balance out the madness life imposes on her. She sometimes (although not constantly) indulged in eating
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An old mannequin Karen rescued from a junk store. She doubles as wardrobe and
Christmas tree. She did not survive the fire of 2009.
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and her daily life. It is written in a diary style with one strip for every day uploaded approximately two weeks after the day.
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of the comic itself is also a frequent recurring theme and since the comic is in diary style the author directly addresses her
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https://web.archive.org/web/20071021191322/http://jfwy.josef-stalin.com/index.php?content=Todays_Feature&id=10%2F01%2F07
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Regular themes are the author's relation to others, her friends and romantic interests, her struggles with work, her
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In
February 2009 her house burned down, and she was left homeless for a month before finding a new place to live.
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and seems to be well liked by others, yet she periodically lives through stretches of time where she feels
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she decided to stop smoking out of financial pressure, and after some struggle is now a non-smoker.
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In
October 2009 a book was published by Soaring Penguin collecting the first 200 strips, entitled
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woman of unspecified age (probably somewhere in her early or mid-twenties) and resident of
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woman of unspecified age (probably somewhere in her early or mid-twenties) and lives in
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on the date of the corresponding day is noted in the lower right corner of each strip.
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She is an independent artist who currently works part-time as the receptionist at a
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Soaring
Penguin, publisher of paperback collection Planet Karen: First Contact
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https://web.archive.org/web/20131129051215/http://planetkaren.girl-wonder.org/
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The comic began its run on 1 March 2006, updating almost daily; a year later (
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written and drawn by Karen Ellis. It centers on Karen, the author, who is a
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http://khayem.blogspot.com/2006/09/stripping-down-8-my-field-trip-to.html
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as one of the most delightful things on the Web. In an interview with
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in late
December 2006. Her favourite alcoholic beverage seems to be
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the first 143 strips the corresponding days are not revealed. From
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April 2007 Interview with Karen Ellis for
Sequential Tart Webzine
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on each strip has the date of the corresponding day revealed as
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and in drinking alcohol, until she fell ill and was
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474:Adapted from reviews that originally appeared in
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311:among others), and has expressed disinterest in
217:Karen is the main focus of this comic. She is a
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423:THE SIMONE FILES VI: READERS AXE THE QUESTIONS
119:has been praised by renowned DC Comics writer
487:Planet Karen - Hyatt Art Webcomic Spotlight
200:and the reader regularly and no consistent
181:be much more successful on the internet.
131:on her list of Ten Things She's Diggin':
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301:She is a fan of the British TV series
482:Talkaboutcomics interviews the author
172:, was published in the fall of 2011.
38:http://planetkaren.girl-wonder.org/
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47:On hiatus since 27 September 2011
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188:and her surroundings, failing
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170:Planet Karen: Second Thoughts
411:Happy Birthday, Planet Karen
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44:Current status/schedule
155:Top Ten Comics of 2006
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281:diagnosed as diabetic
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527:2006 webcomic debuts
522:Short form webcomics
476:Comics International
339:Secondary characters
151:Comics International
317:2006 FIFA World Cup
252:sizeable circle of
428:2007-09-29 at the
190:electronic devices
512:Reality webcomics
313:football (soccer)
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21:Planet Karen
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315:during the
258:bass guitar
202:fourth wall
144:Gail Simone
121:Gail Simone
52:Launch date
29:Karen Ellis
496:Categories
398:References
321:strip #102
309:strip #256
304:Doctor Who
273:hedonistic
157:ranked at
113:magazine.
107:strip #314
55:2006-05-01
389:strip 183
385:mouseover
381:strip 144
296:strip #36
294:, but in
289:cigarette
277:chocolate
235:strip #83
125:Newsarama
26:Author(s)
426:Archived
374:Duration
266:isolated
242:cemetery
186:landlord
176:Synopsis
142:—
88:webcomic
60:Genre(s)
461:Reviews
254:friends
227:England
223:Bristol
194:drawing
100:England
96:Bristol
34:Website
366:Format
292:smoker
80:is an
361:Style
353:Doris
348:much.
344:David
285:vodka
260:in a
246:money
213:Karen
198:diary
330:Mari
262:band
219:goth
92:goth
323:).
237:).
153:'s
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159:#1
137:me
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