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Planet Karen is a sort of daily diary about Karen. Sometimes, the comic offers up those silly things about daily life we can all appreciate. Sometimes, the comic is about things going on in her life, whether they be bothersome cranes and ever present rain or finding out she has a serious illness. And sometimes, it’s about the kind of things that artists can appreciate, like how panels are drawn or just being motivated to draw the comic in the first place. It’s always interesting.

The artwork is black and white, which is especially fitting for the subject and setting. Karen is a goth girl who lives in England, where it is constantly raining. Most of the time, the work is a bit on the sketchy side but there are panels where Karen really draws. There are some great special effects and realistic looking people and places that are shown at times. The viewing angles are nicely varied, with over a shoulder views, birds eye views and everything in between. There is one comic where she drops a camera and you see the camera view of a kitchen floor on its side.

What brings you back to the strip is great variety of personality. You get to see how she reacts to things and then you see how she justifies her take on it. It’s very honest. Sometimes she makes difficult decisions on principle and other times she looks the other way, just like all of us. In the typical webcomic, any given character will react according to the character’s set personality and never really change much.

Oh sure, a comic character might have good days or bad days; they might even be taken by an enthusiasm for something. In general, they will stick to their basic principles that they are built on and never really deviate. In Planet Karen, you get to see how the artist is reacting to her world and all the crazy things it throws at her. There’s sophistication in that nothing is as cut and dry as it is in a more standard comic.

You know Snoopy is an Ace Pilot and while he might fight the Red Baron to the death, he sometimes runs away too. Batman fights the Joker and usually wins but the Joker will always find a way to escape Arkham. The situation is never really resolved and even the meaningful consequences are short term, if at all. Karen’s choices have that smack of messy real life where every month you decide whether or not to pay your rent even though the landlord doesn’t ever fix the leaking roof. That is a situation with real consequences in both the short and long term.

This twist on real life makes Planet Karen very different than your average webcomic but it does not destroy that special thing you get from it being a ‘comic.’ It is not simply a diary. It is sort of an idealized diary where you get the interesting bits from this girl’s life. There are also flights of whimsy and musings that you can only get in this medium.

She also has friends that make appearances in the comic, which provide a nice counterpoint to her personality. These friends make you realize that there are, indeed, other ways to look at the situations she finds herself in. Many times you will find yourself agreeing with Karen but then you change your own mind based on what else is shown to you. I can say that even though I am not a goth, female or English - so I’m sure you’ll feel the same.

You’ll appreciate this comic for many reasons of your own, along with these few I’ve mentioned. In one final twist, the date of each comic is ten days behind the current date - so don’t make the mistake of assuming it is not current. (The FAQ explains that data point for anyone who is curious.)

Planet Karen
Planet Karen
by Karen Ellis

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