Perhaps one of the best comics I came across in 2007 was Planet Karen, an autobiographical comic reflecting on Karen Ellis’s life… and of various things that have caught her attention. While there are a growing number of autobiographical comics out there, PK quickly became my favorite autobiographical comic, ousting even Jennie Breedan’s The Devil’s Panties, perhaps because TDP has lately turned into the Wacky Convention Hijinks comic with some familial wacky hijinks as well, while PK delves into Karen’s mind and thought processes… and finds ways of being tremendously uplifting and interesting while doing so. If the comic was just about the things that happen in Karen’s life, it probably wouldn’t have grabbed my interest.

But it’s the glimpses into Karen’s mind that makes PK so fascinating. One such example can be found when Karen poked fun into various artistic “shortcuts” that comics can take to save time. Naturally enough, my least favorite shortcut (cut-and-paste) was mentioned (and demonstrated) by Karen. I don’t actually recall Karen using CaP before this point. Fortunately, she doesn’t succumb to the temptation to use it after the shortcut comic demos but for a couple of rare circumstances. This also revealed an interesting fact about CaP to me: Cut-and-Paste is most effective when rarely used. There have been several instances when Karen snuck in use of CaP without my immediately realizing it.

When she does use CaP, it’s to give the suggestion of immobility, of being frozen in a moment of time. Or in other words, PK uses CaP artistically, rather than as a shortcut to save on time and work. The PK for January 1st is an excellent example of this, with the final two panels showing Karen frozen in a moment in time, trapped by her love of the Miyazaki movie My Neighbor Totoro. Perhaps more interesting is how Karen utilized her rough pencils as a basic template from which she drew the first three panels as well, giving her a basic guide from which to create an effect close to animation. The differences are subtle… but there. Perhaps this is part of the reason why Karen’s use of CaP worked so well in this latest update… and why it fails when used as a cheap copout by other comics.