AKHTS Jrep 🇫🇷💛🇺🇸

@akhtsjrep.bsky.social

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Author of/Auteur de "No One Can Know I Don't Like Sex" @ Webtoon & Tapas & "6+6+6+6" @ Ono. Co-owner of @burgerinthestars. Discord/IG: AkhtsJrep Tumblr: bloggingboutburgers akhtsacchan@hotmail.fr https://akhts.carrd.co/

A comic titled "Immigration is fun (5)". It opens with a drawing of the narrator (a French person with an outfit with the colors of the French flag) and her spouse (a USAmerican with an outfit with the colors of the US flag) sitting in a government waiting room which consists of a bunch of large chairs far apart for one another. Two other people are seen waiting on other chairs nearby. Next to the French person and her spouse, another person is seen reading through documents big enough to hide their face. A narration bubble comments: "A merciful 4 months after getting married, we got summoned for the green card interview. We had to wait in one of those rooms with chairs super far apart." An arrow points to the person reading, indicating with a caption: "This time, our attorney was with us." The narration continues: "We arrived at the scheduled time and got called in after about 3 hours of waiting. The tone of the interview itself was pretty friendly." We then see the French and USAmerican spouses sitting in front of an officer who we only see the back of. The officer says: "I saw the wedding pictures you submitted – they looked adorable! Do you have photos printed here today?" The USAmerican spouse produces a small photo album, answering: "Yes, right here!" The officer responds: "Great! Then, I'd like you guys to pick a few from different dates, and tell me more about the story and memories behind them." Both spouses respond: "Sure!" in unison.
A comic featuring a character wearing a hoodie with the colors of the sunset aromantic-asexual flag. At first she looks angry, shaking her index finger at the fourth wall, saying: "If you keep shipping asexual and aromantic characters at all costs, I swear I'll... I'll..." Then her face grows dejected with a bit of a thousand-yard-stare, and she continues: "...Keep internalizing that as a sex-repulsed and romance-repulsed aroace, I don't really deserve to exist, since any possible depiction of my experience in fiction just HAS to be fixed into "sex/romance actually". She starts turning away from the fourth wall, waving her hand in a 'shoo/shoo' or 'nevermind' motion. She mumbles: "But uh, it's probably convenient to you if I do, huh. So nevermind. Carry on I guess."
A comic depicting a character wearing a hoodie with the colors of the French flag, listening to two people wearing T-shirts with the colors of the United States flag talking. One says: "I'm just so broke, though, so..." and the other one responds "Yeah, me too..." The French person thinks to herself: "Yeah... I can relate, sadly. I guess some experiences are universal..." A third person with a T-shirt with the colors of the United States flag joins in on the conversation, holding their phone up to show something. They exclaim: "Guys! Wanna go to that comedy show next week? It's $100 per person!" One of the other United States people replies: "Sure!" and the last one replies: "I'm in!" The French person recoils in shock, thinking: "$100? Doesn't that set you back for the whole month?" A narration bubble at the bottom of the comic concludes: "One lesson quickly learned: California's casual use of "broke" hits very different from France's."
A comic showing a character with long hair and a tank top sitting at a table, raising their hand with a smile, exclaiming: "I have a question! I really like sex..." They pause, then just conclude "That's it, that's my question", still with a smile and a carefree shrug. The framing zooms out to show they're sitting in front of a character wearing a hoodie with the colors of the asexual flag, as well as another character with a nondescript outfit, who both burst into laughter. The asexual character notes: "Good for us both honestly!" A subtitle at the bottom notes: "One of my favorite reactions I ever got to explaining my orientation."
A comic depicting a character wearing a hoodie with the colors of the French flag, sipping from a party cup, deep in thought under banners made of U.S. flags. The French character thinks: "So, the U.S. turned 250, huh... Always feels weird to be in such a young country. To think in less than 15 years, my country will celebrate the 250 years of its RE-birth..."
The first page of a comic titled: "Being in a queerplatonic marriage with a nonbinary person who's afab like you" Two characters are seen wearing matching outfits with the colors of the queerplatonic flag. They're first looking at a text box to their left. The box says: "Cons: People may question the legitimacy of your marriage because you don't have intercourse and you love each other but not romantically." They then turn to another box that says: "Pros: You don't have to worry about "keeping the spice alive" in your marriage over time to feel fully content." They rejoice and exclaim "Yay".
A comic titled "An out-of-context and possibly controversial collection of things I found myself saying since moving from France to the U.S. (1/2?)". The comic features a character wearing a hoodie with the colors of the French flag, shown saying the following : 1- (Looking unamused) "Oh, so it's a scam. And everyone just goes along with it. OK then." 2- (Looking terrified) "Everyone's right-wing here... Even those who think they're left-wing are right-wing." 3- (Shedding one tear with a sad smile) "I miss old buildings. I miss places that have a history." 4- (Looking confused) "Where is everybody?" (Someone off screen reponds:) "What do you mean? The road's crowded!" (The French character replies:) "I don't mean cars, I mean people."
A comic featuring a character with her hair in a bun, and another character wearing a hoodie with the colors of the aromantic asexual sunset flag. The character with the bun is deep in thought with her arms crossed. She says: "It must be so hard to be aromantic and asexual." The aromantic asexual character awkwardly replies: "Eh... It is what it is... But I guess it CAN be a lot sometimes." The character with the bun elaborates: "I mean, not being able to fall in love, not getting to that level of intimacy... That's all just so sad, right?" The aromantic asexual character stares in disbelief, then the image's color goes slightly darker and the aromantic character is shown squinting in confusion and thinking: "...No, but like... It's comments like this that are hard to deal with... YOU're the hard part."
A comic depicting two married characters, one wearing an outfit with the colors of the French flag, and one wearing an outfit with the colors of the United States flag. A narration box starts: "One of California's greatest strengths is the variety of foods from different cultures it has to offer." As the two characters pass by a bakery stall in the first panel, the French character excitedly points to it, exclaiming: "Honey! A French bakery! They even have kouign-amann and Paris-Brest!" The USAmerican character replies: "Let's check it out!" The scene continues with them in front of the attendant. The USAmerican character asks: "Two pain au chocolat, please!" while the French character waits excitedly. The attendant replies: "Two chocolate croissantes, got it!" The French character's excitement disappears into a sad smile as she starts desintegrating into dust. A narration box concludes: "Welp, close enough."
A comic featuring a character wearing an outfit with the sunset aromantic-asexual (aroace) flag colors, talking to a nondescript faceless character. The faceless character says: "All this talk about not feeling sexual or romantic attraction... Let's be real, it's just 'cus you wanna feel special, right?" At first, the aromantic-asexual character says nothing, but a thought bubble appears next to her head, leading to a few images flashing. The first image shows a few people holding a "LGBT solidarity" sign. Behind them are an intersex person, a pansexual person and the aroace character, now wearing the asexual flag colors. The three of them look slightly faded. The second image shows a faceless character stating: "Having sex is a perfectly normal aspect of life. It's healthy, it's what makes us human!". The aroace character, still wearing the asexual flag colors, is listening behind, looking a bit worried and a bit more faded, blending more into the background. The third image shows a new character pointing at the aroace character, who is now wearing the aromantic flag colors. The new character says: "Oh, her? She's just a friend." The aroace character, looking a bit sad, is now half-transparent. An arrow pointing to her gives a bit of context as follows: "experiences friendship as the best of the best a bond with another person can ever get". The fourth and last image shows another faceless character proudly stating: "Everybody wants to experience their perfect love story someday." The aroace character, still wearing the aromantic flag colors, is listening behind, looking bewildered and practically invisible, with very muted lines and colors. The thought bubble closes. The aroace character, reflecting on all this, simply says: "I dunno... I feel like there's gotta be a better way to 'feel special'."
A comic titled "Immigration is fun (4)", featuring a character wearing a hoodie with the colors of the French flag, and a character wearing a T-shirt with the colors of the United States flag, looking at the latter's phone for information. The US character explains: "So for the green card interview, they'll ask us questions to see how well we truly know each other, like "What's the color of each other's toothbrushes?" or "What's each other's coffee order?"". The French character, bewildered, asks: ""Coffee order"? Like, how we like our coffee prepared?" The US character explains: "More like, if we ordered coffee at a coffee shop, what we'd order." The French character replies: "Oh, so coffee you buy, not coffee you make at home?" The US character concludes: "Pretty much." Looking dejected, the French character mutters: "Fucking capitalists." Not knowing what to answer, the US character just mutters back: "Well, y'know."
A comic depicting a character wearing a hoodie with the colors of the aromantic asexual flag. The character is sitting deep in thought, asking herself: "OK, but... AM I asexual and aromantic though? What if I'm just like... "Weird"? What if I'm just overreacting to my life experiences? Maybe what I describe myself as is just too outlandish..." She then stops her thinking dead in her tracks and slaps both her cheeks, with a loud "SLAP" sound effect. Then, angrily, she waves her finger disapprovingly at herself, affirming: "NO. Stop it with that. Just because people can't fathom something they can't relate to doesn't make it any less real." She then mutters, more calmly: "'Sides, you already tried pretending to be like everyone else and that failed miserably." A narration text at the bottom, in brackets, concludes: "It'd be easier if I didn't have to have this talk with myself as often."
A comic with minimalist coloring, depicting two characters standing side by side. At first, the only colors visible are the character's clothing: the one on the left is wearing a hoodie with the colors of the French flag, and the one on the right is wearing a T-shirt with the colors of the United States flag. Panel 1: A speech bubble coming from an unseen interlocutor asks the French character: "So... You're still waiting to see if you green card is approved?" The French character responds: "Pretty much. Can't do much." Panel 2: The off-screen interlocutor reacts: "Must be nerve-wracking to be in the middle of an immigration process in 2025. Aren't you afraid ICE might come after you?" Panel 3: The French character and the USAmerican character look at each other awkwardly. The French character mutters: "I mean..." Panel 4: The characters are now fully colored, revealing that the French character is white and the USAmerican character is latino, of darker skin. The French character awkwardly concludes: "They're probably come after you first, huh..." The USAmerican character, dejected, responds: "Yeah...", while an arrow pointing to them states: "Actual citizen."
A comic narrated from the point of view of a character wearing an outfit with the colors of the French flag. The character is first seen younger, looking at a board with a list of names dated '2010'. Narration boxes around the drawing comment: "Where I grew up, graduation ceremonies weren't that much of a thing. After high school, we looked at a poster that said if we passed and that was it. After university, we grabbed our diploma at a brief mingling event involving teachers and students who could make it." The character is then seen from the back, surrounded by people wearing outfits with the colors of the United States flag, loudly cheering for a person on a stage who is seen receiving their diploma in graduation clothes at a distance. The French character thinks: "Wow..." The narration continues: "Shortly after I moved here, we attended a friend of my spouse's graduation ceremony, with robes, long speeches, and tons of loved ones attending and cheering as if for a sports team." The French character is then seen from the front, smiling in admiration. The narration continues: "At first, I was like 'Wow, that's something else... This is a culture that knows how to celebrate people's successes.'" The French character's expression then turns somber. The narration concludes: "But, thinking about it, so much of it hinges on family and friends being able to attend, and if they can't while everyone else's can, it must feel terribly lonely."
A comic depicting a character wearing an outfit with the colors of the French flag, standing in-between two characters wearing outfits with colors of the United States flag. The French person has her arms crossed with a neutral expression. One of the US people, looking a bit awkward, asks: "Are you... Upset about something? Or bored?" The French person, now confused, replies: "Uh... No? Does it look like I am?" The US person responds: "Well, you've had your arsm crossed for a while." The French person, just noticing, goes: "Oh, that?" Now uncrossing her arms, she shakes her hands a bit defensively, adding: "Sorry! I didn't know it looked like that! It's kind of a default pose where I come from." The first US person replies, with a smile: "Oh, I see". The second US person adds, also with a smile: "You do cross your arms a lot." A narration box concludes: "You think you've mentally prepared for most of your traits to be seen as weird in a different country, and yet there's still curveballs."
A comic depicting a nondescript character talking to a character wearing a hoodie with the asexual colors. The nondescript character mockingly says: "'Sex-repulsed asexual'? That's a lot of fancy words to just say you don't fancy getting laid, yeah?" The asexual character stays silent for a second, then the reader becomes privy to their inner thoughts. I starts with a tame: "'Don't fancy' is a bit of an understatement." Then, the asexual character starts looking more nervous as the thoughts pile up: "The very thought brings me disgust. I don't know how I would live if it happened to me. I'm lucky I was never forced or coerced." The asexual character looks very nervous and upset now, with the thoughts turning chaotic, in messier writing: "I've had actual nightmares about this. i literally want to avoid it at all costs. It would ruin everything. It's just so terrifying..." and so on. Eventually the asexual character smiles awkwardly and simply responds out loud: "...'Don't fancy' is a bit of an understatement."
A comic depicting a character wearing a hoodie with the colors of the French flag, sitting in front of a computer. A narration box opens: "A very weird thing I never expected to happen when I moved overseas." The French character is sitting with the French flag behind her, implying she's in France. She's putting a message in the junk box, muttering in annoyance: "Ugh, I only shopped there once, seriously..." Another narration box continues: "Junk e-mails give me nostalgia now." The French character, now sitting in front of the US flag, implying they're in the USA, is looking at the computer screen fondly, saying: "Aaw... It's from that place I used to shop at..."
A fanart of the titular character from Tove Jansson's picture book "Who Will Comfort Toffle" from the Moomin series. Toffle is standing in a bag three time their size, floating above the sea in partly cloudy weather, looking at the horizon and blocking some of the light with their hand above their eyes.
A comic titled "Words people say arbitrarily like they only mean one thing (again)". A feminine-presenting person, thereafter called character A, is talking to a character wearing a hoodie with the aromantic-asexual (aroace) flag colors, thereafter called character B. Character says: "A while ago, she used to like me, but now, she sees me as a friend." Character B looks very confused, and after a pause, asks: "So... She still likes you?" Character A responds: "Well, no, like I said... She USED to like me, but now we're friends." Character B, in further confusion, insists: "Yeah, so she still likes you?!"
A comic titled "Immigration is fun (3)". Two characters, one wearing a shirt with the colors of the U.S. flag and the other wearing a shirt with the colors of the French flag, are shown sitting at a table talking to a person off-camera. Two arrows point to the two characters, with a legend saying: "Us in a meeting with our immigration attorney, getting to the unrelated chitchat part." An additional arrow pointing to the French character adds the following legend: "My European brain still not getting why we do unrelated chitchat." The voice of the attorney, off-screen, says: "We'd love to go to Greece with the kids someday." It then adds: "What about you two? Any countries you're planning to visit?", prompting a confused "Huh?" from the French character. The last panel zooms on the French character lost in confusion, thinking: "How? I can't legally travel out of the U.S. until this is settled... And even if I could, we'd need money, which has all been going to marriage and moving and immigration fees and your fees... And to make more money I'd have to work, which I also legally can't do until this is settled... As our attorney, you should know that, right?" One last legend pointing to the French character concludes: "My European brain also not getting why people here aren't as risk-averse as I was raised to be".
A comic depicting a character wearing a hoodie with the colors of the French flag, passing my characters A, B and C who are all wearing the colors of the United States flag. Characters A and B are chatting. A says: "And with gas being so expensive these days...", to which B responds: "God, tell me about it." Later, the French character, while exiting her car, passes by character C talking on the phone. Character C says: "I swear, we're paying way too much for gas these days. It's insane." The French character lifts her eyes, pensive, to what is revealed in the next panel to be a gas station price sign, advertising gas for 6.30 dollars a gallon. She thinks: "Yeah. Still cheaper than what I'm used to." A narration box explains: "It was about 6.50 dollars a gallon in France a year ago when I left and it's now close to 9 dollars a gallon due to U.S. affairs."
A comic with a simple style depicting two people wearing clothes with the colors of the asexual flag, facing each other and having a conversation. The person on the left says: "As a sex-repulsed asexual, I feel like I'm treated as inferior to sex-favorable asexuals because I can't give people the satisfaction of talking about, writing about, or engaging with sex." The person on the right says: "As a sex-favorable asexual, I feel like I'm respected less than sex-repulsed asexuals because I don't conform to the stereotype people have of aces, so they either kinda ignore my orientation or impose new stereotypes on me." A second panel shows both of them looking dejected, supporting each other by the shoulder. The person on the left concludes: "So, basically, we can't win, huh." The person on the right answers: "What else is new."
A comic titled "Words people say arbitrarily like they only mean one thing (been a while)". In the first panel, two characters in the forefront are looking at two characters happily chatting in the distance. One of the two characters in the forefront is wearing a nondescript shirt, whereas the other is wearing a hoodie with the colors of the aromantic-asexual (aroace) flag. The nondescript character asks the aroace character: "Hey... Do you think V is interested in K?" The point of view then shifts to a front view of the two forefront characters talking. The aroace character responds, matter-of-factly: "Why wouldn't she be? K's super interesting. He's always up to something cool." She smiles and adds: "In fact, everyone should be interested in him! Did you know he backpacked through New Zealand last year?" The nondescript character, now looking dejected, comments in a low tone: "Why do I ever talk to you?"
A comic titled "Suburbia is scary (4)", depicting two characters seen in a high-angle shot, standing in front of the entrance of a hybrid rail station. One is wearing a T-shirt with the colors of the U.S. flag. The other is wearing a hoodie with the colors of the French flag. The French flag character looks dejected and says: "Let me get this straight... This is a railway station. Aplace that offers an alternative mode of transportation for people who do'nt have a car, or, admittedly, people who don't want to use a car... And THIS IS WHAT THEY SURROUNG IT WITH?!" The view zooms out to reveal that the hybrid rail station they are at is surrounded by a giant, practically empty parking lot. A narration box concludes: "I don't think California fundamentally knows how trains work."
A posing shot drawing of a Pokemon team from Pokemon Yellow, comprised of a Parasect, a Snorlax, a Shellder, a Butterfree, a Pikachu and a Farfetchd. The training, a short person wearing a black round hat and a yellow sweater, is standing on the Snorlax's shoulder.
A comic titled "Things in the U.S. that will forever crack me up (1/?)". A character wearing a T-shirt with the U.S. flag colors and a character wearing a hoodie with the French flag colors are looking at a display of books in a store. The French character comments, pensive: "Secret at the Bakery, huh... I wonder what kind of book this is..." Suddenly she notices something a points to the book. "Oh! I got it!" The image zooms in on a corner of the book with the mention: "a novel". The French character enthusisastically points at it with both hands, exclaiming: "IT'S A NOVEL!" She is then seen pointing at a variety of books, still exclaiming: "And that's a novel! And that's a novel! And this one!" while the U.S. character calmly comments: "Yes, honey." A narration bubble concludes: "Novels that need to tell you that they're "a novel" right on the cover."
Two women are speaking joyfully to two younger-looking characters. Women A says: "You got married recently? Congratulations!" Women B adds: "Enjoy your first years, they're the best! After that, the passion dwindles..." The two younger characters give each other a silent, awkward look. They are revealed to be wearing, respectively, a T-shirt with the asexual flag colors, and a hoodie with the aromantic-asexual flag colors. The aromantic-asexual character thinks: "Should we tell them or...?"
A comic featuring a character wearing a hoodie with the colors of the French flag. The first panel shows her pushing one suitcase and pulling the other, with the following narration: "When I moved overseas, most of my stuff was put in a container and traveled by sea. I flew with as much as I could fit in 2 big suitcases." The comic continues. The French character is now seen with her partner, who is wearing a T-shirt with the colors of the US flag. The narration proceeds: "So for my first 2 and a half months here, I was overly concerned about saving room for my things." The US character is showing a bowl, asking: "Wanna get this for the kitchen?" The French character defensively responds: "Um... Let's wait til my stuff arrives?" The narration specifies, in brackets: "There was more than enough." It then continues: "And I operated on cartoon logic, rotating the same couple of outfits. Then, when my stuff made it..." The French character is now seen looking into the distance nervously, while the US character is standing next to her with a more relaxed expression. The French character asks: "Honey... Now that it's all unpacked... Do you mind if I–" The US character responds: "Sure, love. Go for it." The French character dashes to her left, exclaiming: "My baby!!" The next panel, she is seen hugging a harp with tears in her eyes, while her partner watches over her with a smile. The narration concludes: "It kinda hammered home that I'd been worrying every day about some things in particular."
A comic featuring two character sipping from takeout cups with straws at a table. One is wearing an outfit with the colors of the French flag, and says: "You know, it's funny... Didn't expect it, but sometimes, there's things here that make me feel like I've gone back in time." The other character, wearing an outfit with the colors of the United States flag, asks: "Like what?" The French character responds: "Plastic straws."
A comic depicting a character wearing an outfit with the colors of the aromantic flag, looking absent-mindedly into the distance. A narration box states: "I don't know if it's because I'm cynical, because I'm anxious about most things, or because I'm aromantic, but..." The character is revealed to be looking at two people getting married, together with her own spouse and an assembly. The narration continues: "I never understood how people can so confidently talk about their relationships like they're eternal." The bride getting married states: "We'll be happy together forever!" as the crowd, including the spouse of the aromantic character, exclaim: "Aaaaw!!" The aromantic character, still looking absent-minded, thinks to herself: "Huh... That's very extreme. I couldn't say that at our wedding..." The aromantic character is then seen in a different outfit, still with the aromantic flag colors, thinking to herself. The narration comments: "Incidentally, once in a while I have to remind myself that at the end of the day, romantic relationships are in about as much risk of ending someday as friendships are, so us aromantics aren't necessarily any less safe from loneliness than others. Romance is just put on such a pedestal of life investment and "foreverness" that sometimes I forget."
A comic depicting a character wearing a hoodie with French flag colors, going through several situations in the United States. A first titles states: "The U.S.:" Narration boxes state the following facts, accompanied with illustrations of the character demonstrating said facts: "Most cars are automatic. People typically bring whole foldable carts to markets to avoid having to carry bags. There's a drive-thru for everything." For the last sentence, the character is seen squinting at a drive-thru ATM, thinking: "OK, but this is overkill." A second title then adds: "Also the U.S.:" Once again, narration boxes state the following facts, accompanied with illustrations of the character demonstrating said facts: "Somehow can't make veggie cans without easy-open pull tabs, forcing you to buy an easily-breakable can opener to open them. Has laundromats you can only pay for with an app which charges you a "convenience fee" if you charge it a non-preset amount." For this sentence, the character is seen looking defeatedly at a blocked-out coin box on top of a washing machine, sighing: "Are you kidding me..." The last fact is: "Has people hand-file and calculate all of their taxes instead of having them pre-calculated by the government." The character, alongside her partner wearing a T-shirt with the colors of the U.S. flag, are tiredly looking at a computer screen. The French character asks: "How do you do it then?" The U.S. character replies: "We pay someone, usually." The French character concludes: "That's not "doing"."
A comic depicting a young character wearing a hoodie with the colors of the aromantic flag, talking to an adult. The young character says: "I'm aromantic. That means feeling little to no romantic attraction. And in my case, that's none at all. So no... I don't ever want to date anyone." The adult answers with a sorry smile: "Oh, but that's a pity, isn't it?" She then adds, in a speech bubble partially covered by a box: "I hope you [hidden words] someday." In the spot where the hidden words are, the covering box bears the following words instead: "go through exactly what you'd never want to go through", making the whole message "I hope you go through exactly what you'd never want to go through" someday. An arrow goes from the speech bubble to a narration line simply stating: "That's it. That's what this response feels like."
A comic depicting two characters: a tall one with a nondescript shirt, and a short one wearing a hoodie with the colors of the aromantic flag. The short character asks: "Hey, have you seen that channel covering classic jazz standards from the 50s?" The tall character responds: "Nah... I don't really like jazz." The short character's eyes widen in shock as they ask: "Youj don't like jazz?! How can you not?! Everybody likes jazz! Enjoying jazz is key to elevating the human experience!" The tall character, confused, mumbles: "Uh... in what way?" The short character continues, acting puzzled: "So do you just... Not like music? Do you not like joy? Do you not want any art in your life altogether?" The tall character replies: "Of course I do! Why are we conflating the importance of a single music genre?"
A one-panel comic in cartoony style featuring two people sitting at a café table outside, having coffee in paper cups, wearing purple shirts. A caption at the start says: "Another thing I love about my partner." The character on the left, representing the partner in question, says with a smile: "Oh hey, today's out first Valentine's Day together as roommates!" The character on the right, representing the narrator, responds, also smiling: "Oh yeah!" A caption at the bottom concludes: "How they default to "roommates" instead of "spouses" in conversations like these."
A comic titled "Suburbia is scary (3)". A character with a T-shirt colored with a French flag pattern is seen sleeping peacefully in a bed at night, surrounded by speech bubbles of sound effects and people shouting. A narration comments: "Back when I lived in the city, I was surrounded by human noise 24/7. Drunk people going home after parties, vehicles passing by quickly, parents with kids, people crying all night after getting dumped... I thought I could sleep to anything." The second panel then switches to the same character now in a bed next to another character wearing a T-shirt with a USA flag pattern. The multiple sounds are now completely gone, replaced with an overwhelming rumble shown in all caps and large characters in a red-colored speech bubble. The character with the French flag T-shirt is now wide awake, livid, with bloodshot eyes. The narration continues: "But clearly, I wasn't ready for suburban reefer trucks idling by the window all night."
A comic titled "More things my spouse once said with little to no context". The spouse in question is shown in a simplified drawing style, talking to their spouse and emoting to the following lines, out of context: "I would drink your eyes." Then "I have a stomach." Then "You're like a popsicle... I love it. Are you alive though?" Then finally "A little stabbing never hurt anyone" (said in a harmless way).
A slice-of-life comic starting with the following narration: "When we were still long-distance, during one of my visits, my partner took me to Build-A-Bear so we could make bears with personal voice messages for each other." A panel shows the narrator and her partner in front of a Build-A-Bear recording machine. The machine speaks out in front of the partner: "Here's your message : 'Hey baby, it's me!'" The partner recoils in mild embarrassment. The narrator smiles a bit awkwardly, saying: "Guess they replay it to check, huh..." The narration continues into the second panel: "Of course, when it came time to pack my life away to move overseas, the bear my partner made for me ended up in one of the boxes." Here, the narrator is seen packing a bear who looks like her partner into a cardboard box. The narration continues: "But I guess I accidentally put it right in a corner, so when the movers came to pick up the boxes..." A panel then shows a mover lifting the box in question, now closed. From the movement, the voice message from the bear emits from one corner of the box; saying: "Hey baby, it's me!" again. The narrator, standing behind the mover, blushes, startled. The narration continues: "They kept hitting the voice box accidentally." The mover is now seen passing the box to a colleague, while the voice box keeps repeating: "Hey baby!" continuously in the middle of an otherwise noisy room. The narrator stands in a corner, still blushing, thinking to herself: "GOD I hope they don't notice..."
A comic depicting a character wearing an outfit with the French flag colors, waiting to cross the street. A caption first reads: "Crossing the street in Paris: 1- Wait for your turn." The character is shown waiting as cars pass and the pedestrian crossing sign shows a red silhouette standing. The caption continues: "2- Cross." The pedestrian crossing sign has turned to a green silhouette walking, and the character is walking across the pedestrian crossing. The caption then resets to: "Crossing the street in California: 1- Press a button to ask for permission to cross." The character, now waiting to cross in front of a bigger, busier road, presses a button on the pedestrian crossing sign pole. The pedestrian crossing sign displays a red hand. A voice coming from the button shouts: "Wait!" The caption continues: "2- Wait." The character is shown waiting for 3 continued panels as the sign still displays the red hand, the road is still continuously busy with cars, and the "Wait!" voice repeats aggressively. Eventually, looking a bit defeated, the character thinks: "I wonder if I'll get to cross someday..."
A comic starting with the caption: "Ever since I was a kid, I've always gravitated towards those typically same-sex, typically comic relief buddy duos always attached at the hip, in anything I read or watched." The comic shows a character wearing childish pigtails, sitting and reading a book. Floating heads of pop culture duos are shown around her, with captions pointing to who they are: counter-clockwise, Pinky and the Brain, those two guys from Osamu Tezuka's stories, Lumière and Cogsworth, and those two guys from Waiting for Godot. The next panel shows the same character putting the book down and thinking to herself. Captions continue: "But unlike a lot of people who liked them, I didn't exactly see them as gay couples. I could definitely understand shipping them, but them having side romances or whatever didn't ruin them for me. In my heart, they had a special bond anyway, and it didn't have to be romantic." Another caption opens the third and final panel: "For years I didn't fully know how to express something like that... So in hindsight, I guess it's no surprise that after my now-partner told me about queerplatonic relationships and I did some research on 'em, it opened up a lot of mental doors." The character, now grown up and wearing a hoodie with the colors of the aroace flag, is seen looking something up on her computer with a mindblown expression.
A comic depicting two characters, one wearing a hoodie with the colors of the French flag (thereafter known as the French character) and one wearing a T-shirt with the colors of the US flag (thereafter known as the US character). They are sitting in a leasing office, talking to a representative also wearing a sweater with the colors of the US flag. The leasing representative says: "Thank you for coming. We've received noise complaints from your downstairs neighbor... Could you please be more careful in the future?" The French character replies: "We'll try, but I'm not sure what makes us so noisy..." The US character adds: "We hardly ever have guests, we're usually in bed early... We walk and talk normally as well, so..." The leasing representative smiles sympathetically and replies: "Oh, I believe you... It's just that sound travels easily in this building. It was built in the 60s, so I guess it's an issue of it being old." The French character smiles cynically, thinking to herself: "Right... "Old"." An arrow points to them with the following caption: "Previously lived in a city building built in the 1900s; had upstairs and downstairs neighbors; never received a noise complaint in 7 years."
A comic titled "Two ace partners in married life (baking for friends and family)". Two characters wearing purple-colored clothes are seen looking at a pie. Character A, holding a sugar bag, says: "Now we gotta sprinkle it with sugar!" Character B, holding a spoon, responds: "I'll use a spoon." Character B starts hovering the spoon over the pie, while character A starts singing: "Just a spoonful of sugar..." Character B continues: "Brings the enemies down." Character A, looking confused then amused, asks: "Wait... What??" Character B shrugs, saying: "Listen, I don't remember the lyrics." Character A comments: "I have the weirdest mental image now."
A comic titled "Immigration is fun (2)". Two married characters, one wearing clothes with the USA flag as a motif and the other with the French flag, are looking up information on a phone. The USA character comments: "Says here that to prepare for the green card interview, we should gather evidence of a bona fide marriage, such as a joint bank account." The French character responds: "Oh, OK... So we should go open one!" Cut to the two characters sitting at a desk in front of a nondescript character carrying the description: "Bank". The Bank character says: "A joint bank account? Sure! I'll just need both of your social security numbers." The French character responds: "Well, I don't have one." The Bank character replies: "Oh? Well... I suppose your green card would be enough." The USA character responds: "Well, she doesn't have one either... Yet..." The French character adds: "See, I have to apply for one, and the joint bank account is supposed to help with that." The Bank character replies: "Not to worry! I hear ya. In that case, we'd just need a document with both of your names and your address, as proof that you live together." The USA character responds: "Oh, we have a joint lease!"
A comic titled "Suburbia is scary (2)". Narration starts: "Where I come from, it's common for housing near amenities like shops, third places or public transportation to be more expensive. And I get why. It's convenient." A character wearing a hoodie with the French flag colors is shown smiling and standing next to a house covered in dollar signs, surrounded by a tram, a bar, a movie theater, shops and trees. The narration continues: "But from what I've seen at least in this corner of California, housing in the suburbs, where there's none of that around, is about as expensive if not more. And it seems that's because..." The character is now looking confused, seen with the house only, the rest having vanished. The narration continues: "It's close to a road, and apparently that's what people care about the most." A road covered in cars is revealed behind the house. The character, looking defeated, sighs: "Oh boy."
A humoristic comic featuring a character with a hoodie with asexual flag colors, and a character with a sprout on his head. It is titled: "Talking way after the fact about "hear me out" cakes." Panel 1: Asexual flag character: "What confuses me the most is... Aren't more people into supposedly outlandish things than one would think anyway? Like... How is it a "hear me out" if everyone is in on it?" Panel 2: Sprout character: "Look, I'll try to explain this as simply as I can..." Panel 3: Sprout character: "The joke is sex." Asexual hoodie character, looking defeated: "Yeah, that's why I don't get it, isn't it..."
A comic titled "Suburbia is scary (1)". It starts with narration as follows: "Before I arrived, my partner (who lived with their parents then) did the hard work of looking for a place for us." A character wearing a hoodie with the colors of the French flag is seen videochatting through a laptop with their partner. The partner is saying from the screen: "I found another interesting apartment listing! Lemme show it to you!" The French character replies: "Oh?", before crossing her fingers and thinking to herself: "Please not this time, please not this time, please not this time." The partner then declares: "Ah, there it is!" We don't yet see what the French character sees on the screen, but she screams "NO!" in despair. It is revealed that the apartment listing opens with the picture of a pool. The French character asks in a panicked tone: "Why do they all come with a pool?! It's just inflating rent for nothing!" The partner interjects: "That's just how it goes, I guess..." The French person responds: "It's not like we're gonna use it! I don't wanna swim with my neighbors!" The narration concludes: "So yeah, alas, we now live somewhere with a pool."
A comic in simplified cartoony style, starting with the caption: "Applying for a marriage-based green card as an aromantic asexual feels weird." A character wearing a hoodie with the aromantic and asexual flag is seen sitting in curled-up position, thinking nervously: "What if we're not 'convincing enough' since our relationship isn't romantic or sexual in nature? What will the interview questions be like? My socials have been shared with immigration officers too and it's not like I'm not vocal about my orientation... What if we're misunderstood and it fucks us over?" A caption continues: "Until you remember that: a) Most people see queer platonic relationships as romance anyway." The character from before, now wearing a purple hoodie, is happily holding hands with her spouse, a character wearing a purple T-shirt. A nondescript observer thinks to themselves: "Ah... So they're in love." Another caption continues: "b) If you're aspec, a lot of people are gonna see you as gay anyway." The two characters are now seen talking to someone on the phone, who tells them: "You never know what kind of officer you'll get. It probably won't happen, but just in case... Expect possible homophobia." The spouse, looking a bit uncomfortable, simply says: "Oh". The character from the beginning, with the same expression, adds: "So the usual, I guess."
A comic titled "Immigration is fun (1)", featuring a character wearing an outfit with the French flag colors (which will from now on be described as the French character). Panel 1: Narration: "Prepping for fiance visa interview with the attorney." The French character is shown speaking on the phone, hastily agreeing with a voice coming from the phone giving rapid-fire advice as follows: "Learn your partner's phone number, zip code and address by heart! Dress formally! Speak the truth, but keep it snappy and simplify the facts if needed! And don't look nervous!" Panel 2: Narration: "Showing up for the interview." The French character is seen dressed formally, shivering in anxiety. She's holding two heavy-looking folders, described by a caption as "two full folders of evidence of our identities and relationship", and one bag with more papers in it, described as "photo album of 50 pictures of times spent together in different places". Panel 3: Narration: "How the interview actually went." The French character, still holding the folders and bag, is speaking to an American agent. The agent asks: "How many times have you met up physically?" The French person replies: "Eight. I have copies of our plane tickets if..." The agent interrupts: "That's fine. You're approved." A closing caption concludes with: "It lasted 5 minutes."
Page 1 of a comic featuring a character wearing a hoodie with the French flag colors, which will from now on being referred to as "the French person". Panel 1: Narration: "So here's something I've been getting a lot." A speech bubble coming from several people is addressed to the French person, as follows: "You sure chose the worst time to move to the US!" Panel 2: The French person cracks a cynical smile, thinking: "Right. Chose." This panel triggers a flashback which continues until the end of the full comic. Panel 3: Time card: "2017." Narration: "Started a long-distance queerplatonic relationship with a friend from California met online a year prior." The French person is seen talking with the Californian person in question via video call on a computer. Narration: "They're amazing. It's amazing." Panel 4: Time card: "2018." The French person and the Californian person are seen hugging. Narration: "I visit California and we meet IRL for the first time. It's great. We plan to meet again some time in 2020, to give me time to save the money to travel this far again. (Money got twice as tight in Europe post-2008.)"
A comic depicting a character dressed in a neutral outfit, having a friendly chat with another character dressed in a purple T-shirt, to symbolize their asexuality. The character in a neutral outfit says: "Y'know, I keep hearing that asexuals will often read or write the kinkiest stuff out there..." The character in a purple T-shirt smiles and replies: "Ye, it's just a lot of fun to explore!" A voice from a character off-screen interrupts with: "I don't..." The second panel of the comic pans the camera to reveal another character wearing a purple top, giving a cynical grin to the other two as they say: "I'm one of the bad ones." A narration line concludes at the end of the comic with the following sentence: "So I've realized we can now play 'good ace bad ace' with my spouse."
A comic depicting a character wearing a hoodie with the colors of the French flag. A narration box states: "A couple months ago." The character is thinking to herself: "Now that I've made it from France to the US and I'm in immigration limbo, I could draw comics to show what the paperwork, the processes and the culture shock are like." She then interrupts herself, thinking: "Ah, nah... Nah, wait a sec. Might be a good idea to wait until you're OUT of immigration limbo before venting. Just in case." A final narration box explains: "US immigration fun fact #1: The government keeps track of your social media as evidence until your green card is approved."
A cartoon-style drawing of 2 ghosts sitting on tree stumps, roasting marshmallows on tree sticks over a campfire at night. One of the ghosts is wearing a cowboy hat and carries a pink toy gun in a holster. The other, slightly taller than the first, is wearing a scarecrow hat with fabric patches.
A comic titled "Two ace partners in married life (again)". Two characters wearing purple T-shirts (one wearing a T-shirt and glasses, the other wearing a hoodie) are browsing through a bookshop while the shopkeeper watches over them. The character with the glasses asks, "Got everything you need, beloved?", and the one wearing the hoodie nods. The shopkeeper happily interjects: "Aah! I knew I remembered you guys! You call her "beloved"! It's so sweet!" The character with the glasses looks surprised but amused, and concedes: "Guess I'm a bit old-fashioned like that..." A closing narration bubble concludes: "So I guess we count as regulars at the local bookshop now."
The first page of a comic depicting 4 characters. One is wearing the asexual flag as a bandana, one is wearing the aromantic flag as a hoodie, and the other two are nondescript. Asexual character: Guys! It's amazing! Aromantic character: This character's canonically asexual / aromantic ! Nondescript character A: Awh, bummer... (Asexual character and aromantic character look confused.) Nondescript character B: I mean, they won't have sex nor be involved in romance, so, y'know... There won't be anything interesting about 'em... Asexual character: OK, first of all, ouch. Second, that's a reductive view. Asexuality and aromanticism don't imply one another, and also, they're spectrums. Some asexuals aren't OK with having sex, others are. Same with romance for aromantics. The main common denominator is pretty much not needing it as much as– Nondescript character A, cutting them off: Whoa, whoa, hold up.