Anja Wicki's sarcastically sweet comic illustrations

The work of Swiss illustrator Anja Wicki uses illustrative figures of ironic humour in saturated colour combinations, making her work sarcastically sweet. Anja’s malleable drawing skills have allowed her to create a broad illustration and animation portfolio, but it is the her comics where her personality shines through, producing delicious and occasionally bawdy content.

One of Anja’s most recent comic strips, The Meaning of Life, is a collection of six short stories, each one depicting an alternative meaning of existence. A self-published project the series began last November. “I went to Chicago for four months because I got an art residency. The Meaning of Life is one of the projects I did during this time,” the illustrator explains. The Risograph-printed publication picks apart explanations for our existence, such as honesty and energy but illustrates them with her own humorous style.

Anja’s work could be considered twee in it’s illustrative style, with commercial projects of patterns of strawberries and herbs for recipes. However, when the illustrator has free reign her ability to display human characteristics and locations as shown in The Meaning Of Life and Kaffee-Kreise is impressive in temperament and flair.