Behind the Comic: Katherine Hemmings turns life’s cringiest moments into expressive little masterpieces, hopping between Being Not Okay, Being Old, Being Ginger, and the Witch and Loaf Cat. One strip lingers on quiet distress, the next weaponizes a tiny irritation into a visual gag. Expect sharp reversals, relatable retail pain, and characters whose posture says everything words won’t. It’s a sampler, not a saga, so dip in anywhere and brace for the awkward recognition.
These 19 Katherine Hemmings comics move between private distress and the everyday absurdities of aging, retail work, and social misunderstandings. Their tone shifts quickly: one strip stays with an uncomfortable feeling; the next turns a small irritation into a visual gag.
Marked by the worlds of “Being Not Okay,” “Being Old,” “Being Ginger,” and the Witch and Loaf Cat, this is not one continuous story. It is a sampler of Hemmings’ expressive characters and sharp reversals in familiar situations.
What happens in comic #1?
Cheerfulness becomes a social mask, then visibly collapses in the last panels; the posture change makes the emotional contrast immediate.
What happens in comic #2?
What happens in comic #3?
What happens in comic #4?
What happens in comic #5?
The plans shrink from a house to a flat to a deeply dubious rental, until staying put looks like the only sensible option.
What happens in comic #6?
What happens in comic #7?
What happens in comic #8?
The overhead view reveals that the exhausting walk has traced a circle; the empty landscape makes the visual punchline.
What happens in comic #9?
What happens in comic #10?
What happens in comic #11?
What happens in comic #12?
The missing barcode becomes a customer’s imagined discount. Repeating the misunderstanding makes the worker’s final outburst land.
What happens in comic #13?
What happens in comic #14?
What happens in comic #15?
What happens in comic #16?
The British phrase “fancy dress” is misread as smart clothing rather than a costume, and the close-up captures the embarrassment.
What happens in comic #17?
What happens in comic #18?
What happens in comic #19?
What happens in comic #20?
Who is Katherine Hemmings?
Hemmings describes herself as a UK comics artist. Her official biography documents the course and her Kickstarter-backed diary comics Being Ginger (2019) and Being a Cosplayer (2020). A 2021 interview describes how the course helped her return to comics and shape life experiences into short humorous stories. Her Instagram displayed 65.2k follower available at the time of checking. Her public LinkedIn profile displayed 490 followers on November , 2026. In a 2026 post, she reported nearly 800,000 Instagram impressions for Being Not Okay, with individual strips reaching 20,000–80,000 views.
For more stories about ordinary life, see our collection of relatable everyday-life comics. Which of Hemmings’ comic moods stood out to you most?
📖 Comic Transcript, Scene Description & Humor Notes (Click to Expand)
How is the scene and visual setup described?
The comic strip features a red-haired woman in a series of relatable scenarios. In one panel, she forces a cheerful smile around friends, but her posture slumps as she later breaks down in a friend's arms. Another panel shows her curled on a bathroom floor, phone in hand, overwhelmed. The art style is expressive, with exaggerated facial expressions that highlight the emotional contrast between public cheerfulness and private distress. The humor comes from the universal experience of hiding our true feelings behind a mask.
What does the panel and dialogue breakdown cover?
- Panel 1: The red-haired woman smiles brightly while interacting with others, but her eyes look tired.
- Panel 2: Alone, she collapses into a friend's embrace, the cheerful mask completely gone.
- Panel 3: In another strip, she reacts with alarm to a question about turning 30 and runs away from the number.
- Panel 4: A retail worker repeatedly explains that an item without a barcode isn't free, while the customer insists it must be.
Why is this comic so relatable?
These comics resonate because they capture the gap between how we present ourselves and how we really feel. The forced cheerfulness, the dread of aging, and the absurdity of retail interactions are universal experiences that make us laugh at our own awkwardness.
🎭 Comic Highlights & Relatable Takeaways
✨ A forced cheerful smile around friends that visibly collapses into a slump in the last panels captures how quickly a social mask can drop.
✨ The shrinking plans from a house to a flat to a dubious rental make staying put feel like the only sensible option.
✨ An overhead view reveals that an exhausting walk has traced a circle, turning the empty landscape into the visual punchline.
✨ A customer treating a missing barcode as an imagined discount builds through repetition until the worker's final outburst lands.
💬 Comic Q&A & Behind the Scenes
💭 What makes Katherine Hemmings' comics so relatable to everyday life?
Hemmings mines small, universal moments like forced smiles, shrinking housing plans, and retail misunderstandings. Her expressive characters and quick tonal shifts let readers recognize themselves instantly, whether she's capturing private distress or turning a minor irritation into a visual gag that lands with warm, knowing humor.
💭 Why do Hemmings' strips shift so quickly between sad and funny?
That whiplash is deliberate. Hemmings moves between private distress and everyday absurdity because real life does the same. One strip lingers on discomfort, the next finds comedy in aging or social mishaps. This sampler approach keeps readers off-balance and mirrors how emotions actually arrive, unannounced and often contradictory.
💭 How does Hemmings use visual details to land her punchlines?
She relies on posture, framing, and overhead views rather than dialogue alone. A cheerful mask visibly collapses in the final panels, an exhausting walk traces a circle from above, and a close-up captures embarrassment over the British phrase fancy dress. These visual reversals make the emotional contrast immediate and the humor sharper.
💭 Who is Katherine Hemmings and where can I find more of her work?
Hemmings is a UK comics artist known for Being Not Okay, Being Old, Being Ginger, and Witch and Loaf Cat. Her Kickstarter-backed diary comics include Being Ginger and Being a Cosplayer. She has a substantial Instagram following, and her strips regularly reach tens of thousands of views, so her social channels are the best place to follow along.
💭 What themes recur across the 19 comics in this collection?
Recurring themes include social masking, the absurdities of aging, retail work frustrations, and misread social cues. The missing-barcode discount gag and the fancy dress misunderstanding both hinge on communication breakdowns, while the shrinking housing plans capture quiet resignation. Together they form a sampler of Hemmings' sharp reversals in familiar situations.
