Some of the funniest comics on the internet are about nothing more dramatic than a crooked eyeliner line or a sweater that comes in every size except yours. That is the territory of Cassandra Calin, a cartoonist who turns small daily frustrations into quick, warmly self-mocking strips. Her characters struggle with curly hair, selfies, swimsuit shopping, dating and the eternal problem of having "nothing to wear", and readers recognise themselves in nearly every panel.
Calin was born in Romania in 1994 and moved to Montreal, Canada, at the age of ten. Largely self-taught, she began posting her drawings on Tumblr after a friend encouraged her and gathered tens of thousands of followers within months. When this collection first circulated she was 21 and described herself as drawing comics from her own life, adding that she enjoys "laughing at my awkward self and ranting about silly misfortunes."
Below are 20 of her best-known early comics, each with a short note on the joke behind it. If you like gentle, observational humour, you may also enjoy these illustrations about everyday affection.
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Getting ready: hair, make-up and selfies
The comic that sums up the whole series: a glamorous, elegantly posed sleeper on the left, and on the right the real thing, buried in a pillow under a wild cloud of curly hair. Calin's own curls turn up again and again in her work, and this is one of her most shared panels.
A plan for a subtle, natural eyeliner goes wrong one correction at a time. Each attempt to even out a crooked line makes the wings thicker, until the character ends up with dramatic panda eyes. Anyone who has tried to fix make-up in a hurry will know the feeling.
"Asking someone to take a photo of me" contrasts the dreamy portrait the character imagines with the result: a huge sky, a lot of bushes and a tiny, grinning face squeezed into the bottom corner. The joke works because almost everyone has received a photo like this.
A wordless sequence about freshly painted nails. The character admires her manicure, waits, gets cold, struggles to pull on a sweater without touching anything, and ends with a smudged nail and a single "Damn it." Calin's timing is all in the body language.
A second version of the sleeping comic, this time with Calin's "C-Cassandra" signature. The repetition shows how widely this panel was shared; it travelled across social media in several crops and sizes.
After watching a smoky-eye tutorial on YouTube, the character decides to try it herself. The final panel reveals the result: she has become a raccoon, happily declaring "I look fabulous!" It is a gentle joke about how different expert tutorials look in amateur hands.
Friends keep asking if she is angry, sad or depressed, when she is simply sitting with a neutral expression. The final panel delivers the punchline, "I'm fine! It's just my face!", a familiar complaint for anyone told to smile more.
A friend asks how long it has been since her last date, and the answer is shown rather than said: a hilariously overgrown pair of legs being measured with a tape measure. "Quite long" is all she needs to add.
Getting ready for a selfie: hair flipped, pose struck, camera raised, and then a look at the photo that produces a disgusted "Ew...". The comic captures the gap between how we feel in the mirror and how the camera sees us.
Clothes, shopping and swimsuits
A huge mountain of clothes spills out of an open wardrobe while the character, still digging, insists "I have nothing to wear!" It is one of the most universal jokes in the series and needs no explanation.
A happy moment of relaxing at home in comfortable shorts ends with a painful lesson about sitting too long on a leather office chair. The pink mark in the final panel says it all. Calin often finds her best material in tiny, physical annoyances like this.
Buying a red animal onesie, the cashier assumes it is a Christmas present for a child. "It's for me..." comes the cheerful reply, and the last panel shows her proudly wearing it, complete with ears and a tail. A comic about enjoying what you like without apology.
"Trying on swimsuits" runs through the fitting-room options: too tight, too large, too much cleavage, too complex, pretty only on the mannequin. The "perfect" choice at the end is an oversized T-shirt, a relatable verdict on swimsuit shopping.
Food, screens and staying in
Faced with a slice of cake, the character asks her shoulder angel for advice after the little devil urges her to eat it. The angel, it turns out, is already eating the cake. A playful take on temptation and good intentions.
"No internet connection": wrapped in a hoodie and staring at a laptop, the character asks, "What am I supposed to do with my life?" The drawing makes fun of how quickly an offline evening can feel empty.
She finally finds a sweater she loves at a reasonable price, but the tag says "Size: not yours". The shop assistant's suggestion to try other colours only adds to the irritation, which Calin draws in a memorable close-up glare.
Out in the world
"Mirror selfie": on the left, an elegant pose in a little black dress. On the right, the reality: a blinding camera flash and a messy room full of clutter and stuffed toys in the background.
Sketching quietly in a notebook, the character glances up to find a crowd of curious faces pressing in to watch. For many artists, drawing in public means exactly this kind of attention.
Hoping for a "nice, sun-kissed look" at the beach, she dozes off on a towel and comes home bright red with the outline of her swimsuit. A funny reminder that sunscreen matters as much as good intentions.
"Fall boots" versus "winter boots": autumn brings a whole wardrobe of comfy, trendy pairs, while winter means one heavy, practical pair worn every day. A comic that will make sense to anyone who has lived through a Montreal winter.
Asked about her sore muscles, she claims a tough workout. The truth is revealed in the last panels: an energetic session of a dance video game, belting out "Livin' la Vida Loca". Exercise, Calin suggests, is whatever gets you moving.
Why her comics connect with so many readers
Calin's humour rarely punches at anyone except herself. The jokes are built on the gap between expectation and reality, a format she returns to again and again, and on precise details that make a familiar moment feel specific: the pink mark from a leather chair, the tag reading "not yours", the angel quietly eating the cake. Her pencil-and-ink style, with expressive eyes and huge curly hair, has become instantly recognisable.
Since these early strips, Calin has turned her webcomics into books. She published Still Just Kidding (2018) and I Left the House Today! (2020), graduated in graphic design from the Université du Québec à Montréal in 2019, and in 2024 released her first graphic novel for young readers, The New Girl, followed by a sequel. Her newer comics continue on Instagram.
Sources: All comics by Cassandra Calin (C-Cassandra), also on Instagram and Facebook; biography from Lambiek Comiclopedia: Cassandra Calin.
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