Just Lying in Cálice

I have a comic in Cálice Magazine‘s first issue of 2026!

It’s an old one, previously published in the sold-out CBA #1 and in my short story collection A Subtle Fuck You, but still relevant, and I’m still happy with it.

Cálice is a web-based magazine. Here’s their About text:

Cálice Magazine is rooted in the perspective that knowledge is not universal and its transmission is not monolithic. We seek to find creative ways to produce and share knowledge and to break boundaries to contribute to a beautiful diversity of perspectives, knowledges, and stories. We publish content ranging from articles, photo stories, and podcasts over short fiction and poetry to art and comics. Through these formats, we explore different subjects: some political, some social or cultural, others personal.​​

Want a sample before clicking the link? Here’s the first page of Just Lying:

2025

So, 2025. What a fucking year.
This is my creative summation of the year, I just have some things to get off my chest first…

Even after more and more people, and countries, and international courts confirm what most of us already knew, that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza, because they’re no longer satisfied by taking one piece of land at a time through their settler colonialism, now they want it all, and their racism towards and dehumanization of Palestinians have gone far enough that they don’t even pretend to care anymore. Anyone who is against it is an antisemite, so that word has lost all relevance. If being anti genocide is antisemitic, then you’re saying that committing genocide is part of Jewish culture, which makes it either bullshit or an actual justification for being antisemitic. But it’s Israel who says this, and a lot of Jews don’t agree, so it has to be counted as bullshit or Israel is right. And Israel is committing genocide, so why should we pretend they’re right about anything? They’ve even drained the word “ceasefire” of meaning, because since the latest (still officially ongoing, I think?) ceasefire began, they haven’t ceased fire for even a moment. Their business as usual is apartheid and bombs and weaponized starvation and murdering children and we just can’t let them get away with that. Or with defining it as a part of Jewish culture that is beyond reproach.

Then there’s the US, where ICE death squads are roaming the streets, vanishing people to merch-selling concentration camps. They’re dismantling democracy, pretending that the president can do whatever he wants, and the (also nationalist right-wing but sometimes a little bit liberal right-wing) “opposition” is proving them right by letting them do it. Their democracy wasn’t much to be proud of even before Trump took over, but now it’s completely over.

And the Swedish right-wing, fascist-collaborating government seems to want nothing more than to copy the US in both rhetoric and practical politics. While our (liberal) socialdemocratic “opposition” also wants to attract racist voters and be hard on both crime and immigration (even pretending they’re the same thing).

And here I am trying to write dystopian sci fi and I just don’t have the imagination to make it worse than reality. So I guess I’m just making sci fi, with a utopian twist because there’s a pretty strong anarchist resistance movement in my Piracy is Liberation books.

And I know there are things I didn’t mention here that are also bad (Sudan, Ukraine, growing fascism/homophobia/racism and the fact that we decided to skip the climate goals and started doing AI instead etc)…

I’m [not] sorry for that rant. This is the end of the year post and I’m supposed to summarize what I’ve been up to. It’s supposed to be creative and fun and help me remember that I’m not as worthless as my level of income, my monthly lack of salary, would suggest. And also to just remember what I’ve done because I tend to forget. So here we go!

COMICS:
I got him! –CBA vol 69 (CBK)

My lesbian/feminist erotica/time travel/assassination story…

Spärrarna -Vi har gjort ett zine om köpcentret Entré (zine, Siri Nuottaniemi)

Shopping dystopia…

Angry Animal about a genocide and a ceasefire zine (Tusen Serier)

Zine collection of 4 stories commenting on the Israel/Palestine situation. Also in Swedish…

Angry Animal about a Cease-fire –Cartoonists for Palestine + Proletären #20/2025

Angry Animal about a Genocide –Cartoonists for Palestine + Proletären #24/2024

Let’s go to the stars –CBA vol 68 (CBK)

A series of full-page illustrations, including the cover, that sort of form a story…

Solen -Galago #166 (Ordfront)

This old story (CBA vol 17, A Subtle Fuck You) became my debut in Galago. Does this finally make me a Swedish comics creator?

Sannolikhetsdrift: en rymdoperett (CBK & Ruokangas Guitars)

Originally from CBA vol 64, but with a few pages redrawn, available in Swedish & English version…

ILLUSTRATIONS:
Kulturkanonen 2026 (CBK)

One of three illustrations for a calendar made as protest against the official Swedish culture canon…

Asylkalendern 2026 (Asylgruppen Malmö)

CBA vol 68 cover

CBA vol 68 illustrations

Brand #1.2025

This is one of four 2-color remakes of old painting I made with Susanne Johansson

TEXTS:
11 Stories About the Ends of the World (CBA vol 68)

Sexy Women with Big Guns: Feminist Evolution of Female Characters in the Sausage Party of Superhero Comics (CBA vol 69)

EDITORIAL WORK:
I was main editor of CBA vol 68 (see above) and co-editor of:
CBA vol 69

Cover by Kinga Dukaj

Kulturkanonen

Cover by Oskar Aspman

A Perfect Place to Call Home by Julia Nascimento

EXHIBITIONS:
69 Rum för Serier, Malmö 2025 (Oct/Nov)

Vi har gjort ett Zine om Köpcentret entré (release exhibition) Rum för Serier, Malmö 2025 (Oct)

Release för Portal #8 & #9 Rum för Serier, Malmö 2025 (Jan)

For 2026, my plans include:

Finishing a novelization of Piracy is Liberation that I’ve been working on for about a year but with long breaks inbetween, because I believe in the story but I have a feeling that a lot of people have a problem with my art style. I’ve also been reading a lot more books lately (the kind where all the pictures are in your head) and it seemed interesting so I wanted to try it out.

Starting book 014 in the comic version of Piracy is Liberation, because I still love making comics and I can’t help myself. At least if I get the grant I’ve applied for to do it, because then I can afford printing it. It’ll tie up the story I started in books 012 and 013 and I’m looking forward to it. Would it be wrong to change the format to a bigger size med-series? I know some of my readers’s eyes aren’t what they used to be, and I’m starting to get that myself as well. The current format is a bit small…

We’re starting a new anthology magazine with Tusen Serier, called ParaVox. The first round of calls for submissions is out now and we’re planning to release the first issue in a few months.

Fanzineverkstaden will keep existing as a space for selfpublishing comic creators and artists in Malmö.

And we have a couple of exhibitions coming up this year: group exhibitions from both CBK and Tusen Serier, but more on those later…

And CBA is going strong, with a couple of editorial additions (Marie Tillman and Aiden Kvarnström). I’m editing the first issue of the year (CBA vol 72: Weird Forest) and we have a call for submissions for Aiden’s first issue (CBA vol 73: Bugs).

Not sure what else, but maybe those things are enough, for now?

I haven’t managed to do the Things I’ve read/watched/played lists, with short reviews/thoughts etc, for the past few years and I don’t think I will be able to do that properly this year either, so I’ll simply give you a couple of lists of uncommented recommendations. If you like some of them, chances are you’d like whatever you haven’t tried, so check them out? And if you want more than this you can always go back and check the ones I’ve done before, because art is actually timeless and those lists are mostly still valid. So here you go, some of the things I’ve enjoyed for escapism since 2022 when I did this last time:

COMICS
War on Gaza (Joe Sacco)
World War 3 Illustrated: The Right to Live in Peace
Palestinaboken
Cartoonists for Palestine
Berlin (Jason Lutes)
Friday (Ed Brubaker & Marcos Martín)
Reckless (Ed Brubaker & Sean Phiilips)
Houses of the Unholy (Ed Brubaker & Sean Phiilips)
Icon & Rocket (Reginald Hudlin & Doug Braithwaite, Andrew Currie)
Blood Syndicate (Geoffrey Thorne & ChrisCross, Juan Castro)
X-men & related titles: Krakoa era (long story)
Deer Chief (Danijel Žeželj)
Time Before Time (Declan Shalvey & Rory McConville, Joe Palmer etc)
Partiets Själ (Max Gustafsson & Lars Krantz)
Den Svarta Jorden (Lars Krantz)
Hundra År i Samma Klass (Mats Källblad)
Polly (Mats Källblad)
Scarlet (Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev)
Night Eaters (Marjorie Liu)
Monstress (Marjorie Liu)
Stages of Rot (Linnea Sterte)
World Heist (Linnea Sterte)
Vit Volvo (Erik Svetoft)
BTTM FDRS (Ezra Clayton Daniels & Ben Passmore)
Upgrade Soul (Ezra Clayton Daniels)

BOOKS
Patternmaster serier (including Survivor) (Octavia E Butler)
Kindred (Octavia E Butler)
Unexpected Stories (Octavia E Butler)
Lilith’s Brood series (Octavia E Butler)
De Ska Drunkna I Sina Mödrars Tårar (Johannes Anyuru)
Ixelles (Johannes Anyuru)
Jag och Min Son (Sara Lidman)
Jag Ringer Mina Bröder (Jonas Hassen Khemiri)
Göra Rätt (Simon Felix Adler)
Deltagänget (Salka Sandén)
Brev från en Cell (Henrik Johansson)
Succubus series (Richelle Mead)
The Peripheral (William Gibson)
Stories of your life and others (Ted Chiang)
The Tangleroot Palace (Marjorie M Liu)
Book Thirteen (Jamie Delano)
Leepus: Dizzy (Jamie Delano)
Leepus: The River (Jamie Delano)
Hellstrom’s Hive (Frank Herbert)
and I’m rereading the Dune books (also Frank Herbert)
Babel-17 (Samuel R Delany)
Empire Star (Samuel R Delany)
The Word for World is Forest (Ursula K LeGuin)
Autonomous (Annalee Newitz)
Embassytown (China Miéville)
Voidwitch series (Corey J White)
A Pretty Mouth (Molly Tanzer)
Escape From Incel Island (Margaret Killjoy)

MOVIES
Perfect Days – Wim Wenders
The Shrouds – David Cronenberg
Honey Don’t! – Ethan Coen
The Battery – Jeremy Gardner
The Fifth Seal (Az Ötödik Pecsét) – Zoltán Fábri
Kinds of Kindness – Giorgos Lanthimos
A Samurai in Time (Samurai Taimu Surippā) – Jun’ichi Yasuda
Blue Ruin – Jeremy Saulnier
Green Room – Jeremy Saulnier
The Brutalist – Brady Corbet
Ned Rifle – Hal Hartley
The Empty Man – David Prior
Before We Vanish (Sanpo suru shinryakusha) – Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Clash (Eshtebak) – Mohamed Diab
Cosmos – Elliot Weaver & Zander Weaver
I’m Thinking of Ending Things – Charlie Kaufman
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – George Miller
Deadpool & Wolverine – Shawn Levy
RRR – SS Rajamouli
Cure (Kyua) – Kiyoshi Kurosawa
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night – Ana Lily Amirpour
Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon – Ana Lily Amirpour
The Bad Batch – Ana Lily Amirpour
Silverton Siege – Mandla Dube
Titane – Julia Ducournau
The Zone of Interest – Jonathan Glazer
Wife of a Spy – Kiyoshi Kurosawa
The Show – Mitch Jenkins
Severance – Christopher Smith
Prey – Dan Trachtenberg
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 – James Gunn
Passing – Rebecca Hall
Infinity Pool – Brandon Cronenberg
The Menu – Mark Mylod
Nope – Jordan Peele
Crimes of the Future – David Cronenberg
1945 – Ferenc Török
The Princess – Le-Van Kiet
Det vita folket – Lisa Aschan

TV & SIMILAR
Critical Role currently campaign 4 (best starting points: campaign 2 or 4)
Legend of Vox Machina (animated version of CR campaign 1)
The Mighty Nein (animated version of CR campaign 2)
I’ve of course seen a lot more, but right now nothing specific comes to mind so I’m afraid I’ll have to suggest you do your own research here… Although, now that i think about it, I should also mention these two animated high points:
Scavengers Reign
Common Side Effects

GAMES
Black Myth: Wukong
Humanity
Sword of the Sea
Cocoon
Flintlock
And now I’m playing Alan Wake II…

Guess that’s it for this year, then. See you next time!

Kulturkanonen 2026 calendar

CBK just released a calendar for 2026, in protest against the recently introduced official Swedish cultural canon. We think it’s not only unnecessary but also a nationalist attempt at building a national identity and therefore counter to the very evolution of humanity.

Since it’s aimed at a specifically Swedish context, it’s written in Swedish and illustrated by Oskar Aspman, Jakob Dittmar, Caroline Ulvros and me. Printed in 2-color risoprint. Cover by Oskar Aspman.

ORDER IT FROM HYBRIDEN

Många är säkert överens om att den officiella svenska kulturkanon var ett onödigt projekt, ett försök att bygga en nationell identitet genom att lyfta upp ett antal verk och företeelser som skulle sammanfatta den svenska folksjälen. Efter att ha hånat projektet (både dess syfte och urval) över en middag i Ystad, satte sig fyra illustratörer och valde ut 12 saker som också format Sverige men som inte direkt bidrar till nationell stolthet. Resultatet blev denna kalender för 2026. Köp den som julklapp till den som behöver påminnas om hur landets historia också är fylld av mindre smickrande element, eller den som vill gotta sig lite åt hur värdelöst det är med nationalism. Från skotten i Ådalen till Vipeholmsexperimentet, Boforsaffären och Rasbiologiska Instotutet.

Tryckt i tvåfärgsriso för en grafisk upplevelse som varar hela året!

As a sample, I’ll let you see my three illustrations, for February, July and November:

Some context:
February is about the pension reform of 1993/-94, because in the official canon, they included an earlier, more egalitarian pension system. This one, however, which was insituted by a similar right-wing government to the one we have now, made sure to better preserve class differences even after the end of our work lives. Which, for example, will probably make it impossible for me to be able to relax during my time as a pensioner since I will need to keep finding other ways to pay my bills.
When it was introduced, it was made too complicated for the news to properly report on what it would entail, so public debate before it was too late was more or less nonexistent.

November is about Karl XII, the Swedish king from the 1600s whose death brought what is called (and was called even in its own time) the Age of Liberty. He also lost a lot of territory previously occupied by Sweden and was killed (possibly) by one of his own soldiers with a button since they were out of bullets. These days he is only celebrated by Nazis.
My drawing is, as you can see, a before/after version, with the kingkilling button/bullet included in the corner there.
I once illustrated a book about the clashes between Nazis and AntiFascists in Lund during the period 1998-2008, which I still have a few copies of, but that’s another story…

Speaking of the cultural canon, I made a comic about the project in 2023, around the time when it was first announced, shown in Tusen Serier‘s (Anti)rasism exhibition and in an issue of Brand.

CUTZINEfest & Asylkalendern 2026

I will be with the rest of Hybriden (Tusen Serier & CBK) at CUTZINEfest which is at Tomrummet (Kopparbergsgatan 15, Malmö) next Saturday (13/12) between 12-17!

You’ll find all the info about the event at their website: CUTZINE.org
or:
Mastodon
Pixelfed
Facebook-event
Instagram #cutzine

Here’s the full list of participants!

Important: you need to become a member of Tomrummet to get in at CUTZINEfest. You can do that (for free) before Dec 11 here: tomrummet.xyz/register

This will also be an opportunity to get Asylkalendern 2026 where I have an illustration.

AND the brand new, risoprinted, Kulturkanonen from CBK, a 2026 calendar in opposition to the official Swedish cultural canon (I’ll post image later)…

BUGS call + Russia exhibition

CBK just released it’s 69th volume, the exhibition is still up, and we’re already gearing up for our next release: CBA vol 70|71: A RUSSIAN DANCE WITH SHACKLES. The exhibition for it (our 101st publication) opens on Monday (Nov 24) between 15-18. Come check it out!

This issue of CBA offers new insights through voices of resistance from a neighbor who affects us all: Russia. How were its dreams of democracy shattered? How did it go from flaunting extravagant Eurovision stunts to prisoners dying at the frontline in Ukraine? From celebrating V-day with Americans on the Red Square to threatening nuclear war. Is it possible to steer into other pathways? Through the stories of Russian and ex-Russian artists, these comics share rarely heard perspectives on what it means to live within these changes, reflections that are normally out of reach for Western readers.

I’m not involved personally in either book or exhibition, but I am main editor and cover artist for the issue after that, CBA vol 72: WEIRD FOREST, which is almost finished. It won’t be released until next year but we did recently make the call for submissions for the issue after that:

CBA vol 73: BUGS
Main editor: Aiden Kvarnström
Deadline: Feb 15, 2026

One day, Gregor Samsa woke up and found himself transformed into an insect. Do you think that bugged him?

Puns aside, insects are fascinating. Many people find them disgusting and associate them with filth and decay, but without them we wouldn’t have anything to eat, considering they’re also the main pollinators of our plants. How could we survive in a world with no bugs? Then again, fleas were quite significant in spreading the plague.

Insects are hailed as the protein of the future and shunned as vectors of disease. They’re pests, pets and objects of fear and fascination. But they aren’t the only kind of bug out there. If you’re sick, you’ve caught a bug. If your computer program doesn’t run as intended, it’s due to a bug. If you experience a glitch in the matrix, there might be a bug in the very fabric of our reality. If something is bugging you, you can’t stop thinking about it. And remember: shrimp are also bugs.

Give us your best stories rooted in entomology, annoyance, glitches or any other kind of bug out there! Exoskeletons, hive minds, metamorphosis, silk, webs and rot; we’re sure you all have something to say about bugs.

Check the call for submissions for more details and submission guidelines…

69 release

CBA vol 69 is coming! It’ll be out this Friday, with me and Kinga Dukaj as main co-editors! As you may guess from the numbering, this one is about SEX.

It’s also the 100th publication from CBK, which is pretty cool if we may say so ourselves. I haven’t been involved in all 100 myself, but a whole bunch of them.

The release, with an exhibition, will be at Rum för Serier (Friisgatan 12, Malmö) this Friday, Oct 31 between 17–21. Hope to see you there!

We’re doing it! And by “it”, we mean, well, haha: SEX.
We’re diving into it; Queer, straight, emotional, horny, funny, serious. Comics that explore intimacy, desire, awkwardness, joy. Stories where sex moves the plot, reveals character or simply celebrates pleasure and the sheer joyfulness of a great fuck. 

Participating artists:
Aiden Kvarnström | Rikard Stenius | Sandra “Sam” Mattsson-Robertsdotter | Gordy Chaffey & Vincent Rose | Malin Biller | Sindre Lo | Thea | Predrag Stamenković | Mattias Elftorp | Josef Norén | Kye Cooks | Kinga Dukaj (cover)

Here’s a page from my comic contribution:

I was trying to think of what’s sexy in 2025, and came to the conclusion that, well, it is the era of Luigi, and of Trump/Project 2025, so there was really only one way to go… With that said, it should maybe be pointed out that the comic is a work of fiction. Any similarities to actual persons, living or dead, as well as events in the past or future, are purely coincidental.
It’s also a time travel story, because I can’t help but complicate things, for fun. Straight stories are just too boring.

You’ll find more samples from the comics here, and you can order the book at Hybriden and/or subscribe to CBA (4 issues – new subscribers also get 4 back issues). 

Feel free to invite people to the Facebook event and share wherever you can!

Vi har gjort ett Zine om Köpcentret entré

I have a comic in a zine about the Malmö shopping mall Entré, titled: Vi har gjort ett Zine om Köpcentret entré, which has its official release with exhibition this Saturday (Oct 4) between 17-20 at Rum för Serier.

My story isn’t specifically about Entré, necessarily, but it’s on a related subject. It’s about the gates at the exits of supermarkets (specifically ICA), and is set in a near future where it’s been made illegal to enter and exit a shop without buying anything.

It was originally intended for Galago, so that’s why I tried to make it look a bit [chibi-]autobiographical. Any similarities to real life me and Kinga are completely coincidental or whatever.

The zine itself is super nice, edited and hand-bound at Fanzineverkstaden by Siri Nuottaniemi.

Here’s the first page:

Jury Duty @ Seriefest

In collaboration with Malmö Seriefest, Fanzineverkstaden, Malmö University Comics Hub and Bildvärld Gränsland, CBK were behind this new award at Seriefest 2025, where we selected the winner of the festival’s best zine.

So I was part of the jury, which was nice. It gave me the opportunity to read a lot of zines I’d’ve missed otherwise, since I’m not made of zine money… In the end, we agreed on a winner and 5 honorary mentions. The winner was:

Lovisa Prage – Saltvatten
Ett fanzine som samlar alla aspekter: en stark historia, uttrycksfullt tecknat, genomtänkta materialval och papperskvalitet. Ett helhetsverk som en enig jury valde som vinnare.
instagram: @lovisa.prage

Go to the blog post at CBK to see the whole list.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seriefest was also the release for a new book from CBK: Julia Nascimento‘s A Perfect Place to Call Home, which you should check out.

A Perfect Place to Call Home is Julia Nascimento’s first collection of visual narratives about her experiences and reflections of life in different places as a foreigner. Stories about living everywhere and living nowhere.

Julia Nascimento is a Brazilian illustrator and cartoonist. While living in Japan she pursued postgraduate studies in fashion and worked in different sectors of the fashion industry. In 2017, she launched her career in illustration and comics, which solidified after her relocation to Sweden. Julia Nascimento’s work has been published in books and periodicals in Japan, Sweden, USA, and in the UK.

Available at Hybriden and other places…

 

September festivals: Ystad + Seriefest

This weekend I’ll be with Hybriden (CBK/Tusen Serier/Wormgod) at Ystad Seriefestival, and the next at Malmö Seriefest.

Read my interview in the Seriefest blog.

I don’t know what to say about it. These are application times, so I’ve used up most of my brain power already trying to find ways to keep everything afloat next year.

But I’ll be there, there’ll be books, possibly prints, you know the drill.

See you there!