Author: elftorp

MoCCA ArtFest in New York City 2009!

I was at the MoCCA ArtFest in New York City two years ago, and it was a great festival. Last year I didn’t make it, but this time I’m going again, and I’ll bring lots more of my books to show around. I’ll also be participating in a panel on the Nordic comics scene, on June 6, Saturday afternoon at 4.

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The thing takes place June 6-7, and I’ll also be there the whole week before the festival, so feel free to contact me about anything happening in New York that week.

There are only News and Old News.

I went to see the new Star Trek movie today. I liked it, but that’s not what I wanted to talk about here. It (or rather the title) made me think about somsething that I’ve touched upon in Piracy is Liberation.

They didn’t name it Star Trek XI, or even Star Trek: [individual movie title], even though it is the eleventh movie in the series. They named it Star Trek, like the others didn’t count. OK, considering the story in the film, that might be understandable, but I still think we can see some kind of trend here. A trend to ignore the past and make everything seem new.

Same thing with Rambo, Rocky Balboa and others I can’t think of right now. There is a history behind these films, and the contents of the films are building on this history, but in naming and marketing the thing, that history is more or less ignored.

Same thing with many of the remakes that have come in the last couple of years. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Departed, The Ring, Dark Water, Pulse, Dawn of the Dead and lots of others. Remakes of things that came from far away in time and/or space (counted from Hollywood, of course).

Of coursem you might not want to admit that the film you just made is a rermake, because it takes away some artistic merit from it. And there is some logic in making things sound new because of how the media works. News sell, even if they aren’t really news. So it’s understandable in a short-sighted capitalist perspective, but in the long run and a larger perspective, I’m wondering where it will lead (expecially if we see this trend in films and media as a sign of a cultural phenomenon in all of society)…

Sayonara September. And a bit about SPX 2009…

I’m working a bit behind the scenes with a friend of mine on her book, Sayonara September, which will be out this September from Kartago Förlag.

Detail from an unfinished piece I'm doing for the Sayonara September gallery...
Detail from an unfinished piece I'm doing for the Sayonara September gallery...

I already knew I liked her stuff, but working this close with someone else’s material gives you a new appreciation for it. It’s really an interesting experience. Also, after having read the first 100 or so pages of the book, I really look forward to having the finished book in my hands and getting to read it all at once (which will have to wait though, since there are three books planned before it’s all done. -Which is another reason why I like it. There are very few comics creators working in sweden right now who take their time to tell their stories like this. Who let the details drag out for a long time (counted in pages), because they’ve realised that there’s a lot to be said for details, and also let the overall story take its time to reach its conclusion. There are also (still) very few artists working in sweden right now who put this much effort into refining their art. But there are some, and I’m hoping there will be more of that in the coming years.

At this year’s SPX in Stockholm (hosted by Serieteket), there were some books that I especially looked forward to reading when I got home. One was Niklas Asker‘s Second Thoughts, recently released from Top Shelf Comix, and I wasn’t disappointed. It’s not a very long story, but there’s a great sensitivity in it, and attention to the little things. And I really like the art. I already look forward to Niklas’ next book, so hopefully he’ll get the time to do it soon…

There was also a book by Natalia Batista, called A Song for Elise, which I haven’t read yet, but it looks interesting. First swedish Yaoi I’ve seen and I’m quite intrigued. I just need a bit more time to read stuff.

Speaking of reading… Pretty soon I expect I’ll get to see the new Oblivion High too, created by rama, creator of Vesi Oli Mustaa. The problem is that all her books so far are in finnish, which I don’t understand much of, so I can’t read them. Seems like finnish publishers are more willing to look at new interesting stuff than the swedish ones. Big surprise.

Other than the ones I’ve mentioned, most of what I got at the SPX was not swedish books. There’s still so much, more interesting, stuff that are published elsewhere that I can’t really be bothered by most of the swedish stuff. Which is too bad, of course, but it’s just the way things are, at least for now. The swedish comics climate has long been constituted (maybe I should say dominated, because there are of course some, more peripheral, exceptions) by a very small community that has for a long time been quite uninterested in looking past the national borders. Consequently, the most interesting work right now seems to be created by artists who have looked to the outside for inspiration, be it Manga or western comics…

I should mention, I guess, that this thing about not looking outside of the national borders for inspiration is a problem that has as much to do with swedish society in general as it has with the swedish comics culture. Självgodhet is the swedish word that comes to mind.

By the way, I’m starting to suspect that Piracy is Liberation will be at least 20 books, and not 19 as I used to think until I started planning for book 007…

And, last but not least, I should mention that Suss and I have started to plan the first graphic novel to come out of the Wormgod project. It’s a horror story, naturally. More on that later…

Piracy007 in the works…

There will be a book 007 before the end of 2009 after all! I wasn’t sure, but events are falling into place that will allow me to do it. I’ll start working on it after the June World Tour (MoCCA in New York City, Punk Illegal in Munkedal and Crack! in Rome) is over… The theme for this book will be religion. I will explore the religious structures of the City’s society and we may get to witness the birth of a new semi-divine entity. Also, I suspect, the first appearance of Ming (who was mentioned in book 005).

We will also see the effects of the last pages of book 006. The rules have changed in a very fundamental way for the inhabitants of the City. So what’s the next step? How will the authorities/rebels react to this development?

As soon as Suss has some time I’ll ask her for a cover, and I’ll get to work on the insides of the book.

Wormgod: konSEKVENS

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So. The first Wormgod exhibition, konSEKVENS, took place this April at the Växjö University.

For some more info, and the image in its entirety, go to the Wormgod site.

Being at the Academic Perspectives on Comics, Manga & Graphic Novels as Intercultural & Intermedial Phenomena event was a bit weird when we were just a few comics creators present and so many academics. It’s usually the other way around. The participants were nice though (except for one) and the lectures were interesting. -To a varying degree, I should add. There’s a limit to how much use you have as a creator for a definition of what comics are, and in some ways, definitions can even be limiting. But apart from that, it was a nice setting. Except…

A number of the copies I brought of Piracy is Liberation were stolen. Normally, I wouldn’t mind terribly. Charging money for the books is just a necessary evil, but in this case, considering the type of students I suspect to be the culprits, it doesn’t feel ok. Oh well. With some luck they’ll read the books and rethink their choices in life*…

konsekvens01akonsekvens01b1konsekvens01c

Anyway…
konSEKVENS is only the beginning and will be expanded into another exhibition called VÅLD. It will be shown at the release party for Piracy is Liberation 006: Violence, probably some time in July at Utkanten in Malmö. Keep your eyes peeled for information as things fall into place for the arrangement.

In conclusion, here’s the presentation that accompanied the image at the exhibition:

This exhibition is a sequential artwork about consequences. The image tells a story, perhaps many stories, about a crucial event in human history. Something that has affected our generation and our view on life in a very basic way. An event that brought death into the equation, on a scale that is bigger even than specieswide extincion.
konSEKVENS is also an experiment in linear/non-linear thinking. The images and their stories can be read like a comic strip, but it is up to their viewers to make the connections between different image elements and arrive at something that is not chronological. Something that is spread out through time: a multitude of events and their consequences.
In the end, we all live in the shadow of the mushroom cloud. A shadow outside of time that reaches the lab in Los Alamos, the streets of Hiroshima, the Whute House, the board rooms of the war industry and the minds of the visitors here today at the University of Växjö.

 

* Växjö University is not only the host for academic comics events, there is also the police academy. And, as we all know, the police are not to be trusted.

World tour 2009.

Tour dates and locations.

January 29 – February 1: Festival international de la bande dessinée d’Angoulême, Angoulême, France
February 20: Piracy005 Releasefest/Noisekväll, Stapelbädden Malmö, Sweden
April 16-18: Wormgod: konSEKVENS, Växjö Universitet, Sweden
April 23-26: SPX 09, Stockholm, Sweden
June 6-7: MoCCA Artfest, New York City, USA
June 17-21: Crack! Comics festival, Rome, Italy
July 4: Piracy006 Releasefest/Noisekväll/Wormgod: Våld, Utkanten Malmö, Sweden
July 11: Hacknight, Utkanten Malmö, Sweden
August 19: Malmöfestivalen (guest at CBK’s event), Malmö, Sweden
August 22-September 13: Wormgod: konSEKVENS 2.0, Panora, Malmö, Sweden
September 4: Wormgod: WALL 001, at harsh noise concert at Skånes Konstförening, Malmö, Sweden (also inofficial Piracy007 release)
September 12-13: Helsingin Sarjakuvafestivaali, Helsinki, Suomi
September 19: Wormgod: Zombies @ Malmö Queer Art & Film Festival, Panora, Malmö, Sweden
September 24-27: Bok- och Biblioteksmässan, Göteborg, Sweden
October 24: Anarchist Bookfair, London, England
October 30-November 1: I Seriernas Värld, Malmö, Sweden
October ?: C’est Bon Panorama II, Panora Malmö, Sweden
November ?: ComICA(?)

Review of Piracy005

Still listening to Sanctification, trying to conjure money by writing mundane spells, casting them via the internet.

And while I’m doing that, stumbling upon a review of Piracy is Liberation 005: Free Section in Tidningen Kulturen by Gustaf Andersson.

Att det finns bra och dåliga punklåtar råder det inga tvivel om. De dåliga brukar oftast kännas igen på att de snarare vill vara punklåtar än att de är, att klichéerna stapplas på varandra. De bra däremot känns igen på att de bara är punklåtar, helt skoningslöst. På samma sätt är det med Mattias Elftorps tidskriftsprojekt Piracy is liberation. Den bara är punk. Dystopin är oursäktande. (more…)

Allright, back to work…

Oh, by the way, I updated my website today. Added some Wormgod info and one or more (I can’t keep such things as numbers or memories in my head right now) new images. Go check it out!