This is going to the printer today, if all goes well:
First volume of the new era, comics exclusively by the editorial crew! Theme: A NEW HOPE (no relation to any Disney movie franchise).
Some pages from my contribution (Viral):
Category: CBK
Immunology
I feel I should write something about terrorism and the need for levelheadedness in the face of these things. How it’s important to not become paranoid or racist when attacks like the one in Paris happened. How yes, our Western society and it’s media and its people tend to care more about “our own” French people than the ones in Syria or Beirut or any of the other places where atrocities happen, but it’s still about a lot of people being murdered for reasons that we can’t condone or ignore. I would write that what we do about it is important. Because what we want is peace and not more meaningless bloodshed (see now, I’m trying not to sound like some Defence Leaguer so instead I come off like a hippie, and it’s all the terrorist’s fault).
Maybe somethingabout the Swedish terrorist hunt recently and about how they caught the guy who seems to have just gone on with his life like he wasn’t the Most Wanted (which is kind of suspicious), but I don’t have enough facts about it, so I can’t really say a lot. Except that I didn’t suddenly start trusting the police/authorities in general for no reason…
/Edit: Seems that they let the guy go, so I guess he was innocent. Is there still a terrorist running around the country, or was the whole thing a false alarm? Since they knew exactly who to look for, I would lean more towards a false alarm. They had his name and a pixelated photo, yet somehow they couldn’t find him (he lived at the address he had given to the Migration Boeard, with his name on the door, and his Facebook profile was open and available, so they could easily have found a better photo), and when they did get him, he was just going about his everyday business.
Compare this to when they found lots of explosives in a barn belonging to a Sweden Democrat who was obviously up to no good. In that case they didn’t raise any official nation-wide threat levels. And when a wave of fires against refugee accomodations sweep the country (around 30 so far this year), that’s also obviously nothing to take seriously… End edit/
Definitely something hopeful about how now maybe people will be more understanding towards refugees from Syria. Because this thing happened to people “we” can identify with because maybe we’ve been to Paris or at least seen it in some film. Or maybe something bitter about how it doesn’t seem that way because “we” just put up extra passport controls on the border and people seem to go on being stupid and paranoid about it.
I should also write something about the Roma that were evicted from the Sorgenfri camp in Malmö and who have been sleeping outside City Hall since it happened, even though the City has repeatedly stolen (with the help of the parking guards and police) their trailers, mattresses, blankets, clothes. And now it’s snowing. And the politicians (Social Democrats) do nothing except congratulate themselves and exacerbate their situation.
I probably have something to say about the term racism and how it’s lost all meaning to people who say racist things. To them, it’s just an insult, not a word that means anything. I could also reflect on how cartoon characters used to seem overtly simplified when they talked about themselves as “evil”. I would have said that no one would see themselves as evil. But now I hear that in some mainstream(?) circles in Denmark, for example, they talk about “good” people as some kind of bleeding-heart wimps and/or dangerous enemies of society (because they try to avoid being or acting like racists/fascists). Which I guess means that they consider themselves evil?
Basically, I would talk about how a lot of things are turning more and more to shit.
However, I’ve heard that people prefer to hear good news, so I’ll settle for showing you the comic I got the honorary award for at the Oulu Comics Festival a while ago (it was included in their Hunger of Horror anthology where they spelled my name wrong but who cares?). It’s probably going to turn up in CBA at some point as well, but I’ll show you the whole thing now anyway (more news later about CBA and also about Myling that got 3rd prize and will soon be a Tusen Serier book).
So here it is: Immunology
(click images for embiggening)
Today + near future news
The Tusen Serier/Sverok wall/jam comics exhibition that’s been going on this week will be finished today, which we will celebrate with alcohol, of course. We have three jam comics going on the walls, and yesterday we made some connections between the different stories, so they will all be concluded today in a SUPER RAVE PARTY OF DEATH. Literally (or at least in some kind of literal form).
We start at 16 and go on until 22-ish, depending on when we run out of wine…
In other news:
As you may know, I’ve been organizing the AltCom festival (website will soon be updated) for the Swedish Comics Association since 2010. The next edition, however, will be run by CBK in cooperation with Tusen Serier. I will still be the main organizer, but it still feels new and exciting.
And speaking of Tusen Serier, it just completed the transition from a project run by the Comics Association into an organization in its own rights. Which also feels great!
And one last item. A new book from CBK is nearing completion: Creation of a god / Att skapa en gud by Henrik Möller & Lars Krantz, based on a short story by Richard Stanley. Here’s the first official preview of the cover:
All these things…
Ok, so here’s the deal.
Current comics projects:
I was going to get started on Piracy is Liberation v03 this fall, but right now I don’t see it happening. I also had to postpone the Transgressions 2 project I was planning to get started with Brazilian noise band Anarcho Vomit Noise. But I finished The Troll, and when the publisher gets hold of some 3D glasses it’s going to get a proper release somehow. I also have to make the Swedish translation of it as soon as I get some five spare minutes…
First, some short stories. I told you before about Viral that I made for CBA vol 30. I’m also mentally sketching a cover illustration for that issue, together with Kinga Dukaj. I’ve also written a script for something that is currently called Immunology, intended for the Oulu comics festival horror comics competition, whose deadline is approaching. It’s probably going to end up in CBA sooner or later as well. And I have a script for another troll story, but a different kind, for the upcoming Novo Doba festival anthology. Working title: These fucked up things they are doing to us.
Oh, and I’m supposed to make a lino cut contribution to Éric Ferrier’s new zine. Deadline sometime in August, of course. Maybe I’ll do it this weekend…
Spell casting:
A few years ago, I decided that things got more interesting if I view application-writing as casting spells. Because it is a bit like magic. You formulate a spell, you offer it to the gods/spirits/institutions in a kind of ritual that may include going to the post office or completing certain steps online, and then, if these higher powers decide to smile upon you, you get the money you ask for. And then you have to work for it, sacrificing your time and creativity, putting their power sigils/logos on whatever you produce within the boundaries of the spell.
So this is also something I’m going to be doing for a while now. Projects that need financing:
– AltCom 2016: WORK (this time organized by CBK & Tusen Serier)
– Tusen Serier (which was just transformed from a project under the Swedish Comics Association into its own organization. Now we’re just waiting for our magic number that will give us access to new sorts of magic).
– CBK (luckily I’m not responsible for writing these. Mine is more a consulting role. But still, deadline approaching…)
CBK:
So I just finished putting together the new issue of CBA (vol 29), which is a solo issue called What we knew, by Sarah Kläpp. With any luck, we’ll have it in time for the Helsinki festival…
And we’re in the process of making comics for CBA vol 30. Well, the others are. I’ve been done for ages. Luckily.
And some submissions have already come in for CBA vol 32. It’s always a joy to see all the nice comics people are sending to us.
And I hear that Mari Ahokoivu is preparing the material for he solo issue (vol 31).
All of these releases are supposed to result in exhibitions sooner or later.
We just need to sort out the mess that the former editorial crew left behind. A mess that may pose a big problem for us new people. Long story. We’ll sort it out somehow.
Edit: And yes, on top of all this, I’m also going to put togehter another book for CBK: Creation of a god / Vallonden som byggde gud. Comics adaptation by Henrik Möller & Lars Krantz of a Richard Stanley (who made films like Hardware and Dust Devil) short story. My self preservation skills are at 0. I just can’t help myself…
Wormgod:
Not much happening here for the moment, which is probably saving my life right now, because:
Tusen Serier:
August 4-7: Nerd at Pride
We’ll be making a jam comic on the walls during this event. An interactive exhibition with some kind of LGBT/Sci Fi theme that we will figure out as we go along.
August 14: Tusen Stafettserier
Tusen Stafettserier, our jam comics project that we’ve been working on for the last year is now finished and the exhibition which started in Stockholm recently will now be shown in Malmö before going on to Sjöbo, Gothenburg and back to Stockholm again.
August 21: Sofie Hoff (guest exhibition)
We’re lending out the Tusen Serier place for a guest exhibition.
August 28-30: Helsinki sarjakuvafestivaali
Tusen Serier, CBK and Wormgod goes to the Helsinki comics festival! Which is always nice, especially since I haven’t been there for a while now.
September 5: Lillebrors fantastiska mardrömmar release/exhibition/performance
The official release of Lillebrors fantastiska mardrömmar!
September 12-13: Comic Con Malmö
Not sure how this will work out, but worth a try anyway. Tusen Serier & Wormgod at the first Comic Con in Malmö. They seem to base this more on the image of San Diego Comic Con that you see in popular culture rather than focusing on comics. We’ll see…
September 22-27: Novo Doba
Going to Serbia once more for the Novo Doba festival. Family reunion…
September 26: Some exhibition
I won’t be here for this one, but we’ll put some kind of exhibition together.
September 27: Amalia Alvarez at the Gothenburg book fair
Amalia Alvarez will represent Tusen Serier and talk about her new book about prostitutes. Another thing I won’t be here for…
So that’s it…
…for August and September. And after that there is still the issue of the After the ends of the world release party/mini noise festival that was supposed to have happened already, but the venue didn’t work out for different reasons (mainly construction work).
And we were going to show the 8. exhibition in Malmö, maybe in conjunction with a release event for The Troll (and of course for the 8. book). Whenever there is time.
Where is the time? Have you seen it?
Also, could you remind me of all the things I’ve forgotten in this description of what is filling my head right now, because I don’t know where they are or what they look like or what I was even talking about…
Anyway, see you around, somewhere.
Unused old CBA cover…
Looking through my old CBK files, I found this sketch for an old cover (from maybe 2005). It never got used or developed or even remembered, but finding it again I kind of liked it as it is, so I’m showing it here now.
In more CBK news, we just announced that we’re open to submissions for CBA vol 32, and I’m working together with Kinga Dukaj on the cover for vol 30, which won’t look anything like this one…
Viral (upcoming CBAvol30)
CBA vol 30 will be the first issue of CBA featuring the new editorial crew (and ONLY the editorial crew, for once).
So I made this story: VIRAL.
I wanted to do something special. Not sure if I managed that, but it’s a short story based on an idea I had. I drew the thing and everythin, months before deadline. Made a b/w version for Stripburger (which they chose not to publish, which is kind of normal when I send them stuff), and then I decided that I didn’t like it the way I had done it. So I made another version (and a third version that never got developed further than the drawing stage).
Here are some pages.
Version 1:
Version 2:
EDIT: The new version was entered into a competition and cannot have been published before, so even if it was just unfinished small-size exerpts, I decided to take them down. If you missed them you’ll just have to wait for CBA vol 30, which will be out in December (mysteriously 1,5 months after vol 31).
Version 2 is really far from what I usually do, drawing style-wise, but for this story I think it serves its purpose better, and I really liked how the colors turned out…
CBA vol 28: Signs and science!
Rumors are going around that I’m back in C’est Bon Kultur, the comics association I started together with three others back in 2001, publisher of the international art comics anthology CBA. The rumors are true, and it actually feels good. I left in 2009 to start Wormgod with Suss, because CBK was going in directions I just wasn’t interested in, and it felt like that was a finished chapter. Obviously I was wrong, even though I was right at the time.
I’m still not sure what direction this (almost completely) new editorial crew is going, but I’m looking forward to finding out. The breaking point will be CBA vol 30, coming out in September(?), which will be the first anthology issue with the new crew, but I have also been involved in CBA vol 28 which is released this Thursday.
In this issue is my story Singularity, which you may have read before in the Novo Doba 2014 anthology (Turbo Comix) or in After the ends of the world (Wormgod, 2015). And also I helped put the issue together since the old crew had left it haning and we needed to finish some of their stuff before going on with the new. Don’t get me wrong, this issue has some good stuff. It is the last issue compiled be the former crew, the end of an era.
In any case, the release event will be at the Tusen Serier place (Mitt Möllan, Claesgatan 8 in Malmö) (see how all the things in my life converge?) on Thursday, April 23, 17-21 and there will be an exhibition called SPACE, which has been shown in Norway and will also be in Finland soon, with Frøydis Sollid Simonsen, Karoline Stjernfelt and Mari Ahokoivu. We’ve also added some of the other material from the issue to the exhibition, since they both came out of the same concept.
So anyway, see you Thursday!