solo exhibitions – A Sbtl Fakkya

Things happening in the near future…

Busy weeks coming up…

Seriefest i Väst @ Litteraturhuset (Lagerhuset, Heurlins plats 1B, Gothenburg)
During the entire festival, I believe I will have a comic in the official exhibition at Litteraturhuset. I can’t show it here yet because I also entered it into the festival’s competition.
Oct 24, 11:15-12: I’ll be part of a panel discussing the importance of cultural magazines for comics. I’ll be there because I’m one of the editors of the cultural magazine/international comics anthology CBA. We’re in a situation now where all the public culture budgets are being cut, because the current government hates culture because they think the voting population will lean more towards the right wing if the cultural supply is made more narrowly mainstream, profit-oriented and/or nationalist. They may be partially correct, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea in the long run.
Oct 26, 10-18: Comics market where I’ll be selling books from Wormgod, CBK and Tusen Serier.

Which will overlap a bit with:

FIJUK @ Longest Night (Dagjämningsgatan 14 i Kortedala Industriområde)
Oct 26, 15-23: Fijuk with market & concerts, where I’ll be selling books from Wormgod, CBK and Tusen Serier, possibly with prints and more books than at Seriefest i Väst since the tables are usually bigger. We’ll see how we’ll solve the overlap between the two markets, but there’ll be two of us in Gothenburg so we’ll find a way.

Tusen Serier exhibition: Angiverisamhällets Baksidor
@ Panora/Fish Tank Gallery (Friisgatan 19D, Malmö)
Nov 1, 18-21: Comics exhibition with artists invited by Tusen Serier: Bekim Gaši, Julia Nascimento, Shko Askari, Jayal Safieddine, Alexis Bågenholm, Kinga Dukaj and me. It’s about the proposed new snitch law in Sweden, which is meant to force public employees to snitch on anyone they come in contact with who they suspect to be undocumented. Anyone could figure out it’s a really bad idea for a law, but the government seems to choose not to.
Here’s a sneak peek at two panels from my contribution:
And the poster:

CBK exhibition: KOLAŻ | THE BOX @ Malmö Stadsbibliotek
Release exhibition for the new CBA vol 64: THE BOX & CBA vol 65: KOLAŻ. I was main editor and made the cover for THE BOX. I have comics in both of them. The exhibition will showcase samples of everything that’s in the books.
Here are samples:
And the poster:

Comic Artist of the Month @ Rum för Serier
I’m comic artist of the month in October/November (starting Oct 17) at Rum för Serier, Which happens because I’m part of Serieförmedlingen, the portfolio site of the Swedish Comics Association. So not as fancy as it may sound, but it’s a small solo exhibition of some of my stuff. A selection of sample snippets:

Comic Artists of the Year @ Rum för Serier
I will also be in a group exhibition of everyone who was comic artist of the month during 2024. Later in November(?), I think…

New issues of CBA
CBAvol64 is already out.
CBAvol65 will be officially out Nov 25, but will also be sneakily available as a pre-release at both Seriefest i Väst + Fijuk and of course at the exhibition.
CBAvol66|67 is being produced as you read this. We’re busy making the selection and I’ll be putting it together for a release in December (if possible). Since last year’s issues were so late (half of them released this year), we’re compensating by concentrating all the 2024 issues during the final quarter of the year. Is it healthy? I don’t know. Will it be good? I’m pretty sure it will…

Mitt Möllans julmarknad @ Mitt Möllan, Malmö
Nov 30 + Dec 1: We will hopefully have a table at Mitt Möllan’s christmas market, where we will squeeze in books by Wormgod, CBK and Tusen Serier along with some dice by Dice Dominion and a bunch of prints.
We didn’t get a table, but you can shop your christmas presents online instead.

Tusen Serier exhibition: Fanzineverkstaden @ Rum för Serier
Dec 13: Members of Fanzineverkstaden will exhibit zines and prints and maybe more at Rum för Serier. More details on this later…

I’m sure there will be more happening before the year is over. For example, I just wrote a review of a really boring book, I’m waiting for confirmation on a few publications etc, but this is what I know about so far when it comes to official appearances, exhibitions etc.

Opening hours!

If you’re in Malmö and couldn’t make it to the Piracy 013 exhibition opening, you still have the chance to see it. I will keep the exhibition open on these times:

Thursday (Jun 20): 17-20
Tuesday (Jun 25): 17-20
Thursday (Jun 27): 17-20

Drop by and hang out for a while! Take the opportunity to get the whole set of the first 13 Piracy is Liberation books (or the books you’re missing).
Both the single issues and the thick collected editions will be available.You can follow this trip of 20 years of my life as a comics creator (ok, there was a 10 year break between books 011 and 012, but I hope you can see some evolution in my writing/drawing skills during that gap anyway).

There will also be some classic Wormgod prints available in varying sizes, in case you have some empty wall space you need filling.

Or just come and see some pages from the latest book, printed in large format, with some trivia/behind the scenes comments added.

Piracy013 release tour 2024

My new book just came from the printer the other day, and I’ve just confirmed that there will be a release exhibition! So the 2024 release tour will be as follows:

Jönköping, April 26: The Old World Is Dying
Stockholm, May 25-26: SIS
Malmö, June 7: Release exhibition @ Rum för Serier

The Old World Is Dying (Insikten, Kulturhuset, Jönköping)
This is a noise event where I will have a Wormgod table along side Dice Dominion, Vertigo förlag.
Performing acts:
IDIOT CHILD (MALMÖ)
Violent sludgy noise rock from the dirty south.
TRAUMA COMMAND (MALMÖ)
Radical Feminist Power Electronics with a straight razor from Crime City.
FACTORY FARMING (GÖTEBORG)
Red Power electronics from the foggy Volvograd.
Both TRAUMA COMMAND and FACTORY FARMING are familiar faces from earlier events (and soundtracks) from Wormgod, and TRAUMA COMMAND is of course the other half of Wormgod and the cover artist for most of the Piracy books, including the new one.
If there’s space, I may bring a couple of books from CBK and Tusen Serier as well…
Check the facebook event for times, address and more updated info.

SIS 2024 (Kulturhuset, Stockholm)
The new edition of Stockholms Internationella Seriefestival. We will be there as usual with Wormgod, CBK and Tusen Serier, this time in the company of Dice Dominion. There’s not stage appearance by me planned this time, as I did that last year, but we’ll be there with a whole lot of books, prints and dice. See you there!
Facebook event

Release exhibition (Rum för Serier, Malmö)
And finally, there will be an official release party with en exhibition in Malmö.

A mix of classic cyberpunk elements in a dystopian future with a glimmer of postapocalyptic hope and a pinch of metamagic.

I haven’t made all the plans for this yet, but I will have all three rooms so I’ll probably also put up some of my older stuff as well as pages from the new book.
Maybe I’ll talk about the book, maybe I’ll discuss it with someone? Maybe there will just be a pile of books, some prints on the wall and a bunch of wine? Who knows?
In any case, I’m sure it’ll be great!
Event and stuff will come later.

I may also be going to the CRACK! festival again this year, since I haven’t been there for a few years and I miss it, but it’s not yet decided so we’ll see if the tour will be extended to include a trip to Rome and Forte Prenestino…

I recently made an Arg Kanin comic about/against Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza for an exhibition by Seriefraämjandet, also at Rum för Serier. I’m trying to get it published somewhere as well, but nothing confirmed yet. I’m not even sure exactly when the exhibition will be shown, just that it’ll happen soon, but I’ll post some info on that when I know more.

And I was invited to have some art in the exhibition at Balkanska Smotra Mladih Strip Autora (The Balkans Festival of Young Comics Creators) (June 28-30), so that’s another place where I’ll be showing some Piracy works.

RELEASE EVENT: Piracy is Liberation 012 & Vårdfällan

It’s finally out!

On February 25 at 18-21 (or whenever we’re finished), at Poeten på hörnet (Södra Förstadsgatan 65B, Malmö), CBK, Wormgod and Tusen Serier invite you to a one day release event for Piracy is Liberation 012: Outer Enemy & Vårdfällan! A double book release with exhibition and book talks!

You can read about both books here.

There will be a small exhibition of prints from Piracy is Liberation. There will be wine. The books will be presented, with a reading from Vårdfällan. The books will be there, the authors will be signing, it’ll be great!
Welcome!

Both books are available for order now, from Hybriden and other places (Adlibris, Bokus, etc).

ORDER Piracy is Liberation 012: Outer Enemy
ORDER Vårdfällan

Piracy 012 is something I’ve been working on for the last year or so. It ended up as a 212 page examination of a City gearing up for war. It’s the 12th book of the series but don’t worry if you haven’t read the first 11. There’s a story so far section, and the entire series is also available from Hybriden.

Vårdfällan was written by Raquel Lozano, with cover and editing by me. Set in Malmö, it’s a scathing depiction of life as a worker in the health care business.

Here are a couple of sample pages from Piracy, which may or may not be part of the exhibition:

It’s getting harder and harder to be visible in social media, so feel free to help us by inviting anyone you know who might be interested! Thanks!

Death to 2016…

2016 ends and it’s time for a summation. I could comment on the new migration laws, on the ongoing/invigorated persecution of undocumented as well as beggars, the seeming rise of general stupidity, the steady decline of hope as species are going extinct at a rate we haven’t seen since the last ice age, various mad-people in power, abuses perpetrated by various states etc etc (I could also talk about celebrity deaths but why?). But I’m probably going to keep this personal and up-beat(?).

So here are some things I made/was involved in during the year. Mostly unpaid work as usual, which I’m getting increasingly tired of, but what are you going to do? Up-beat, was it? Right. Ok. This is me when I’m unemployed:

COMICS:
The Troll actually came out in the end of 2015, but it was still new when this year started, and it was also my only solo book, so I still feel that it counts.
I had some other plans for upcoming solo books, but none of them have turned into reality. Yet…

Publication-wise when it comes to my own comics, this has been more of an anthology year, with some comics being published in several places:
Viral was drawn in 2015 but published this year in CBAvol30.
Medication, published in CBAvol35: BLEED, Komikaze #42 (web) and #15 (paper) and possibly Alkom’x #9
Idle hands & recreation in CBAvol34: Re: Creation and idleness and possibly Alkom’x #9
Fragments will be in CBAvol37 and possibly Alkom’x #9
Arg Kanin om Samma gamla visa in Asylkalendern 2017.

I sent some of these stories to some other places as well so they may turn up in more places in the future…

ASSOCIATIONS:
Some big steps forward were taken for both Tusen Serier and CBK. Both associations broke some ties with the Swedish Comics Association this year, which feels nice for various reasons that shall remain untold for now. It meant that CBK left the Comics Centre in the Mazetti building where we had been since 2005. Tusen Serier also finished the last project period that was run through the Comics Association. Both of these things lead up to both groups moving together and starting our new exhibition/store/studio/library/storage space Hybriden. We officially opened in March but it definitely feels like we’ve been there for more than a year… The new space also brought a brand-new webshop with it into existence.

CBK also started to get its shit together with the release of CBAvol30: A new hope, which was the first volume made/compiled completely by the new editorial crew. We also published our last graphic novel issue, CBAvol33: Repeat Offenders by Julia Scott, and 3 more anthologies.

FESTIVALS:
There was of course the AltCom 2016 festival, themed WORK. In many ways it felt like it was the best AltCom so far. We managed to create our own pocket universe during those few days in the end of July.

Also visited some other festivals/events (not as many as planned, but enough):
SIS, CRACK!, Oulu art night, Novo Doba, Örebro.

EXHIBITIONS:
–Vasta-Aine was an exhibition at the Oulu Comics Centre, featuring 3 of my recent comics, Medication, Fragments and Happiness.
-I had an exhibition at the CUK Imago in Belgrade during Novo Doba, with some of my old Wormgod prints and some original paintings.
-And, also during Novo Doba, I painted a mural at the Zemun-based cultural centre Matrijaršija.
-The BLEED group exhibition at Hybriden, organized by CBK and Kinga Dukaj, was the coolest exhibition I’ve been a part of for a long while. I made three paintings for this exhibition that took place in the midst of a seriel killer’s murder scene, walls and ceiling covered with plastic sheets, blood (most of it fake) spattered everywhere, special music by Feberdröm…

MORE BOOKS:
Tusen Serier released a batch of new books this year:
Fem historier om prostituerande by Amalia Alvarez
Myling by Amanda Casanellas & Yossra El Said
Mapuche by Jorge Varas Varilla
Void by Susanne Johansson (published in cooperation with Wormgod)
Cool Cykel by Tanja Komadina

THE ANGERED THING:
In November I took over from Amanda Casanellas who was there in October as the Tusen Serier residence artist at Konstepidemin in Gothenburg, a special residency that they had in cooperation with Blå Stället in Angered. During one month I could (mostly) concentrate on one thing instead of a hundred, which was probably quite healthy. I took some breaks to be at the BLEED exhibition and the Örebro festival, but still managed to draw 55 pages based on Amanda’s ideas, which were based on stories from Angered. Urban legends, folk tales, local mythology which we will work into a story to be published at some point during 2017…

LIKE TEARS IN RAIN:
There were probably some more things that might be worth mentioning, some short comics, illustrations, book covers, maybe some project or other, but I simply can’t remember everything and I’m too lazy to look it up.

So I’m going to leave you with a (surprisingly long) list of stuff I’ve watched/played/read in the sessions of downtime squeezed in between all the rest. It’s not all from this year, because only idiots think that there’s no past. And yes, these are just from the top of my head, things I recommend that happened to not slip my mind:

BOOKS:
Woman on the edge of time by Marge Piercy | The Dispossessed by Ursula K LeGuin

Yeah, regular books take me a long time, so 2 in one year is unusually good.

LONG LIVE THE NEW FLESH:
Hope you found something interesting that you might have otherwise missed in these lists, and enjoy the last few hours of the year…

Exhibition @ Novo Doba 2016 + Myling @ Hybriden

I’m having an exhibition at CUK Imago in Beograd, Friday Sep 23, starting at 19!

As far as I understand, there will also be a couple of other exhibitions (Great Libertine Comics, Unobserved) at the same place, and also live music (Feberdröm, Nike Eyes).

It’s all part, of course, of the NOVO DOBA festival.

It’ll be a mix of prints, mostly Wormgod stuff, and a painting or two. And my books will be there, we’ll all be drunk, it’ll be great!

newagerun

Also, don’t miss the Myling exhibition this Friday (Sep 16, 18-22) at Hybriden. Original drawings by Yossra El Said, Ida Mårdhed will read from Amanda Casanellas‘ short story, we’ll all be drunk, it’ll be great!

Vasta-aine

So my medicine-themed(?) exhibition Vasta-aine is going on right now and during all of August at the Oulun Sarjakuvakeskus (Oulu Comics Centre) in Oulu, Finland. I’ll be present there during next week, especially on the 18th, with books etc.

Here are some samples. I took the first two pages of each of the three comics that are included in the exhibition.

Fragments (will be published in Alkom’X #9 & (probably) CBAvol36):

Medication (published in Komikaze #42, will be published in CBAvol35 & Alkom’X #9):

Happiness (published in Workburger & AltCom 2016 WORK anthology):

vasta-aine-poster