Current exhibitions update

So, starting tomorrow, I’m in 3 different exhibitions in Malmö simultaneously:

The first one, Tusen Serier’s Angiverisamhällets Baksidor, was just posted so you can read all the comics in their entirety at the Tusen Serier website, so I recommend you go do that, especially if you can’t see the actual exhibition at Fish tank Gallery/Panora in Malmö.

The third one (chronologically), CBK’s KOLAŻ | THE BOX, opens tomorrow (nov 12) at Malmö Stadsbibliotek (we’re going there to put it up basically right after I’ve posted this) between 17-20. It’s the release exhibition for the two lates issues of CBA. You can read more about it at the CBK site, and also order the books: CBAvol64 & CBAvol65.

And the second one, which started a few weeks ago and will go on a while longer, I believe, is at Rum för Serier, where I’m spotlighted as comic artist of the month.


I also just got confirmation that I will have a comic in the new Asylkalendern and the upcoming issue of Portal, but more on those later…

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.

My books (the only 30 books you need?)

The new issue of CBA is out, where I made the cover and a comic and was main editor. It looks very good in print, if I may say so myself (more about it at the CBK site). I also have a short comic in the next issue, which will also be out soon (Nov 25, with a few sneaky pre-release appearances).

And since we’re talking new releases, maybe it’s time to take stock of the older ones, so I took them out of my shelf and had a little self-celebratory photo session. Remember when Marie Kondo said you only need 30 books? Well, these could be 175 of them (more or less)…

Starting with the main thing: Piracy is Liberation in its various editions, collections and bonus zines:

Other books I’ve written and drawn or, in a few cases, written for someone else to draw, or made as collaborations:

A bunch of smaller scale publications and/or recent(-ish) zines:

Going on with some loose mix of theme/chronology, here’s the early issues of C’est Bon, with some side publications.

Continuing with the early issues after we turned the zine C’est Bon into the international anthology C’est Bon Anthology, and the restart when we got US distribution and started calling them volumes:

More volumes av CBA:

So far I’ve only included issues of CBA where I’m participating with comics, so here are those where I was just part of the editorial crew:

Same category, editorial only but (mostly) for Tusen Serier, though in some cases that includes translations and I also made the over-all design for almost all of these:

As you may have noticed if you looked closely enough at the CBA pics, there was a period when I wasn’t as involved (vols 8-27). It was during that time I started Wormgod and Tusen Serier with other collaborators, and I also edited and sometimes participated in a series called Dystopia:

It was also during that time I started doing the bi-annual AltCom festival, with these accompanying anthologies, until the pandemic put a temporary(?) but long-lasting stop to such social events:

Going back to CBA for an instant, these are the issues where I was main editor. We started doing that starting with vol 35 if I remember right, since it turned out our tastes differed too much within the group. So instead of staying in a situation where someone would always be a little unhappy with the selection (what was included or what was excluded), now we’d take turns setting the theme and having final say about the contents. I think it’s worked pretty well and it’s still how we do it (vol 64 should have been in this pic as well, but it wasn’t out yet when I took the photos). I didn’t make comics for all of these, but I made the covers, except the first one which is a drawing by Radovan Popović, printed only in spot gloss lamination:

Speaking of covers, here are some book covers I’ve made for books I didn’t have much else to do with (except I made a bunch of interior illustrations for two of them and edited one):

And for this trilogy, my main involvement was doing the design:

…in contrast to the following anthologies from different countries, where I only participated with comics (or illustrations, in three or four of them):

This list isn’t 100% complete since I didn’t includes magazines, older zines etc, but other than some things like that, this is pretty much it… I have some more, still uncomfirmed, possible publications that may come out before this year is over, so check this space for more news in the near future.

Oh, and if you’re interested, you can get most of these at Hybriden.

Seriefest 2023

This weekend (Sep 2-3) it’s Seriefest in Malmö (in Ridhuset, Folkts Park).

We’ll be there with a selection of books, along with Tusen Serier/Wormgod/Hybriden (the policy is to only sell things made by creators who is present. Luckily, Mattias Elftorp will be there and he’s been involved in lots of books)…

There will also be 2 Hybriden-related items in the program:

Tusen Serier: Jorge Varas Varilla
(Saturday 1630-1650)
Jorge Varas Varilla from Tusen Serier talks about his career as a satire illustrator and how graphic humor was used as a tool for wishing for social change in the 1960s Chile. He tells about Allende’s government, about the military coup and also about his own arrest and exile.
www.varilla.se

CBK/Wormgod: Mattias Elftorp
(Sunday 1300-1320)
Talk with Mattias Elftorp about the international comics anthology CBA and about the cyberpunk postapocalypse of his Piracy is Liberation. War mania in a future where Capitalism is the only religion.
www.elftorp.com

See you there!

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!

 

This Saturday: (Anti)rasism exhibition!

I’m part of (and organizing) an exhibition this Saturday!

Tusen Serier presents:
(ANTI)RACISM
An exhibition with comics about racism.

Place: Fish Tank Gallery / Biograf Panora (Friisgatan 19D, Malmö).
Opening: Jan 21, from 18 until the start of the last movie for the evening.
The exhibition lasts until Feb 19.

Long ago, European countries propagated the notion of white supremacy, of how other races would inevitably perish to make room for the Western European peoples. Today, race is mostly not talked about in that way, but the same notions live on and thrive in many circles, even if expressed in other ways. There is talk of culture, religion and criminality, but there is always an implied image of who has an obvious right to a space and who must always justify their existence, be grateful, obedient and assimilated. Racism is not just about how we look at each other on the streets or at work, but also about how our lives are concretely affected by legislation around migration, discrimination, behavior and culture.

In this exhibition, we showcase comics that look at the phenomenon of racism from different angles. Personal experiences are mixed with theoretical reasoning and visual interpretations.

Participating artists: Ana Biscaia | Julia Nascimento | Felipe Kolb Bernardes | Bekim Gaši & Mauritz Tistelö | Jorge Varas Varilla | Mattias Elftorp

During the opening, you’ll be able to find our latest books, such as Vårdfällan (Raquel Lozano), Mapuche (Jorge Varas Varilla – new 4-language edition!) and Fem Papperslösa Kvinnors Historier (Amalia Alvarez – third edition!) from Tusen Serier, latest issues of CBA, from CBK, and my new Piracy is Liberation 012: Outer Enemy (not officially released until Feb 15)…

The exhibition is organized by Tusen Serier in cooperation with Fish Tank Gallery / Biograf Panora, with support from Malmö Kulturnämnd.

Facebook event

Here’s a sneak peak at my contribution, another Angry Animal story (at some point I’ll probably show the whole thing here, with translation):  

To be continued at the exhibition…

PRE-RELEASE: Piracy is Liberation 012 & Vårdfällan

PRE-RELEASE of 2 new books from Tusen Serier and CBK/Wormgod! These books are only available at Hybriden until Jan 1, 2023. After that they will be taken down from the site until the official release in early 2023 (Jan/Feb)!!!
So take this chance to be among the first to get Piracy is Liberation 012: Outer Enemy and Vårdfällan (Raquel Lozano)!

Piracy is Liberation 012: Outer Enemy by Mattias Elftorp

Terror strikes the City, and Pirate seems to be the terrorist! Or is this finally the start of the revolution? As the City is gearing up for war, two girls walk its streets looking for action and trying to figure out what actually happened. How will our anarchist heroes deal with this situation as the equivalent to nationalist tendencies grip the population? What happens in a City where war has been an unknown concept, as its billboards are filling up with WANTED posters and military propaganda and the army recruitment centers are opening up for business? Who is the enemy?

10 year in the making, this 12th book in the Piracy is Liberation series finally takes us back to the City for 212 pages of a brand new story about a society on the brink of war.

Language: English
Page count: 212
Book type: graphic novel, softcover
Price: 150:- sek
ORDER (contact CBK about review copies!)


Vårdfällan by Raquel Lozano

Alejandra vill egentligen wallraffa, men efter en tids uppehåll är hon nu tillbaka som vårdbiträde inom hemtjänsten. För att klara av sin vardag med duschar, blöjbyten och läggningar varvar hon jobbet med en ny hobby, även om den kanske inte är helt laglig.

Vårdfällan is Raquel Lozano’s debut novel. With Malmö as backdrop, she depicts the life of a young worker, and her struggle to survive an increasingly cold work climate.

Language: Swedish
Page count: 176
Book type: novel, pocket/softcover
Price: 100:- sek
ORDER (contact Tusen Serier about review copies!)


Also new in the webshop:

CBA vol 58: Modern Glossolalia or the Erosion of Meaning (which I edited) and CBA vol 59: Aloneliness (which I only proofread), the latest issues of our international comics anthology!

Mapuche by Jorge Varas Varilla is now available in a new, quadrilingual edition (Mapudungun/Spanish, with subtitles in English/Swedish) (which I translated).

Five Stories About Undocumented Women by Amalia Alvarez has been hard to find for a while, but is now here in a 3rd edition, with new paper stock and still in 3 languages (Spanish/Swedish/English) (which I translated).


Vårdfällan

I made the cover for Vårdfällan, the debut novel by Raquel Lozano, published by Tusen Serier.

The official release will be in early 2023, but it’ll be available in a special pre-release deal at Hybriden already now in December. Stay tuned!

Alejandra vill egentligen wallraffa, men efter en tids uppehåll är hon nu tillbaka som vårdbiträde inom hemtjänsten. För att klara av sin vardag med duschar, blöjbyten och läggningar varvar hon jobbet med en ny hobby, även om den kanske inte är helt laglig.

Vårdfällan är Raquel Lozanos debutroman. Med Malmö som bakgrund skildrar hon en ung arbetares vardag och hennes kamp för att överleva ett allt kallare arbetsklimat.

Nytt zine: Polisen | Vara Svensk

So I made a zine about a month ago to bring to SIS. It’s two chapters from Me & my Daddy & Zlatan. Probably the two chapters which, when juxtaposed together like this, most clearly point out a certain kind of Swedish self-righteousness and how hollow it can be. It’s a flip zine that stands on its own but also works as a sample of the actual graphic novel.

Polisen|Vara Svensk (The Cops|Being Swedish)
Det här myntet har flera sidor, men oftast är det bara en som syns.
(Translation: This coin has more sides, but most often you can only see one.)

The zine is only available in Swedish for now, but you can get the book in either English of Swedish, all available in the Hybriden webshop:
Polisen|Vara Svensk (the zine)
Me & my Daddy & Zlatan (English)
Jag & min Pappa & Zlatan (Swedish)

Polisen|Vara Svensk is (of course) made at Fanzineverkstaden, published by Tusen Serier.

The New Frontier

Today, the new Tusen Serier exhibition opens at Hybriden.

It’s a sci fi project about border politics that also touches on other subjects. It was started by Open Art Week as a collaboration between Tunisian and Italian comic creators, as the first of (so far) two such exhibitions. We got the opportunity to join and expand upon their concept with artists from the network connected to Tusen Serier and Hybriden.

The showcased artists in the Tusen Serier edition are:
Elida Maiques
Korin(a) Hunjak
Julia Nascimento
Felipe Kolb Bernardes
Leviathan
Ana Biscaia
Amalia Alvarez

and me

You can see the exhibition now at hybriden.se

It’s been some work with coordination, programming etc, but it feels real good to be part of this project.

Here are a few panels from my contribution:

To be continued in the exhibition…


La nuova frontiera (The new frontier) was initiated and produced by OPEN ART WEEK.
In partnership with: Biblioteca delle Nuvole (IT), Lab619 (TN), Fokus Illustration (CH) Tusen Serier (SE), Hybriden (SE).
Artistic coordination: Claudio Ferracci and Abir Gasmi.
The Tusen Serier edition of The new frontier is presented with support from Malmö Kulturnämnd.


Also, here’s the poster I made…