Tusen Serier – Page 4 – A Sbtl Fakkya

The coming of The Hybrid

We’re finally ready to open The Hybrid, the new space we’ve been building since the beginning of the year!

The Hybrid is Malmö’s new comics hang-out! A space for exhibitions and workshops, an artists’ studio and comic shop/library, open for anyone (if not necessarily at all times). Here, you will be able to see exhibitions of comics you’ve never heard of, by recognized and unknown comic creators. Join workshops to learn how to draw comics or experiment with new forms of storytelling. In our shop you will find books from CBK, Tusen Serier, Wormgod and exquisitely selected international comics found at various festivals in different countries. We also have a comics library section where you with zines, anthologies and graphic novels where you can sit and read in our sofas.

WHAT: Opening/exhibition/release/workshop
WHERE: Hybriden @ Mitt Möllan, Claesgatan 8, Malmö
WHEN: Friday, March 11, 16-22

invigningeventbild2

EXHIBITION
The comics in the international comics anthology CBA have been called “supposedly poetical”. They have also been called “witty, challenging and eye-opening”. Judge for yourself when the all-new editorial crew show their own comics and artworks.
Same goes for Tusen Serier, where the inner circle shows their own works along with samples from the upcoming titles.
Artists: Amanda Casanellas, Christina Cromnow, Henrik Rogowski, Kinga Dukaj, Luddvig Melin, Mattias Elftorp, Oskar Aspman, Stefan Petrini, Steve Nyberg, Susanne Johansson, Shko Askari, Amalia Alvarez, Tanja Komadina, Jorge Varas Varilla, and Yossra El Said.

RELEASE: CBA vol 30: A NEW HOPE
The members of the new crew have made the comics in CBA vol 30: A NEW HOPE, to signal a kind of new beginning for the series, and because we wanted to find out what we’re actually doing. Anything from angst-ridden animals to a psychosomatic virus to a postapocalyptic Malmö and fragments of lego. You have to see for yourself what all this means in the new issue…

JAM COMIC WORKSHOP
Between 16-19 you can join a jam comic workshop where we collectively create a story on the theme of WHATEVER. No pressure, we’re just drawing togehter because it’s fun! No experience required, just bring a bit of imagination!

COMICS!
And of course, all our books will be available, as well as a few extra titles, in the bookstore section.

We’re going until 22 or when we fall asleep/run out of wine!

www.hybriden.tk
www.tusenserier.com
www.cbkcomics.com

+ You will also find us at the SciFi-mässan (Malmö) this weekend, March 5-6, where CBK & Tusen Serier share a table with Wormgod and the comics course of Malmö Högskola!

+ Also do not miss the ongoing (until Monday, March 7) special offer at our new webshop!

WELCOME!

invigningeventbild

Second Christmas!

Let’s celebrating the birth of the CBK web-shop!

You can find most of my books at the site, and a whole lot of other stuff.

From the site:

Once upon a time, there was a small group of comic artists with a big dream. 15 years later the shop was finally born. We invite you to celebrate this magnificent event, internally known as “Second Christmas.”

2ndXmas

Saunter through our virtual bookshelves, sigh with pleasure upon seeing our works in all their glory and find that not only CBK‘s works are presented. Tusen Serier and Wormgod are our first affiliates that we are proud to represent.

Use coupon code: newcbkshop2016 to get a 20% discount on everything but subscriptions in our new shop.

We love taking orders from you!

Memories of 2016…

As we have seen in The Troll. memories work both backwards and forwards in what we usually see as the linear flow of time.

thetroll-memories

They’re not always exactly corresponding to what actually happens when it actually happens, so bear that in mind when reading these recollections from the future:

SPACE

CBK and Tusen Serier will move into a new space together at Mitt Möllan. It will work as a combined exhibition space and studio, with the possibility for workshops and a store for buying our books, as well as stuff from Wormgod, Ritualen and others that are connected to CBK or Tusen Serier in some way.

BOOKS

Personally, I really really want to get started on the next Piracy is Liberation book. I also have ideas for The Troll 2, but I promised myself I would make another Piracy book first. It’s been far too long…

gdpiracy-vollogo

I wrote the script for a book that is now being drawn by Shko Askari, to be published by Tusen Serier pretty soon, I hope. I have a preliminary title for it, but I’m trying to think of a better one, so I won’t tell you what it is.

I didn’t manage to make the Transgressions 2 book last year, which would have a soundtrack by Brazilian band Anarcho Vomit Noise, but with any luck that could also happen this year.

PUBLISHING

Apart from the Askari book, there are several more books planned from Tusen Serier. Here are a few of them:

Myling by Amanda Casanellas & Yossra El Said:

Five stories about prostituters by Amalia Alvarez:

Void by Susanne Johansson (published as a collaboration between Wormgod & Tusen Serier):

Mapuche – Jordens folk by Jorge Varilla

From CBK, CBA vol 30 already came from the printer but hasn’t been officially released yet, so that will happen when we get the new space up and running:

This is actually the last issue from last year, so there will be 4 more in 2016. But more on those later. We’re right now in the process of finishing the selection for vol 32, which has been a far more complicated process that expected, then there’s a graphic novel issue by Julia Scott (some time around May) and two more anthology issues before the year is over. We’re right now preparing the call for submissions for those books.

I will be the main editor of vol 37, but that’s not until 2018. No hurry…

EXHIBITIONS

The Troll exhibition is still up at the old Tusen Serier place, but it’s not really open for the public any longer…

We also have some other stuff planned for the new place, but it’s all very vague so far, so I can’t say any more about it yet…

I’ve been asked to have an exhibition at the comics centre in Oulu in August. That’s gonna be fun, especially if I’ll be able to go there to see it myself. Tommi Musturi will have an exhibition there at the same time, so that could turn out really nice.

FESTIVALS

So the AltCom festival will happen in August, after all (for a while we thought we would have no budget for it at all, but then we got some so now everything is ok). We will try to figure out the last details in the coming few months, and then there will be some kind of announcement about it.

AltCom2016promo

Not sure yet which other festivals I’m going to, but here’s a preliminary plan for the tour of 2016:

Uppsala Comix
Fumetto
SIS
CRACK!
Helsinki
Novo Doba

Maybe also Å-fest and possibly something else. It all depends on funding, mostly. Anyway, see you there, hopefully!

MORE

Oh, and did I mention that I am currently unemployed? Luckily, there should be no problem with the unemployment insurance, so it’s ok, but I will need to spend some time looking for new paid jobs. Some of the above will come with some money, but most of it is pure creativity and lack of self-preservation skills.

As you may have noticed, I didn’t include any links here, so for more information you can go to www.elftorp.com and find your way to most of what I’ve mentioned here.

Anyway. The future is coming towards us and not all of it is bright. As usual. So let’s just do our best and I’ll see you when it arrives.

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

1000nerd_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.

Storage…

Storage is a comic I made for the AltCom 2012 NO BORDERS anthology.

On page 3, you can see a deportee being strapped to a special chair that is used for transporting “difficult” persons by plane. People who, for some reason, do not want to be forcibly deported, even though the Swedish authorities have declared that it is correct, almost that it is done with the best interests for the person in mind. Because why would the Swedish authorities do something like that if it wasn’t the right thing to do?

Instructions: If you see someone being taken on the same plane as you against their will, stand up, make a fuss, etc. Get more people to do the same. The plane is not allowed to take off until everyone is seated, and the pilot has the final say. Several deportations have been stopped in this manner. This may give the person more time to appeal again and maybe even get residency. Also, they may not have to be drugged and wake up in another country where they may have no viable prospects for a decent life.

As for the comic, it was inspired by a passage from Fortets Murar, a report from various detentions centers (prisons for asylum seekers/refugees whose only crime was to try to stay within the wrong borders. In Sweden, they are called “storage”) in Europe.

Click images for bigger, more readable, versions:

Fake monnay for CRACK! CAPITALE

The theme for this year’s CRACK! festival is CAPITAL. So the guests will have made fake money. Here’s Wormgod‘s, Tusen Serier‘s and mine:

wormbucks011b

Review: Jag & min Pappa & Zlatan

Review (in Swedish) at Bild & Bubbla of my book Jag & min Pappa & Zlatan, published by Tusen Serier & Wormgod.The book is available in both Swedish and English…

wormgodbook1006zlatan_2ed

Med sin berättelse om Sara ger Elftorp en tankeväckande bild av ett svenskt samhälle präglat av en förtäckt men passionerad strävan efter assimilering. Ett samhälle där svaret ”jag bor i Sverige och vi har fått uppehållstillstånd” så klart inte är tillräckligt för fröken i förberedelseklassen som frågar varför man känner sig som en svensk. Ett samhälle där fröken istället ger luddiga förklaringar till vad svenskhet innebär, förklaringar som bara landar i självgoda plattityder om att Sverige är bra och att svenskar är ordentliga och gör rätt för sig.

(…)

en intim, berörande serieberättelse som skildrar såväl dessa minnen och mardrömmar som Saras nuvarande vardag i ett nytt och – åtminstone på ytan – tryggare land. Som läsare är det svårt att värja sig för den finstämda porträtteringen av det oförstående, utsatta barnet Sara.

2015

So. We’re a couple of months into 2015 and for the moment there’s a lot of different projects that are approaching completion. Here are a few:

TUSEN SERIER
Four books are in the works. In order of probably appearance:

Lillebrors fantastiska mardrömmar
This one is finished. Just waiting for test prints to see that the colors are ok. It’s been a complex process, not without problems, but finally we are at the finishing line. By Meisam Azimi, Aida Ghardagian, Mauritz Tistelö and Bekim Gaši, translated into Farsi, Bosnian and English, this will be the first book to be published under the TUSEN SERIER GRÄNSLAND imprint (even if Destruktörerna was technically the first) for books in the borderlands between comics and illustrated litterature.

Finsmakarna
I finished most of the other work last night, so now I’m working on the translation for this sequel to Destruktörerna from 2013. Written by Rubén Aguilera, with beautiful art by Marco Leal. Another GRÄNSLAND book.

Myling
Yossra El Said is currently adapting Amanda Casanellas‘ short story. Both versions of the story will be included in the book.

Fem prostituerade kvinnors historier
I will soon meet with Amalia Alvarez to see her work so far on her follow-up to Fem papperslösa kvinnors historier.

There are also more coming, but later during the year.

Tusen Stafettserier
This subproject to Tusen Serier is getting closer to be properly launched and finished at more or less the same time. The last workshops will happen during March and then there will be a book + exhibition of jam comics that will tour some Swedish cities during the spring.

WORMGOD
I so wish I had time to start working on Piracy is Liberation vol 03, but it looks like that’s gonna take a while longer. There are also plans for making the first two volumes available in digital form, but that’s probably going to wait some more as well.
On the other hand:

After the ends of the world
This one is being printed as we speak and should be available pretty soon, with an expanded revisiting of the exhibition of the same name from AltCom 2014. Look for it! By me, Susanne Johansson and Heidi Somero, with a soundtrack by Dekoder, Nimam Spregleda, Feberdröm, Knullkraft and Concrete Threat.

THE TROLL
This is a book that was supposed to come out last year, a re-publishing by Komika förlag of an old 24-hour comic of mine. Since it was delayed, we’ve been talking about expanding the story with more pages. I’m aiming at between 48-72 new pages of story. A new beginning and a new ending. Like the original story, this new creature will be heavily inspired by the films of Shinya Tsukamoto and the music of Chu Ishikawa. Probably some more Manga/Anime influences as well. If all goes as planned, it will be released in time for the Stockholm International Comics Festival (SIS).

FESTIVALS
So far, I’ve been to Å-fest in Borgå/Porvoo (Finland) to represent Tusen Serier.
Next one will be Textival in Göteborg in the end of March.
And I guess the next one after that will be SIS in May, but there’s also a book fair(?) in Botkyrka (Stockholm) in April…

C’EST BON KULTUR
I’M BACK IN CBK! After a 5 year absence, I’m back where I started 15 years ago, in an almost completely new editorial crew. So far it’s mostly been about finishing up after the former crew, putting together their last issue (CBA vol 28), where I happen to have a comic (Singularity, which is also published in the Novo Doba 2014 anthology and After the ends of the world. It is being printed right now and will come soon. I’m going to look at some proofs today.
I also made a comic, Viral, for the first anthology issue featuring the new crew: CBA vol 30, coming this fall. I also sent a b/w version of this story to Stripburger, so maybe you’ll see it there first. Maybe…

What else is happening?
Oh yeah, there’s some union-related stuff happening at work (the Comics Association). More on that later, unless it gets resolved.
Also some conflicts at my freelance work, after Sydsvenskan bought Helsingborgs Dagblad. More on that also later unless it gets resolved…

Also coming later: sample art, etc.

Exciting times…

KOMMER SNART: Lillebrors fantastiska mardrömmar

Kommer snart från Tusen Serier:

LILLEBRORS FANTASTISKA MARDRÖMMAR
av Meisam Azimi, Aida Ghardagian, Mauritz Tistelö, Bekim Gaši

– Jag spelar inte teater, det är inte så jag ser det. Jag spelar roller, roller som jag under mitt liv blivit påtvingad.
– Om jag tror på ödet?
– Det som händer kommer att hända.

Denna bok bygger på Mejsams mardrömmar. Hans berättelse byggs ihop med medförfattarnas mardrömmar och blir till en lång färd mot befrielse och uppvaknande.
Vad som från början var ett terapeutiskt arbete har förvandlats till en bok som också är ett möte mellan fyra konstnärer. Ett konstprojekt och samtidigt ett möte mellan det existentiella i, och det samhälle som skapar förutsättningarna för, våra drömmar och mardrömmar.
Drömberättelsen är ett sätt att komma bort från de roller som lagts över oss; papperslösa, medborgare, arbetare, konstnärer.
Ett sätt att fly och förstå våra liv.

Håll ögonen öppna för kommande releasefest med utställning av bilder ur boken.

Lillebrors fantastiska mardrömmar ingår i Tusen Seriers nya underkategori GRÄNSLAND, med böcker som befinner sig i gränslandet mellan serier och illustrerad litteratur.