Category: Work

Sannolikhetsdrift

OUT NOW!

Sannolikhetsdrift
By Mattias Elftorp
2025 April
24 pages.
(also available in English as Probability Drive from Wormgod)

FRAMTIDENS UTOPI har en besättning på tre: Astrid, Isak och Katten, var och en med sina hemligheter. På sin väg mot människokolonin på Nya Paradiset får de problem. De har fått stopp i sin sannolikhetsdrivna Schrödingerianska osäkerhetsmotor och de har viktig last som måste nå kolonin.
De kan bli tvungna att öppna lådan…

AVAILABLE NOW at HYBRIDEN!

About the process behind the book:
Sannolikhetsdrift/Probablilty Drive is a space operette in comics form, also published in English in CBA vol 64. It was made to connect to a guitar body I painted for Ruokangas Guitars and their Art Infused Collection. Elements from the painting were used in the comic, and the story itself evolved due to that collaboration.

I enjoy taking scientific concepts and seeing what can happen if you stretch them and twist them around a bit. This comic was inspired by a few different sources, such as Sven Linqvist‘s Utrota Varenda Jävel (Exterminate All the Brutes) and Ursula K LeGuin‘s The Word for World is Forest. Both books deal with subjects of racism, colonialism and genocide. That felt like a logical backdrop for this story of space colonisation. And of course there’s my complete bastardization of the Schrödinger’s cat parable and the related theories of probability/uncertainty.

It’s also funny that this is one of the few times I (or CBK for that matter) publish anything in Swedish, even though it is my native tongue, and it’s something as un-Swedish as a sci fi story…

Anyway, here are a couple of SAMPLE PAGES:

 

New prints (Brand & Galago)

I have new prints for sale!

Sizes vary from ca A3 to 110cm height.

The zombie images, by me and Susanne Johansson, were originally made for the exhibition Wormgod: ZOMBIES at AltCom 2010

I recently remastered and color-separated them to be published in Brand #1.2025, so that’s the version I used for these prints, though they don’t look at all like they did in the actual magazine.

And then there’s The Sun, a comic I made a long time ago for a publication where it wasn’t used, then I published it myself in A Subtle Fuck You v01, re-arranged it for a 6-page version in CBA vol 17 and now re-arranged it again as 7 pages with a Swedish title for its most recent reincarnation in Galago #166.

It’s a compact love story about fucking around and finding out.

All these prints (and more) are available at Hybriden.

Brand new (old) zombies

I recently remastered some of mine and Susanne Johansson’s zombie paintings for the upcoming issue of Brand!

Back in 2010, one of the early Wormgod exhibitions was called ZOMBIES. These paintings were put up along the walls so visitors went into a landscape in the dark with flashlights, we had a smoke machine, it was great!

Afterwards, we turned it into a comic in Dystopia #10, and some of them were used as illustrations in Brand’s special pamphlet called Life in Limbo, with a text by Turbulence. One of the writers of that text, Keir Milburn, is being interviewed in Brand #1/2025, so they wanted to use the same images again. In the end, I used some other pictures and reworked them for the 3-color format that Brand uses these days.

Subscribe to Brand, Sweden’s oldest anarchist magazine.

And here are the zombies:

CBA vol 66|67 behind the scenes

CBA vol 66|67 is officially out today!

Go to CBK to see sample images from this 144 page issue where I was main editor and also made a comic, wrote a text with illustrations and did the cover. You can get it at Hybriden, where all the money goes directly to CBK but you have to pay for shipping. If you prefer other alternatives, there is a list in the end of the samples blogpost at CBK. Here are a few extra samples of my contributions.

The comic is called The 5D Weave Theory of Consciousness and is kind of a mash-up/remix of dialogue from The Troll with images from Piracy is Liberation 013 and some other sources. I made it originally for the KOLAŻ issue (CBA vol 65), but Kinga chose to use another collage comic of mine for that, so we included it in this issue instead.

I figured that not a lot of people have read The Troll, and I liked the theory I put forth there about how consciousness works, so I might as well re-use it. It also made sense for the concept to use a mix of images from different comics to go with the dialogue. Is this something I believe in, as a serious solution to the mystery of the mind? Not exactly in a scientific sense, but philosophically I think it kind of makes sense. You’ll have to judge for yourself if you read it:



In CBA vol 60: STORIES, I wrote a text titled Stories, myths and other narratives, where I talked a bit about stories as escapism, as a way to build community, and as the basis of religions (and a bit about religions as fandoms). Also about how political movements have their myths, especially the ones preoccupied with the myth of national identity.

So for this issue I wrote kind of a sequel, about Lost stories. How some old stories can appear new, how genocides can murder not only people but their stories, as well as how some pieces of information and media can get lost in the current whirlpool of algorithms and the conflict/interchange between streaming services and file-sharing. And about how current and colonial viewpoints can distort the view of history and “other” cultures, respectively.

Maybe I’ll figure out a way to turn it into a tied-together text trilogy in a text for the nect STORIES issue of CBA?

I also wrote an alternative version of my introduction, written from the perspective of an AI text generator. See if you can spot the difference:

In turn, we tell stories to try out ideas, to vent frustrations, to share thoughts and experiences, to explore concepts and actions we couldn’t or wouldn’t do in real life, sometimes just to see if we can get away with it. We experiment with unreliable narrators, shifting perspectives, autobiography or pure fantasies. Sometimes these stories simply come to us, whirl around in the back of our minds until they just need to be let out into the world.

vs

And in turn, we tell stories to try to emulate how people write, striving to represent how people normally go about creating a believable text, often to create something that will make people more susceptible to our marketing. If the reader can recognize what they’re used to liking, we can tap into the nostalgia factor and that means it’s a good text.

What I did last year(s)

It’s been a while since I made one of these, so instead of showing off what I did in 2024, this is more of a highlights from the last few years. That’s also a bit more representative for how I experience time, since a lot of it flows together into the category of “I guess this happened pretty recently”…

So, among the comics I made pretty recently, let’s start with the books:

Piracy is Liberation 012: Outer Enemy (graphic novel) (2022) & Piracy is Liberation 013: Missile Crisis (graphic novel) (2024)


The first two new Piracy is Liberation books since book 011 which came in 2012. I still consider this series my main work and hopwfully I’ll be able to finish this new trilogy in the near future. All I need is time and a bit of money…

Arg Kanin om ett folkmord / Angry Animal about a genocide (zine) (2024)

Originally made for the exhibition Rum för frihet, in protest against Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. You can read the whole comic here.

Sannolikhetsdrift (graphic novella) / Probability Drive: a space operette (zine) (2024)

Made for a collaboration with Ruokangas Guitars, also published in English in CBAvol64 and in Swedish in Portal #9.

Polisen|Vara Svensk (zine) (2022)

This is the zine version of two chapters from the book Jag & min Pappa & Zlatan / Me & my Daddy & Zlatan that I thought worked well together as sort of a summary of how the Swedish migration policies can affect people.

Other comics I made, for various contexts:

Sten -Asylkalendern 2025, originally made as Rock, for the performance Music on top as a thought @ Oulu comics festival 2023
Arg Kanin (har en del att säga) om Yttrandefriheten -exhibition at Seriefest i Väst 2024
Arg Kanin om Angiverisamhällets Baksidor -Angiverisamhällets Baksidor (exhibition)
Meanwhile (falling apart) -CBA vol 65
Until Death -CBA vol 62|63, excerpt from Piracy is Liberation 013
I Förhörsrummet -Portal #1/2023, also in English as Interrogation -CBA vol 58. Excerpt from Piracy is Liberation 012
Arg Kanin om kulturkanon -Brand #1/2023, originally made for (Anti)rasism (exhibition)
Arg Kanin om Drömmar -Asylkalendern 2023
Arg Kanin om NATO 2022 -Tecknaruppropet mot kärnvapen och Nato
Outside -CBA vol 56|57
Cocoon of Circular Horror -CBA vol 54|55

I also published a newspeak dictionary, first in English in CBAvol58, then a Swedish version at Magasinet Konkret. They’ve announced a book version, which will come out as soon as they have enough money to print it (hopefully soon)…

Also, belonging to December of 2024, but delays and will be available soon: CBAvol66|67, of which I was the main editor and also made a comic, some texts, illustrations and the cover:

The 5D Weave Theory of Consciousness

Other volumes of CBA I’ve been main editor and cover artist for:


I’ve also been in a bunch of exhibitions, but I won’t list them here. There’s a new section on my website for that, so go there and check it out.

I’ll tie this whole thing together with some various illustrations and a book cover:


CBAvol60
CBAvol60
CBAvol54|55

There you go! I hope you enjoyed this list. I think I make these mostly for myself, to better be able to remember what I’ve been up to…

Hope the new year will be kinder to us all!

And also: don’t miss the winter SALE at Hybriden! It last until this Tuseday…

Asylkalendern 2025

I have a comic in next year’s Asylkalendern, the calendar sold by Asylgruppen i Malmö as a way for them to raise money for helping asylum seekers who are in hiding in Sweden.

There’s ordering info at their instagram.
If you’re like me and don’t like to use Instagram, here’s the short version:
Send them an email (asylkalendern @ gmail . com) with your name, address and how many you want of each version. There are 2 calendars, a pocket version (the one with my comic) and a wall version, so let them know which one you want (150:- each). Ask them for the payment info.

I originally made the comic for a music performance collaboration at the Oulu comics festival, and it was also in Fantastikbokklubbens julkalender last year, but I thought it’d fit here as well, and this is the first paper publication in Swedish. A short, kind of autobiographical rumination…

En Rak Vänster

I wrote a review for Magasinet Konkret of a really bad, right-wing version of a “humorous” dictionary.

Det är en stor dos högerretorik som först måste köpas angående denna breda uppsättning av halmgubbar innan man kan uppskatta de försök till humor som presenteras i den aktuella boken.
(…)
Jag hade kunnat gå in och sågat ord för ord i listan, förklarat vilken sunkig världsbild humorn bygger på och analysera varför de misslyckas som skämt, men det känns inte värt besväret.

I’d much rather recommend some other dictionaries, in the vein of Ambrose Bierce‘s The Devil’s Dictionary, like CrimethInc‘s Contradictionary, the recurring word lists in Brand or my own Nyspråksordlistan for that matter. You can find the first version of mine in English in CBA vol 58 or a slightly different version in Swedish at Magasinet Konkret (it may also be published in book form at some point).

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.