The theme for next week’s Novo Doba festival is Šta nam rade (means, more or less, “what they are doing to us”). Here’s the first page of what I did for the festival anthology.
I called my submission These fucked-up things they are doing to us… (click image for bigger size):
Trolls seem to be a recurring theme nowadays, but these fuckers are completely different from the ones in The Troll…
I got asked by Éric Ferrier to make something for his next issue of KIPsek. The theme was “back to earth”, as opposed to last issue’s “scientificoniricofantastique”.
So of course I had to do the sci fi interpretation of the theme… The thing is also that he asked me to do it as a lino cut, which is not exactly new to me but I am completely untrained.
We’ll see if it makes it all the way into the book…
Here’s a few samples in any case:
My favourite parts are the ones where the paint didn’t really take and there are these nice mistake textures…
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:
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.
It’s been going on since the 4th, but I haven’t really had time to sit down by my computer until now, so, during July and possibly longer, I’m having an exhibition together with Kinga Dukaj (of CBK & Tusen Serier) at Le Garage L in Forcalcier, France.
After the CRACK! festival, we went there to hang out for a while, set up the exhibition and make a small book together. It’s my first screenprinted/handmade book, and it feels really good to have done it, especially at this great place that is the bookshop/print workshop/exhibition space/etc of Le Garage L.
(Both images made by Kinga)
For the exhibition, I brought mostly my Wormgod stuff but also some new prints. Some of them containing 3D images from The Troll, which I got from the printer just the day before leaving for this small European tour.
More on The Troll later, as there will be some kind of release event in Malmö, we’re just waiting to get the 3D glasses so it can be officially released…
Yeah, I changed it since the last post. Otherwise, most of the info was correct. Most of it…
So what else is up?
Waiting for some Tusen Serier books to come from the printer. They should have been here a month ago, but… Anyway, I’ve seen two of them already and they look really nice. When they arrive there will be exhibitions! Hopefully as nice as the one we had last weekend (CBK/Allan Haverholm @ Tusen Serier).
I just started writing an application to get money to go to the Novo Doba festival in September. It’s always “fun” to write these things.
I need to find the time to make some kind of art for the exhibitions at CRACK! (Wormgod/Tusen Serier/CBK) in June and Le Garage L (me and Kinga Dukaj) in July. And to finish my story for CBA vol 30, which I’ve been reworking over and over and never seem to be really happy with for some reason.
And also writing a couple of whateverthehellyoucallthem, you know, the things you write after someone gave you money to tell them that you did al the things they gave you money for. I do take this very seriously, I just can’t think of the word for it in English. I report every month to my “boss”, but I still have to write these things myself for some reason. Maybe you really have to be me to know what I’m doing. As if that would help.
I also should really eat something and then go to bed.
Goodnight.
Yesterday I finished the cover illustration for my new book, The Troll, which is what I’ve been working on outside of my other projects these last few months. It’s going to be published by Komika förlag, hopefully in time for CRACK! festival (June 25-28).
Not exactly sure how to describe the thing yet, but it has some elements of family drama, some queerness and an exploration of a fifth dimension concept (which, when I think about it, is kind of compatible with Butlerian queer theory). Mostly it’s been a lot of fun working on it.
It’s an expansion of a 24h comic I made back in 2005 (published in a smaller format by Komika in 2008), that I added 3 new chapters to, which makes it a bit lonjger than 100 pages in total. So it’s been 10 years in the making, as they say.
And it’s partially in 3D (old school 3D glasses will be included), so if you have a pair of 3D glasses, put them on and take another look at the cover!
Cover I made for the book Slutsnackat, edited by Frances Tuuloskorpi.
It’s the third part of a series of anthologies about work-related conflicts.
Here’s the (Swedish) back cover text:
– Det spelar ingen roll om jag säger ifrån på jobbet.
Det är ofta sant. Men testa att byta ut jag mot vi. Testa att byta ut jag mot alla. Då kan det bli folkrörelse i stället för gnäll. Som här i Slutsnackat där brevbärare och tågvärdar berättar om hur de kommer fram till att sätta stopp för övertidsarbete. Sopgubbar följer regler till punkt och pricka så att chefen sliter sitt hår. Sjuksköterskestudenter i Inte under 24000-rörelsen förvandlar anställningsintervjuer till lönekamp. Personliga assistenter sätter ner foten för att få månadslön. Sjuksköterskor säger upp sig kollektivt inför hotande försämringar. Deltidare och visstidare tar täten i striden för ett hotat helgtillägg. Timanställda tackar nej till kortare arbetspass. Bemanningsanställda säger Solidarnosc! Här finner du också en urskruvad saftblandare, tio kilo gömd blandfärs, nästan en ockupation, en uppviglande tomte och den stora kjolstriden.
Read more about it at Folkrörelselinjen.
From Kunst Kabinet 451:
The new issue of ner0blio black zine is ready!
ner0blio # V – Vampyr –
a5 size, b/w, cover screenprinted gold,
lim ed. 50 copies numbered
Special number featuring a lot of international artists: JULIEN KAFARD -MAXIME TACCARDI – AKAB -NICOLAS KRIZAN – LE NEVRALGIE COSTANTI – MARTA LODOLA – CORINA PACURAR – REIJO KARKAINEN – SOFIA FERREIRA – LE CRABE – ROBIN WIBERG – NATHALIE COHEN – ZIGENDEMONIC – KINGA DUCAJ – PAOLA VERDE – SHALTMIRA – SERHIY KRYKUN – RICALETTO – CLOPINE MALAUSSENE – MATTIAS ELFTORP – ZEKE – RAC- TIMOLEUM B.
Release party TONIGHT (but far from where I am right now so I won’t be there) at Urban Strasse 88, Berlin Hermannplatz…
My contributions (I haven’t seen the book myself so I don’t know if they used both or just one):
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…
