Christmas is coming…

The Holidays are coming, when we celebrate Capitalism and its Prophit, the Coca Cola-colored Santa Claus who will bring us gifts, bought in the finest stores and prepared by his many sweatshop workers, the elves.

Here are a few suggestions for things to give to your loves ones etc (unless otherwise stated, these are all in English):

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Jag & min Pappa & ZlatanAvailable in Swedish or English

120 sek

By Mattias Elftorp
You can try to hide the ugly face of Sweden by forcing all immigrants to wear masks, but will it work? Sara’s dream is to meet Zlatan, but will her dreams come true or her nightmares?

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The Troll150 sek

By Mattias Elftorp
5D consciousness explained! Claypocalypse! Troll magic! Includes 3D glasses.

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After The Ends Of The World120 sek

By Mattias Elftorp, Susanne Johansson & Heidi Somero
Visions from after the ends of the world.
Includes soundtrack by Comcrete Threat, Knullkraft, Feberdröm, Nimam Spregleda & Dekoder.

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Transgressions120 sek

By Mattias Elftorp & Susanne Johansson
A story about transgressing borders of gender, nations, species and even reality itself.
Includes soundtrack by Feberdröm.

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Piracy is Liberation vol 01: Only Sinners Disobey180 sek

By Mattias Elftorp
Cyberpunk postapocalypse!
Collecting books 001-006. 436 pages!

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Piracy is Liberation vol 02: Download everything180 sek

By Mattias Elftorp
Cyberpunk postapocalypse!
Collecting books 007-011. 336 pages!

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A Subtle Fuck You80 sek

By Mattias Elftorp
Collection of short stories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HOW TO ORDER

You can order these and more using PayPal or bank transfer from www.wormgod.net or from the Swedish web-based bookstores, lika AdLibris, Bokus, etc.

 

 

Release party/exhibition!

On Saturday, December 12, 17-22 @ Tusen Serier, Mitt Möllan (Claesgatan 8, Malmö), there will be a release party with exhibition for my new book, The Troll.

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Introducing the 5d memory complex theory of consciousness! Ten years in the making, this 5-dimensional family drama reaches catastrophic proportions on a planetary scale. What begins as a simple suicide and the accompanying outburst of emotions turns into something completely different. How would you handle finding out that you’re a changeling? The Troll in this story sets out on a journey that will take her further through time and space than she could have imagined. Or could she? After all, her imagination is dark and great… Partially in 3d to enhance your reading experience.
3D glasses included!

Background of the book

Facebook event

The exhibition will present prints and originals (for once!) from the book, and you can also find most of the other things I’ve done, the books from Wormgod, Tusen Serier and CBK of course, but also some other stuff, books I’ve made covers and/or illustrations for, etc. So if you want a complete collection of my works, this is the place to be 😛

And half of what we sell for will go to Kontrapunkt and their work with refugees and Roma in Malmö, so buy all your Christmas gifts here to help a soon-to-be unemployed artist and other people who need it even more…

SPECIAL RELEASE OFFERS:
-Buy The Troll for only 100: (ordinarily 150:-) and you also get a free copy of Piracy is Liberation (book 003 or 009) + a poster (until they run out)!
-Buy two copies and get one Transgressions or After the ends of the world for at 50% off (60:-)!

Also wine, snacks and some kind of music…

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Want a review copy of the book? Send an email to info [at] wormgod [.] net

And remember:

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The story behind The Troll…

If you’re into comics, you may have come across a phenomenon called the 24 hour comic challenge. The rules are that you have to make a comic of 24 pages within 24 hours, from idea to finished story. It’s a great experiment, because after you’ve done it at least once, deadlines seem less intimidating and your self-esteem gets a boost.

I’ve done it a few times, with varying results. There’s a rumor that one time I didnät have time to spend 24h, so instead I made 24 pages in 24 minutes. But I don’t remember and I can’t remember seeing the result. Stress can do that to you.

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Anyway. They usually do it once a year at the Comics school in Malmö, where I took my second year in 2005. I think I was done writing and drawing after 18h, and I spent the rest of the time scanning and doing halftones etc. In the end I think I had one minute to spare or something. The result was The Troll.

I was quite happy with it, so in 2008 I asked Mikke Schirén who was running Komika förlag if he wanted to publish it, which he did. Shortly after it came out, Komika was closed down. So there were a some copies (I think the print run was pretty small, possibly Print on Demand) but it didn’t even make it onto Komika’s website and there was probably no distribution at all. I got a few author’s copies, but since it was a Swedish edition and I mostly do stuff in English, so it  took me a while to get rid of them.

I always liked the story, however. It was heavily inspired by the films of Shinya Tsukamoto and their soundtracks composed by Chu Ishikawa. Tsukamoto is probably best known for the Japanese cyberpunk classic Tetsuo: the Iron man, but his other movies are also really great (best are possibly Tokyo Fist, A Snake of June, Kotoko and I could go on but I won’t). They’ve calmed down in later years, but they still manage to be really intense at the same time. If you’ve seen his Bullet Ballet, you may notice that the gun from that film made an appearance in The Troll.

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So when I heard that Mikke was resurrecting Komika in 2014, I asked him if he’d be interested in republishing the story, and he said yes. So I prepared the files for a bigger size and for two editions, one in Swedish and one in English. And then nothing happened. I think I was waiting for an ISBN or something, until I got tired and thought: While I wait, why don’t I make it longer?

So I added a prequel chapter and planned to make two more chapters after the original story. I had an idea for the prequel, so I started with that, but I didn’t really know what would happen after the original story (which was now chapter 2).

When I made the first 24h story, it felt right to end it with an apocalyptic scenario and a quote paraphrasing Tetsuo, but it made it harder to continue the story afterwards. Then, one night I was watching Star Trek Voyager with Kinga Dukaj. For some reason (this probably happened during a bathroom break, because I kind of remember having a shit) I started thinking about memory. Maybe something in the Star Trek episode reminded me of something from my childhood and got me thinking about how different persons can remember the same event completely differently.

Anyway, I came back and we started talking about memory, and how it works, and how maybe memories differ because they originate in parallel timelines, and we just went on from there. I realised that I should take notes. I also realised that this might be the key to what was going to happen in the two final chapters of The Troll. And it was.
So this book that started out as a regular apocalypse story, with a manga-esque family trauma for a prequel, turned into a philosophical discussion about the nature of human consciousness, largely inspired by various youtube videos about extra dimensions,the multiverse and string theory. And when I decided to introduce a 5-dimensional character and realised that I could make that character in 3D, it got really interesting. There are also some elements about corporate logic and an evil boss and war, but I won’t spoil the ending by talking more about that.

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Yep, this is what the beginning of a script looks like…

I finished the English version first, and got a few copies (Print on Demand) just in time for the CRACK! festival and a visit to Le Garage L in Forcalquier, France. But when I wanted more copies for the festivals of the fall, circumstances prevented Mikke from giving me more than 10 more copies and no 3D glasses. So we came to an agreement, because I’ve also had a job for a while so I had saved some money, that I would publish the English version as a Wormgod book instead. And here we are now, as the books arrived today and I couldn’t be happier about how it finally turned out!

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There will be a release party/exhibition on December 12 at Tusen Serier, and because I could be happier about a lot of things, half of what I sell for at the release will go to Kontrapunkt and their work with refugees and the local Roma people who were thrown out of their camp by the Social Democrats and the City of Malmö.

Facebook event

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It's 3D!!
It’s 3D!!

CBAvol30!

This is going to the printer today, if all goes well:

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First volume of the new era, comics exclusively by the editorial crew! Theme: A NEW HOPE (no relation to any Disney movie franchise).

Some pages from my contribution (Viral):

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Immunology

I feel I should write something about terrorism and the need for levelheadedness in the face of these things. How it’s important to not become paranoid or racist when attacks like the one in Paris happened. How yes, our Western society and it’s media and its people tend to care more about “our own” French people than the ones in Syria or Beirut or any of the other places where atrocities happen, but it’s still about a lot of people being murdered for reasons that we can’t condone or ignore. I would write that what we do about it is important. Because what we want is peace and not more meaningless bloodshed (see now, I’m trying not to sound like some Defence Leaguer so instead I come off like a hippie, and it’s all the terrorist’s fault).

Maybe somethingabout the Swedish terrorist hunt recently and about how they caught the guy who seems to have just gone on with his life like he wasn’t the Most Wanted (which is kind of suspicious), but I don’t have enough facts about it, so I can’t really say a lot. Except that I didn’t suddenly start trusting the police/authorities in general for no reason…

/Edit: Seems that they let the guy go, so I guess he was innocent. Is there still a terrorist running around the country, or was the whole thing a false alarm? Since they knew exactly who to look for, I would lean more towards a false alarm. They had his name and a pixelated photo, yet somehow they couldn’t find him (he lived at the address he had given to the Migration Boeard, with his name on the door, and his Facebook profile was open and available, so they could easily have found a better photo), and when they did get him, he was just going about his everyday business.

Compare this to when they found lots of explosives in a barn belonging to a Sweden Democrat who was obviously up to no good. In that case they didn’t raise any official nation-wide threat levels. And when a wave of fires against refugee accomodations sweep the country (around 30 so far this year), that’s also obviously nothing to take seriously… End edit/

Definitely something hopeful about how now maybe people will be more understanding towards refugees from Syria. Because this thing happened to people “we” can identify with because maybe we’ve been to Paris or at least seen it in some film. Or maybe something bitter about how it doesn’t seem that way because “we” just put up extra passport controls on the border and people seem to go on being stupid and paranoid about it.

I should also write something about the Roma that were evicted from the Sorgenfri camp in Malmö and who have been sleeping outside City Hall since it happened, even though the City has repeatedly stolen (with the help of the parking guards and police) their trailers, mattresses, blankets, clothes. And now it’s snowing. And the politicians (Social Democrats) do nothing except congratulate themselves and exacerbate their situation.

I probably have something to say about the term racism and how it’s lost all meaning to people who say racist things. To them, it’s just an insult, not a word that means anything. I could also reflect on how cartoon characters used to seem overtly simplified when they talked about themselves as “evil”. I would have said that no one would see themselves as evil. But now I hear that in some mainstream(?) circles in Denmark, for example, they talk about “good” people as some kind of bleeding-heart wimps and/or dangerous enemies of society (because they try to avoid being or acting like racists/fascists). Which I guess means that they consider themselves evil?

Basically, I would talk about how a lot of things are turning more and more to shit.

However, I’ve heard that people prefer to hear good news, so I’ll settle for showing you the comic I got the honorary award for at the Oulu Comics Festival a while ago (it was included in their Hunger of Horror anthology where they spelled my name wrong but who cares?). It’s probably going to turn up in CBA at some point as well, but I’ll show you the whole thing now anyway (more news later about CBA and also about Myling that got 3rd prize and will soon be a Tusen Serier book).

So here it is: Immunology

(click images for embiggening)

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Ett historiskt dygn

Detta dygn är historiskt. Eller kanske veckan som kommer, beroende på hur utdraget det blir.

Vi har vuxit upp med Katitzi och hört om saker som Sverige gjorde Förr. Berättelser om orättvisor mot ett folk utan nation. Från en tid då Sverige och dess myndigheter gjorde saker som att jaga bort romer från deras hem, då man steriliserade romer för att de inte skulle föra vidare sina “asociala” gener. Även efter andra världskriget, då man egentligen inte längre kunde skylla på att man “inte visste bättre”. Ändå var det mycket av den gamla tidens sätt att hantera samhällets utstötta som levde kvar. Sverige var Socialdemokratiskt, vilket väl antagligen betydde att man kunde ha gott samvete när man gjorde sådana saker, för det handlade om att bygga upp Välfärdsstaten. Det Svenska Folkhemmet.

Kanske såg man det som att man bekämpade fattigdomen genom att ta bort de fattiga så resten av oss slapp se dem? Ungefär som att våra beslutsfattande representanter för Malmö stad nu säger sig skydda de boende i Sorgenfrilägret från den giftiga marken de bor på, från den ohygieniska situationen som har byggts upp i brist på ordentliga sanitetsanläggningar. Återigen genom att köra bort dem därifrån och låta dem själva hitta ett alternativ. Kommunen har gjort sin plikt, nu är det upp till romerna att hitta nya lösningar på egen hand. Sålänge de håller sig borta från parkerna, för där ska vara rent och fint. Det är därför polisen ser till att väcka de som ändå vågar sig på att sova där. Varje natt. Och på gatorna kan man ju inte sova. Inte i Sverige 2015 där det inte finns någon riktig fattigdom.

De som har bott i lägret vill väl inte heller bo på giftig mark, men vad har de för alternativ?

Det här är knappast människor som kommer hit för att sno åt sig av vårt välfärdssystem, för det har de inte tillgång till. Välfärdssystemet ska ju dessutom vara till för just de som inte har några andra resurser. Vi betalar skatt för att samhälleligt dela på resurserna och hjälpa dem som har det sämst, men här gäller inte det för nu är det inte svenska medborgare det handlar om. Många kommer från ett område som drabbats av översvämning. Många kommer för att dra ihop pengar till vårdräkningar för sjuka barn eller matpengar till sina familjer. Gärna genom att lönejobba, men det är inte så lätt att få jobb när man inte kan språket och inte har tillgång till hela, rena, fina kläder att ha på sig på en arbetsintervju som man hursomhelst inte ens blir kallad till. Så de flesta, de som inte kan få tag i ett jobb med lön, får sätta sig på marken med en mugg och hoppas på medborgarnas godhet och generositet i ett allt kallare Sverige.

Och nu återupprepas historien. SDs framgångar har med saken att göra, men man kan inte bara skylla på dem. De har inte majoritet, så ansvaret ligger på de starkare partierna som inte ser det som att de kör bort smutsiga invandrare utan ihärdigt motiverar agerandet med sin egen godhet, sina goda intentioner. Även om de intentionerna inte sträcker sig längre än till “Vi måste upprätthålla lag och ordning, det finns faktiskt regelverk att rätta sig efter”, vilket egentligen inte har någonting med varken godhet eller medmänsklighet att göra. För den som tar lagar som garant för att ett beteende är rätt och riktigt och moraliskt försvarbart glömmer att nazisterna som genomförde Förintelsen inte alls bröt mot lagen utan snarare upprätthöll den.

Och där kom kopplingen till nazismen in i bilden. Det var väl bara en tidsfråga och det har faktiskt inte med saken att göra och det går inte att jämföra detta med Förintelsen. Nej, kanske går det inte att jämföra, men parallellerna finns där, klart och tydligt. För nazismen handlade också om att städa samhället, om att rensa bort de som inte var önskade, dölja det man inte ville se. Och romerna som dog i koncentrationslägren var en del av de miljoner som osynliggjorts i efterhand. Judarna fick ta största smällen, men det är ingen ursäkt för att glömma alla de andra. Precis som romerna försvunnit ur den statistiken då ska de nu försvinna ur “vår” stad. För det vi inte ser har vi inte ont av.

Förintelsen började inte med koncentrationsläger, det var något som byggdes upp till steg för steg. Steg i vilkas spår vi verkar följa ännu en gång.

Utvecklingen och vräkningen är ivrigt påhejade av de medborgargarden som tidigare slagit sönder romernas tält och kroppar med basebollträn, som bränt tiggarläger och asylboenden och som inte vill kalla sig rasister, för det är ju inget man vill bli kallad. I samma facebookkommentar går det nu att säga “jag är inte rasist” och “ut med packet” utan att blinka. När jag skriver detta står de utanför lägret. Kanske inte just samma personer, men personer som är del av samma mentalitet, samma samhällsutveckling. De väntar på att få heja på polisen när de ska riva vad som i flera månader varit folks bostäder. Polisen som pratat med de företag som har lokaler i närheten och kommit överens om att de ska ge sina anställda ledigt imorgon när rivningen ska ske. Antagligen främst för att de inte vill ha någon insyn från “vanliga” människor. Det räcker de vänsteraktivister som är på plats för att med sina kroppar försvara lägret. För dem är det ok att slå med batong eller rida över med hästar och dem är det ändå ingen som lyssnar på om hur jobbigt det var. För att inte tala om romerna själva som helt enkelt får skylla sig själva. De har ju faktiskt haft sin chans att lämna platsen.

Så detta dygn är historiskt, för det visar att vi fortfarande lever i gårdagens samhälle. Där mätta, rena, varma människor med fast inkomst kan bestämma var hungriga, kalla och fattiga människor INTE får bo, istället för att hjälpa dem hitta en ny plats.

Ett historiskt dygn som knappast kommer att bli ihågkommet som något annat än en del i det som ledde fram till en ny mörk tidsålder. En händelse vid sidan av lasermän, brandattentat, skolmord och våldsamma tvångsdeportationer. En händelse som legitimerar fascisters och rasisters handlingar och retorik, oavsett om de kallar sig för just fascister eller rasister eller bara vanliga Svenssons. Indignerade över att behöva utsättas för att se att världen inte endast består av välmående svenskar utan också av folk som behöver hjälp och stöd. Stöd som inte tar formen av en vräkning från det enda hem de lyckats hitta och bygga i det här landet.

More fucked-up…

Never mind my bollocks today. I tired.

I have so much to say but don’t really remember what, it’s probably written down somewhere, but some trolls must have taken my notes.

So fuck you (subtly), I’m gonna show you my complete Novo Doba comic instead. As you may remember, or as you can see if you scroll down just a little bit, do I have to think of everything myself? I mean, you can clearly see that I showed you the first page of it a while ago. And what was I talking about?

Stop questioning me!

Here: comic (click images for bigger)!

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In other news. Upcoming release parties, exhibitions etc. Maybe something else? More on whatever it is later. Bye for now!

These fucked-up things…

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):

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Trolls seem to be a recurring theme nowadays, but these fuckers are completely different from the ones in The Troll

Back to Earth

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:

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My favourite parts are the ones where the paint didn’t really take and there are these nice mistake textures…