Some sample art I made a while ago for a project that didn’t happen.
Not really what I usually do, but it was quite fun…
The Troll
COMING SOON: The Troll – from Komika Förlag, in Swedish, English and digital format. And in color!
It’s an old story, made in 24 hours in 2005 and it was published once, but only in Swedish and the publisher disappeared shortly after so it barely made it onto their website. Now re-published in bigger format and in color for the first time!
(preliminary cover art)
h8
My contribution to the Alkom’X anthology number h8, also available as a Wormgod print:
AltCom 2014: POSTAPOKALYPS anthology – call for submissions!
Thanks to a collaboration with C’est Bon Kultur, we can now confirm that there will be an anthology for this year’s AltCom comics festival!
The theme is POSTAPOCALYPSE and we would like you to give us your stories interpreting that theme.
WHAT we want:
Pages: 1-5, black/white
Language: English
Format: 140x182mm (a little bit smaller than A5)
Files: High-resolution .TIFF, preferably
If you are unsure what we mean by “high-resolution”, please ask.
WHEN we want it:
Deadline: September 1
Send submissions to: altcomfestival@gmail.com
WHO we are:
The AltCom 2014 anthology will be edited by Mattias Elftorp + the C’est Bon Kultur crew.
As usual, no one gets paid for participating. But on the other hand, no one pays for it either since we’ll be giving the book away for free during and after the festival!
And yes, we do accept comics that have already been published elsewhere, as long as we like them and they fit into the theme.
POSTAPOKALYPS:
There is something liberating about imagining what could come after all we see around us has been torn to pieces. Will it be chaos or order? Tyranny or anarchy? When we are free to move in any direction, where will we go? Do we rebuild or take the opportunity to reboot? What’s your vision of the future after the end?
The word “apokalypsis” means “revelation of secrets”, not necessarily but commonly understood as referring to a prophetic vision of the end of the world. So the postapocalypse can be what comes after the vision of the end, or after the end itself, or after any revelation. Maybe it’s not the end of the world, but a more personal apocalypse? Maybe the prophecy is about the end of time itself? Or about a change in how we perceive reality?
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL:
The first AltCom event took place in 2004 and was organized by C’est Bon Kultur. Since 2010 it’s a bi-annual comics festival for alternative/underground/small press comics, run by Mattias Elftorp for the Swedish Comics Association (Seriefrämjandet).
cestbonkultur.com
serieframjandet.se
In 2014 it will take place in Malmö, November 5-9 (the exact dates may change), with exhibitions, international guests and a comics fair.
More detailed information will be found at
www.altcomfestival.se
Please help spread and invite all your comics creating friends to the Facebook event
More pages…
About a year ago, the Husby riots happened.
It doesn’t matter if you support the rioters or not, if you can figure out WHY these things happen you should work to change those elements and it won’t happen again.
It seems to be a similar scenario no matter if it’s in Stockholm, London or Paris, and here’s a hint: the problem is NOT that there are too few cops.
Here’s a trailer for Riots Reframed:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnAUs1F1oyY]
And here’s a chapter from Me & my Daddy & Zlatan:
Order the book from Hybriden, some of the Swedish comicbook stores or any of the Swedish web-based bookstores…
Me & my Daddy & Zlatan reviews + sample pages
There’s a review of Me & my Daddy & Zlatan at Litteraturmagazinet (in Swedich).
Maskerna är ett effektivt sätt att skildra den sortens “assimilering” som i själva verket består av annorlundaskap och uteslutning. De kan tyckas frånta berättelsen en del av den realism som Elftorp annars eftersträvar, men samtidigt är det också en slags överrealism som belyser de inslag i vår verklighet som vi inte kan få syn på om de inte understryks och överdrivs. Ett konkret sätt att skildra något som är abstrakt för dem som slipper drabbas, men farligt påtagligt för alla drabbade.
Berättelsen om Sara engagerar med sin tunga sorgsenhet. Hon bär på sina smärtsamma minnen av att ha sett en person som stod henne nära mördas. Hon kommer till ett land som inte alls släpper in henne, som inte vill ha henne där. Elftorps seriestil bidrar effektivt till känslan med sin myckna gråhet, sina få – men mycket uttrycksfulla – färger och till synes slarviga, men i själva verket väldigt exakta linjer.
And another one, at Goodreads (in English).
This story is told in a sketchy, artistic style, and the allegorical possibilities of comics are used extensively as all immigrants in this version of reality are required to wear a mask with the Swedish flag over their faces at all times. This works brilliantly as a visual metaphor for the pressure asserted on immigrants in Sweden and in many other countries to fit in and “go native” so to speak”.
The focus on the girl and her experience means that the story never gets stuck in a political placard mode, though. And the ending of this graphic novel is very strong and emotional, and if you haven’t read the shorter earlier version, unexpected and rather unsettling.
And here are some sample pages from the very beginning of the story (click images for bigger pictures) (Swedish version here):
Wormgod & Tusen Serier @ SIS14
Me & my Daddy & Zlatan
The exhibition will be up a while longer, but it will only be open sporadically.
This week, we will be open Monday-Wednesday between 14-16.
–
From the opening/release party (because of a fire alarm, we moved the party to the garage for a while):
JAG & MIN PAPPA & ZLATAN release!
Ny bok från Tusen Serier & Wormgod:
JAG & MIN PAPPA & ZLATAN av Mattias Elftorp
[Scroll down for English translation]
Releasefest och utställning:10 maj kl 14-19 på Tusen Serier (Mitt Möllan, Claesgatan 8, Malmö)
Vin, chips och serier på väggarna, vad mer kan du behöva en lördageftermiddag?
Ta med dina vänner och häng ett tag på Tusen Seriers lokal på Mitt Möllan!
OM BOKEN:
Sara brukar spela fotboll med sina kompisar. När hon och hennes pappa blir tvungna att lämna sitt land är hon överlycklig över att de ska flytta just till Rosengård i Malmö, staden där Zlatan bor. Hennes högsta önskan är att få se honom spela och kanske till och med träffa honom.
Men allt är inte helt bra. Kanske kommer de inte att få stanna. Och det är någonting konstigt med det här nya landet där man måste bära en svenskmask för att dölja att man är “annorlunda”.
Ska hennes drömmar gå i uppfyllelse?
JAG & MIN PAPPA & ZLATAN bygger på den prisbelönta (ISV 2009, Kemi 2010) serienovellen med samma namn. De enkla teckningarna och symboliken bakom maskerna i serien gör att huvudpersonens öde blir lätt att leva sig in i och känna med då hon möter det svenska samhällets fram- och baksidor.
Boken finns i två versioner: en på svenska och en på engelska.
ENDAST 100:- på releasefesten (gäller även övriga böcker från Tusen Serier)!
Går också att beställa från
http://www.apartforlag.se/
http://www.serieaffaren.se/
http://www.wormgod.net/ (PayPal)
+div nätbokhandlar
OM MATTIAS ELFTORP (författare & tecknare):
Gör den postapokalyptiska cyberpunkserien PIRACY IS LIBERATION och den argt politiska ARG KANIN. Aktuell som medförfattare av BEKELE och känd från Bamsedebatten 2011. Aktiv i konst- och seriekollektivet Wormgod och håller i undergroundseriefestivalen AltCom i Malmö (årets festival blir i november med temat POSTAPOKALYPS). Fiende till Migrationsverket och andra avarter av det svenska samhället.
http://www.elftorp.com/
Mer om Tusen Serier: http://www.tusenserier.com/
—–
New book from Tusen Serier & Wormgod:
ME & MY DADDY & ZLATAN by Mattias Elftorp
Release party and exhibition: May 10 14-19 at Tusen Serier (Mitt Möllan, Claesgatan 8, Malmö)
Wine, chips and comics on the walls, what else could you need for a Saturday afternoon?
Bring your friends and hang out for a while at the Tusen Serier place at Mitt Möllan (Malmö)!
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Sara used to play soccer with her friends. When she and her dad had to leave their country she was happy that they were going to Malmö, Sweden, where Zlatan lives. Her greatest wish is to see him play and maybe even meet him.
But all isn’t completely well. They may not be allowed to stay. And there is something strange about this new country where you have to wear a Swedish mask to hide that you are “different.”
Will Sara’s dreams come true? Or will her nightmares?
ME & MY DADDY & ZLATAN is based on the award-winning (ISV 2009, Kemi 2010) comics short story of the same name. The simple drawing style and the symbolism behind the masks in the story make it easy to empathize with the main character as she experiences different sides of Swedish society.
Bekele is available in two versions: one in Swedish and one in English.
ONLY 100:- sek at the release party (same goes for the other books from Tusen Serier)!
Order from
http://www.apartforlag.se/
http://www.serieaffaren.se/
http://www.wormgod.net/ (PayPal)
+various Swedish web-based bookstores
ABOUT MATTIAS ELFTORP (författare & tecknare):
Creator of the cyberpunk postapocalypse comic series PIRACY IS LIBERATION, the furiously political comic ARG KANIN/ANGRY ANIMALS and has been published in various anthologies. He is active in the art- and comics collective Wormgod, arranges the underground comics festival AltCom in Malmö (this year in November, theme: POSTAPOCALYPSE) and is one of the comics activists running Tusen Serier. Enemy of the Migration Board and other abuses performed by the Swedish society.
http://www.elftorp.com/
More about Tusen Serier: http://www.tusenserier.com/
Police…
Went to see a documentary yesterday: Riots reframed, about the 2011 London riots, directed by one of the people who took part in, and the punishment for, the riots.
Really interesting film that I very much recommend if you get the chance to see it. It goes further in its analysis than the regulare media did at the time. Instead of dismissing the riots as mindless violence and looting, it puts the whole thing into a broader perspective and says that riots such as these are the result of long-time police persecution of the black and the poor, basically. But also takes into account how the prison system works, how the (in)justice system works and how these things work in conjunction with colonialism and the Brittish empire. In a nation that constantly wages war and has a self-image saying that it is/was/should be the head of a great colonial empire ruling over countries where the people have darker skin, is it weird to expect violent answers to repression from the police?
If you know my work, like Piracy is Liberation or the upcoming Me & my Daddy & Zlatan or, for example, the short story Violence which was included in the Brittish anthology Excessive Force a few years ago, you can probably guess where I stand in all this.
Like one of the people interviewed in the film says: they’re just another gang, except they get away with everything.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnAUs1F1oyY]