AltCom 2012!

AltCom 2012 is getting closer. Read all about it here: http://www.altcomfestival.se

To sum it up, this is what you should do:

WEDNESDAY (Nov 7):
– Tusen Serier exhibition opening @ Folkets Park 16-18.
This is an outdoors exhibition with me and Amanda Casanellas+ some of the artists of our project Tusen Serier: Amalia Alvarez, Emre Özdamarlar, Aida Ghardagian, Marco Leal. There will be wine, music, fire…

Then take a small break before going to

– CBK: In> <Bestween @ Biograf Spegeln 19-22
C’est Bon Kultur, my old comics collective, doing an exhibition about the stories in between the pages of a story by Allan Haverholm. There will be more wine and probably some other entertainment as well.

THURSDAY (Nov 8):
– CCC: Sem Fronteiras @ Galleri Ocampo 12-18
Portuguese Chili Com Carne had an exhibition a year ago at the same place. You might remember it (Futuro Primitivo). This time, it’s four artists, Ana Biscaia, André Lemos, André Coelho and Jucifer (two of which will be attending the festival), showing off their drawings. I’ve seen some of them already, they look great! There will be wine. I know that’s what you’re really after.

– Stripburger in print @ Café Simpan 18-01
A collection of Stripburger prints, posters, covers. This Slovenian group was probably my first contact with the European underground of comics, when some of them visited Malmö and SPX in 2003(?). Through them I discovered Danijel Zezelj, for example. Who you should really check out if you don’t already know his work…

FRIDAY (Nov 9):
– Nema Granice @ Kanten 13-17
This is a one-day exhibition only, so don’t miss it! I first discovered this part of the Balkan comics scene at some point when I stumbled upon an old piblication from Serbian Kosmoplovci/Studiostrip which I think was an exhibition catalogue or portfolio maybe. I thought there were some really interesting things there and I wanted to publish these artists in C’est Bon Anthology. I got their contact info through Ivana Armanini of Komikaze. Or I discovered them on the Komikaze site first and found the book later, who knows?
Meeting them all in real life for the first time at CRACK! years later, I heard about the Novo Doba festival in Belgrade so I went there the following year and met the people organizing it and here we are. And here they will be: Studiostrip, Komikaze, Turbo Comix/Novo Doba.
And yes: There will be wine and a DJ set by DJ Tozd.

Just after that, go from Kanten, across the street, through the fence and around the building to:

– Wormgod: Transgressions & TRAUMA @ Borgen 17-04
I tried to figure out what pictures to make under the title TRANSGRESSIONS for our Wormgod exhibition, but it seemed easier to make a book first and then use that as inspiration for the images. So I did. The art was a collaboration between me and Susanne Johansson (the other half of Wormgod) and there will be a soundtrack by Feberdröm. I got the books from the printer already and now we’re waiting for the CDs. And yes, then we made those pictures and we’re waiting for them to get printed too.
The first hour is the exhibition opening and there will be no entrance fee during this time, when we will also play a CD by Sektor 304 (who were going to play at TRAUMA but couldn’t make it) and show a video session with videos from Studiostrip/Kosmoplovci. Then TRAUMA starts, with 5 o’clock traffic, Anatomiteatern, Knullkraft, Khmer Noir and Lenhart Tapes (who I also met at CRACK!). There will be wine. There will be noise.

SATURDAY & SUNDAY (Nov 10-11):
– Comics fair @ Folkets Park 12-18 with lots of books, panels & presentations and more exhibitions, performance etc. I have to go to sleep now, so follow the link in the beginning of this post to see the details for this one. You’ll have to bring your own wine for this one.

And at all of these events, you can get the AltCom 2012 NO BORDERS anthology for free! 176 pages, comics by lots of international artists, cover by Bill Koeb. Niice!

Wormgod: TRANSGRESSIONS

In November 2012 during the AltCom 2012 NO BORDERS comics festival (more on that later), during the return of the TRAUMA noise festival (more on that later), there will be a Wormgod exhibition called TRANSGRESSIONS (more on that later) which is also a book/CD release for this new publication:

Image

TRANSGRESSIONS the book is the story of a man who didn’t want to be a man and a woman who turned him into something else. It is the story of these two outcasts trying to find a new life by crossing the border but get caught doing it. It is the story about their struggle to leave all rules behind. Social conventions, laws of physics as well as nations, even the most basic rules of their universe.

Contains necrophilia, zombification, gender transplants, human/animal gene splicing, fucking, human sacrifice, inhuman politics and unnatural birth. Enjoy!

TRANSGRESSIONS the CD is a soundtrack where each track corresponds to each chapter of the book:
1. GENDER ISSUES
2. MIGRATION
3. NECRO LOVE
4. MEMETIC TRANSCENDENCE

Story: Mattias Elftorp
Art: Mattias Elftorp & Susanne Johansson
Music: Markus Samnell

Release/exhibition/TRAUMA date: November 9

Sista resan med SAS…

Jag flyger en del nuförtiden, framförallt (eller i stort sett bara) till och från olika seriefestivaler. Ibland har det hänt att jag flyger med SAS, men det kommer inte att ske igen.

Bakgrunden till varför jag mailade dem till att börja med kan du läsa om här: http://www.facebook.com/​events/332191716872508/ Kortfattat så handlade det om att försöka hindra den avvisning som ska ske imorgon av en 18-årig papperslös som kidnappades av polisen på Seved för inte så länge sedan. Ännu ett exempel på hur gränspolisen verkar se möjligheten att göra en ny asylansökan som en deadline istället för en andra chans. Ali hade bara en dryg vecka kvar innan han var berättigad att göra en ny ansökan.

Svaret från SAS var ett minst sagt obehagligt standardsvar.

Någon föreslog nedanstående som svar på deras svar, så jag skickade det och tänkte att det borde få dem att åtminstone tänka till en aning:

Jag hörde av mig till er (Customer Care team) angående ert deltagande i deportationen av Ali, som är inplanerad imorgon (28 augusti) från Köpenhamn med flyg SK681. Då jag fick svar från en NoReply adress skriver jag nu hit istället. Detta var svaret jag fick:

> Hej Mattias,
>
> Tack för ditt mail.
>
> Vi är ett flygbolag och fattar inga beslut i migrationsfrågor. Därför
> kommer vi att fortsätta utföra våra flygningar oavsett vilket syfte våra
> kunder har med resan. Vi föreslår att ni riktar era mail till ansvarig
> myndighet.
>
> Vänliga hälsningar,
>
> SAS Customer Care team

Efter det här svaret kommer jag INTE att resa med SAS längre och jag kommer också att uppmana mina vänner att inte heller göra det. Den här inställningen är inte acceptabel!

Jag förstår att ni inte fattar några beslut i migrationsfrågor. Vad jag och många med mig ber om är dock inte att förändra ett myndighetsbeslut. Det vi ber om är att ni inte deltar i verkställandet av det sagda beslutet, och att ni respekterar Alis rättigheter i egenskap av människa. Det är något ni har en REÉLL möjlighet att göra.

”Därför kommer vi att fortsätta utföra våra flygningar oavsett vilket syfte våra kunder har med resan”

Denna passage kan jag bara häpnas över. Jag trodde inte att det var före detta kunders ansvar att upplysa er om era egna Policydokument och undertaganden. Här är en passage ur det sagda dokumentet:

”Genom att engagera sig i sociala frågor och ansluta sig till FN:s Global Compact har SAS koncernen förbundit sig att i all sin verksamhet skydda och stödja mänskliga rättigheter och motverka korruption, diskriminering och alla former av tvångsarbete.”

Jag föreslår att ni påminner er själva om era policyriktlinjer och vidare läser in er på vad det egentligen är ni gått med på genom FN:s Global Compact,(TIPS: Se specifikt ”Princip 2” som handlar om complicity.) Det råder ingen tvekan om att svaret jag fick av er, liksom ert agerande skulle ni genomföra deportationen går på tvären gentemot SAS undertaganden och det ansvar SAS som företag självmant tagit på sig.

Jag skulle gärna vilja ha en kommentar från er.

Mvh
Mattias Elftorp

FN:s Global Compact Princip 2: http://​www.unglobalcompact.org/​AboutTheGC/​TheTenPrinciples/​Principle2.html

Min första reaktion var att skriva någonting om att så sa säkert de som körde tågen till förintelselägren också, eller något i den stilen, för även om det inte är samma sak så är steget inte särskilt långt.

Varpå jag fick svaret:

Vi respekterar dina synpunkter men får hänvisa till tidigare svar.

“Respeterar dina åsikter” i arslet.

Nästa gång det står mellan SAS och något annat flygbolag är valet lätt.

Buy Infotrip (1st ed) in support of AMD!

I’m donating most of the remaining copies of Piracy is Liberation: Infotrip (1st ed) to Aktion Mot Deportation.

This is the second book in the Piracy is Liberation series, but it is also my debut graphic novel. The first edition is a bigger size than the usual version and it contains the Desert Anarchist Manifesto which was cut out from the second edition. I think there’s also a typo in there somewhere. Otherwise there’s no real difference apart from the size and cover.

It’s yours for 50 SEK and all the money goes to the struggle against the current deportation politics of Sweden and Europe. Yesterday, the Tribunal 12 presented a comprehensive accusation against Europe. Hopefully, the recordings will be available somewhere for everyone who missed it.

Send an email to me or antidep@gmail.com to order a copy (shipping will be added).

Warren Ellis (writer of Transmetropolitan, Planetary, Doktor Sleepless, The Authority, Black Summer etc) about the book:

INFOTRIP is a graphic novel by Mattias Elftorp that I read (and then somehow lost) in Copenhagen the other day. It’s postfuture science fiction with an art style that seems to me to combine Brian Wood with Ben Templesmith, to jagged, hate-ridden, nervous effect. I really like it, and I’m pissed off that my copy got mislaid.

(He got a new copy next time I met him.)

TUSEN SERIER: Jag är inte här (I am not here), TODAY!

Starting today is an exhibition from one of the projects I’m working with (I’m unemployed for the moment but I will start getting paid again this summer), TUSEN SERIER:

“I AM NOT HERE”
Vahedeh-Aida Ghardagian
Rosengårdsbiblioteket
April 23, 2012

 

About the exhibition:
Who is being portrayed, and how?
What has happened since museums were filled with portraits of kings ans queens? Who is being portrayed today? How are people being exhibited and for whom? What conceptopns are being portrayed?

About the artist:
“In my work, I move between art and activism. I have a global grassroots perspective, I live in close proximity to my art and work in social networks. I work with installation, digital media, images and texts.”

See you there!

Demockracy

Piracy is Liberation 011: Demockracy
Coming soon!

Election Day is coming! But it’s an election where there is no real choice. A two-party system where both parties follow the will of the Market, the will of the Holy Corporations and their Priests. Where your influence is an illusion designed to keep you consuming, keep you selling your time to produce wealth for the Masters.

Compete, consume, conform, and vote!

Story, art, design and cover by Mattias Elftorp
56 pgs, b/w
Published by Wormgod

Piracy is Liberation site

SEX & VIOLENCE

New book from Wormgod, coming soon! Look for it at Stockholm International Comics Festival and MoCCA:

SEX & VIOLENCE
by Allan Haverholm & Mattias Elftorp
from Wormgod

 

This book is about exactly what you’d expect from the title.
Read it from one side and it’s about violence: a brutal journey into trauma-induced unconsciousness, directed by Mattias Elftorp, the writer/artist of Piracy is Liberation, Arg Kanin, etc.
Then flip the book and read it from the other side and you get sex: Allan Haverholm (Sortmund) offers a much more pleasant variation on the same scenario, building up to another kind of climax.

Two stories, two simple concepts, boiled down to experiences that ultimately are very human but extraordinary in their simplicity.

The stories have been published before. VIOLENCE in C’est Bon Anthology vol 3, Piracy is Liberation 005: Free Section and Excessive Force, SEX in C’est Bon Anthology vol 11.

Kristiina Kolehmainen

Kristiina Kolehmainen
1956 – 2012

Being part of the international and Swedish comics scene, I have a lot to thank Kristiina Kolehmainen for. She broke down some of the borders between Sweden and the rest of the world and gave me access to parts of the international comics scene I may very well have missed if it wasn’t for her.

The last time I met her, we shared a few beers after the end of the I Seriernas Värld comics festival in Malmö 2011. I was disillusioned over Sweden in general and she helped me see, not that I was wrong but that I had an ally. Someone who understood exactly what I mean and could give me some added insights into what’s wrong with this place. It meant a lot to me right then. Still does.

I miss you, Kristiina.