Report from FumettoPolis

This report is long overdue, but here we go!

The 14-18th of September this year, I returned to Italy and my newfound and old manga friends there, as I was invited to the comic festival FumettoPolis in Novara. Big thanks to the amazing Daniele Rudoni, organizer of FumettoPolis and one of the heads behind IndieVersus, an online platform for artists an fans to meet.

He also invited a bunch of amazing manga artists from all over Europe:

Marika Herzog from Germany, the creator of CHASM and Demon Lord Camio.

Maaria Laurinen from Finland, the creator of Phantomland.

Fillis and Rafael from Mangatellers from Greece, the creators of RUN and Wi Fi Wars.

Maaria, Marika, me, Fillis and Rafael

Let's start the photo report!

Novara is a beautiful city situated close to Milan in the north of Italy.
The town is historic and the houses so inspiring and pretty!

All through town, you could see these advertisements for the festival.

The festival took place in the castle in the middle of the city!

Inside the castle, the comic market was held in this long hallway.
So cool to be standing in this historical building and selling
modern comic art, like a fantastic mix of old and new~

They also held a special area open for live painting!
So the artists, both invited and exhibitors, could sit down and show
the visitors how they work. This photo is of Maaria drawing one
of her main characters from Phantomland.

This is me while live painting. Wacom supported this event
with great hardware with all our favourite programs avaliable,
so we could paint just like at home!

Together with the other invited manga artists, I also participated
in this panel on stage, where we talked about the working conditions of
European manga artists, the view on manga in our countries and much more.
It was also livestreamed for the IndieVersus viesers, I think.

 Now let me introduce you to some of the exhibitors!

I met these lovely artists, Elena (Ofride) and  Giulia Adragna
back in October 2016 at Lucca Comics&Games. They are so kind and talented!

Even though a lot of the artists where clearly had inspirations from manga
and/or online comics, there where also other kinds of comics represented,
like this horror comic project The NOISE by Pietro Gandolfi.

Kyōdai Manga is a manga artist collective just like
Nosebleed Studio (my group here in Sweden)!
So cool to see others also forming these kinds of collectives
to help each other out, it is a great way to get things done and
keep up the work.

NuPress is another such collective, but with many more members and they also produce
a magazine/anthology called NuName regularly with their members works.

This jawdropping comic, La Calaca de Azucar, by Cristina Guidetti
and Eleonora Gatta is a fairly new work, which will be online and in print I think.

TataiLab is an awesome gang of artists and creators that make
impressive comic projects and print them in luxurious hardcovers.
I am always amazed by what new things they put out!

The festival also included an exhibition of the works of us invited International guests. Both high-quality prints of our manga pages, as well as a life size cut out stand of our characters.

To be able to take a photo next to your own character like this is almost surreal... It feels like something real International famous comic artists do... haha!

What was also super cool was the fact I got to hold this baby in my hands:

It is so fun reading my manga Sword Princess Amaltea in Italian ("reading"... I don't know enought to understand it all, but since I wrote the story, I actually learn some Italian, haha). If you are Italian manga fans, I would love to hear what you think of my manga! #mangastyle #mangabook #kasaobakemanga #mangaitaliano #italiano @kasaobake_edizioni

Ett inlägg delat av Natalia Batista, mangaka (@nataliasmanga) 14 Nov 2017 kl. 6:32 PST

I am greateful to Kasaobake's chief editor and publisher Elena Toma who decided to take a chance on Sword Princess Amaltea and print it! First book is out and second soon to come~

The Kasaobake team, I feel blessed to be part of it now!

All in all, the festival was not as huge as i.e. Lucca Comics&Games, but even better; the focus was on the artists and the networking, and this seemed to be why so many artists attended. Not the stress and pressure of a huge event with high costs for the exhibitors, more of a friendly, cozy environment where new friendships can be made.

So I highly recommend this event to other artists who wants to go to an Italian comic event!

Thank you for reading!

EVEN MORE BIG NEWS!

Let's do this in English, because this will be about the future International publishing deals of my mangas!

My latest entry was actually 3 months ago... WOW! This is probably one of the longest pauses I have done on this blog. You who follow me on Instagram have seen that this pause has not been because I did not do manga – on the contrary! So this blog entry will be a summary of my past 3 months, and all the amazing things that have happened!

14th-18th of September: Attended FumettoPolis in Novara, Italy and released book 1 of Sword Princess Amaltea in Italian (I will do a separate report about this in some days).

28th of September to 1st of October: Attended the Gothenburg Book Fair, which by now have become one of my "must-vists" of the year, partly due to this year yet again getting the honorable assignment to interview an invited comic artist from Brazil, on behaf of the Brazilian Embassy. This year it was Mary Cagnin, and amazing artist with such a jawdropping skills in water coloring! Check out her tutorials!

Gothenburg Book Fair this weekend was fun (even though Saturday was mostly overshadowed by the demonstrations outside). I met this amazing and super friendly artist, Mary Cagnin, invited by the Brazilian Embassy, and had the honor to interview her on the Comics Stage at the Fair.Check out her youtube videos, she's so talented! Hope to meet you again, @marycagnin !! #bokmässan #bokmässan2017 #göteborg #bookfair #comics #braziliancomics #marycagnin #comics #comicartist

Ett inlägg delat av Natalia Batista, mangaka (@nataliasmanga) Okt 1, 2017 kl. 7:51 PDT

1st-31st of October: I did the Inktober challange again, and gave away the artworks as always. Third year in a row, and I did not miss one day! You can find all of them on my instagram but here's one of my favourites:

Inktober#6! Chibi-Amaltea taking a stroll~ Art giveaway! First instagram commenter gets the original for free including shipping. One win per person! #inktober #inktober2017 #mangaka #chibi #kawaii #kawaiiart #mangagirl #princess #fantasy #giveaway #competition #artgiveaway #swedishmanga #mangastyleart

Ett inlägg delat av Natalia Batista, mangaka (@nataliasmanga) Okt 6, 2017 kl. 1:33 PDT

5th of October: I finally annouced this; my manga Sword Princess Amaltea will be released in the US by Tokyopop!! AAAAAAAHH!! *faints*

BIG NEWS No.3: WOW, this year just keeps on delivering great deals! I just signed a deal for Sword Princess Amaltea to be published by TOKYOPOP in the US! They will be able to deliver Amaltea in English to the world!! I am so stoked, because as I live in a small country (Sweden) with very little printed manga, I know how much the English translated and globally distributed mangas mean to readers that won't get it otherwise. So happy!!! Funny thing is, this is a big BIG news indeed, but I still have more up my sleeve... More Big News to come! @tokyopop #oelmanga #mangastyle #fantasy #usa #swedishmanga #publisher #tokyopop #mangabook #mangaka #漫画家 #漫画

Ett inlägg delat av Natalia Batista, mangaka (@nataliasmanga) Okt 5, 2017 kl. 12:08 PDT

26th-31st of October: Travelled to London, UK, and attended London Comic Con, to sell my mangas in the Comic Village section (I will do a separate report about this in some days).

3rd, 11th and 18th of November: Held signings sessions and play tests with the Sword Princess RPG book at three locations in Sweden; Kulturhuset in Stockholm and the nerdy bookstore SF-bokhandeln  in Malmö and Gothenburg. It went well and we had some fun moments with the fans.

19th of November: I could finally annouce another great news; both my mangas Sword Princess Amaltea and Mjau! will be published by PYRAMOND in Germany! AAAAAAHH!! *faints again*

BIG NEWS No.4: Another super awesome news!! I signed with the German publisher PYRAMOND for both Sword Princess Amaltea AND Mjau! to be released by them starting this Spring 2018!!! Yaaay!!! I can't wait to go back to Germany, I love their cons and all the amazingly talented artists there~! So far I have signed my manga to 4 countries this year, I am stoked!!! @pyramond #germanmanga #deutschemanga #germany #mangastyle #mangabook #signed #contract #swordprincessamaltea #mjaumanga #bignews

Ett inlägg delat av Natalia Batista, mangaka (@nataliasmanga) Nov 19, 2017 kl. 11:39 PST

During all this time, I also finished painting my mermaid water color manga and gave it to a company who scan them professionally. I got them back this week and will be doing the lettering (digitally) and prepare it for print before the deadline in the beginning of January. A lot of work!

I also held a whole bunch of manga workshops all over; in Malmö, Stockholm, Mariestad, Knivsta and Arlöv. It's a bit tiring with all the travelling (I probably wasted about 50 hours on just travelling to and from workshops during this Fall), but I forget that when I'm finally there, doing the workshop. I wish I could just teleport myself to and from the workshops, haha...

In November, I did a press release about the RPG book and ended up in several local news papers, like Lokaltidningen Lund, Lokaltidningen Malmö, Sydsvenskan, Hallå Lund and Fria Tidningen.

Also, I am part of the group of comic artist that will organize the annual comic fanzine festival Malmö Seriefest, and this will be our 4th year in a row! It will be held on the 3rd-4th of March 2018 and the tables (which we give out for free to artists) was filled up in less than one minute when we released them last week! WOW! I am so glad to feel that what I was part of initiating now have become something so desireable! We will have more than 150 comic artists represented, so don't miss it if you're able to get here!

This coming 2 months will be intense, tho. I have to:

• Prepare the pages of Sword Princess Amaltea vol 1 for Tokyopop.
  DEADLINE: 18th of December
• Prepare the pages of my mermaid manga Sjöjungfrun Minna for print
  DEADLINE: 8th of January
• Do the book keeping for Nosebleed Studio!
  DEADLINE: 29th of December
• Prepare the pages of Sword Princess Amaltea vol 1 for PYRAMOND.
  DEADLINE: Sometime in December
• Prepare the originals and other perks for the backers of the Mjau! English Collection Kickstarter.
  DEADLINE: Early January at the latest!
• Prepare the release of a HUGE SECRET PROJECT that will be my focus of 2018 and 2019!
  DEADLINE: Early January.
• Draw a 30 page short story manga as part of the project Every Girl Is A Hero (more about that in a later blog entry) 
  DEADLINE: 31st of January or mid February at the latest!

 I... have a lot to do.
How will I survive, you might ask? Well, as always, I have my master level skill: Dicipline!! 

So, now I better get back to my work!


Last but not least, don't miss out on our December Sale at Nosebleed Studio! Or click on the image below to get there~

❄❄❄ Thanks a bunch for reading! ❄❄❄

BIG NEWS! + FumettoPolis!

So yeah, I have been waaaay too busy to blog. Sorry about that. But here's a report of all the amazing things that have happened in my career these past weeks, including what will happen this week end!

Let's start with the big news:

BIG NEWS No.1: I just signed a deal for Sword Princess Amaltea to be published by Zanir in the Czech Republic! As my Swedish publisher don't have the International rights to the manga, I have to do these deals on my own. This deal came to me as the publisher was looking for European mangas to publish. (Yes, I will deliver these great news in installments as things are signed, more to come!) #swedishmanga #mangaka #publishingdeal #contract #swordprincessamaltea #newrelease

A post shared by Natalia Batista, mangaka (@nataliasmanga) on Jun 5, 2017 at 5:03am PDT

BIG NEWS No.2: I just signed a deal for Sword Princess Amaltea to be published by Kasaobake in Italy! Another deal that was finally finalized. It begun back in October of 2016 when I visited Lucca Comics, and it is so nice to finally have it signed and done! The three books will be printed at the same time and released at FumettoPolis in Novara in September — and I will be there of course! More Big News to come! #swedishmanga #publisher #italy #kasaobake #fumetti #mangaitaliano #mangaka #漫画家 #漫画

A post shared by Natalia Batista, mangaka (@nataliasmanga) on Aug 1, 2017 at 10:12am PDT

Right now, my American publisher PDP is doing a Kickstarter campaign to bring Mjau! to the US market! Including focusing on libraries, which is my passion. To get the books to as many readers as possible, I believe in the democratic power of libraries. If you wish to get your hands on this book (my American debut!!) and help us out, go to Kickstarter and search for "Mjau!". #mjaumanga #swedishmanga #mangaka #kickstarter #crowdfunding #campaign #mangabook #libraries #library #mangaka #childrenscomics #kidscomics #cats #catsofinstagram #kitten #cutecat #kawaii #kawaiiart

A post shared by Natalia Batista, mangaka (@nataliasmanga) on Sep 7, 2017 at 8:44am PDT

My mangas are reaching out into the world! I've signed Sword Princess Amaltea with Kasaobake in Italy and Zanir in the Czech Republic, and am right now crowdfunding Mjau! with my American publisher Phoenix Dreams Publishing. AMAZING!!

To check off so many publishing deals this year is even making me feel motion sickness, haha. No, just kidding, I'm super happy! I have been working hard for these deals, and will work even harder to make then fruitfull. I'm planing trips to all these countries to promote my books. Signing the publishing deals is just the beginning...!

The first trip is already this week end! Thanks to my dear friend Daniele Rudoni who is a professional Italian comic artist, comics teacher and organizer of the event FumettoPolis in Novara, close to Milan. I am invited to FumettoPolis, together with four other amazing European manga creators:

Marika Herzog from Germany, the creator of CHASM and Demon Lord Camio.

Maaria Laurinen from Finland, the creator of Phantomland.

Fillis and Rafael from Mangatellers from Greece, the creators of RUN and Wi Fi Wars.


An amazing representation for European Manga, don't you agree? I am so glad to be part of this gang of talented manga creators, and as I know all of them personally I can ensure they are all great people too! It will be fun meeting them again in person this week end! ❤

Organized by Daniele and two manga publishers in Italy, Kasaobake and Mangasenpai, one work each by us guests is also being published in this beautiful collection, with cover art by Maaria and Marika:

It's really inconceivable to think that all these great mangas are made here, in Europe. I remember about 10-15 years ago, when people said "you're not making real manga, you are not as good as the Japanese artists". That's as far from reality right now as physically possible. The non-Japanese manga artists I know are so friggin talented and experienced right now, it's impossible to call them other than professional. And there's mostly the smaller and newer publishers that seem to be the only ones recognizing this...

Oh, and this:

☆☆☆ Volume 1 of Sword Princess Amaltea, in Italian!! ☆☆☆

I am so amazed!! Can't wait to hold it in my hands! I'll have to make a longer blogpost later about this Italian journey for Amaltea, because it startet way back in 2014, or even earlier, when I got published in Doraetos Manga. To reach this point, with the series being in print i one of the biggest comics nations in the world... it's incredible!

At the event, I will participate in the following:

Selling the Comic2Bite anthology and other works at the International Booth at FumettoPolis.

Singing Sword Princess Amaltea at Kasaobake's booth.

Saturday 11:30: Panel about Sword Princess Amaltea on stage, with me and my publisher Kasaobake.

Saturday 15:00: Live drawing on a Cintiq in the Performance Area.

Sunday 16:00: Panel about Comic2Bite with all  the invited guests.


If any of you readers are coming, please stop by and say hi, and get yourself a copy of my mangas!

☺