Showing posts with label Mjau. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mjau. Show all posts

24 July 2018

AvestaArt + ny bok!

Nu ännu ett inlägg på svenska, för mina läsare på hemmaplan!
Här har det varit tyst, men inte för att jag legat på latsidan (ni som följt bloggen vet att jag nog inte ens har en latsida). Jag har varvat husbyggande med serieevent (rapporter ligger på lut, de dyker upp här snart!) och bokbyggande (mer om det nedan). Alla delar peppande, utmanande men även stundsvis utmattande. Så här kommer en liten uppdatering jag önskat att jag hunnit göra tidigare.

I våras besökte jag Verket i Avesta för att vara med och hänga upp mina egna serieverk som del av deras årliga konstutställning AvestaArt. Mitt i den gamla järnbruksbyggnaden hänger nu mina seriesidor och visas mina videor när jag ritar! Så häftigt!

Video i bakgrunden med kuddhörna där man kan sitta ner och lära sig hur
man tuschar och ritar. Arbetshörna i förgrunden som visar upp hur man
kan jobba med ljusbord (släckt för fotot). Samt stor fondvägg med Amaltea!


Original från mina serier hänger på båda väggarna. Arbetsbordet i förgrunden.

En fotovägg där man kan ta egna katt-selfies med Ville och Vanilj!
Foton tagna av Sussie Carlzon.

Jag kände mig hedrad att få vara en av de 13 konstnärer från hela världen som ställer ut på Verket mellan den 19 maj och 16 september. Det känns som en stor grej, inte bara då jag är en serietecknare (serier ses inte i allas ögon som tillräckligt fin konst att den ska få ställas ut), utan även faktumet att jag som mangatecknare får ställa ut mina verk. Mangastilen jag har upplever jag stöter bort en del inom konstkretsar som antingen ser den som för mainstream eller "kopierad" (då de inte förstår att manga är en bred konstform med olika uttryck) eller att den ses som smutsig populärkultur. Men teamet bakom AvestaArt verkar istället sett min stil och mina verk som en tillgång, som kan locka andra grupper till Verket och skapa nya möten. Det uppskattar jag mycket! Tack!

Passa på om ni är i trakten och åk till Avesta för att se hela utställningen, den är så imponernande! Hänger fram till den 16 september och jag kommer komma förbi innan den tas ner för att hålla mangakurser, för skolklasser och eventuellt för allmänhet också.

❀  ❀  ❀  

Nu lite kort om en annan sak jag jobbat frenetiskt med hela våren och under sommaren:

Nosebleed Studio lär dig teckna manga Serieskapande! 

 

Vår efterlänktade uppföljare till Karaktärsdesign-boken vi gjorde 2017, och denna bok är dessutom nästan 100 sidor tjockare! Vi går igenom ALLT grundläggande för att skapa egen manga, från idé och manus till teckning, tuschning, rastrering, textning och sist men inte minst publicering! Om du drömmer om att bli en mangatecknare så är detta boken för dig!

Vi är så stolta att vi lyckades göra klart denna bok. Ända upp till dagarna innan tryck lade vi till saker i den, det var ju så mycket vi ville ha med! Vi i Nosebleed Studio har ju jobbat professionellt men manga i mer än 10 år, vilket blir totalt över 50 års erfarenheter som vi ville ha ned på papper. Otroligt svårt, men jag tror vi lyckades, med en del hjälp från våra testläsare som gav ovärderlig feedback på skisserna.

Boken släpps på NärCon Sommar i helgen, med försläppsfirande på torsdagen kl. 18-19, då den säljs med 10% rabatt (org. pris 299 kr vid våra bord). Ska du till NärCon så kan jag lova att du inte vill missa detta!

Missa inte heller våra andra event på NärCon Sommar:

Fredag 13:00-14:00 i Workshop-salen
Teckna manga med Nosebleed Studio

Fredag 17:00-18:30 i Artist Alley
Gratis Chibi-porträtt!
Regler: Man kan anmäla sig när som under torsdagen och fredagen genom att skriva sitt namn på en liten lapp och stoppa den i en låda vid Nosebleed Studios bord i Artist Alley. 17.00 lottar vi fram 15 lyckliga vinnare ur lådan som får sina poträtt. Man måste vara på plats 17.00 när ens namn ropas upp för att få en guldbiljett.

Lördag 14:30-15:30 i Workshop-salen
Visa dina serier och bilder för Nosebleed Studio!
Ta med de bilder och serier du vill få feedback på, antingen i en pärm eller på din platta/mobil. Du kommer få råd i hur du kan utveckla din stil, vad du ska träna på, hur du kan utveckla dina serier och svar på dina frågor kring hur man blir mangateckare. Se till att vara i tid, det kan bli kö.

❀  ❀  ❀ 

Sist men inte minst, så har min kära kollega Åsa Ekström som arbetar som mangatecknare i Japan och gett ut böcker på löpande band, medverkat i utställningar, media och publiceringar i tidningar i mangans hemland (fantastiskt!) – börjat blogga på sin japanska blogg om olika svenska mangainspirerade tecknade serier för att lyfta fram oss för hennes japanska läsare, och hon gjorde två inlägg med Nosebleed Studios böcker (bl.a. en med min Mjau!)!! Så otroligt snällt av henne, och hedrande att få en så fin liten text om sin serie, på japanska~
Gå in och kika om ni vill träna på er japanska, eller använd Google Översätt för att hänga med, hihi. 

Åsas egna serier är bl.a. Sayonara September (en av mina egna favoriter bland svensk manga) och Hokuō jyoshi Åsa ga mitsuketa Nihon no fushigi (den serie böcker hon gjort i Japan som blivit en stor hit där!). Kolla in dem! 

❀  Tack för att ni läste! 

13 April 2018

Report from Leipzig Manga-Comic-Con 2018

Some weeks ago, I visited one of Germany's biggest comics event, Leipzig Manga-Comic-Con, which has since a couple of years ago been a part of the huuuge Leipzig Book Fair in the middle/end of March. The German manga scene has grown steadily for the past two decades and dominates the comics part of the fair. Here's my report from the event and as always I include some cool artists I met there and tips for you who might think of going there to sell your own comics and art!


This is the map for the enormous Leipziger Messe. 
The comics and manga part was in one of the five halls. The rest is the book fair...!



Inbetween the halls was a glass hallway which was so big I bet you could fit a commercial airline in there, or two. This was where a lot of the food courts where and naturally the cosplayers too because of the sunlight, good for photos!


Here's a part of the MCC hall. So many people!

Now I want to show you the German manga publishers. Lets start with the three biggest: Carlsen Manga, Egmont Manga and Tokyopop




These three manga publishers is behind the majority of the manga that is published in Germany. All of them also have their own German manga artists, whom are seen as an asset to their publishers as they have their own big fanbases and the publishers own the International rights and can sell licenses for their mangas. This was clearly show as both Egmont Manga showed of Niloo's debut manga Mein erste Mal and Tokyopop showed off Anna Backhausen and Sophie Shönhammer's manga Sternen sammler

Two publishers with roots in other countries that has established themselves on the German manga market: Panini Comics from Italy and Kazé Manga from France. 



Both of these only publish imported Japanese manga and don't publish German artists, yet. Panini Comics also publishes other comics besides manga.


Among the newer publishers are Pyramond, focusing on Non-Japanese manga and comics by Non-Japanese artists but with a Japanese aesthetical inspiration, and it is going very well! Another proof that that the German manga market have matured enough so that the prejudice about who can and can not make manga is irrelevant.
Pyramond is also my publisher of my mangas Sword Princess Amaltea and Mjau!.  

Altraverse is a new publisher with the former Tokyopop chief editor Joachim Kaps at the wheel, focusing on importing Japanese manga. 


There are also several smaller publishers, mostly aimed at self-publishing or certain themes (a lot of BL at some of them). Here's some:


Delfinium Prints, publisher of David Füleki's seinen mangas.


Schwarzer Turm, selling mostly German made comics, not just manga.

Several manga and comic artists had their own booths at the fair, so let me introduce you to some of them:


Désirée Kunstmann and Nana Yaa, two amazing manga artists mostly self-publishing but also published with publishers. Désirée at Delfinium Prints and Nana at Tokyopop. Nana is also part of the American Tokyopop initiative "International Women of Manga" that I'm also a part of.


CKJohnson and Sabrina Ehnert, two super talented illustrators. Sabrina's  children's book Friedwalds grose Reise was of course in my bag on the way home. Signed. 


The twins Gin Zarbo and Ban Zarbo, super cool and skilled manga artists and also part of Tokyopop's "International Women of Manga" with Nana and I.


German-Japanese Mikiko Ponczeck, now living in London (I met her at last years London Comic Con too). She makes a living drawing manga full time, partly thanks to her webcomics on Tapas

One part of the fair is called MCC Kreativ, and this is their Artist Alley. A bit cheaper than a booth.




One of the super cool artists I met in the MCC Kreativ is PearsFears, who also make webcomics. Mostly BL, which is super popular in Germany, so she was not alone. 


In the middle of the comics and manga part of Leipzig MCC, this stage was the drinking spot for everyone thirsty for the news withing the German manga scene. Publishers had booked time slots on stage and presented their newest books.


My publisher Christian Allmann presenting the upcoming titles at Pyramond, among others my own kitten manga Mjau!.

Going back to Germany is for me like meeting relatives that lives far away. This is my second big event in the country since DoKomi in 2015 and I have made so many friends online since then that I was elated to meet in person. Some of them have become really close friends like Marika Herzog, whom joined me for the Italian event FumettoPolis last year.


Marika (cosplaying from YOI) and I. 


Some artists I have mostly admired on a distance, like Reyhan Yildirim, one of my "artist-crushes". This time I was brave enough to talk to her and got one of her mangas signed. Yaaay!!
To be able to meet all these amazing and kind artists that I have followed for so many years, and to hang out with them in the evenings too, it was a dream come true! ❤

Last but not least, this event was the pre-release of Sword Princess Amaltea vol. 1 in Germany, and thus marks another step in my career. I signed so many books (thank you everyone for buying it!!) and feel so honored to be part of this flourishing and high-quality manga scene.



Besides the snow storms covering the city in an almost Arctic aura, this trip was a well needed boost for me as a Swedish manga artist and fan. In Sweden, last year was the first year since the end of the 90'ies where no Japanese manga was published in Sweden. No publishers dare to put in the effort anymore. I could write a whole blog entry about it, but in short; the editors at the big comic publishers in Sweden are either not interested or not knowledged enough to do the job. Plus the kids here are too good at reading English (and the American manga distributors reach us well). So for me, seeing how the German publishers put money and time into manga, and get rewarded likewise, makes me both happy and envious. They prove that manga was not just a fad. Maybe this is where the Swedish manga publishers would have been if they wouldn't have given up that easily.

Oh, well.

____________________________________________

Last but not least, here's my tips for you who want to go sell at Leipzig MCC (based on my experiences of the fair):

  • Cash Is King in Germany, so bring lots of change, in Euro of course. Most people seem to want to pay in cash, but the most common alternative seem to be PayPal so make sure you have that too.
  • Book the tables waaaay in advance. The MCC Kreative seemed to have some issues with tables going fast or something, which was partly why so many artists had their own booths.
  • Book hotels and traveling tickets early too. I went by train, which was not as awefull as some seem to think. Took 10 hours from Sweden but I only payed 200 euro for the tickets (both ways included).
  • Fanart was apparently an issue, I heard, they discuss how much should be allowed. Check the rules before you apply, if you are a fanartist.
  • Manga, webstyles and fiction or funny cartoons seemed to be the dominating part of the artists selling, so that might be something to keep in mind.
____________________________________________

✱ Thank you so much for reading! ✱

25 March 2018

2018 - My Year Of Global Breakthrough

Every year, I usually make a blog entry about what my coming year should be all about. Like a view ahead. I try to make these blog entries early in the year, but this time, my year have already been so hectic that I did not have time until now to do it.... So, here goes!

I also used to do New Year's resolutions, but have stopped doing it, because I learned that I sometimes have a hard time controlling what will happend to my time, when opportunities sometimes litteraly gets dropped from the sky and I just have to catch them.

My previous "My Year Of"-blog entries can be found here (some of them in Swedish):
2009 - Året då allt ska hända!
2010 - Året då allt kommer att hända!
2011 - Men var lite stolt för fan!
2012 - The year of new beginings!
2013 - Let's draw!
2014 - A year of reaping the fruits
2015 - The year of new challanges!
2016 - Time to evolve!
2017 - My year of fulfilling my dreams

This year will be epic, both career-wise and personally. I am sure I will remember 2018. Here's why:
  • Career:
    My mangas Mjau! and Sword Princess Amaltea will be released in 4 countries (USA, Germany, Italy and Czech Republic) all through the year. I will be travelling a lot and visiting events in each country to promote the mangas.
  • Personally:
    My bf and I will build our own house, by hand. More info and photos to come...

 The German and Italian versions of Sword Princess Amaltea is already out! Here's the German one:


Thus, my year will be filled with travelling, bulding, travelling, building, travelling... and even more building!
This is my plan:


April:
Part time work at Serieskolan (the comic art school where I teach every week) while demo-ing the old house.
Finish a short comic for an anthology project, while working on Nosebleed Studio's upcoming second "how to make manga"-book.
27th of April: Sell books with Nosebleed Studio at J-popCon in Denmark.

May:
Part time work at Serieskolan while finishing the demo of the house and start preparing the base.
Release my watercolor manga Sjöjungfrun Minna and the free manga magazine Every Girl Is A Hero at Stockholm International Comics Festival (more about the project in an upcoming blog entry), plus working on Nosebleed Studio's "how to draw manga"-book.
5-6th of May: Sell books with Nosebleed Studio at Stockholm International Comics Festival in Stockholm, Sweden.
10-11th of May: Sell books with Nosebleed Studio at KodachiCon in Lund, Sweden.
17-20th of May: Sign books at Zanir's booth at AnimeFest in Brno, Czech Republic.

June:
Part time work at Serieskolan while finishing the base of the house and hopefully start with the wodden frame.
Some more work on Nosebleed Studio's "how to make manga"-book.
19-20th of June: Visit Armenia to do workshops as part of the Every Girl Is A Hero-project.

July:
Summer break for classes at Serieskolan, so we will work full time with the house. Hopefully finishing the wooden frame, and possibly the roof too.
Hopefully releasing the Nosebleed Studio "how to make manga"-book at NärCon Sommar.
5-8th of July: Sign books at Tokyopop's booth at Anime Expo in Los Angeles, USA.
26-29th of July: Sell at NärCon Sommar in Linköping, Sweden.

August:
Summer break still, but school starts at the end of the month so we will try to work as much as possible with the house. Hopefully finishing the roof AND the walls with exterior siding and all.
3-5th of August: Sign books at Pyramond's booth at Animagic in Mannheim, Germany.

September:
Part time work at Serieskolan while hopefully start work on the inside of the house, starting with the clay floors.
27-30th September: Sell books with Nosebleed Studio at Gothenburg Book Fair in Göteborg, Sweden.

October:
Part time work at Serieskolan while working on the inside of the house; interior walls and bathroom.
Maybe some spare time to start working on some future projects...
31st Oct - 4th Nov: Visiting Lucca Comics & Games in Lucca, Italy.

November:
Part time work at Serieskolan while working on the inside of the house; bathroom and kitchen.
Maybe some spare time to start working on some future projects...

December:
Part time work at Serieskolan while working on the inside of the house; the rest... Hopefully moving in before New Years Eve, but I think it will take some more weeks, maybe even until February 2019.
Maybe some spare time to start working on some future projects...


So, as you can see, I have my whole year planned out for me! I love this! I am that kind of person, who likes knowing what I will be doing not just a week or a month from now, but preferably a year from now! I think it's partly because I am a storyteller, and good storytelling is all about planning. Without a plan, you can't fore-shadow things or make a good dramaturgy for the whole story. That is why I make these posts; it's like writing a story the story of my own life.

Let's finish this wall-of-text-entry with the cover design for the Every Girl Is A Hero-magazine I'm going to release in May. More info soon!


Btw, this is my tenth year blogging, yaaay!
I posted my first blog entry back in August 20th 2008. So I will try to make some special entry here on that date.

✪ Thanks for reading! ✪

18 February 2018

2017 - In retrospect

I usually make a summary of the past year, but since I now use mostly my instagram (or at least more than I blog) I will make this summary even more summarized than normal. If you want more details, check out my instagram.

So, here's some important things I did 2017:

  • Visited a bunch of comic conventions!
    (links to my blog reports):
    23-26th of February: NärCon Vinter (Linköping, Sweden)
    1-2nd of April: Malmö Seriefest (Malmö, Sweden)
    14-16th of April: GothCon (Göteborg, Sweden)
    21-23th of April: J-popCon (Copenhagen, Denmark)
    26-27th of May: Nordsken (Skellefteå, Sweden)
    27-30th of July: NärCon Sommar (Linköping, Sweden)
    15-18th of September: FumettoPolis (Novara, Italy)
    28th Sept - 1st Oct: Göteborg Book Fair (Göteborg, Sweden)
    27-29th of October: MCM London Comic Con (London, United Kingdom)
    28th of December: Mellandags-marknad! (Panora, Malmö, Sweden)


  •  Held a lot of manga workshops!
    ...and lessons at schools, libraries and of course my dayjob at Serieskolan (Comic Art School) in Malmö. Plus a bunch of role playing game events with my RPG-book Sword Princess, based on my manga Sword Princess Amaltea.



And last but not least:

  • Signed a bunch of International deals!
    Not just one or two, I signed 6 International contracts for publishing deals for my mangas:

    Sword Princess Amaltea will be published as an omnibus by Zanir in Czech in April 2018

    Mjau! and Sword Princess Amaltea will be published by PYRAMOND in Germany all through 2018.

    Sword Princess Amaltea was published by Kasaobake in Italy in September 2017 and will continue through 2018.

    Mjau! will be published by Phoenix Dreams Publishing in the US in early Spring of 2018 and Sword Princess Amaltea will be published by Tokyopop in the US starting in June 2018.

So, in the end, I'm pretty satisfied with this year. Couldn't have asked for a better year, actually. This year was a year of travelling, a year of completion, a year of International recognition and a year of a lot of new friends!

And in my private life, big things have been happening as well... oh, what the heck, I'll tell you!

Me and my BF have bought a house! A tiny 50 square meter house that we will rebuild to our liking. All on our own. THIS HAS BEEN MY DREAM FOR SUCH A LONG TIME! It is finally coming true!

Here's a photo of the cottage right now. It will look totally different in a year or so, when we're done with it. I will keep you posted now and then, I promise.

It's the bigger house in the back. The one in the front is a small
guest house in terrible shape, that needs to come down too.

Thank you so much for reading!

30 December 2017

London Comic Con 2017 Report!

Hey everyone! Let's do an entry in English, for all my (possible) International readers!

I love doing these kinds of convention reports, both for my self (to remember what was good and not so good about them) but also to let other con goers and artists that might be interested in knowing a bit more about them.

So, here's a long overdue report from this year's London Comic Con, back in 27th-29th of October:

I had been trying to get here before, but the tables at the Comic Village (the comic artist part of the convention) is really, really diffucult to snatch (like at most big conventions nowadays). They release them in the begining of August and one table with one entrace ticket costs £80 (very fair price for an event with over 100 000 visitors!).

The Comic Village, pre opening.
 I was a little scared to go alone, so I brought two comic creator friends called Sam and Nora, who call them selves Studio Dhuppi and make the LGBTQ comic Come Queer With Me. Check them out!
My boyfriend also tagged along and helped me out a whole lot, plus was a great travel companion.

Me and Sam at our table in the Comic Village.
My issue with not going before was that I did not have any new comics in English that I could sell. But since Mjau! was Kickstarted with Phoenix Dreams Publishing the month before, we could do a quick print run of 50 exclusive "pre release" books, that I could sell at the con!

My side of the table! I sold Nosebleed Studio's 10 Years Jubilee Anthology!
 The convention was huuuge. This is a photo of just one part of one of the spacious halls filled to the brink with nerdy stores, companies, studios and asian fast food restaurants.


And here's some photos from the Comic Village! There was soo many tables there. Rows and rows and rows with fantastic artists, creations and projects!


One thing I actually am a big fan of is the fact that Comic Village has a ban on selling fanart. So all the se tables was original artworks! Compared to any other con, where the Artist Alley usually overflows of often unlicensed fanart and many times stolen trademarked logos etc., this was such a breath of fresh air for the artist community. Instead of competing with fanart (which because of the original characters being Internaional franchizes with huge PR budgets, that some fanart seller is leaching upon) we where actually on equal playing field!

Don't get me wrong. I love fanart that are made to show the original creator you love their works, or made as part of a fanart competition held by the original artist. But selling it? No. Unless the original artist and copyright holder have given you their written permission to profit from something they have worked hard on to build up, then that fanart seller is a thief. That's my honest opinion. So the Comic Village rule of banning fanart is in my mind the most legal and fair way to organize such an event.

Let's "meet" some of the artists at the con!


Two artists that caught my eye was Tom Oliver and Claude TC because I really liked both their styles and themes; fantasy and comedy! Go check them out! Plus awesome fancy prints~


These three amazing artists travelled far, just like we did, for this con! They are Marvin, Mrion and BLOP from France! Just jaw-dropping art and interesting stories, from historical to fantasy to slice-of-life.

 Last but not least,I really liked Dan Scarlett's style, a bit of manga mixed with more animation-ish styles, if you know what I mean.

As always, these trips makes perfect "date-trips" for me and my bf too (because when you date a workaholic like me, you have to live with all date-trips being partly work!). So we crammed in some tourism too, and just like when we went to New York to visit Comic Con, we make sure we check out some dinosaur sceletons while traveling. National History Museum and Brittish Museum made the trip perfect!


All in all, London Comic Con was just as amazing as I expected. Not as big as New York Comic Con (but still HUGE) but in some ways I liked this trip more. Probably because I had a table this time, I love experiencing a con from sitting at an artist table selling. And it was great being at a con and actually being able to speak to the buyers that come up to your table (not like when I visited DoKomi in Germany, my German is terrible), and network a lot with other artists!

Sam, Nora and I also got to be interviewed by the UK culture website The Panoptic. Check out the interview, where we talked about why we decided to come to London Comic Con, about self-publishing and working with publishers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's some tips for you who would like to sell at London Comic Con in October one day:
  1. Make sure to get a table in the Comic Village (this is the hardest part!). Keep your eyes at their Twitter account in the end of July/beginning of August. Remember to also book extra tickets when booking the table if you are more than one artist at the table.
  2. Book flight tickets and hotels waaaaay in advance, they are hard to catch the last weeks before the event. And get the Oyster Card for the subway as soon as you arrive in the city.
  3. If you travel far, by plane, you might want to ship your books/merch instead of carrying it in your bags. We asked the hotel and got to ship the books to them, they were so kind to take them in and we could pick them up when checking in.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So I highly recommend this con for anyone who wants to go sell at a comic convention in the UK!

Thanks for reading!

14 September 2017

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:





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!

31 December 2015

Recensioner och posdcasts!

Tänkte såhär på sista dagen av året samla de recensioner och podcasts som nämnt Sword Princess Amaltea 3 (eller som jag deltagit i).
Först ut är en recension i LitteraturMagazinet:
En både gullig och intelligent seriesaga - LitteraturMagazinet

En väldigt bra recension, även om den var kort. Hade tacksamt tagit emot mer eftersom detta är sista delen i serien, men samtidigt förstår jag att recensenter har begränsningar. Och utan att avslöja för mycket så kan jag ju säga att jag själv hade haft svårt att recensera en sista del i en serie som denna, eftersom den innehåller flera plot-twists som är svåra att inte förstöra för läsaren om man skriver för mycket.
Men en del fina citat i recensionen, bl.a.:
"Det är starkt och nyttigt att läsa. Böckerna om Amaltea klassas som ungdomsserier och det innebär en viss gullighet, men främst är detta en oerhört intelligent serie som alltid är estetiskt snygg i en personlig mangastil, men också har innehållet på plats i varje serieruta."
Sebastian Lönnlöv, LitteraturMagazinet

Sedan ännu en recension, denna lite mer blandad i smaken:
Sword Princess Amaltea. Bok 3 - DAST Magazine

Detta var också en relativt kort recension, även om den ger mer feedback på innehållet. Dock uppstår några frågor i mig kring "svensk mangastil", vad menar Johannes med det? Syns det i stilen att jag är svensk? Det visste jag inte, haha.

Sedan tänkte jag ge lite svar på tal angående muskler på män. De av er läsare på bloggen som sett mitt föredrag om hur jag skapade Sword Princess Amaltea (har hållit det på diverse ställen) vet att jag hade en medveten tanke med kroppsformerna och de manliga karaktärernas utseenden i böckerna. Jag stör mig jämt på att fantasyfilmer väljer att med några få undantag fortfarande rollfördela kvinnorollerna till skådespelerskor med samma kroppsformer: slanka, smala och fagra. Detta är en grav felrepresentation av kvinnor i allmänhet, eftersom det begränsar vad vi ser som vackert eller "normalt" för en kvinna. Långa, musklulösa eller bredaxlade kvinnor blir inte representerade i samma utsträckning, och därmed anses de inte lika representativa för kvinnor i allmänhet. Detta formar vår syn på kvinnonormen.

Samma sak gäller för kroppsbehåring. Hur innihellskotta har kvinnliga krigare tid att raka sig under armarna och på benen när de är ute i skogen? Eller varför?? Kolla på tv-serien om Krigarprinsessan Xena, hennes armhålor är slätrakade som en 5-årings. Det är inte så kvinnors armhålor ser ut, men på grund av överrepresentation på film har det bildats en norm, som är så styrande att flickvänner tvingas raka sig för att deras pojkvänner är hjärntvättade till att ogilla kvinnligt kroppshår. Inte okej!

Så, genom att rita alla männen i Sword Princess Amaltea som fagra, klena, rakade (inget ansiktshår på någon av dem!!) och stöpta i samma kroppsform, ville jag ge alla manliga läsare samma frustrerande känsla som jag får när jag ser denna skeva representationen på film och i serier.
Och Johannes kommentar visar på att jag har lyckats, hehe!

Ett bra citat från recensionen som jag gillade:
"Vem ska läsa denna trilogi? Alla föräldrar som vill att sina barn ska växa upp med ett kritiskt sinne ska låta dem läsa detta. Alla som vill uppleva en skruvad saga med en illa dold feministisk agenda ska läsa detta. Alla som gillar manga ska läsa detta. Detta är nämligen bra på riktigt."
Johannes Genberg, DAST Magazine

Sen var det även en recension i Bild & Bubbla nr 205 av Sword Princess Amaltea 3, men den var så kort och intetsägande att jag inte ens pallar kommentera den här. Ovärdigt benämningen recension, i min mening.

Nu över till podcasts som jag deltagit i eller blivit omnämn i!
Först ut är ett samtal som hölls i Svenska Tecknares monter på Bok- och biblioteksmässan i Göteborg i september. Tillsammans med Josefin Svenske (redaktör på Rabén & Sjögren och förläggare för Kolik Förlag) samt Johan Unenge (skapare av bl.a. Eva&Adam samt läsambassadör) satt jag med och samtalade om hur se svenska barnserierna ser ut idag, vad som behövs och hur de kan främja läsandet för unga nyfikna men kanske läströtta personer.

Prata! Serier för barn - Svenska Tecknare

Det var väldigt kul och intressant. Johan är en stor idol för mig, jag minns att jag läste KP främst för Eva&Adam (och såklart för Kropp&Knopp, det gjorde väl alla). Den försynta och tillbakadragna Adam och den aktiva och pådrivande Eva var en så frisk fläkt bland de annars ganska könsnormativa barn- och ungdomsserierna som behandlar relationer.
Josefin är inte bara min egen redaktör på Amaltea-projektet, utan dessutom en av få kvinnliga serieförläggare, vilket jag beundrar!

Är du sugen på att veta mer om barnserietrenden som är på väg nu och vad den kommer kunna ge, lyssna på detta samtal!


Sist men definitivt inte minst släppte Comixpodden ett HELT AVSNITT OM MINA SERIER (!!!), som en lite förtidig julklapp!
61.A song for Natalia - Comixpodden

Ni fattar inte hur glad jag blev av detta!!
Det är som massage för egot! Det är så kul att höra Joakim och Petter diskutera var och en av mina längre serier, och ge sina tankar kring karaktärernas drivkrafter, plot-twists och samhällsstrukturer. I 2 TIMMAR!!! De nämner en del spoilers, men varnar innan för den som inte läst alla ännu.
Detta var nog en av de bästa julklapparna jag fått i år! Tack så mycket, Comixpodden!!
Jag kan varmt rekommendera Comixpodden, speciellt om du gillar att lyssna på poddar medans du ritar!


Så med detta avslutar jag året, och tack så mycket för ännu ett år som du följt med mig genom mina äventyr under 2015. Nu mot nya äventyr!