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)

• Made a lot of manga pages!
  I finished my 42-page historical short story manga Goodbye Sweden, later published in the Swedish manga anthology Nosebleed Studio reser i den svenska historien and the Italian manga anthology Comic 2 Bite. I also finished my 75-page watercolor manga Sjöjungfrun Minna och den hemliga vännen, which will be released in April 2018 in 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.

Dags för mangaworkshop på Österängs bibliotek i Kristianstad! Kl. 14-16 idag. Är ute och håller workshops hela veckan. Imorgon blir det på Anderstorps och Burseryds bibliotek i Småland, på torsdag blir det Kirsebergs och Lindängens bibliotek i Malmö. På tisdag nästa vecka kommer jag till Kristianstads stadsbibliotek. Boka plats hos biblioteken om ni vill vara säkra på att ni får en plats! #tecknamanga #workshop #mangaworkshop #ritamanga #mangateckning #manga #svenskmanga

Ett inlägg delat av Natalia Batista, mangaka (@nataliasmanga) 11 Jul 2017 kl. 3:54 PDT

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!

2016 - Time to evolve!

Prepare for some planning. Lot's of planning!

Also: New Years Resolutions.
(Oh boy, this will crash and burn...)
First, the resolutions of 2015:

I will get myself a drivers license!
This was actually my resolution for 2014 too. Um.. yeah. I havn't even tried, I'm so sorry (mostly embarrassed towards my parents who gave me a gift card for some of the lessons at a driving school that I have so far not used... 2 years ago). I get extremely embarrassed by talking about this. I hate feeling like I've lost or failed in something, and this is such a thing. To be honest, I'm just too scared to drive. I am so scared for traffic, high ways, driving, myself behind the wheel... I just feel in my gut I will die in the roads some day!
That's why I think I'll have to deal with this in my own time.
So, if I should grade myself, then a E- perhaps? (Not so sure about this alphabetical grading system, haha)

But I also had another resolution!
I will make an animation!
And this I did! Or at least started doing... Did I fail this too?! Bu hu hu hu...
Well, at least I did make about 50 seconds of my animation. Time is not in abundance and too many other projects and work is taking my time (not in a bad way, I like most of it).
I'll give myself a C+ for this. I didn't animate much, but what I did was good!

And that's why the first of the resolutions for 2016 is:
I will make an animation!
(I give myself a lot of second chanses, haha)
I hope to be able to finish episode 1 (5 min animation) of Mjau! this year. Wish me good luck!

Another clip from the animation I'm making of Mjau! Haven't had as much time to work on it as I would like to, but I will hopefully be able to make big progress this year. More about that and upcoming events of 2016 that I'll visit up at my blog: natalia.batista.se #anime #animation #mjaumanga #mjauanime #kawaii #kitten

Ett filmklipp publicerat av Natalia Batista, mangaka (@nataliasmanga) Feb 5, 2016 kl. 4:06 PST

And the second is:
I will go to Japan again!
This is a bit tricky. I want to go, mostly because I want to bring my boyfriend and do it together, but I also wish I had more time to go to London and Paris, and the two main comic events there.
We'll have to see how this year pans out...

Now over to some planning of the year!
I have already planned for some events me/Nosebleed Studio will have a table at.

Events of 2016 (so far):
12-14 of February: NärCon Vinter in Linköping
18-20 of March: J-popCon in Copenhagen, Denmark
25-27 of March: GothCon in Gothenburg

2-3 of April: Malmö Seriefest in Malmö

7-8 of May: Stockholm International Comics Festival (S.I.S.)

13-15 of May: Confusion in Gothenburg

28-31 of July: NärCon in Linköping 

September: Comic Con Malmö in Malmö

September: Göteborg Book Fair in Gothenburg

November: Comic Con Gamex in Stockholm

As I mentioned, I would also love to go to one or both or Japan Expo in Paris and MCM London ComicCon, but mostly as a visitor so I can get a chance to talk to publishers about Sword Princess Amaltea.
We'll have to see...

Apart from this, my year will be filled with working at Serieskolan in Malmö, making 2 books together with Nosebleed Studio (more about that in upcoming blog entries), and animating.

This will be a year I need to focus on what I want to make. So I'll use my time wisely.
Hope you have time to focus on your own passions too!

✪ Thank you for reading! ✪

Report from the International Comics Festival in Angoulême

In English, because I think this might interest my international readers as well!

Last week end, I was invited by the Swedish Institute in Paris to the 42nd Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d'Angoulême, probably the most prominent comics festival in France. The institute invited a group of Swedish artists to participate in activities on stage and signings. 

The other artists was some of my own idols, whom I read works by when I started making comics; Joakim Pirinen, Nina Hemmingsson and Anneli Furmark! I was so starstruck! Also the supertalented and supernice Emelie Östergren (who I shared living quaters with) and Mattias Adolfsson (a master of social media!). Going to the event meant sitting in a train for 3,5 hour (between Charle de Gaulle and Angoulême), and those was well spent on talking about making comics, building stories, teaching, psychology and other deep and interesting things with these awesomely brilliant and friendly people... I was elated!! 
To be invited and part of this group of people was extremely honoring and nerve-racking at the same time.

Here's some photos!

All of us artists invited was to sit on the stage next to the Swedish booth and draw while what we drew was shown on the screen behind us. I was first up, right at the beginning of the day, and happened to get a huge crowd of 10-year-olds, who stayed for about 30 minutes watching me draw!

Photo by Fredrik Strömberg, chairman of the Swedish Comics Association.

And the finished picture:

 After that, we was to sign books in the Swedish booth.
Here's me, Emelie and Mattias signing, at the same time!

Photo by Fredrik Strömberg, chairman of the Swedish Comics Association.

 Nina Hemmingsson drawing.
We all had music playing while drawing, which was 

really cool since it also told alot about our personal tastes. 

I chose the Game of Thrones soundtrack, for example.

 Emelie Östergren drawing. 

All of us also worked so differently when drawing. 

Some did sketches, while others didn't.

The stage was also used for a couple of panels on Swedish and Nordic comic. One with editors from four publishers, one from each of the four Nordic countries Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. Very interesting when they compared the marked and seemed to find similarities but also some significant differences, like how (generally speaking) comics from Norway are more fun, comics from Denmark more commercial, comics from Sweden more political and comics from Finland more artistic. Generally speaking, that is.

Anneli, Nina and I was on stage and talked about women making comics in Sweden, and we had a couple of inspired women in the audience - yaaay!
And last but not least, three of the Nordic countries battled it out on stage, in a cartoon stand off. Mattias and I represented Team Sweden, and we're taking the lead, until the finale when Finland came up victorious. Well fought, colleagues!

The city of Angoulême really transformed into a full festival, with tents full of publishers on each square you walk by in the center of the city. Not like a "normal" book fair where everything is crammed into one big hall.

On houses and in shops was famous French cartoon characters painted on the walls and window glass, and the mix of old French architecture and pop-art-esque pictures really made the city unique. 

Some cool street art.

On Friday, me and some other from the Swedish group (not only the invited artist, the whole delegation was about 20 people, both artist, publishers and other) went to the Jeunne Talente tent. That's where so called Book Submissions was held, also known as portfolio reviews. Editors from different French publishers gave aspiring artists a chance to show them their works and get feedback. After about 2,5 hours in line, I finally got to meet two editors from Kazé Manga, a big French manga publisher. I showed them Sword Princess Amaltea and they seemed impressed! They said it all looked very professional, wanted to keep in touch and gave me their business cards! Yippee!!

 The lines to the editors, so many eager artists.
Some even traveled there from Brasil, to show their stuff!

 The weather was bad, raining most of the time, but the time was well spent on the festival and in the company of so friendly and awesome people. Fabian Göransson, my [former] editor at Kolik förlag, a veteran in Angoulême, showed me and Emelie a nice coffee shop, and we couldn't resist the cakes they had there. A nice fika with friends, just like we Sweedes like it. ;)

The irrestistable cakes.

 A quick photo of the booth, before going home.

The trip was such an eye opener. Especially to the French market, which I had a bit of knowledge about but far from enough. Also a chance of new friendships, and more contact with people I usually jsut rush by on events. I felt so honored to be invited to this trip, and thankful to the amazing people at the Swedish Institute in Paris for all their work!

Even though all this sounds super great, there was a darked part to the festival too. Because of the attack on the office of the Paris-based satire cartoon magazine Charlie Hebdo on the 7th of January, the festival was swarmed with police. The doors of each tent was guarded, and it took ages to get in because of secutiry checks. Felt awkward, but we all understood the necessity. Still, it made this positive and creative atmosphere a bit tarnished... The attack was terrible, and the waves of the butterfly wings will be felt ages from now, I think. The attack was discussed a lot in the comics forum (i.e. at facebook) but I don't feel like bringing it up here right now. It's complicated.

Ending on a better note: 

Yay for new friendships, obtained business cards and an awesome time!

And cake.

✌

Thanks for reading.

Sword Princess Amaltea is on!!

Hey everyone, and especially my Sweidsh and Danish readers! Big news!!

I have now signed the contract with Kolik förlag and the official release of the first Swedish book of Sword Princess Amaltea (former called A Sword Princess Tale) will be in September 2013!!

New logo!

The plan to have it run in the Danish comic mangazine Comic Party is also official now, and I'm looking forward to this project so much!!

I have created a Facebook page for the project, please like it and follow the progress! I will put up pics and contests all through Spring and Summer!

Sword Princess Amaltea @ Facebook

So far I have done the whole layout sketches for book one, plus the story planned for all the three books. My editors Fabian Göransson (Kolik) and Dong Trieu (Comic Party) have given me valuable feedback and after some rounds I finally started drawing the manga about two weeks ago, or so. Now inking page 18 of chapter 1, and all the details make me sweat!
Here's a small sneak peek, more to come!

Queen Galatea and her daughter Princess Amaltea.
Still inking her sister Princess Dorotea in the background.

Last weekend, I went to J-popCon in Copenhagen, Denmark, together with Nosebleed Studio!
Our first convention this Spring, nice to be "back on the road" meeting fans and other fun people.
At Saturday, I held a Yaoi manga presentation, the same that I have held on other conventions such as UppCon and NowJapan.
I asked my sister Catarina to film me, since I was to hold the presentation in English so that I could put it online for all you people out there that hasn't had the chance to see it Live! Haha...

It's not only about the history of Yaoi manga, but also some theories about why young women like to read and draw homoerotica with gay guys.
I'm sorry for my bad English, I did my best... T__T

I really  L O V E  to do this presentation, because all the fangirls that come there seem to enjoy it, and often some of the listeners come up to me later on and tell me how it made them realize stuff, or how things I bring up in the presentation remind them of their own lives or interest in yaoi.


Okay, let's return to the manga!! Draw draw draw!
Thanks for reading!!!

2012 - in retrospect

2012 was a little bit disappointing... Well, not now that I look back on all the fun things I managed to do this year, but when it comes to all the things I was hoping for but didn't achieve. To defend myself I want to point to the fact that the things that I hoped for that didn't come true was because of others, not me. Sometimes in your life there's things that can't be done because other people don't give you the chance to do them.

I don't blame them though, I blame myself. One day, when I have become more well respected within the industry, I might get all things I hope for. Today, I have to live with the benefit of the doubt from others.

Time for a look back on the milestones of the past year, as I usually do this time around!

Milestones of 2012:

 

• In January I worked hard on finishing all three major comics that I made that year. Good way to start off the year, haha!
  A Sword Princess Tale - chapter 1 (fanzine made for SIS/SPX in Stockholm in April)
  Hooked On You (published in Nosebleed Studio's Seaside Stories anthology)
  A Song for Elise - REMIX: Memories (published in the Boy's Love anthology GUYS!)
  

• February came with a small achivement: my entry for the Japanese manga magazine Ribbon's monthly manga competition resulted in an honorable mention, a prize called もうひと息賞 ("Mou hito ikishou" = one more try-prize). My manga was mentioned in issue #2 this year, you can read the full review here.
  
  
• All through Spring, Summer and Fall, I applied for several artistic funds but recieved null. This was quite dissapointing. I know I can't expect to get any, but it's still heartbreaking every time you get a letter from one of the organizations saying "...you application could not be approved."
  Well, they won't get rid of me that easily! I'll keep trying until I get some!
  
  
• I was aslo teaching at Malmö Univeristy in their English comic course Comics, International Perspectives, specializing in the Japanese manga market. Very nice and fun, I like teaching at the University because it's so professional and enjoyable!
  
  
  
  
• In March and April, the main focus was to finish all the projects before Small Press Expo at Stockholms International Comic Fair (the biggest comic event in Sweden) in the end of April. Nosebleed Studio's book Seaside Stories was to be released, as well as the latest edition of Swedish Comic Sin (book 3) that I'm the editor of.
  Chapter one of A Sword Princess Tale was also sold at the event as a fanzine, and I also began my search for a publisher in these months, both inside and outside of Sweden. Most publishers take some time to think over things, and even though I had a Swedish publisher and a Danish one that was quite interested I wanted more. Back then, my goal with this project was to have at least three or more publishers working with me on this, to make the best out of their collected feedback, and also to get enough pay to have an assistant working with me on this.
  
  
  
  
  
• In the beginning of 2012, my childrens manga Mjau! also got an International deal with Portuguese NCreatures and their manga magazine Banzai.
  
  

• May and June was mostly waiting for replies from the publishers. I had also sent in my second entry to Ribbon in March, and got the results in June: the same honorable mention in issue #6! Read the full review here.
  
  

• I used all the spare time to work with my friend and colleague Elise Rosberg on the coming site NonstopCon, a Swedish community for Asian-fans of all sorts! During Spring and Summer, we worked on the layout, putting up a crowdfunding page (and recieved the full amount in the end!) and planned all the features of the site. Our webb developer Rick worked his ass off all Fall and Winter, but still didn't get it done until December which was our plan. The site is a little late, but it's all becasue we're not okay with just any crappy community site, we want this one to WORK!
  For our Swedish fans, follow the work on our blog.
  
  

• A well deserved vacation was made in July, to my aunt and relatives in Portugal. More inspirational trips made, and lots of photos taken!
  
  

• In September my sister Catarina and I finally finished Nosebleed Studio's new Worppress site! It's so nice to finnaly have a professional and working webshop and also a manga reader with flip-book funtion! Check it out!!
  
  

• I felt I needed to make a trip to some of the bigger comic fairs in the world, both for my self an my career. As I am a big fan of American reality shows (yup, one of my sins), I decided it was time to go to the big land over seas. So, Emil and I went to New York Comic Con in October and I got to talk to Yen Press, a meeting that changed my perspective on things and also my focus for A Sword Princess Tale. I'm no longer pursuing a multinational deal to begin with, but focusing on making something for a Nordic market that might work elsewhere.
  Check the full report here.
  Afterwards, I also made a report from NYCC in comic form for Bild&Bubbla, that will be printed sometime in 2013.
  
  

• For the second time around, I got to teach at Malmö University's comic course in Swedish, Serieteckning och visuellt berättande. Yet again, so rewarding! Teaching is a great way to learn more about your own profession, it forces me to overlook my work process and put it on paper (I make handouts for all courses, I think I should put them here on my page actually).
  I was also teaching at Serieskolan in Malmö, which also feels cool and honoring (they trust me!). The week there focused on storytelling, very convenient because I had just finished a book (John Truby's The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller)  and some self-studies on storytelling!
  
  

• Some Swedish media attention during this year:
  ✎ An interview in City Malmö (nr 2012-08-23) about nerdy hobbies.
  ✎ An interview together with Catarina in Lokaltidningen Lund on the 28th of September.
  ✎ The above shown frontpage and article of Sydsvenskan Omkretsen on the 11th of November.
  
  

• All through the year, Nosebleed Studio visited a lot of manga/comic conventions:
  KodachiCon in Lund (May) - where we sold a lot of our books to our fans in Skåne (the Southen most region in Sweden). I also did my Yaoi presentation again, which was fun!
  UppCon in Uppsala (June) - I did a presentation on my attempts to get into the Japanese manga market, and we sold a bunch of our Swedish manga to many awesome fans, thank you!!
  NärCon in Linköping (July) - I did the Yaoi presentation here as well.
  NowJapan in Vilnius (August) - we where Internationally invited to this Lithuanian convention, cool huh? I did the Yaoi presentation there (very well attended!) and we also did the manga battle tournament, fun!
  AltCom in Malmö (November) - not a manga con, but still fun. We managed to get into the paper as well!
  Confusion in Göteborg (December) - I did the Yaoi-presentation again, and there was a line of people who didn't even get in... It was popular! We met a lot of awesome fans and gained new ones as well.
  
  

•   In the end of the year, comics started calling for me again. I had almost stopped drawing at all during April to October, and now I not only have to make a 32 page manga to Nosebleed Studio's next anthology (sneak peek to the right) but also I need to start making the layout sketches for A Sword Princess Tale! The first 4 chapters are planned to be finished before July and the Swedish and Danish publisher are both eager to have it and so am I! Okay, let's go!!

Hm... I think that's a pretty good summary of my year. I probably forgot some small things here and there, but all in all it's pretty much like this.

This year was disappointing in some ways. I didn't get a contract with A Sword princess Tale as early as I wanted it (I would have wanted to start working on it in the Fall) and the God of funds was not on my side this year. I do survive though, thanks to all the childrens books I have made last year.

But, I'm still pleased with the victories; 2 honorable mentions in Japanese manga magazine Ribbon, the publishing of Mjau! in Banzai, a new homepage for Nosebleed Studio and all in all 90 manga pages finished (and another 60 pages in rough sketch). Not my most productive year, but still pretty awesome!

✰ Okay, onwards to 2013! Let's make history!! ✰

Teaching, PRAO and a new project

Long time no see!
Sorry for the one month silence here... Well, life have been busy and I wanted to get rid off some stuff on my table. Here's a report on what I've been up to!

Two weeks ago, I was teaching at Serieskolan in Malmö for the first year students, about how to build a story.
It was very fitting, since I just recently finished John Truby's The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller, a very good book on how to tell a story with natural and organic storytelling. I read it because since I started sending in my mangas to the Japanese manga magazine Ribbon, I have wanted to evolve my storytelling (since that was one of the main problems my stories had).

So my week with the students at Serieskolan was aslo a perfect chance for me to repeat the ideas of Mr. Truby in my own mind, and see them in use.
We also talked about visual storytelling; how to construct a picture and how the reader reacts to a picture or sequence of pictures. I recommend Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics to get knowledge on visual storytelling and comic perception.

The week after, I had a PRAO (an intern) here at my studio at home. She was nice, working hard on her own project and practicing drawing wolves. Rawr!


And now, I have started working on a new project. Like before, this will be a Ribbon manga entry, but also a short story in Nosebleed Studio's next anthology!
I don't want to spoil too much, but as Ribbon editors have suggested I do something more Swedish this time, and because Nosebleed Studio's next anthology will be a Swedish-themed, this story will play out in the Swedish countryside during the shojo-manga-esque traditional Midsummer Eve. Flower crowns, nice dresses and the romantic feeling in the air will be perfect for a Ribbon manga entry, don't you think?

Here's some quick sketches I did of the main character, Julia. Oh, and her childhood friend Dennis as well.

I've just finished the layout sketches and will probably start drawing any day soon. I look forward to it!!

A Sword Princess Tale, my longer project, is also developing nicely. I have a Swedish and a Danish comic publisher on the line and they are both interested in publishing it next year. Because I don't want to get too hasty, I won't reveal  names before contracts are written, but it is surely looking good right now!
Some things should not be rushed.

Oh, and now some shameless advertisement!

Nosebleed Studio is having a December Sale on our webshop!  
Our anthologies Seaside Stories and 5 Years Jubilee Anthology are both 10% off, and also the Deluxe Set is on sale!
Here's a perfect chance for you to get an awesome and uique X-mas present for someone, save some money and also help us fund our future projects!
Please, check it out!

~*~*~*~ Happy Holiday Everyone! ~*~*~*~

New York Comic Con Report!

Wow, long time no see! A month since I last wrote here, and that's because I've been quite busy... With everything else than making comics, sadly. Still enjoyable stuff though, so here's a HUGE report!

In September I was teaching comics art and visual storytelling at Malmö University again, thanks to Gunnar Krantz - my ex-teacher from Malmö Serieskola (Comic Art School). It was fun and this time I had the chance to go through more than the basics, which was nice.
The course was Serieteckning och visuellt berättande if you are interested in taking it. It's in Swedish but there's also an English one every Spring called Comics, International Perspectives.

Ok, now over to what I've done in October!

Guess where I have been off to?

Me and my boyfriend Emil went to the US of A! More precisely New York City, for their yearly New York Comic Con! It's the second biggest comic convention in the US, the San Diego Comic Con being the biggest.

Why New York? Because I have wanted to see these. You don't find this in Sweden, and the Big Apple is such an interesting and energetic city. It's not really an American city as much as it is an International city, especially Manhattan (where we hanged out most of the time).

 

The food. Oh, the food.

These huge pancakes (pobably more than 20 cm in diameter each) was our breakfast. Twice, and then we realized it would actually kill our stomachs...

Thursday was the "Professionals and VIP's only" day! So after standing in this line for one hour we finally eneter the huge convention center.

Huge. ((This word pretty much describes most things we experienced in the US))

Powaaaah!!

Back to the future!

  All the big videogame and comic companies was there. Big booths, a lot of "booth babes" (both female and male ones) and cool sculputers, life size models, figurines in glass cabinets... So much to see!!

These historical originals was displayed for the charity auction, check out the starting bid!

Also, there was a lot of shops and smaller companies and studio's there, selling all from nerdy T-shirst and self-published comics to steampunk stuff and small production toys.

Yes, a steampunk keyboard...!

 Lego also had a booth, with awesome models like these of Gandalf and Bildo. They're smart, they know their audience is not only young kinds but old kids as well!

We had to check out the Artist Alley, which was in it's own big hall. So many fantastic artists! Most into the American comics style, but also some into manga and more European styles. Mike Mignola had a table, which just shows the level of artists there. Some where more green though, and the diversity was appealing. So inspiring!

I usually don't buy prints, but since some of the artists was so freaking amasing, I just had to. I think we spent more than 100 dollar on prints alone!

I also took the chance to talk to editors at Yen Press (yes, I know, I'm a workaholic!) and their great and insightful feedback made me change a lot of my agendas and plans. They where harsh and honest, which I love!! Hopefully a collaboration in the future, a great contact!

The next day, we went for a walk in Central Park. Here's the statue of the sled dog Balto, who aslo got his own animated movie, remember? 

Even the squirrels were huge! And cute~

 We stopped by the Natural History Museum and checked out the space exhibition and the dinosaur skelettons!

HUGE!

 

Saturday, and back at Comic Con. If we ever though it was packed on Thursday, this was HELL. So much people it took us 3 times longer to get anywhere. 

A lot of awesome cosplayers and people dressed up for the costume contest.

So... much... people...

The Artist Alley, a little more packed, huh?

The Javits Center (where Comic Con was held) from the outside. Um... huge?

 On Sunday we had the chance to check out Midtown and Downtown, and especially the shops we had maked on the map before the trip. Among them was Forbidden Planet on Broadway and Midtown Comics at Times Square. Both have a lot of comics and figurines and made me even more poor...
We also went to Chinatown, Financial district and walked along the High Line, a former train bridge that was turned into a floating park along the West side of Midtown. 
We walked a lot... I meassured on the map, and we went like 60 km all 6 days! O_O

Monday was return day, but we still had the chance to go on a visit to Parsons New School of Design thanks to my friend Dinah (the same Dinah that helped me back when I got my contract on Ein Lied für Elise with TOKYOPOP back in 2010). It was interesting to go there, see the school and participate in a lesson.

Wow, a trip I will remember and that mattered a lot to me. Tired and dirty we returned home to Sweden.
Feels like this trip was like a piece of the puzzle of my life, put in the right spot and made things a little clearer. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Now some tips for you who think of going to NYCC any time in the future:

1. Book a hotel on Manhattan, as close to NYCC as possible. The island is HUGE and walking in the city makes your feet hurt... Bring good shoes as well!
2. Make sure you have the ESTA (a traveling visa you have to apply for at least 3 days before your trip). The Americans are super duper careful, scanning every inch. And don't lock your bag, they have to be able to check it if they want to.
3. If you are a librarian, artist, game developer, publisher or any other professional, apply for the NYCC Professional Pass at least 2 months before the trip. It's so much cheaper, plus you get entrance to the Show room at Thursday, which is the only day you actually can breathe in there.
4. Do a lot of planning before the trip! Check the Internet for shops and restaurants and attractions you wanna go see. Print out maps, mark the shops and restaurants and always have the addresses written down. Did I mention that the city is HUGE? People are helpful though, so as long as you have a map and an address you'll manage.