Rapport från NärCon Vinter och Seriefest + Inför GothCon och J-popCon

Ojoj, va segt det har varit att försöka skriva! Eller ja, jag har varit MEGAupptagen!

Så, låt oss börja med en återblick...
Detta har hänt:

Rapport från NärCon Vinter
(Linköping, 23-26 februari)

Jag, Magnolia (vår nya testmedlem) och Elise
vid våra bord på NärCon Vinter 2017.

Jag hade bord med mina vänner i Nosebleed Studio, och vi fick en superbra plats i korridoren så alla såg oss! Vi höll två mycket välbesökta workshops (båda med över 30-40 deltagare!) och ett superpoppis chibiporträtt-event... Så poppis att vi tyvärr fick avbryta det för att våra händer värkte och det var över 50 pers kvar i kön. Kön startade faktiskt redan 1,5 h innan eventet skulle startat!! Wow!

Här är några av de lyckliga som fick sig ett gratis chibiporträtt!

Två andra fina chibisar jag ritade! Åh, va kul det var! #chibimanga #banecosplay #harrypottercosplay #chibi #chibiart #mangaka #mangacharacter #dailyart #copicsketch #copic #kawaii #kawaiigirl

A post shared by Natalia Batista, mangaka (@nataliasmanga) on Feb 25, 2017 at 9:49am PST

 Vi hade även en Karaktärsdesignstävling och fick in lite drygt 15 bidrag! Wow! Vinnarna utlyste vi på plats och via vår Instagram, de vann varsitt exemplar av vår teckningsbok Nosebleed Studio lär dig rita manga! — Karaktärsdesign:

Vinnarna i vår Karaktärsdesigntävling! Ottillia Persson, Wilma Hedin och Frej Rokka! Grattis!! Ni vann varsitt exemplar av "Nosebleed Studio lär dig teckna manga! — Karaktärsdesign". Bra jobbat alla som var med, så fantastiska karaktärer vi fick se! De är utställda vid Nosebleed Studios bord i Creative på NärCon Vinter! #mangastyle #mangaart #tävling #competition #artcompetition #kawaii #mangacharacter #kawaiiart

A post shared by Nosebleed Studio (@nosebleedstudio) on Feb 25, 2017 at 6:04am PST

Men något av det bästa med NärCon Vinter var ändå detta:

Kyyaaah!! @drawing_neko came by at NärCon Vinter, cosplaying Ville from my manga Mjau! 💜💜💜 And gave me a fanart of Ville too!! I'm so happy! Such a great cosplay, even the shoes are right! 👍🌟🐱 Thank you!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ #mangaka #cosplay #cosplayer #mangaart #mangacharacter #originalcharacter #myoc #kawaii #kawaiicosplay

A post shared by Natalia Batista, mangaka (@nataliasmanga) on Feb 24, 2017 at 4:31am PST

 Helt fantastiskt att få se någon cosplaya ens karaktär!! Jag har sett ett antal cosplaya mina mangakaraktärer men det är alltid så smickrande, hedrande och underbart varje gång! Tack!!

Efter NärCon Vinter var det måla, måla, måla som gällde! Jag hann göra flera uppdateringar på min instagram, bl.a. lite videor som denna:

Painting the lineart last in brown aquarelle with a DaVinci brush size 0. #watercolor #watercolorart #aquarelle #painting #mermaidart #mermaid #mermaids #mangaka #mangastyle #drawingvideo #paintingvideo #hyperlapse #brush #dailyart #kawaii

A post shared by Natalia Batista, mangaka (@nataliasmanga) on Mar 18, 2017 at 2:37pm PDT

Jag stressade som tusan för att jag var hundra procent säker på att jag inte skulle hinna till min deadline för min Sjöjungfru Minna-serie. Så stressad att jag hade svårt att sova och fick ont i kroppen... Så jag mailade min redaktör Fabian och bad om mer tid... varpå han svarar "Men vi flyttade ju deadlinen till i höst, med släpp våren 2018"...
FATTA ATT JAG HÖLL PÅ ATT TRILLA AV STOLEN!
Japp, som han skriver flyttade vi på deadlinen, men detta hade jag helt glömt bort!! Så jag har stressat helt i onödan!

Detta fick jag dessutom reda på i lagom tid innan Malmö Seriefest, som jag ju är med och arrangerar, så det passade perfekt. Snabbt bytte jag från serietecknarhatten till organisatörsmössan och lade all tid på att göra det så bra som möjligt. Därav den långa tystnaden på min Instagram.


Rapport från Malmö Seriefest
(Malmö, 1-2 april)

Så förra helgen gick festivalen av stapeln! Det var ett riktigt bra arrangemang tycker jag. Vi har växt i år, med stöd av Kultur Skåne och Malmö stadsbibliotek mer involverade. Biblioteket hade gjort festivalen till ett av sina huvudarrangemang (yay!!) så vi fick i år ta del av deras marknadsföringskanaler genom att vi syntes på annonspelarna i stan. Dessutom kontaktade företaget som har hand om skärmarna på bussar och tåg i regionen oss och bad om foton och info, så där syntes vi också!

Affischerna satte vi på massa olika ställen, t.ex. på Stortorget i Lund!

Våra medarrangörer vad ABF som stod för ansökan till Region Skåne samt Seriefrämjandet som fixade vår ena gäst Max Gustafson. Den andra gästen Liv Strömqvist fixade vi. Utöver dem var dem mängder med aktiviteter i hela biblioteket samt fansinmarknaden som flyttat upp i Ljusets kalender och växt med 50% sedan förra året:

Liv föreläser i Slottet i Malmö stadsbibliotek, Malmö Seriefest 2017.

Totalt besökte 1200 personer Malmö Seriefest 2017, vilket också är en markant ökning från förra årets 700. Året innan dess var 500 så vi ökar stadigt och exponentiellt!

Det var också en del medieuppmärksamhet på festivalen:

24 Malmö | Stor seriemässa i Malmö

Sydsvenskan | Malmös egen seriefest växer sig större för varje år

Skånska Dagbladet | Seriefest som växer

På plats var även Malmökanalen och intervjuade utställarna. Inslaget sändes på måndagen.

Detta är en av mina bäbisar! Jag älskar att organisera saker, och denna seriefestival växte ur ett behov men också en dröm och vision. Även om den kan växa mycket mer känner jag redan att den uppfyller den drömmen jag hade, en plats där fansinskapare och serietecknare av alla sorter kan mötas, visa upp sina verk och prata med varandra. Det hela går i rätt riktning!

Puuh, med det över kan jag andas ut. Men inte ligger jag på sofflocket och latar mig! Redan denna helg ska jag iväg till nästa event:


GothCon
(Göteborg, 14-16 april)

Spelkonventet GothCon har blivit ett av mina stammismål under årets konventstunré. I början var det bara för att hänga, spela brädspel och träffa vänner. På senare år har jag dock haft bord i Artist Alley och sålt där, med mycket gott resultat! Mangafans finns det där med, om än lite äldre än de på mangakonventen, och min fantasyserie Sword Princess Amaltea har gått mycket bra i denna krets.

Som jag skrivit om tidigare var det på förra årets GothCon som jag träffade Daniel från Saga Games, som direkt kände igen min serie för kollegans dotter är ett fan av den. Jag frågade om vi inte kunde göra ett rollspel ihop och direkt nappade han på det! Snabbspolar vi ett år fram så är vi idag klara med rollspelet, och släpper det på mässan i helgen!

Om du är i Göteborg eller kanske t.o.m. på GothCon, missa då inte våra signeringar och speldemo i N-huset på fredag och lördag! Gratis inträde~

Vi fixade ett facebook-event för det hela också, så klicka att du kommer, vetja'!

Som jag längtar efter att hålla i rollspelsboken!! Jag har inte ens fått se den! XD

Helgen efter det blir det ännu ett event...


J-popCon
(Köpenhamn, 21-23 april)

J-popCon är ett manga- och Cosplay-konvent i Köpenhamn, ett av Nosebleed Studios favoritevent på året (vi besöker det varje år!).
I år har vi med oss vår nya teckningsbok, och kommer hålla mangaworkshops:

Lördag 22 april
16.00 - 17.00 Manga Workshop: Character Design
18.00 - 19.00 Manga Workshop: Body And Clothes

 ❤  Hoppas vi ses på något av eventen i april!  ❤

NärCon Vinter, woohoo!!

Äntligen sätter konvents-året igång, och vi inleder såklart med NärCon Vinter i Linköping i helgen!

För mig och Nosebleed Studio kommer det vara ett fullspäckat schema! Vi kommer som vanligt ha alla våra böcker till salu vid vårt bord i NärCreative, bl.a. vår supernya teckningshandbok Nosebleed Studio lär dig teckna manga! — Karaktärsdesign!!  Den släpps först i butikerna och skickas först ut från vår hemsida efter 1:a mars, så detta är en smyg-för-försäljning, hehe!

★★★★★ Kolla in hur fin den är!! ★★★★★

Vi kommer även hålla fyra event på NärCon Vinter:

Nosebleed Studios Karaktärsdesigntävling!
Ta chansen att delta i Nosebleed Studios Karaktärsdesigntävling! Lämna in en kopia (ej original!) av en bild som du ritat på din egen seriefigur eller karaktär senast 17.00 på fredagen. Vi kommer utse 3
vinnare som får varsitt exemplar av vår nya bok Nosebleed Studio lär dig teckna manga! — Karaktärsdesign. Bilden behöver inte vara i mangastil, men det får inte vara fanart och du måste ha tecknat den själv. Signera bilden och skriv ditt namn, telefonnummer och email på baksidan. Vinnarna offentliggörs på lördag morgon samt via Nosebleed Studios Facebook och Instagram.
Deadline: 17.00 fredag
Plats: vid vårt bord i NärCreative

Mangaworkshop: Karaktärsdesign
med Natalia Batista från Nosebleed Studio
Lär dig skapa din egen mangafigur, steg för steg. Natalia Batista är mangatecknare, serieteckningslärare och medlem i Sveriges främsta mangatecknarstudio Nosebleed Studio. Hon kommer ge tips och tricks för hur man ritar ett ansikte och designar en intressant frisyr.
Tid: Fredag 17:30-18:30
Plats: M110B

Mangaworkshop: Klädesdesign
med Elise Rosberg från Nosebleed Studio
Lär dig skapa din egen mangafigur, steg för steg. Elise Rosberg är mangatecknare, serieteckningslärare och medlem i Sveriges främsta mangatecknarstudio Nosebleed Studio. Hon kommer ge tips och tricks för hur man ritar en kropp och designar kläder som passar karaktären.
Tid: Lördag 14:30-15:30
Plats: M110B

Gratis Chibi-poträtt!
Favorit i repris! Nosebleed Studio tecknar gratis chibi-mangaporträtt, ett väldigt populärt event så kom i god tid om du vill få en chans att bli avritad av riktiga proffs!
Tid: Lördag kl. 16.00-17.00
Plats: vårt bord i NärCreative

Missa inte allt detta superkuliga som vi kommer göra på NärCon Vinter, som tar plats på Anders Ljungstedts Gymnasium från torsdag den 23:e februari 13:37 till söndag den 26:e februari kl. 12.00! Vi kommer ha vårt bokbord uppe alla dagar i alla fall 10:00-19:00.

Report from Lucca Comics & Games

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the long delay... No updates here for a while. Well, it's not because I've been slacking off! Well, ok, maybe just a little. Those four books I was to make... so, it turned out differently. Because of external decisions made beyond my power, two of them are postponed to next year:

Sword Princess, the RPG book in the world of Amaltea, was supposed to be released before X-mas this year, but as I kinda suspected it would not happend. Which is not a bad thing! The co-author I have on this book , Tomas at Swedish RPG games publisher Saga Games, really want this RPG to become as awesome as it can be, so he's taking his time with the writing. I'm so happy for that! The new release is planned for April 2017!

Mermaid Minna, the watercolor comic I was to make with Swedish publisher Rabén & Sjögren, will be released in Fall of 2017 instead of Spring that year. This lets me have more time to think over the story and perfect it, and not rush the artwork either! So it was a much needed time bonus.

Since September, I have had a lot of other things on my mind instead. Some of them are more personal, and I wish to keep them to my self for a little while longer but hope to make them official in a not so distant future, depending on... erh... things.
But I also had a crazy vacation/work trip (aren't all my vactions work related somehow? Hm...) to Italy in the end of October!

Me and Emil went to Pisa!

Or rather, we went to Lucca Comics & Games in Lucca, right next to Pisa, but stayed at a nice hotel in Pisa, which ment this famous crazy building was on our daily path to the train station to and from Lucca.

Lucca Comics & Games is the biggest comics and games related festival in all of Europe, if you count size and amout of visitors (over 270 000!!). The whole city center, surrounded by a high medievial wall, is turned into a popcultural festival for all ages, like a huge fortress for the nerds! 

The beautiful mix of old historical buildings and cosplayers, elaborate architecture and big rollups with popular characters was like stepping into paradise for someone like me.

In San Michele Square, Fox Entertainment had a huge tent and this magestic tree was a promo for one of the upcoming movies.

Tents filled with comics next to old chapels, churches and impressive towers. The Panini tent contained comics by the most prominent comic publisher in the country, Panini Comics. Italy is actually the fourth biggest comics market in the world, behind Japan, France and the US.

Apparently we got very lucky with the weather, everybody we talked to said it usually rains during Lucca Comics, but this year all days was 20-25°C = ice cream weather! And the Italians sure knows how to make ice cream!! Yum!🍨

Both big and small have their place at Lucca Comics! One of the smaller churches in the city contained the "Self Area", a market for the independent and smaller artist collectives and projects, much like a much fancier Artist Alley.

Inside the church, the jaw-dropping ceiling and walls in combination with the like wise jaw-dropping talent of the artists made me almost faint!!

Thanks to my helpful and amazing friend Davide Della Via, former editor and artist at Doraetos Manga where my Sword Princess Amaltea is published in Italian, I got to meet some really great people. Among others, he introduced me to Jessica Marino, the creator of Antithesis, a selfpublished comic who won prizes in the Italian Indie Comic Award, IICA, this year. Such impressive, much wow!

More super talented artists, and super friendly too! Giulio Macaione, Giulia Adragna and Elena (Ofride) whom all sold their selfpublished comics in the "Self Area". I had to buy one of each!

Beautiful and inspiring watercolor artwork by Ofride.

Other smart and cool self press designs: fanzines in a book box!

In another area close to the "Self Area" was the "Meet the editors"-building. This is something I also wrote about in my report from Angoulême 2015, a thing we don't have in Sweden but that I really think would be beneficial to both the artists and the publishers. In Lucca, they did things a bit different than in Angoulême. Instead of having to queue for hours, the artists could submit their portfolio (a set number of pages depending on which publisher) before a certain time, and was assigned a number each. After the editors had reviewed the submissions, they chose which artists to book a meeting with and posted the list with their numbers on the wall you see next to the door. The big group of people in front of the door is aspiring artists, waiting for the list to be put up and hoping their number will be on that list. Oh, the tension!

This is from inside one of the big comic tents. Booths of publishers or specific famous artist in labyrith-like formations!

Just like in Angoulême, the tents are raised over actual city squares, which means you see statues and street lights inside, haha. And SO much people. Everywhere!

This is inside the Games tent, right outside the city gates. It was too huge to fit in any square inside, lol.

One of the booths in the Games tent was solely dedicated to a live artist studio, where super talented and famous fantasy artists could work on a piece of artwork for hours, in front of the visitors. Such a cool idea, but it must also be stressfull for the poor artists. You got to have nerves of steel!

All over Lucca city center, the shops had rented out their space to merchandise pop-up stores, with anime figurines, action figures, t-shirts and comic related memorabilia. This was truly like stepping into my fantasy dream city, haha!

In the corner of the North-East part of town, inside the city wall, was this cool alternative festival called Borda! Fest. The tables was less expensive and thus gave a chance to artists and collectives who would not normally have a chance to sell at Lucca Comics. Such a nice initiative!

Litteraly the whole city center was affected by the festival. This is the table covers of one of the pizzerias next to the comic tents, a collaboration with one of the publishers.
Oh, and the pizzas~ One of the pleasures with this festival sure is the fantastic food of Italy, I love it!

Cosplayers, re-enacters, alternative fashionistas and steam-punkers all moxed well at the festival, and these unpaid dressed up visitors became part of the attraction, getting stopped and let people photograph them every second meter.

While enjoying another ice cream, we stumbled upon a Steam Punk meet-up at one of the squares.

As part of the festival, several of the buildings was turned into exhibition halls. The main festival exhibition featured some of the invited artists of the festival. One of the artists was Kamimura from Japan. His beautiful brush strokes was so inspiring!

One of the national artists was Zerocalcare, a phenomenon by himself as you can see. Next to his exhibited artwork, mostly from his books but also some from his webcomic that gave him his break-though, hangs this board with statistics on his works. He has made 7 books, which each has sold 70 000 - 90 000 copies (!!) and the longes signing session he has had was over 13 hours (!!!). Phew!

The other Italian artsit is Casty, a immensely popular Mickey Mouse artist. Mickey Mouse, or Topolino as he is called in Italy, is actually home made in Italy, by and for the Italian market, with consent by Disney.

A Frank Cho exhibition, as he was one of the innvited artists.

Also Joan Cornellà from Spain, who's become famous for his morbid humour. His exhibition was behind a black curtain, for several reasons...

Last but not least, Zerocalcare's punky illustration for this year's festival, hung in a grandious golden frame.

And this is some of the books I managed to carry back home with me:

Anima by Chiara Zuliani
Lumina by Emanuele Tenderini and Linda Cavallini
Samurai 2.0 (artbook anthology) 
Hadez by Ilaria Catalani and Silvia Tidei
Antithesis by Jessica Marino
Grimoire (anthology)
Nilihue by Ofride

Agenzia Alfa by Massimo Dall'Oglio
Miss Hall 1 by Giulia Adragna
La Fine Dell'Estate by Giulio Macaione
Rock 'n' Punch Riders by Daniele Rudioni
Rogheneach 1 by Myriam Savini
Ale & Cucca 1 by Elisabetta Cifone
Somnia 3 by Liza E. Anzen and Federica Di Meo
Martin Mystère
Il Rompicapo Del Contadino by Sam Alden
Romabot by Fabrizio De Fabritiis and Daniele Rudoni
The Story Of Naja by Davide Della Via
Nine Stones by Iayafly

I was so impressed by what the italian comic market has to offer. This marked is seriously underestimated in Sweden, in my opinion, and especially when it comes to the younger newer artists. I would love to have some of them in Swedish one day, and will happily show the copies I have to editors in Sweden if any of them are reading this.

After the trip to Lucca, Emil and I went to Novara and Milan with Daniele Rudioni, who is one of the teachers in comic art at the school ACME di Novara and Milan. I held two lectures, one in each city, about my comics, my tools (inking) and the Swedish comic marked in general. They where both well attended with about 20-60 at each event. So fun!

All in all, this trip was just like my previous trips to NY, Angoulême, Tokyo (etc.) very inspiring and helpful for me in my career and creativity. I totally recommend all you artists out there to regularly go to a big International event outside of your own market, because it makes you understand the global comic market so much better. It's also a wonderful opportunity to network with people that do what you do but in another country. I'm so glad I got to meet and hang out with so many nice, helpful, inviting and friendly people. HUGE thank you to Daniele Rudioni, Davide Della Via, Salvatore Pascarella, Federica Di Meo, Dilly and everyone else that I got to meet and hang out with at Lucca and in Novara. Thank YOU!!

✿ Thank you 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! ✪

Convention report from DoKomi in Düsseldorf

Time to finally make a report from DoKomi that I visited with my sister Catarina this May!
I've been locked in a cave (metaphorically speaking) working on the third and final volume of my manga Sword Princess Amaltea (yes, the website has also suffered from the heavy deadline, as you can see, but will be updated soon!) and as I'm slowly gaining my freedom again I can now make a much needed blog entry about the trip!
The book will be released in Sweden in September, and online in English bit by bit during the coming year.

I've wanted to visit a German manga con since I first started checking out the manga scene in Germany back in 2007 or so. It's so close but yet so far, and the fact that I don't know how to speak German (but do understand some, since Swedish is not that far off) made it a little "scary".
In 2009, I sent my BL manga A song for Elise to the German publishers, and got a positive response from Tokyopop. The same year, I signed a contact with them and Ein Lied für Elise was released during Fall 2010 at the Franfurt Book Fair. That was my first experience of the manga market in Germany, and it was huge!

Since then, a lot of things have happened. Even though Germany managed well through the financial crisis, the book market there (just like in many other countries) have become even more competitive and publishers are having a hard time to sustain. At the same time, the German manga artist scene is growing and becoming more talented than ever! Still, I could not imagine what I was about to see at DoKomi...

We decided to go there because a German friend of mine Christian Allmann (artist himself and co-owner of the brand new publishing house PYRAMOND) was in charge of the Artist Alley at DoKomi and recommended that we'ld come, since the table price is only 30€ (!!). We booked a table for Nosebleed Studio immediately!

So, let's begin the report. I prefere show it with pictures:

Outside the convention.

DoKomi is short for Doitsu Komikku Maketto (Japanese for German Manga Market) and was inspired by the Japanese manga convention Comiket. Thus, a big focus at the con was on the creators and cosplayers and fan projects etc.

Inside the main Artist Alley area, before the opening.

This is the main hall for the Artist Alley. The Artist Alley had over 250 tables, so even though this hall was huge, many more tables was placed in other parts of the Congress Center Düsseldorf.
As you can see, many of the artists had elaborate booths, and I'll show some of them here below.

Another hall filled with artists, fashion designers and other creators.

 There was almost too many great creators there! It sometimes felt like we were drowning in all this amazing talent... But still, the visitors still seemed very interested in checking out your stuff and pay for it, unlike at some other manga cons where the focus is on other things than the artists and creators.

Another pathway filled with artists!

 Now, let me introduce some of the amazing artists at the event. Please check out their homepages that I have linked their names to!

AlleyCreek is an amazing illustrator and designer. Her tables were filled 
with both prints and artbooks as well as goodie bags and pencil cases and
note pads with her beautiful manga and fantasy artwork.

KishiShiotani is another talented artist, with such cute and beautiful
manga art! I really like how she does cute facial designs for her
manga characters.

Sabrina Ehnert's table/booth was soooo adorable I almost died!
Her bunnies are just too cute, had to buy almost evey
postcard she had!

Natalie Wormsbecher and Inga Steinmetz was so nice
and friendly! I med Natalie for first time back at the Frankfurt
Book Fair in 2010, so it was really fun meeting again.
We all went out during the evening to a local Japanese
restaurant (with authentic Japanese foods!) and talk
about projects, the manga market and other fun stuff!
Both are super awesome manga artists and illustrators,
with long curriculums!

The brothers Laovaan and Jasdavi was two of few guys
having booths/tables at DoKomi, but their talent was
remarkable! And Jasdavi (who also does BL stuff) bought
Swedish Comic Sin 2 with Kwok Hei Mak's bara manga in it!
Check out these amazing artists pages if you like schmexy
manga guys! ;)

Kyaaaaah!!! Kyaaaah!!! OMG!!!
Yes, the most amazing thing about the trip is to meet all the
super awesome Greman artists that I have been following for
several years. One of them is Nana "Yaa" Kyere, and she's not
just a super productive manga artist making it on her own,
but also super nice in person!
WARNING: pretty hard core BL stuff!

Another idol of mine: Niloo!!
Amazed. Impressed. So happy to meet her! *cries*
Her art style is so inspiring~

And one more artist I have read about and followed: Nashi!
I actually knew about her manga since she put it up at DeviantArt
several years ago, but her art style has changed a lot and especially
her color art pictures are truly awesomely brilliantly stunnig!
Check it out!

At the con, there was aslo a lot of fan projects and fashion designers that had
their own booths, and Mad Modesty had such cute bag designs I just had to buy
the black one with cat eyes! Perfect for all my new bought mangas, hehe~

We weren't the only International people there. This booth was for
the team behind Mangatellers, a Greek manga artist team that
make mangas with a flare of Greek history. They had a story that
take place in Thessaloniki, and the collector in me had to buy
their mangas (I collect non-Japanese made manga).

This was truly a trip of a lifetime! I highly recommend for all Swedish and non Swedish manga fans and artists to go to DoKomi and see this thriving manga making culture for yourselves. And I really hope Sweden's manga cons can at some point hold a manga market of this or simmilar magnitude. I'll strive to make it happen!

✩ Thanks for reading! ✩