Merry X-mas to you all!

Holiday are here, and I have been slacking off just a little these two days. Have been refurnishing our studio room a little as well. As we say in Sweden; variety is a delight. So now I will bring in the new year with a new and inspiring work space!
Pictures might come later...

Here's something else for you!

This is two Swedish traditional figures:

Swedish "julbock" (= Christmas goat)

This is a traditional Swedish Christmas decoration, a goat made of straw. It's origin is debated. In old times, young people used to go around the farms singing Christmas carrols and "goat songs" and one was dressed as a goat with a mask made of straw. Back in those times, people often sacrificed of a goat around Christmas, and a man dressed as a goat with a mask used to act as Santa Claus today, bringing gifts for the children.

Usually the straw goats are about 50 cm tall at the most, but the biggest one is in Gävle at 13 meters height. Sadly, it usually don't survive Christmas, as the towns people have put into tradition to burn it (illegally) before December is over.

Lucia
The girl is dressed as Lucia, an Italian saint that are celebrated in Sweden on the 13th of December. Don't ask me why, it's practically unrelated. The Swedish Lucia-tradition is a celebration of light, as this is the darkest time of the year in Sweden. Usually all schools and town halls have their own "Lucia train" where young people dressed in white follow the Lucia, everybody holding lit candles in their hands. Lucia on the other hand has a crown of lit candles, often dripping stearine in her hair. Ouch.

I made the lineart and my dear sister Catarina colored it with Copic markers. She's just awesome at Copic!! (Look at those shades!!!)


Hope you all will have a nice holiday time and see you again around New Years Eve, when I  as usual make my New Years resolution and go over the milestones of my works during 2012.

Oh, and don't forget about Nosebleed Studio's December Sale!

Our anthologies Seaside Stories and 5 Years Jubilee Anthology are both 10% off, and also the Deluxe Set is on sale!

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

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! ~*~*~*~

AltCom next weekend!

This coming weekend (10-11th of November) is the main festival days of this alternative comics festival (more political and adult oriented) in Malmö. 

It's organized by the Swedish Comics Association (Seriefrämjandet), the country's foremost important organisation when it comes to comics projects and publications on comics, i.e. the member magazine Bild&Bubbla.

But the real name behind this is Mattias Elftorp - comic artist, editor, curator, festival organizer and simply a stubborn and mad guy that 2010 took upon himself to make AltCom reality, practically all on his own. I was supposed to help him, but was too egoistic (had way too many projects to fullfill myself back then). I applaud Mattias, and everyone helping him to make this festival a regular event in the Malmö comic art scene. *clap clap clap*

This year's festival actually started a week ago, so I definately recommend you to check out the site, there's a bunch of exhibitions and panels to attend.

Next weekend is the comic market, and that's when most of the panels and presentations will be. I'll be part of a panel on Sunday at 13:00, on how to organize anthology projects (like Swedish Comic Sin) together with representatives from Dotterbolaget and C'est Bon Kultur. Very interesting, and hopefully inspiring as well!

Nosebleed Studio will be selling as usual in the comic market. As we have books and products for all ages, we pretty much fit in at most comic events~

Hope to see you at AltCom!!

Nosebleed Studio på SF-bokhandelns 5-årsjubuleum i Malmö

Kom och rita manga med mig och syrran Catarina kl. 14.00 den 1:a november på SF-bokhandeln i Malmö!

Det är butikens 5-årsjubileum och de firar det med en massa kul aktiviteter i en vecka:
SF-bokhandeln fyller 5 år!

Bild av Catarina Batista.

Vi kommer ha teckningsstund mellan 14-15, så passa på och kom och rita och snacka manga med oss! Ta gärna med dina bilder och serier så ger vi feedback och tips.

Mellan 15-15.30 kommer vi ha signering av våra böcker Nosebleed Studio Anthology - Seaside Story och Nosebleed Studio 5 Years Jubilee Anthology.

Så missa inte detta och allt annat kul under veckan. Hoppas vi ses den 1:a november!

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.

Nosebleed Studio's new Wordpress site!

FINALLY.

After sooo sooo many hours, days and even months, Catarina and I finally put Nosebleed Studio's new Wordpress site online!
Wow... we have both learnt a lot through this process, but wow... It was like a black hole that devoured all energy, time and creativity. This is the reason to why I havn't drawn much during summer (or at least one of the reasons...).

But just look at it!! Isn't it awesome?!
We finally have a homepage that is modern, professional and with a fully working shop!

The shop has all our books and most of our fanzines. The rest and all coming products from us and our artists will be avaliable in the shop in the future. To make sure you're up-to-date with what we do, please subscribe to our newsletter.

And we will be able to update and change the stuff on the site more often.

Puuh~
Now I will finally return to my art...

Things are happening on that front as well, but no contracts signed just yet, so I ask you to be patient and I will make sure you get to know what's up as soon as I have some papers signed.

Thank you all for reading!

City Malmö - nördiga hobbies!

Svenskt inlägg för en gång skull.
Jag blev intervjuad av tidningen City Malmö i tisdags, och artikeln finns med i dagens tidning, samt läsbar på webben:

City Malmö (nr 2012-08-23)

Kul!! Det är roligt att sprida mangakulturen och visa dess kreativa delar. Trots att jag babblade på för dem i typ en timme så berörde jag bara en liten del av kulturen!
Tyvärr tog de inte med den kommande hemsidan NonstopCon som jag noga nämnde, och ej heller min mangastudio Nosebleed Studio som ger ut våra egna mangor, bl.a. beställningsbara via bokus.se!

Hoppas några av City's läsare trillar in här och läser detta, för både NonstopCon och Nosebleed Studio är intressanta saker för alla manga-intresserade!

NonstopCon är ett hemsideprojekt som startades av mig och Elise Rosberg, förläggare på förlaget Wasabi Press. Målet är att få upp ett community/gemenskap för alla som gillar asiatisk populärkultur och vill diskutera, starta projekt och läsa nyheter och blogginlägg inom sina favoritdelar av mangakulturen. Allt från asiatiska musikstilar, mode, serier (manga), tecknad film (anime), dorama, samlarfigurer, cosplay och mycket mycket mer!

Just nu arbetar våra kodare flitigt på att utveckla en beta som ska vara möjlig att testa i höst, och vi hoppas kunna släppa hemsidan innan årets slut. Vi samlar pengar via bl.a. crowdfunding-sidan Funded By Me, pengar som ska gå direkt till att betala våra kodare och serverkostnader, så att sidan blir professionellt och säkert byggd. Snälla, var med och stöd projektet!!

Vill du hjälpa till med att bygga sidan, t.ex. som moderator, bloggare eller beta-testare, maila info@nonstopcon.se
Tack!!

NowJapan in Vilnius!

Summer is over and I'm trying to crawl back to my worktable and get busy again... it's hard!!
Right after returning from Portugal, me and my colleagues went to NärCon, a Swedish manga con in Linköping. It was fun and a good experience, first time visiting that con.

Every con has it's own "soul" and even though some of the people from UppCon came to help out at NärCon, it still differs a lot. Both in good and bad ways... NärCon is at the University and the locales are made for lectures, which means there's a lot of places to sit down and hang out at (unlike UppCon) but also less glamorous and high tech as the UKK where UppCon used to be. Also, the focus of UppCon and NärCon is not always the same. Sure, cosplay is the main attraction, but other than that the lectures get more attention at UppCon than at NärCon. But they're working on it... This was actually the first year they had lectures, and it was okay when you take that into account.

Well, big things ahead!
Nosebleed Studio got international attention!
How do I know? Some weeks ago, we got invited to the biggest manga event in both Lituania itself and all of the Baltic States, NowJapan in Vilnius this coming week end. Cool huh?!

We will be selling our books and fanzines and stuffs in their Artist Alley, but also hold two lectures, a workshop and a Manga Battle event!

The lectures are my job:
13.00-14.00  on Satrurday 18th:A Swedish Mangaka in Japan - about my attempts so send my works to Japanese editors at Shueisha's Ribbon magazine, and the response I got.

16.00-17.00 on Satrurday 18th:
Yaoi-manga - about the history of Yaoi manga, the stereotypes in it and some theories about why it's so popular.

My sister Catarina will doing the manga workshop at 15.00 on Sunday and together with Joakim Waller we will be doing the Manga Battle at 14.00 on Saturday.
The Manga Battle is a tournament of skill, speed and wittyness! First, we artists from Nosebleed Studio challenges each other to duels, to draw a picture in less than 2 minutes based on a theme given by the audience. The winner is then decided by the audience. After that, the audience can challange us artists to Manga Duels, one by one. After that, people from the audience can get into the real Manga Battle Tournament, duel each other for the ultimate prize: Nosebleed Studio's latest manga anthology Seaside Stories!

A picture from when we held the Manga Battle
in Bonnier Carlsen's booth at the Gothenburg Book Fair back in 2008.

If you're going to NowJapan, make sure to come check our events and lectures, and check our table in the Artist Alley!

Nerdy trip to Portugal

I'm back from my vacation at my aunt and family in Portugal!
It was a hot, tasty and nerdy trip, so here's a report and some pictures:

We travelled the country with my aunt and my father (also visiting his home country). First we visited Buddha Eden, not far from Caldas da Rainha where we live at my aunts place.
Buddha Eden is a huge garden made by a rich wine farm owner who loves art and Asian culture. The garden is next to his wine farm and when you buy an enterance fee, you also receive a wine bottle!

Buddha with the sun behind him.

On our visit to Lisbon we went to my yearly must; the comic book store BdMania. It's like a real goldmine for comic nerds like me, so I highly recommend it if you go to Lisbon some day! 

The store has American comics and graphic novels, Japanese manga, European
comics and I even found a book in Swedish by Knut Larsson, a Swedish graphic novel artist.

Later, we went to the big bookstore chain FNAC to look at their range of comics, and found Banzai in their shelves! Awesome!! 

 We also went on a trip to north of Portugal, and while checking out Porto, we found this comic book shop, Mundo Fantasma. 

 Annother fantastic store for a comic book nerd, with an impressive range of manga! No wonder why, the manager Vasco who I met and had a long and interesting chat with is huge a manga fan too. We talked about the industry and the talents of the manga here in the West. 

They also have exhibitions in the room next to the shop, with both
national and international artists. The framed picture in the front is
a Craig Thompson original, made for the shop!

I also had the chance to meet up with one of the editors at Banzai - Ricardo - and talk some work. You know me, I never take vacation... Hahaha...

Just before we were to go to the airport, we squeezed in one more nerdy activity: we went to the Museum of Popular Art in Lisbon because they had a video game exhibition! Over 120 games to play, friggin awesome!!!!

Game On - an exhibition of the history of video games, with both new
and old games from Pong, Donkey Kong and Astroids to Tomb Raider,
Guitar Hero and Star Wars Kinect.

Hand held consoles - from old to new!

And some original art of games like Sonic and Pokémon!

Of course, the trip also included great food and deserts, like these pasteis natas, bought and consumed at the famous Pasteis de Belém: 

And I also took a lot of reference photos for my future mangas, of houses and nature like the one in the national park in the north, close to the Spanish border.  

An amasing trip, warm and fun but also tireing. Now I will rest, before going to NärCon in Linköping this week end. Phu~
Hope I see some of you there! :D

NonstopCon - Swedish online community for manga fans!

På svenska, för detta berör mest er svenska läsare av min blogg:


NonstopCon - ditt konvent på nätet!

Detta är ett helt fantastiskt projekt som jag och vännen och kollegan Elise Rosberg (även förläggare på det nya manga-förlaget Wasabi Press) drog igång i våras. NonstopCon är det som mangasverige saknat sedan BCmanga - ett mangaforum som fanns för några år sen, lett av Bonnier Carlsen - lades ner. Kanske saknade vi det redan när BCmanga fanns, för den sidan var inte lika bred och erbjöd inte lika mycket som NonstopCon kommer göra!

NonstopCon kommer vara en sajt för alla som gillar manga, anime, j-pop och k-pop och andra musikstilar från Asien, film, Dorama, TV-spel, cosplay, mode och klädstilar från Japan och en massa andra intresseområden... allt man vill ha helt enkelt! Och det kommer vara uppdelat som ett konvent, varje flik kommer ha en forumdel och en nyhetsdel, samt en bloggroll och andra kul saker, som t.ex. senaste bilderna, cosplayfotografierna eller musikvideos etc.

Här ser ni lite "skisser" på hur sidan kan komma att se ut:

"Biosalen" kommer ha recensioner av anime, dorama och film, samt trailers,
blogguppdateringar och annat kul som är kopplat till det.
Vill du vara med och skriva på någon av sidorna eller moderera något av forumen?
Maila i så fall till info@nonstopcon.se

Sidan kommer också ha en kalender med alla kommande event,
konvent, cosplayträffar, mangateckningsmöten etc. runt om i landet!

Alla får egna profil-sidor med eget galleri, klubbsida, taggar och konventsband
(där man kan lägga till de konvent man varit på och se vilka andra som var där).

Klubbarna kan man dels skapa själv och gå med i andras!

Man kan också ändra utseendet på sidan, mellan olika stilar, bland annat
kommer det finna ett med min serie Mjau!

Vill du vara med och skriva på någon av sidorna eller moderera något av forumen?
Maila i så fall till info@nonstopcon.se

Vi har redan kodare involverade i det tekniska, och kommer förhoppningsvis ha en beta klar för test i september. Vill du vara med och beta-testa sidan då så maila till info@nonstopcon.seJust nu kämpar vi för att få in pengar för att betala kodarna. En del av betalningen hoppas vi på att alla sugna användare, som liksom jag och Elise vill ha denna sida, kanske kan hjälpa till med?

Därför har vi startat en Funded By Me sida för projektet, där man kan se trailern, läsa mer om NonstopCon och stödja den! Om man gör det får man även finfina gåvor som tack!!
NonstopCon på Funded By Me

Vill du vara med och se NonstopCon bli verklighet? Hjälp till!