Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japan. 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.

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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.

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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! 

28 April 2016

When I Close My Eyes...

Yet another month has passed, and I didn't have time to write anything here... But now I'm back, I hope!
You know, sometimes you just have too much to do, too many commitments, and then you just need to prioritize. I'm sad that I havn't been able to prioritize my blog, and also my Youtube-channel (which actually has quite a following, 4000+! One of my videos actually have over 100K views! O.o ). I wish I could be more active doing inking videos and tutorials...

You know what? I think I need to be more selfish now. I need to prioritize my own stuff – my blog and my Youtube-channel – to get my own self asteem back. I have been moping around doing routine stuff ever since I finished working on my latest comic When I Close My Eyes, a "short" manga with "only" 42 pages. (Haha, 10 years ago I would have called that a long manga, I guess!) 
I finished it about 2 months ago, and after that I mostly worked with organizing stuff, like Nosebleed Studio, Malmö Seriefest and other organisations I've been part of. And during that time, I have more and more felt lousy, worthless and untalented...
I don't know why!? I mean, my mangas have fans, and a  couple of weeks ago I even got to be on Swedish television, on one of the most popular childrens shows on Barnkanalen, called Superlördag (Super Saturday):



After that appearance on the show, I went to some schools and libraries to do manga workshops (unrelated, I had booked them months before) and suddently I was famous! All the little kids had watched the show and wanted my autograph! Haha, of course I enjoyedthe attention (even from a room full of 9-14 y.o. kids) but also felt a bit taken aback by the difference in attitudes people have towards you when you've been on TV. It's crazy...


But even though this all happened, I still can't help but feeling like I'm losing a race... I have been sending Sword Princess Amaltea to International publishers and still no positive reply. Only a few so far, so I guess I should try harder, but not getting any response at all from some of them is what makes me confused. Should I wait? Or should I look for others? Or is it a pointless game since my name is unknown in those countries? Do I need to go there personally, maybe even travel to some cons or make myself a name first? So many questions...
Still, maybe I just need to put more effort into my Youtube-ing, and they migth notice me... Or does that even matter to them?? Gaaaah!! *confused*


Anyway, this blog entry really should be about the latest manga I have made, When I Close My Eyes. I haven't posted anything here about it, but that's because I now use Instagram alot for quick updates about my everyday life and especially my manga drawing.

I updated throughout the process of making this manga. Here are some posts I made:

 






With this manga, I decided I wanted to do something else than what I have made previously for Nosebleed Studio's anthologies. The previous three anthologies all had storys made by me for sending to Shueisha Ribon Magazine in Japan, for their monthly manga competitions (which I blogged about here and here). But after my third entry did not place, probably because it was too mature for their audience, I felt I did not thrive anymore in doing mangas for a competition like theirs. It felt too constricting and I wanted more freedom.

So the story for When I Close My Eyes was a story I truly felt I wanted to tell. Without rules and restrictions. It's about a your person, Lo, who a lone traveller in our world. And no, I'm not going to tell you anymore, because then I might spoil it for you!
I also tried a new inking technique with fineliners instead of my beloved steel nibs. It was a nice change, and I like the rough and experimental look it gives to the drawings. Less mainstream, which worked better for the story.

Here's the cover illustration and the beginning pages, as sneak peek:





The manga was printed in Nosebleed Studio's 10 Years Jubilee Anthology, which will be released at Stockholm International Comic Festival on the 7-8th of May! But... we are right now taking preorders via our webshop, and then you also get a discount:

Nosebleed Studio's 10 Years Jubilee Anthology

The books arrived this morning, and this is how awesome they look:



☆☆☆ Thank you for reading! ☆☆☆ 

05 February 2016

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!


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
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! ✪

09 January 2014

2013 - in retrospect

Time for some time travel - backwards!
This past year, things I have hoped for for years have been achieved, and I also feel a lot more secure in my position as a comic artist. Not that I doubted my position or potentials before, but today I feel I am truly a part of this all, and can make a difference. And that what I make is appreciated and seen for what it is, most of the time.

Here's a quick look back at 2013!


Milestones of 2013:


  • January began the year with a walk down the memory lane, with me making a new cover for Mjau! for the collected edition (of all 9 chapters into one volume) for Kabusa Böcker.
    At the same time, I had sold the last of my English copies of A Song For Elise, and after asking I got a go-ahead from Tokyopop in Germany (that owns the International rights for the series) to print a new small batch. So I also re-did that cover, and added the short sidestory from the GUYS!-anthology to make a collected edition of A Song For Elise as well!
    And when at it, I also reordered new copies of The Marauders And The Secrets Of The Heart (The Harry Potter doujisnhi I made back in 2009) that also had gone out of print.

  • In January, I also started drawing my contributing manga to this year's Nosebleed Studio anthology, this time with a Swedish theme. The story I made was Hearts of Midsummer, about a young girl named Julia who celebrates the Swedish holiday Midsummers Eve in her childhood village.
    We also tried crowdfunding for the first time, for our book Nosebleed Studio's Swedish Manga Anthology, and we raised more money than we asked for! Yaaay!

  • In February-May I started my work as teacher, at both Serieskolan (Comic Art School) in Malmö and at a drawing course called Rit- och Skisstekning at Malmö University. Maybe it sounds hectic, to have had so much to think about, but actually it was pretty nice - both the fact that I got to teach and get away from my drawing a little, but also the different environments. It was fun! And it also payed for my living just enough so that I didn't have to take from my savings. Yay!

  • In March I finally signed the book deal with Kolik förlag on the Swedish version of Sword Princess Amaltea! This project started back in Fall 2010, and now I finally had a publisher on the hook! Also, the Danish magazine Comic Party would publish the manga regularly. With two editors and a whole bunch of manuscript, preplanning and research done I was ready to take on the biggest and longest project of of my life!
    The layout sketches was allready done in the beginning of the year, so I just had to start drawing.

  • As always, I was away on a couple of events this Spring as well, mostly conventions together with my awesome colleagues in Nosebleed Studio. The biggest one was of course the yearly happening S.I.S. (Stockholm's Intenational Comics Festival), where we released our new anthology. I also sold the new prints of Mjau!, A Song For Elise and the Harry Potter doujinshi, plus this year's Swedish Comic Sin  - the fourth anthology in the series!
    This project has been really a fun way to network and see people evolve, but also letting me act as an editor and produce books from start to finish. Sadly the fifth book will have to wait a little, because of me having too much to do with my new big manga project, and also this last fourth book having been cut in half when people left the project (because of their lack of time and inspiration). Well, that's how it works...

  • During Spring time I also started making youtube videos with me drawing, to both promote the upcoming book and also to try it out. It went well, and I got a taste for making tutorials! Here's one where I ink the cover illustration for Sword Princess Amaltea book 1:



  • My friend Yossra El Said and I also started making podcasts in Swedish, with the catchy name Seriesystrar (Comic Sisters). The idea was to have mostly women talking comics, and focus on constructive critisism, gender and ethnicity issues and the
    comic market internationally and nationally. For all Swedish readers, please check it out! I bet you'll like the show~

  • Summer came, and while drawing like crazy on Sword Princess Amaltea, I also got the chance of a life time: To be one of five Swedish guests at a robot drawing tournament in Japan in late July! Crazy!! It was right in the middle of my freakish deadline (165 pages to be done before August) but I still went. My sister Catarina and three other awesome artists from Sweden - Jesper Nordqvist, Maria Fröhlich and Kei Mak - and I went to this event called Robopic. Payed trip and stay, and what an experience! Not only did we get to draw and compete with 100 Japanese in a Olympic-style drawing tournament, we also got to dine with the famous artists that made up the Jury, such as my idol Hideshi Hino-sensei!!
    And as if that wasn't enought... two of us even made it into the finalists - and I WON! Shock!!
    Sorry for not having made a blog entry about this just yet, I'm still waiting for the robot picture to be sent to us. So soon hopefully...
    I also sent some of my works to Japanese publishers, in hope of getting a meeting there - and I got two! More about that in the upcoming blog entry about the trip...

  • Finally in August I handed in the book for printing, and it would not have been possible if it wasn't for my four awesome assistants Emil Johansson, Catarina Batista, Joakim Waller and Yossra El Said. Their help with book 1 made the crazy plan of 140 pages to be made in 5 months time actually possible! THANK YOU!!!!

  • The book was released right in time for Gothenburg's Book Fair, where I signed books like crazy! Thank you all who came and got yourself a signed copy, you really made the release a success!!

  • Another book that I participated in that was released then was Ordningen upprätthålls alltid by Per Thörn and published by Apart förlag, a comic anthology with more than 20 artists making comic adaptions of Per's short stories, all with connections to a criminal world. A really cool project, made possible by the awesome editor Johan Kimrin! By many reviews titled as "the best comic book printed in Sweden during all of 2013". Check it out!


  • The Fall was mostly spent on teaching at Serieskolan (Comic Art School) and Malmö University's comic course, plus promoting Sword Princess Amaltea, but also on a side project I havn't mentioned much here at the blog. I was part of making an exhibition called Vicky, Jackie, Wendy about girl comic magazines in Sweden from 1950 up until today, in collaboration with librarian Hans Holm and Seriefrämjandet (Swedish Comic Association). The exhibition premiered at Malmö city library in October, as part of the childrens comic festival I Seriernas Värld ("In the world of comics") and I feel it's a very important, fun and interesting exhibition. We've even collected old and new girl comic magazines and displayed them as part of the exhibition.



  • This year, I also got a another award; Nordiska Skolbibliotekarföreningens (Nordic School Library Association) gave Häxfolket written by Jo Salmson (and illustrated by me) their prize for the best childrens book 2013. We were invited, together with the amazing editors for Bonnier Carlsen that worked with us on the four books, to Skolforum (a school and teacher fair) to recieve the prize, and got to say some words on the stage before hundreds of teachers and librarians. Nice!


  • In December, I had finally finished the layout sketches of book 2 of Sword Princess Amaltea, and started drawing and inking the pages. Around X-mas, I was about 15% in, which felt nice! All going according to my plan, and if my editor approves it, the book can be out in the end of the Summer! Looking forward to it!! 

I think that's all. A pretty nice year. Work at Malmö University and Serieskolan is enjoyable on so many levels, and also gives me more energy to work on my own stuff when I'm at home.

Also, books sales have done very well! (I don't often write about book sales, but I think more people should.)
Since 2010, Mjau! have sold in over 10 000 copies so far! Woah! That's a lot, according to people working in the buisness that I have mentioned this to.
Sword Princess Amaltea has also done amazingly! Since the release in September, almost all of the first edition's 1200 books are sold! In less than 4 months! Yay!!

This year has been elevating. I have recieved two awards (I shit you not, it's the first time I win first place in something this big), a book deal for my longest project yet, a trip to Japan where I got to talk to more editors and a bunch of egoboosting feedback through reviews of the new books and through people that I've met this year. Thank you all!

And to compare to last year, I think I made some history in 2013, like the Swede winning a manga award in Japan, and beginning a new Swedish manga series (we're not spoilt with that many of them, heh...)!
But let's say bye bye to 2013, and... 


✰ Hello 2014! Time for some manga power!! ✰

20 July 2013

I'm dooooone!! (almost)

Yesterday, I finished inking the 161th page, which is the last one in book 1 of Sword Princess Amaltea. Yaaay for me!!
Now I just have to text and screentone like hell to meet the deadline, but as things are going according to keikaku (=plan), I know I will make it!

Here's a sneak peek from the book. And no, I won't tell you what's going to happend, haha. You'll all have to wait till September when the Swedish book is out.


Oh, right, there's some big news aswell!
Sword Princess Amaltea will be published in the Italian online manga magazine Doreaetos Manga!
I'm looking forward to hearing from Italian artists and readers about what they think of the manga~

Right now, I'm mentally preparing for the trip to Japan next week, to participate in the drawing tournament Robopic, courtesy of Baron Yoshimoto.
I have also, as I mentioned in my last entry, tried to get some meetings with manga editors while I'm there, and so far I have not only one but two meetings  booked! This is so exciting!!

To finish this energetic blog entry off, let's show the latest issue of Banzai, that just arrived from Portugal!



It's so fun to read your own manga in another language! My kittens from Mjau! is really learning that language so fast~ *proud mother*

Thank you for reading, and hope you get an awesome weekend!
The weather is way too nice to sit inside, so I will catch some sun and beach before returning to work again. See ya'!

02 July 2013

Hooray hooray ~

Today's my birthday (yaay, 27!), and since it's 2 months since I last wrote here I better make an update!

Some new things have come up, but otherwise I'm just eagerly trying to meet the deadline for Sword Princess Amaltea Book 1 (pushed a little to the middle of August).

So far, I have drawn and inked 120 pages out of 160, and I think about 100 of them are screentoned. There's a huge load left to do, so my awesome sister Catarina and my amazing boyfriend Emil is helping me out (as I wished for that instead of birthday presents!). With their help, and the help I've recieved from my dear friends Joakim Waller and Yossra El Said, I'm pretty sure I'll meet the deadline.
I think...

I want to tell a little about the assistant work they are doing. As I'm highly inspired by Japanese manga, I often like many others in my situation try to meet their standards in each page, since that's what the manga readers here in the West are expecting in some way. This is very hard, as many of the Japanese artists has sometimes up to 7 assistants helping them out. To be able to get close to their quality of work, I'll have to work full time for a long time (maybe even a year per book) to do the same amount of work, which neither me nor my readers have patience with. That's partly why I wanted to have as much help as I could with this, without losing the creative control. Inking frame lines, scanning, tracing background photos and laying basic screentones are things my controll-freakish mind could give away to someone else, haha.

I also think the system they have in Japan, with a master and her assistants, is a very learning and good structure of an comic making industry, without losing the "auteur feeling" of the work (as the master still does all the storytelling, sketching and inking of the characters). The books gets done a little bit faster, and also the assistants is introduced to the market and the industry this way, as interns in any other company would. It's also a great way for inexperienced artists to collect works on their C.V., as they could claim they have worked under more experienced artists and thus get that reference for future publications.
I think this would help the Swedish comic industry a lot. We have comic art schools/courses but no real structure in the industry to pick the students up after graduation... So I really hope more publishing artists takes in assistants in the future, it's truly not that shameful.

Anyway, here's a sneak peek from the fourth chapter!

Oh no! Amaltea is in real danger! O_O

Since my last update here on the blog, I've been to two conventions with Nosebleed Studio:

KodachiCon - The weather was terrible but the people was nice and we sold some books, yay! As this con is in my hometown, I have been visiting since the days I actually was a part of the team working on the con, and today we have a group of followers that we just have to attend to meet!

Copenhagen Comics - Expensive tables, but we had heard it was huge and thought it was worth it. Sadly, all our potential customers was missing, there was mostly older guys or young kids. Also, we artists had to pay the same table fee as the companies who earns a lot more (since they sell all the popular titles) which I feel is wrong. I would not return unless they actually had an artist alley, as most comic conventions does. With more affordable tables... (we just barely earned back our expenses)

Now to the coming future, and my plans for the rest of the summer!
Something crazy happened this Spring. Yes, truly "once in a lifetime" crazy! Via Fredrik Strömberg I was invited to attend famous Japanese manga artist and teacher Baron Yoshimoto's artist event Robopic in the end of July. Flight and hotell payed~
I could not say no, even though this trip is in the peak of my deadline stress, hahaha... *sweatdrop*
Catarina is coming too, yaaay!!

So, just like last time I went to Japan three years ago, I could not resist try to get a meeting with an editor or two in Japan, so after some help from my friend and colleague Elise Rosberg, this pile of packages was sent off:


...and I have already recieved some replies! OwO
More about that soon...

Ok, that will have to be it for this time, I'll get back to you soon with more information... Thanks for reading!!

20 February 2013

Work work work~

Right now, I'm multitasking all week:

Mondays at Serieskolan, teaching the students everything I know so they can conquer the world out there!
Tuesdays at Malmö University, teaching sketching techniques. The diligent students follow my crazy gudelines so well, and they evolve fast! I'm impressed!
The rest of the week is a mix of:
...finishing my manga Hearts of Midsummer for Nosebleed Studio's next anthology
...doing economy papers for Nosebleed Studio, Wasabi Press and my own company
...sending books to printers and recieving them.
...detail-planning A Sword Princess Tale, my next big project!

 The diligent students at the sketching course at Malmö University.
As written before, I have reprinted A song for Elise and my Harry Potter doujinshi The Marauders and the Secrets of the Heart. The former is avaliable for purchase in Nosebleed Studio's webbshop, but the latter is only purchaseable at events or via e-mail correspondance with me (see contact), since it is a doujinshi and I don't want to upset J.K. Rowling too much. It is a non-profit production, but I still want to be careful.

 Here's a photo of the two fabulous books, fresh of the printers!


I look forward to have them on Nosebleed Studio's book table for sale at all the events we're attending this year (check the list to the right to see which ones).

But, what is really stressing me out right now is the short story Hearts of Midsummer for Nosebleed Studio's next anthology, with a Swedish theme. I'm still screentoning and the book needs to go to the printers on the 1st of March! I hope I'll make it!

Here's a little short description on the storyline:

Julia is forced to celebrate Midsummer's Eve in her home village with her childhood friend Dennis' family. They havn't met up in two years, and last time they did he confessed to her that he likes her. So embarrassing! What will happend when the meet again? Will this be a Midsummer's Eve she will always remember or just wants to forget?

I really need to finish this manga short story NOW! Because 1) I have to start drawing A Sword Princess Tale to make it to the deadlines, and 2) I want to send HoM to Ribbon as my third entry, hopefully before the deadline in March! So much work!!

Ok, back to the drawing table! Please email me if you are interested in the books!

14 January 2013

2013 - Let's draw!

Here it comes!
Time for my New Years resolution and plans for 2013.

First, let's check in with my 2012 New Years resolution:
This year, I'll take the chance while young and energetic and go to Japan! 

Hm... Okay, this will be pretty easy. I superfailed.
I really tried though! I applied for at least 7 or 8 funds or scholarships to try to get money to go there, since my own economy is not Japan-trip-friendly so to say. Since I wanted to stay there for at least 1-2 months, it would probably be around 40 000 sek (4000 euro or so) and that is not in my personal budget. But nope, no money recieved.
Also, to be fair, I have shifted the focus a little. I do see I can make manga here and send it there if I want to (like I have with Ribbon) and also that I have a possible career here. I'm thinking; how about make myself big enough here, and then export myself to Japan with a C.V. that will impress them?
I'll try both, I guess.
So, if I shall grade my self based on this resolution, I get a smashing 1 out of 5! Hahaha. At least I tried, E for effort!

Now over to the New Years resolution of 2013.
This year I will be working on my longest project ever!

That means, before this year is over, I must have beaten my longest manga so far with a new ongoing project. Since my longest manga is Mjau! with 250 pages, I need to have made at least 260 pages before this year is over. Yep, crazy. But I promise you I will!

And that project will be A Sword Princess Tale, which I have a Swedish and a Danish publisher on. More info soon!
The plan is to have the first volume (out of 3 or 4) in Swedish released in September, so my work is cut out for me.

Here's my plan for the year:
❂  January: Make the layout sketches for the 150 pages long first A Sword Princess Tale-volume, and also finish the 32-pages manga for Nosebleed Studio's next anthology.
❂  February-June: Draw the 150 pages of the first volume (about 30 of them just need some minor changes) while also working as a teacher 2 days a week at Serieskolan in Malmö and at Malmö Univerity.
 ❂  July-August: Perhaps some vacation, but also start making the layout sketches of the second A Sword Princess Tale volume!
❂  September-December:  Drawing the second volume.

Hopefully I will have made over 260 pages of the manga before the year is over, That will be so cool!
There needs to be some changes done though, i.e. on the armor of Amaltea, the main character.
After reading this article:
"Why do you hate the shape of breats in plate armor so much?" - martwhim at tumblr

Okay, so it isn't the most practical solution... Let's change it a little:

What do you think?
(Yes, the waist is not proportional, but I'm
talking the boob-plate, nothing else!)

I will also go to a couple of events this year, here's some I hope to attend:
➼  J-popCon in Copenhagen, Denmark
➼  KodachiCon in Lund, Sweden
➼  SIS and Small Press Expo in Stockholm, Sweden
➼  Japan Expo in Paris, France
➼  NärCon in Linköping, Sweden
➼  Gothenburg Book Fair, Sweden
➼  London MCM Expo in UK
➼  Confusion in Gothenburg, Sweden

Hope to see some of you at the events!
Well, I better get back to the work now... as I have put up a very very optimistic goal for my self! 

Let's draw!

02 July 2012

Report from UppCon:12

So little time, this will be a quick entry...

Just wanted to do a short report from UppCon:12 (the last ever) on the 15-17th of June. It was a big party, but also a sad goodbye for a generation. This will not end the manga fans entusiasm though, rather the oposite; people was already talking of what will be the next big con, and the need of a big event like this, if not bigger!

Nosebleed Studio visited the con and our tables was well attracted even though the artist alley was quite small. We sat in the big market tent, which made us get more attention compared to last year, Thanks alot, UppCon-team, you did a great job as always!!

Catarina had her One Piece onepiece on, also called a kigurumi.

Kigurumis was very popular at the con.
Thank you to all the awesome people who visited our table and bought our latest works!

Alice made her own kigurumi, plus one extra for her friend Tomas.
Siver Fang and Totoro!

Joakim had no kigurumi, but was happy anyway!

Our fanzines, only 20 sek each! Pricey!

I had a presentation about my experiences with Japanese manga editors at Ribon (Shueisha).
Thank you to all of you who came and listened!
And one of my dreams came true, as the sweet cosplayer Hjortron-chan came by
to show me her cosplay of Vanilj, one of the kittens in my manga Mjau!
I'm so happy!! Awesome cosplay!

The convention was great, and we're so grateful to all who support us by bying our fanzines or books, and coming over to our table to talk. It is truly an honor to have people read our works, and enjoy them! Thank you!!

A couple of days later, I went to Solna in Stockholm to have two manga workshops, which went great. The participants was eager to learn, and on the last workshop we ended up having fun drawing eye lashes and lipstick on Voldemort. Don't ask me how we got there, but the kids had a fun time and so did I.

Well, as today is my B-day, I will have to get going now. 26 years old... Quite young still, and lots of things left to fulfill.

Oh, and also, there's some big things coming, but I think I have to wait until August to tell you, when I have papers signed and everything.
Thanks for still reading and for all your support!!

14 June 2012

Lecture at UppCon 12

I will be doing a lecture/presentation at this week ends UppCon convention in Uppsala!

The name of the lecture is "A Swedish Mangaka in Japan" and it will be about my contacts with the Japanese editors at Ribbon magazine, and my attempts to send them my short mangas. I will also talk about how the Japanese market works and compare it a little to our market.
And of course talk about the response I got on the two mangas I sent them! Very interesting!!
 

My sister Catarina will also hold a Manga workshop, and a Japanese friend of mine, Rio, will hold a lecture on her life as a Japanese Otaku, and the everyday life of Japanese Otakus! Don't miss it, it will be very very interesting!!

Saturday 16th:
10.30-11.30 
A Swedish Mangaka in Japan (in Swedish) with Natalia Batista
19.00-20.30
How to Draw a Manga Character (in Swedish) with Catarina Batista

Sunday 17th:
13.00-14.00
A Japanese Otakus Life (in English) with Rio Nishiyama

One of the pages from my Ribbon entry Hooked On You.


This will be the last UppCon ever, Though. The team that have been working on this project for 11 years have decided to move on and do other things. I really hope some new conventions will pop-up in the ashes of this giant's fall, because with it's 3.500 yearly visitors UppCon was Swedens absolutely biggest manga convention ever. It's so sad to have to say goodbye... ;___;

But! I got the green light from Fredrik Strömberg (chief editor at Bild&Bubbla - a Swedish magazine about comics) to make an article for the magazine about the past 11 years of UppCon. It's important to show the huge passion of the mangafans, and what some young people with great visions can create. I really hope the article might help to inspire!

See you at UppCon12!! :D

05 June 2012

My second review in Japanese Ribbon magazine!

So sorry for the very very delayed update. Life is as always a roller coaster with its ups and downs~
Here's a little update on my life and the latest achievements:

First, I got the result for Hooked On You, the novel manga I sent to the Japanese manga magazine Ribbon for their rookie competition. I named it 「友達バブル」 in Japanese.
It got the same prize as the Circus Romantique manga I sent them last time, which is the 「もうひと息賞」. But this time, I got a little higher an actually won some money (like 20 000 yen = ~150 euro/1500:- sek).

A scan from the Ribbon #6 2012, by my newfound friend xTsukim!
Check out her DeviantART Gallery and Youtube account!

With the help of xTsukim, I got the text translated for you:

Tomodachi Baburu, 32 pages
By Natalia Batista from Sweden, 25 years old

Story: In the big blue sea lives the mermaid Mina. Other mermaids think that you get strong by eating human meat, but Mina just want to become friends with a human. One day a boy gets thrown into the water, but is saved by Mina...!?

Critique: Just like with the last manga piece, the artwork is on a high level. You take time to do the backgrounds and also succeeding in making it feel like they live in the sea. But then however, the storyline; It doesn't show if this was Mina's love story, or a frinedship story, or maybe a story of her growing up? It didn't show the theme well enough so we disn't understand it. The ending was cut off very suddently. We didn't know if this was a happy ending or not. Please make characters more personally attached to the reader.


Art: 16
Story: 10
Overall feeling: 24
Total: 50 (out of 100)



Great critique as always, I get so many "Aha"-moments when I read their or the editor's comments, while thinking "Why didn't I do it that way?! How could I have been so stupid!?"

I love constructive critique and comments. It makes me grow as an artist, and also realize my own weakness, where my focus needs to be on my next work!

Sadly, this story got only 50 points and the one before got 55. I am analyzing the situation, and I think my next entry will be a more Ribbon-ish story. For once, I know what I want to focus on; a REAL shojo manga love story.
I have some ideas already, but it's way too early to show, so I'll get back to you with it later.

While also working on Nosebleed Studio stuff, like the comimg trailer for our anthology and some economy papers (which I am in charge of), I'm also kickstarting a big project with my friend Elise Rosberg at Wasabi Press. We're the initiators of the coming Swedish Asia-fan community NonstopCon, that will be up this Fall! More info on the homepage, and I'll blog more about it soon.

That aside, I have also been getting in contact with editors and publishers from different countries, to find possible publication for my project A Sword Princess Tale. So far I have two that are interested, but some more are still looking at the pitch I gave them. These things take time, so I expect contracts to be signed not earlier than August or so. But if I get something before then, I'll let you guys know! ;)

Here's a quick sketch I did of Amalthea. There's more where this one came from but I have to upload them some other time.


15 March 2012

One more submission for Ribbon done!

Last week, I finished the work on the Japanese version of Hooked On You with some help from my Japanese speaking friends! Thank you, everyone!! Akio, Rio, Elise, Simon and everyone else who have checked the spelling and grammar in Tomodachi Baburu (Friends Bubble).
((Yeah, I know the title is non-logical, but it's kind of standards when it comes to shojo manga, hahaha. It just have to sound cute!))

Here's the English and the Japanese cover pages next to each other. The both are printed in black and white, but I kept a colored version of the English.



And so, after some dramatic mishaps at the print shop (they printed the pages upside down on my expensive manga papers with markings... ;_; ) I finally sent of my second submission for Ribbon Manga School yesterday!
It's exciting, but still feels like a big burden to carry until you send it off, so now I feel like I'm walking on clouds! The decision is out of my controll, I just have to wait~

Oh, by the way...
I made a video when I inked the shojo manga eyes of the cover, here it is!



Thanks for reading!! :D