Mattias Elftorp's Blog, page 23

All these things…

Ok, so here’s the deal.

Current comics projects:

I was going to get started on Piracy is Liberation v03 this fall, but right now I don’t see it happening. I also had to postpone the Transgressions 2 project I was planning to get started with Brazilian noise band Anarcho Vomit Noise. But I finished The Troll, and when the publisher gets hold of some 3D glasses it’s going to get a proper release somehow. I also have to make the Swedish translation of it as soon as I get some five spare minutes…

First, some short stories. I told you before about Viral that I made for CBA vol 30. I’m also mentally sketching a cover illustration for that issue, together with Kinga Dukaj. I’ve also written a script for something that is currently called Immunology, intended for the Oulu comics festival horror comics competition, whose deadline is approaching. It’s probably going to end up in CBA sooner or later as well. And I have a script for another troll story, but a different kind, for the upcoming Novo Doba festival anthology. Working title: These fucked up things they are doing to us.

Oh, and I’m supposed to make a lino cut contribution to Éric Ferrier’s new zine. Deadline sometime in August, of course. Maybe I’ll do it this weekend…

Spell casting: 

A few years ago, I decided that things got more interesting if I view application-writing as casting spells. Because it is a bit like magic. You formulate a spell, you offer it to the gods/spirits/institutions in a kind of ritual that may include going to the post office or completing certain steps online, and then, if these higher powers decide to smile upon you, you get the money you ask for. And then you have to work for it, sacrificing your time and creativity, putting their power sigils/logos on whatever you produce within the boundaries of the spell.

So this is also something I’m going to be doing for a while now. Projects that need financing:

– AltCom 2016: WORK (this time organized by CBK & Tusen Serier)

– Tusen Serier (which was just transformed from a project under the Swedish Comics Association into its own organization. Now we’re just waiting for our magic number that will give us access to new sorts of magic).

– CBK (luckily I’m not responsible for writing these. Mine is more a consulting role. But still, deadline approaching…)

CBK:

So I just finished putting together the new issue of CBA (vol 29), which is a solo issue called What we knew, by Sarah Kläpp. With any luck, we’ll have it in time for the Helsinki festival…

And we’re in the process of making comics for CBA vol 30. Well, the others are. I’ve been done for ages. Luckily.

And some submissions have already come in for CBA vol 32. It’s always a joy to see all the nice comics people are sending to us.

And I hear that Mari Ahokoivu is preparing the material for he solo issue (vol 31).

All of these releases are supposed to result in exhibitions sooner or later.

We just need to sort out the mess that the former editorial crew left behind. A mess that may pose a big problem for us new people. Long story. We’ll sort it out somehow.

Edit: And yes, on top of all this, I’m also going to put togehter another book for CBK: Creation of a god / Vallonden som byggde gud. Comics adaptation by Henrik Möller & Lars Krantz of a Richard Stanley (who made films like Hardware and Dust Devil) short story. My self preservation skills are at 0. I just can’t help myself…

Wormgod:

Not much happening here for the moment, which is probably saving my life right now, because:

Tusen Serier:

August 4-7: Nerd at Pride

We’ll be making a jam comic on the walls during this event. An interactive exhibition with some kind of LGBT/Sci Fi theme that we will figure out as we go along.

August 15: Tusen Stafettserier

Tusen Stafettserier, our jam comics project that we’ve been working on for the last year is now finished and the exhibition which started in Stockholm recently will now be shown in Malmö before going on to Sjöbo, Gothenburg and back to Stockholm again.

August 21: Sofie Hoff (guest exhibition)

We’re lending out the Tusen Serier place for a guest exhibition.

August 28-30: Helsinki sarjakuvafestivaali

Tusen Serier, CBK and Wormgod goes to the Helsinki comics festival! Which is always nice, especially since I haven’t been there for a while now.

September 5(?):  Lillebrors fantastiska mardrömmar release/exhibition/performance

The official release of Lillebrors fantastiska mardrömmar (date may change)!

September 12-13: Comic Con Malmö

Not sure how this will work out, but worth a try anyway. Tusen Serier & Wormgod at the first Comic Con in Malmö. They seem to base this more on the image of San Diego Comic Con that you see in popular culture rather than focusing on comics. We’ll see…

September 22-27: Novo Doba

Going to Serbia once more for the Novo Doba festival. Family reunion…

September 26: Some exhibition

I won’t be here for this one, but we’ll put some kind of exhibition together.

September 27: Amalia Alvarez at the Gothenburg book fair

Amalia Alvarez will represent Tusen Serier and talk about her new book about prostitutes. Another thing I won’t be here for…

So that’s it…

…for August and September. And after that there is still the issue of the After the ends of the world release party/mini noise festival that was supposed to have happened already, but the venue didn’t work out for different reasons (mainly construction work).

And we were going to show the 8. exhibition in Malmö, maybe in conjunction with a release event for The Troll (and of course for the 8. book). Whenever there is time.

Where is the time? Have you seen it?

Also, could you remind me of all the things I’ve forgotten in this description of what is filling my head right now, because I don’t know where they are or what they look like or what I was even talking about…

Anyway, see you around, somewhere.

Storage…

Storage is a comic I made for the AltCom 2012 NO BORDERS anthology.

On page 3, you can see a deportee being strapped to a special chair that is used for transporting “difficult” persons by plane. People who, for some reason, do not want to be forcibly deported, even though the Swedish authorities have declared that it is correct, almost that it is done with the best interests for the person in mind. Because why would the Swedish authorities do something like that if it wasn’t the right thing to do?

Instructions: If you see someone being taken on the same plane as you against their will, stand up, make a fuss, etc. Get more people to do the same. The plane is not allowed to take off until everyone is seated, and the pilot has the final say. Several deportations have been stopped in this manner. This may give the person more time to appeal again and maybe even get residency. Also, they may not have to be drugged and wake up in another country where they may have no viable prospects for a decent life.

As for the comic, it was inspired by a passage from Fortets Murar, a report from various detentions centers (prisons for asylum seekers/refugees whose only crime was to try to stay within the wrong borders. In Sweden, they are called “storage”) in Europe.

Click images for bigger, more readable, versions:

8.

It’s been going on since the 4th, but I haven’t really had time to sit down by my computer until now, so, during July and possibly longer, I’m having an exhibition together with Kinga Dukaj (of CBK & Tusen Serier) at Le Garage L in Forcalcier, France.

After the CRACK! festival, we went there to hang out for a while, set up the exhibition and make a small book together. It’s my first screenprinted/handmade book, and it feels really good to have done it, especially at this great place that is the bookshop/print workshop/exhibition space/etc of Le Garage L.

 

(Both images made by Kinga)

 

For the exhibition, I brought mostly my Wormgod stuff but also some new prints. Some of them containing 3D images from The Troll, which I got from the printer just the day before leaving for this small European tour.

More on The Troll later, as there will be some kind of release event in Malmö, we’re just waiting to get the 3D glasses so it can be officially released…

Fake monnay for CRACK! CAPITALE

The theme for this year’s CRACK! festival is CAPITAL. So the guests will have made fake money. Here’s Wormgod‘s, Tusen Serier‘s and mine:

 

Unused old CBA cover…

Looking through my old CBK files, I found this sketch for an old cover (from maybe 2005). It never got used or developed or even remembered, but finding it again I kind of liked it as it is, so I’m showing it here now.

In more CBK news, we just announced that we’re open to submissions for CBA vol 32, and I’m working together with Kinga Dukaj on the cover for vol 30, which won’t look anything like this one…

Viral (upcoming CBAvol30)

CBA vol 30 will be the first issue of CBA featuring the new editorial crew (and ONLY the editorial crew, for once).

So I made this story: VIRAL.

I wanted to do something special. Not sure if I managed that, but it’s a short story based on an idea I had. I drew the thing and everythin, months before deadline. Made a b/w version for Stripburger (which they chose not to publish, which is kind of normal when I send them stuff), and then I decided that I didn’t like it the way I had done it. So I made another version (and a third version that never got developed further than the drawing stage).

Here are some pages.

Version 1:

 

Version 2:

Version 2 is really far from what I usually do, drawing style-wise, but for this story I think it serves its purpose better, and I really liked how the colors turned out…

The Troll – new cover

Yeah, I changed it since the last post. Otherwise, most of the info was correct. Most of it…

 

So what else is up?

Waiting for some Tusen Serier books to come from the printer. They should have been here a month ago, but… Anyway, I’ve seen two of them already and they look really nice. When they arrive there will be exhibitions! Hopefully as nice as the one we had last weekend (CBK/Allan Haverholm @ Tusen Serier).

I just started writing an application to get money to go to the Novo Doba festival in September. It’s always “fun” to write these things.

I need to find the time to make some kind of art for the exhibitions at CRACK! (Wormgod/Tusen Serier/CBK) in June and Le Garage L (me and Kinga Dukaj) in July. And to finish my story for CBA vol 30, which I’ve been reworking over and over and never seem to be really happy with for some reason.

And also writing a couple of whateverthehellyoucallthem, you know, the things you write after someone gave you money to tell them that you did al the things they gave you money for. I do take this very seriously, I just can’t think of the word for it in English. I report every month to my “boss”, but I still have to write these things myself for some reason. Maybe you really have to be me to know what I’m doing. As if that would help.

I also should really eat something and then go to bed.

Goodnight.

Coming soon: The Troll

 

 

Yesterday I finished the cover illustration for my new book, The Troll, which is what I’ve been working on outside of my other projects these last few months. It’s going to be published by Komika förlag, hopefully in time for CRACK! festival (June 25-28).

 

Not exactly sure how to describe the thing yet, but it has some elements of family drama, some queerness and an exploration of a fifth dimension concept (which, when I think about it, is kind of compatible with Butlerian queer theory). Mostly it’s been a lot of fun working on it.

It’s an expansion of a 24h comic I made back in 2005 (published in a smaller format by Komika in 2008), that I added 3 new chapters to, which makes it a bit lonjger than 100 pages in total. So it’s been 10 years in the making, as they say.

And it’s partially in 3D (old school 3D glasses will be included), so if you have a pair of 3D glasses, put them on and take another look at the cover!

Sketches…

More sketches. There will be some more serious stuff soon, I promise!

The first one was inspired by seeing Danijel Zezelj handle a roller.

I once saw the original Alien costume from the first movie at a HR Giger retrospective exhibition. In a dark room, next to his furniture, it sat perched on some stool or something. I expected it to start moving at any time, but it never did, resulting in that special feeling of disappointment and relief at the same time. 

I have nothing to say about these last few drawings:

  



…except I call this one “the knifist”:  

Sketches: BETMEN etc

Hey, look! It’s Clark Kent in a Superman costume!

 

Yup…