SPX10 Stockholm in Retrospect

I left Stockholm in glorious sunshine and the Small Press Expo fair still going for another hour, but it was in a sense of victory. This weekend has been simply awesome.

We arrived Friday, had the release party for the book (Swedish Comic Sin http://swedishcomicsin.blogspot.com/ ) and we were delighted to be met with curiosity and just an air of positivity to the book. It was perfect and for me, quite exciting!

I was later invited by my old Comic School teacher, Gunnar Krantz, to a dinner together with Natalia and Catarina Batista, there we met some really interesting people such as Leo Sandberg www.fabpics.com who have been working on games and movies (such as 9 by Tim Burton and Mirror's Edge) as a concept artist. That was truly a great experience.



Me and Amanda Hakim lived at her uncle's place, a fun man with a sweet family that felt almost like family, it was great.

Saturday we started by finish setting up the table and started selling our fanzines and books even before the table were fully set and the fair even opened, We sold VERY well the first day and nearly just as well the second day. I sold all that I had left of my personal copies of my Birger Jarl comic (yay) as well ^^! Met great artist such as Stef Gaines, Lisa Medin, Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom, Maria Fröhlich, Peter Madsen, and about a million more. All of the people selling were either the actual creators of the comics or the people publishing their things. It was all people from the "business" so to say, I loooove that knowledge.



Day two, Sunday that is, was pretty much Saturday only not as stressed. It was sweet to see all the people being delighted by SCS and see the last of my Birger to get sold. All of it was.

I know I am going next year as well. For sure.

I was in today's newspaper (Sunday 21st of March)!

It's in Swedish only sadly.

Oh gods, I never update here, I have to fix that.

So lately I have been doing comics and commissions. Spending my time mostly at home and going very little else. I've drawn a comic about Birger Jarl for a publisher called "Kultur Poolen", they've published several stories about Swedish historic characters.

After that I've worked with a project for an anthology with erotic comics from about 10 Swedish comic artists (in English, of course) called "Swedish Comic Sin". My submission for the anthology can be read on my FA (not safe for work).

The cover for my sex comic.



And now I am working on a short comic for a fanzine.

It's a short story about a Victorian maid in a alternative Victorian Steampunk England.

The Book of Kells

I found this random link to a trailer to something called "Brandon and the Secret of Kells" some month or so ago and decided today to check it again... and in the process I found a full movie link.

I had little expectations for this film, it seemed pretty, that was pretty much it... And it was far more. A sweet and gripping story about the making of the Book of Kells (seriously update your history if you don't know what THAT is).

The film is made in a sort of Samurai Jack style that were popular on Cartoon Network, only... it is beautiful.

The story is about the boy Brandon who lives within the walls of Kells, a fortress in the building and he has never been outside the walls. One day a monk and his cat comes to the place with a treasure beyond their dreams, the unfinished illuminated book of Iona. He speaks of Northmen that came and destroyed his former home and he had to flee to Kells in order to save the book.

Amazed by the book Brandon soon start to hang out with the old monk and gets a mission from the man... Pick some berries from an oak tree (most likely mistletoe berries) out in the forest to make emerald green ink for the book. At first Brandon refuses yet after a while he decides to go for it anyway and off he goes into the forest.

This is where the magic starts. He meets the faerie Aisling, whom he befriends, and she helps him find the berries. A lot of things happens after that... things I will let you see for yourself.

I can really recommend seeing this film once it is out (It's released in March) it is definitely worth it!

Here's the film's site...
http://www.thesecretofkells.com/

New fashion isn't all that new... it's the 80ties all over again.

So... I and my friends went out to find a dress for my friend for her brother's graduation... And damn, what the hell is up with the fashions these days? As a person who wear what I like and don't really care about popular fashion I haven't kept up with what's "in" at the moment... and thank the Gods for that.

We started off by going to H&M which usually have SOMETHING nice to get (like leggings or whatever) and what do we see the moment we get into the store if not these HORRIBLE flowery granny dresses that make you look pregnant if you wear them. I mean WTF? All three of us just stared in horror at the dresses and then went into the store to see if it got better...

But it didn't.

As we got inside we saw even uglier flowery dresses and blouses... And the other stuff in there? 80ties is all I say.

Bloody 80ties! Piss-yellow skirts and shirts, horrible sparkly dresses with ugly prints on them... shit I saw my mother wear during the 80ties.

I am sorry, but the 80ties was a decade of fashion disasters. I mean seriously... 80ties shorts? *shudders* I saw a pair.

And back to the dresses... no matter what we tried on for my friend it looked like a pregnancy-dress. I felt sorry for her... eventually we figured out we would either go check out a second-hand store and if we didn't find anything there she would use an old dress she haven't used for a while and fit it for her. (she've lost weight ^^)

So she ended up using something she bought years ago.

I am thankful for not following the fashions and keeping to my own personal style.

Fanart for Åsa

Åsa Ekström's characters from her upcoming book "Sayonara September" (A story about a girl who starts a comic school and her life at that school). Check out her homepage.

Sci-fi convention, Christopher Judge and moving.

Well... We (Robin, Catta, Fanny and I) went to the Sci-fi Convention here in Malmö to check out the cool stuff and such. And see if we could sneak some photos of the stars that were there. ( Anthony Daniels (C-3po for those that don't know), Edward Furlong (John Connor, T2) Christopher Judge (Teal'c in StarGate SG-1) And Gunnar Hansen (Leatherface in Texas Chainsaw massacre))

We came around 1pm and stood in line to get in. While we did so We saw this HUGE black guy standing in line for the bathroom and people were asking him to take pictures... I barely noticed it until my friend said she needed to go to the bathroom and my friends pointed out that that was probably Mr Judge himself. I stared for a moment and then my eyes widened in shock. It WAS him. Excited as I were I (at the insisting of Catta) went up to him when he returned from the bathroom and asked if I could take a picture of him. And he said yes. *HAPPY* I was so giddy the rest of the time.
Then later when we got in and walked around a bit my other friend (who had helped around the place) gave me her signed photo of Mr Judge and even let me have it dedicated to me. I was SO happy!Later that day me and Robin went to our common friend's birthday party. It was great and we managed to honour Earth Hour as well.

It was all great fun. ^^On Saturday the 4th of April, I will move to Lund. I will most likely have my internet instantly since I am moving in with a friend, Natalia. So I will have closer to my friends, closer to my girlfriend, Nat and in general a better environment then the one that's here. (considering they've been having small riots for weeks now.)

It will be great to move... and my father is coming down to help me. Which is also great. He didn't need to, but he does anyway. ^^ So... I'll get a new place to live and get to see my father in the same day.

Life is goooooood.

New Years and 24-hour comic session

Well, The new year is here and we had a blast during New Years eve. We hung out at the local anime-club and ate and danced all day. It was awesome ^^


I wore that outfit. *points to image of me sitting and grinning.* Yes, that's a corset.

Here are some more images.

*****

Then we had a 24 hour comic session that was really fun. I sketched out 26 pages and will be inking them soon. ^^

Natalia Batista looking very tired XD

And Nat and Amanda working on their comics. ^^ Amanda was really good and made a lovely and sad story for Think Ink's (our studio) fanzine.

Some porn images

Yay some porn.
William and his brother... This was a nightmare in the RP we play, me and some IRL friends of mine.
I play William.








William and Bert... a man on the air pirate ship The Air Bitch that Will has taken a fancy to. (This have yet to happen).












My original version of my Original Character (OC) Nathaniel Mea. I have two versions of this character... One, the OC, made for an RPG called Drakar och Demoner, a Swedish Pen and paper RPG. And then the Gaia Online version. (short hair, horns, tail).

This is OC Nat and his wife, Yefa.




OC Nat and a woman called Yelka. A bit of a "What if.." moment between my Storyteller and myself resulting in this image.












And lastly, an image of my friend's character, Spearfrost... also the lover of Gaia Nat.

Goodbye Grandfather

My grandfather on my mother's side died this morning (January 2nd). He'd been sick for quite a while now and when I visited them in Portugal this September I saw in how much pain he was... so I am just glad it is over now.

Have a good Rest, Granddad. I'll make you proud of me.

Love you.

Riots outside my house in Rosengård

Want to know why there hasn't been any real updates lately?

Well, here it is.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=625_1229650209

http://www.thelocal.se/16480/20081219/

http://twitter.com/blomqvist/statuses/1066758794

There has been protests against the closing of a mosque here in Rosengård (where I live) and the young Muslims that protested it did so peacefully.

Then the Police started placing containers in front of the locale to stop them from entering and they got angry, some younger hotheads started fighting and were taken in and returned to their parents, and after that things started to get ugly.

Outside people (non-muslims, AFA) came in and escalated the angry shuts into full blown fighting.

3 days now the streets has been full of people after dark, people that come here only to fight and make the protest what it was not.

Violent.

Stones and rocks has been thrown at police and fire-personnel here to put out the fires that are started by the people sending off fireworks at the police. I can hear the explosions RIGHT NOW, as I write this... and the sirens of the Police cars.

It's annoying how something peaceful can get like this... like the European Social Forum that escalated into a battlezone.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/09/409104.html

Anyway, I haven't slept during the night for 2 nights now, and seeing as it's already explosions and police everywhere at 6:20 PM... I guess I won't be sleeping much tonight either.

Anyway, I'm staying inside and safe, away from all this crazy shit.

Peace.

Many Names, Many Dreams

This is the newest submission to my character repertoire, IT is a spirit of the forest, a "Väsen" out of Swedish lore. It's based slightly on two Swedish myths about woodland creatures; The Troll (which in Swedish lore used to be beautiful and lure men and women to their lair where they kept them hostage) and the "Skogsrå" (a woman with a rotting wooden back and a fox's tail that presided over the forest and all its creatures, as well as punished the wicked by luring them to be lost in the woods. She was also known to lure men to have sex with her.)

This creature here is a fair androgynous creature that could be either male or female but is really neither. It doesn't have a sex until the person it lures into its embrace shows it his or hers true desire... Then it takes the shape of what they most want... male, female... and give it to them. It doesn't care about Christian morals, it only care about the person's true self... their innermost desires and heart.

In my short story, this creature will take the shape of a man to please the young man it lures to follow it.

Anyway... drawn at much too late an hour... Enjoy.

Smack Jeeves account

I made a Smack Jeeves account today... and added the first few pages of Nerd Culture to it. Here's the link ^^

Nerd Culture

Enjoy ^^

Some doodles and thoughs...

I find it funny that sometimes one can watch something and be so... inspired. I love the Roman era in history and reading about it. I even have quite a few books on Roman history and art... Anyway, I've been watching "I Claudius"... so I drew this last night (in the middle of the night, mind you)... based on the Julio-Claudian era's hairdos and Male standard.

Made with blue pen, and almost dry old ciao copics I had lying around... and then added black afterwards here and there.

I am pretty pleased with him.

And I also drew a picture of the Adviser to the King of the Light
Elves from my lesbo comic I'm working on. His name is Sisur and he's surrounded by scandals. This image was made in the same style as the roman man above.

I also were given an idea for a comic by a friend of mine, Natalia
We were talking about how trolls in swedish myths and stories were actually very pretty, and how John Bauer made people think they weren't with his paintings of ugly old things for the story book for children called "Bland tomtar och troll" (Among Elves and trolls). That discussion led me to draw this image where a man is handed a helping hand by a "bergatroll" (mountain troll). When I showed the image to her, she imediatly had an idea for a story.

So we talked and I wrote the gist of it down and when I got home I sketched out 15 pages of a short, but sweet, male homo story between a man and a "skogsväsen" (Forest spirit, sort of).

The idea is that the "väsen" can take the form the person it meets most desire. It is a sexless thing until the heart of the person it approches are revealed. Taking the proper shape for the encounter, be it male or female. It also only takes the shape of their TRUE desire, even if it may be something they have yet to fully comprehend themselves... like closet homosexuals maybe will be faced by their true nature against their will.

Which is why people warn people to be lured by the creatures of the forest.

^^ Anyway, thanks Natta for giving me this idea.

...back again

Gods, I never seem to remember to update this place. But that will be changed from now on.

This place will be my sketch blog where I'll post stuff in general. We'll see if I make something better out of it in the future ^^

Out for now, with a doodled comic page for a friend on Gaia Online ^^

More sketches!

Aaaannnd another sketchdump... Enjoy. OH! There's porn in these so keep that in mind.

Silly shit between friends ^^

So my friend gives me all these chibi pictures to draw... as in he suggest characters from our on going roleplay (5 years and 2 months now) and a situation (I do the same to him) and we draw it...

These are mine so far.

Returned from SPX

So how was my time there?

It was great! I loved it to bits and I realize I want to do things like this for forever!

So here are some pictures and such ^^

We started the trip at 08:14 on Thursday morning ^^ It was a beautiful day, sunny and chilly, a perfect day for a 4 and a half hour train-ride.

We arrived at Stockholm's Central Station at 12:40 and then started off by panicking over things like luggage and such (or rather... I watched the others do that while I waited for them to finish XD).

We then set off in different groups, Stef Gaines (:devspheru:) to her parents and Lisa Medin to her boyfriend, I went with Valentin (:devdagvalentin:) and his mum. We had lunch and then spent the rest of the day walking around town taking pictures and stuff.

We found this HUGE Birch tree on Thursday so I just had to get a picture of the trunk.




Then I went to a seminar held by Galago (an indie comic book) about the industry. I then went to Stef Gaines and slept at their house. ^^

Day two was pretty much the same as day one, spent the day walking around after having been to Serieteket to register and such... Bought a new dress to wear on Lisa Medin's release party that evening ^^ Then we went and had some hamburgers and hot dogs under the cherry trees on Kungstorget (King's Square).





Then we went with Lisa and the rest to Street (a hip pub by the channel in Stockholm)

Here's Stef being drunk and funny XD




Valentin, Robin (:devstyggelse:) and me...





Then we went home and slept again.

The day after was started early because we had tables to set up and things to do. I and Robin set up the School's table and I also set up mine and Valentin's table.

School's table... and Robin by it XD.





More setting up around SPX...





Stef and her boyfriend Kent...




Lisa and Antilla (an arranger of SPX)





Old friends ^^





Random awesomeness...





That day was also the day of the SPX dinner (which was a disaster but whatever) I got my chance to take a picture of Stan Sakai (creator of Usagi Yojimbo) and Chris Staros from Top Shelf Productions http://www.topshelfcomix.com/ Which was awesome.

Mr Sakai and Mr Staros...





...and me with them XD It was their idea ^^;;





So we ate dinner and then had a nice evening at Stef's place watching The Wall by Pink Floyd.

The last day of SPX was calmer but still fun ^^ Mr Staros had a look at our stuff and that was awesome. I went home that evening by night bus... came home about 07.05 the next morning, went straight to school and spent the day listening to Chris Staros talking about the industry and how it looks in the US.



Alice Engström (:devmiss-collie:) and Valentin doing the Domokun thing XD






And that was my AWESOME weekend at SPX!