Recommendation: Footnotes in Gaza

Title: Footnotes in Gaza
By: Joe Sacco
Language: English
418 pages, b&w, hardcover
Jonathan Cape, 2009
ISBN: 9780224071093












Well, what can I say? Joe Sacco is one of those few comics artists whose every new books I eagerly await. His subject matters are always interesting and he constantly manages to walk that thin line between entertainment and education. I always leave a book by Sacco feeling a bit sad that people never seems to learn from their mistakes, but also a bit more enlightened as to what is actually happening in the world.

For this book, Sacco revisited Palestine during a period between 2002 and 2003, researching an especially bloody incident, which took place in the small town of Rafah in 1956. We get to follow Sacco as he relentlessly seeks out every older person who might remember what actually happened when Israeli soldiers raided the town and killed most of its male inhabitants. As always, it is riveting reading, as Sacco is both a very good journalist and a master at converting his findings into compelling stories. This is a massive book of more than 400 pages, and the subject matter is grueling to say the least, but you still hang in there, hardly able to let go of the book until it is finished.

I read this book while the big “Aid to Gaza” fiasco was unraveling, which sadly only served to show just how relevant this book still is, despite the fact that it was researched in the first part of the 21st century and deals with something that happened in the middle of the 20th century.

Video: San Diego Comic Con International

A report from the newly finished San Diego Comic Con International, done for the website EbonyJet.com by the film maker Floyd Webb. Makes me both sad and happy that I wasn't there...

News: Swedish Column at The Comics Journal

As of today I have a column at the website for the American magazine The Comics Journal. I will there report on comics from a Swedish perspective, i.e. mostly do what I do here.There will thus be cross-posting of articles etc. back and forth a bit. TCJ are hard at work building a crew of dedicated writers from all over the world and their website is gaining momentum as an alternative to the printed version of the magazine. Go there and check it out!

New: Comic Art Propaganda sample

I just found out that there´s a preview of my book Comic Art Propaganda to be found at Comics Alliance.  It's the story of the controversial comic book Hansi - The Girl who Loved the Swastika.

Recommendation: Jag tror jag är kär

Title: Jag tror jag är kär
Translation: I Guess I'm Falling in Love
By: Daniel Novakovic
232 pages, color, hardcover
Optimal Press, 2010
ISBN: 978-91-85951-14-7







This is a unique book, on several accounts. To start with, the comics were originally reproduced in gigantic format on the walls of the Campus building of the University in Norrköping, making them probably one of the largest comics in the world. This is cool in itself, but it’s the content that captures the reader/onlooker. Fortunately for all of us who hasn’t made it to Norrköping, there is now a book out with all the comics; a beautiful little square hard cover book with one panel a page.

The comics are short, fleeting and beautiful stories about young love, always full of references to pop songs. The stories in themselves are like pop songs and the feeling after having read them all is like having listened to a pop album. Some are sad, some a happy and some simply slice-of-life. This might sound predictable or even corny but it’s not. Novakovic manages to tell these stories with a straight face, and gets away with it. Add to this the original and evocative drawings of Novakovic, which are somewhat reminiscent of Al Colombia's pupil-less characters and the sum total is striking.

Another contender for the title Swedish graphic novel most deserving an English translation!

Video: Time & Again

Here's a film in which an animator uses conventions from comics in general and from Chris Ware's work in particular. A beautiful little film, in which Jacques Khouri actually uses these story telling devices in a way that works with and for the story and not just as an artistic embellishment. I'm usually a bit wary of the use of animation and music/sound in "comics", as it either doesn't add anything or simply moves the comic into the realm of animation, without being an especially interesting animation. This is a promising hybrid, though.

Recommendation: Gus & His Gang

Title: Gus and his Gang
By: Christopher Blain
Language: English (French)
164 pages, color, soft cover
First Second, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-59643-170-6












I’m such an idiot! I love the new French wave of comics, with their combination of old and new, and of all representatives of this generation, I put Christopher Blain just after my biggest favorite, Joann Sfar. And yet it has still taken me two years to read this book…

Anyway, I did read it now and it was every bit as good as I was expecting it to be. Blains art is riveting, action packed, beautiful and very personal. And the stories in this book are interesting to say the least. On the surface it’s about three traditional bank robbers of the Wild West; handsome, manly, self assured, violent and always getting away with it. But when they are not robbing banks, they act like female characters out of a novel by the Brontë sisters. They are constantly on the lookout for love, discussing whether or not it is appropriate to write back to a lady who has not answered the last letter, quarreling about how to interpret a glance from a lady in the street and so on. In short, the contrast in striking and Blain has really outdone himself in reinventing this tired old genre. This is, in my humble opinion, just about as good as it gets.

Well, don’t just sit there! Go get this book! Now!

News: Harvey Pekar RIP

The news is just out that Harvey Pekar (1939-2010) passed away yesterday, at the age of 70. Pekar was very early at realising the potential of the comics media to tell any kind of story and leaves us with an impressive body of work.

I have read most of the comics which Pekar has written and has always enjoyed his stories, especially the more mundande, slice-of-life comics he excelled at early in his career. I will write a longer text on Pekar, for Bild & Bubbla, but for now I recommend those of you not familiar with his work to start by reading about him at Wikipedia: http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/17881.html

Video: Grickle animated

More often than not, browsing YouTube is a great way of finding out things you didn't know about. This beautiful short, though, was shown by a friend on Facebook, and that led me to the official Grickle Channel. I've read and enjoyed the comics of Graham Annable for quite some time, but I have no idea he also did animation. So, if you liked the above, and how could you not, go there and enjoy.

News: Comics in Swedish Politics, Again

I reported a few days ago that among the cultural activities during Almedalsveckan, the official week of political discussions here in Sweden, there was an exhibition with comics commenting on the equality politics of the major Swedish political parties. Now it seems that comics have also entered the debate on the highest possible level. The parties of the opposition, the so called Red-Greens, have made a political statement about cultural politics in Sweden, promising a new centre for popular culture if they win the election this autumn. Included in the popular cultures which would be housed in this centre was... comics.

I've been around far too long to take anything like this at face value and start preparing for the existence of such a "Centre of Popular Cultures", but I find it interesting to say the least that comics are mentioned at this level of national politics.

Recommendation: Theos Ockulta kuriositeter

Title: Theos Ockulta kuriositeter: De förlorade sidornas bok
Translation: The Occult Curiosities of Theo: The Book of Lost Pages
By: Ola Skogäng
Language:  Swedish
180 pages, color, soft cover
Ekholm & Tegebjer, 2010
ISBN: 978-91-86048-10-5











I will simply have to stop writing in my reviews/recommendations that a certain comic is very "un-Swedish", and realize that in this international age of ours, inspiration and influences are all over the place. Ola Skogäng's comics shows influences from traditional European albums, but maybe most obviously from the American Mike Mignola and his Hellboy comics. This is not to say that Skogäng's comics feel like copies, but that the results have a strange familiarity to them, while still being new and fresh.

This is the second of what looks like a long series of books about the man-turned-into-a-bear Theo, who is a kind of paranormal investigator, operating with Stockholm as base. The stories are often based on historical facts that are distorted into Lovecraftian adventures, complete with monsters with great big tentacles. All kidding aside, these are really well made stores with great art and a good leading character. Theos Ockulta Kuriositeter (The Occult Curiosities of Theo) ranks high on my short-list of Swedish comics bound for an International launch. So publishers, take note!

Oh, and here's an English language site with more info.

News: Not Quite Hysterical

Right now the yearly "Almedalsveckan", a weekly event focusing on Swedish politics - situated on the island of Gotland, is under way. A lot of focus is centred on what is going on there this year, as we will have a general election in Sweden this autumn. Alongside all the talks, debates etc., there is also a big comics exhibition, which had its grand opening today.

The theme of the exhibition, Inte helt hysterisk - jämställdhetspolitik i serieformat (Not Quite Hysterical - Equality Politics in Comics Form) is of course political. Seven female cartoonists have been given the assignment to give their interpretation of the political plans for equality of each of the seven largest political parties in Sweden. The artists include some of the biggest names in Swedish comics, and I just hate the fact that I can't be there! I'll just have to see if we can't show this in Malmö as well...

Anyway, more info, photos etc. here. Oh, and the photo was, as you can see, taken from that very page.