It's been known in the industry for a while, and since a few weeks it's official. The big Swedish publishing corporation Bonnier AB has bought Kartago, one of the major serious players in the comics business in Sweden. Here's the official statement from Bonnier. Here's also an interview with Måns Gahrton, comics creator and head of Semic, one of Bonnier's existing publishing houses with comics in their output, which - it seems - will be working closely with Kartago in the future.
Kartago is run by Rolf Classon, an influential publisher and editor who has been around since the late 1970s, when he was part of establishing the magazine Galago. Classon has published some very successful comics through Kartago, most notably Rocky by Martin Kellerman, but Kartago has been losing money the last few years. Classon will still be Publisher in Chief at Kartago, and Thomas Olsson will still be editor, so it seems that the core of Kartago will remain.
This is probably good news, since Kartago, as I stated earlier, have had financial problems and needed a new owner ready to do something to rectify that. Exchanging Norwegian media corporation Schibstedt for Swedish Bonnier as owners doesn't have to imply more than that Kartago will have to make changes so that they start making money again. My guess is that Kartago during the following year(s) will have to focus on their biggest sellers, like Rocky, Nemi and Pondus, but will sadly have to drop parts of their more eclectic and interesting line of debutants and alternative comics.
