2010 - Year in Review

It's a brand new year and it’s customary to stop for a while, look back and consider what actually happened during last year. Several other bloggers in the Swedish comics community have already done so (see for instance blog entries by Johannes Klenell, Loka Kanarp and Stef Gaines), in a dare created by Klenell. Here’s my two cents.

There are many ways in which you can summarize a year. I have already published a list of my favorite Swedish graphic novels of 2010, so I thought I would be a bit more personal this time.

Signing at the PLG booth at the comics festival in Angouleme, France. Photo by Jakob Hallin.

For me, 2010 has been a hectic but very rewarding year. I have, as per usual, been doing thousands of things, but for some reason I tend to measure how much I have done by the stacks of books with my name on them that arrive at my doorstep. In that sense, this year must be some kind of a record.

Images Noires, published by PLG.

I started out by having a French edition of my book Black Images in the Comics, entitled Images Noires – La représentation des Noirs dans la bande dessinée mondiale, published just in time for the big festival in Angoulême. Despite having gone to the Angoulême festival every year for about ten years now, this was my first book in French, so it was a really good feeling signing it in PLG:s booth. Sitting at a table in a small French restaurant with my very humble publisher Philippe Morin and the others from PLG, hardly understanding anything they said and not being able to communicate much back, was also magical.

Swedish Comics History, published by the Swedish Comics Association and distributed by Top Shelf.

Then there was the new version my book Swedish Comics History, which I rewrote and edited at top speed, creating the whole thing in about three weeks (…). It was released at the MoCCA festival in New York and has since been distributed in the US by Top Shelf. I never, EVER, want to write a book that fast again, but I am very pleased with the end results and much indebted to Jakob Hallin who worked around the clock to make sure this book was realized and sent to the printers on time. Thanks also to Chris Staros of Top Shelf who, with the patience of an angel, helped us getting the book through customs.

Comic Art Propaganda, published both in the UK and the US.

At about the same time, my book Comic Art Propaganda, was finally published; first in the UK by ILEX Press (), then in the US by ST. Martin’s and finally in France as La propagande dans la Bd, un siècle de manipulation by Eyrolles. This book was also written at top speed (in about three months), during another hectic period in 2009 that almost killed me. If it hadn’t been for the help and proofreading of my wife and my mother–in-law, this book would never have existed.

 

La propagande dans la Bd, un siècle de manipulation from Eyrole.

Looking at the three big piles of books that litter the floor of my library, and realizing that I’ve had two books out in France this year, I’d say that it was worth it, though. A big thanks to Tim Pilcher as well, who is not only a nice guy to hang out with over a beer or five, but who also was the one who pitched the idea to this book in the first place. Cheers mate!

The Art of Duckomenta, probably the biggest book I’ve ever contributed to.

Never content and never ready to call it quits, I have also contributed to some other interesting books this year. The above book, The Art of Duckomenta, is a giant with a hefty 400 pages and weighing in at about ten pounds, chronicling the work of the crazy group of German artists calling themselves Duckomenta, who have been creating loving pastiches of classic art with Disney inspired ducks as the motifs. For this tome I wrote a chapter entitled Of Ducks and Art, which was printed in English, German and French. Truly an international year.

Encyclopedia of Comic Books and Graphic Novels.

I also took part in the production of the two-part Encyclopedia of Comic Books and Graphic Novels, edited by M. Keith Booker and published by Greenwood in the US. I got to choose my subject for this, and wrote among other things about one of my American publishers, Fantagraphics, and about my hero, the early comics feminist Trina Robbins. The interest for this kind of project seems to have escalated and I am at the moment writing entries for numerous encyclopaedias to be published during 2011 and 2012.

Bild & Bubbla #182, with a cover by Peter Madsen.

Then there’s of course the magazine Bild & Bubbla, which I’ve been editing since the Dark Ages (or more accurately sine 1997…). A few years ago we decided to revitalize the magazine, adjusting it to the 21st century, losing much of what is nowadays better done on the Internet and focusing on things that work better in print, i.e. longer interviews and articles and loads of images, including a big sketchbook section in each and every issue.

Bild & Bubbla #183, with a cover by Fabian Göransson.

Lately, I welcomed a new partner in making Bild & Bubbla, Jamil Mani, who took over the responsibility for the design and the layout after Jakob Hallin, and it’s been a breeze working with him. I am also very pleased that the seemingly unstoppable artist, editor and publisher Josefin Svenske has joined the editorial team, and has been supplying the magazine with a steady flow of interesting interviews.

Bild & Bubbla #184, with a cover by Jamil Mani.

This year I have been part of producing four volumes, and yes, the amount of work going into editing one volume of a magazine the size of Bild & Bubbla (weighing in at a clunky 124 pages) almost equals that of making a book, even though I don’t think many really understand that...

Bild & Bubbla #185, with a cover by Liv Strömquist.

Editing Bild & Bubbla is only one of many things I do in the Swedish Comics Association, for which I am the President. This year we’ve done some really cool things, like creating the big exhibition about Art Spiegelman’s masterpiece MAUS (which was handled masterly by project leader Jamil Mani), having a great comics-only stage at the big Book Fair in Gothenburg (led by the unstoppably cheerful Fanny M. Bystedt) and launching the new comics festival AltCom in Malmö (led by the man with the finger on the alternative comics pulse, Mattias Elftorp).

I was involved in some capacity in all of these projects, but it was really the above mentioned project leaders who made this year so memorable for the Association.

The Swedish Invasion Media Guide, for which I wrote an introduction.

One project which I have been even more directly involved in, is the plan to show the rest of the world what’s going on in the Swedish comics scene. Here my partners in crime have been (and are) Johannes Klenell (editor of the venerable magazine Galago) and Kristiina Kolehmainen (manager of Serieteket, Sweden’s only comics library). During 2010 we managed to create a number of memorable meetings, such as the “Swedish Invasion” at MoCCA in New York, where a number of Swedish graphic novels were released by Top Shelf, and the big international get-together at SPX in Stockholm, when many new acquaintances, personal and professional, were struck.

Niklas Asker, Mats Jonsson, Kolbeinn Karlsson and Simon Gärdenfors, signing at Top Shelf´s booth at MoCCA. And yes, that's Chris Staros in the middle, looking very pleased.

I know that 2011 is going to be even better on the International front, and that we are going to top it all in 2012 (I’m not saying, but we’re working towards some really cool things). This is all a lot of work; planning, writing applications, travelling and so on, mostly done in my “spare time” and in order to help a lot of other persons, whom I’m not sure always understand just how much work we are putting into this. If it hadn’t been for the energy and the friendship I get from Johannes and Kristiina, this would not be possible. Love to you both!

The new Comic Art School of Malmö, all shiny and bright.

Then there’s the Comic Art School, which I was part of creating as far back as in the last century (…) and where I still work. This year we finally moved out of our old and crummy (but cozy) old rooms and into the brand new, beautiful ones at the top of the Culture House of Malmö, just two stories above the already established Comics Centre (which I was also part of creating…).

The new quarters were designed especially according to our specifications and have now, after one term of use, wear and tear, actually started to feel like home. My long-time colleague at the school, Gunnar Krantz, has since left the school to start a new comics course at Malmö University and I was of course sad to see him go, but the teaching team has been enforced with (yet again) Josefin Svenske, for whom I am very grateful. She has invigorated the school and I am very pleased to have her and Stina Hjelm as my colleagues.

With large parts of the new generation of successful Swedish comics artists stemming from the school, a steady flow of talented artists applying each year, and a market that finally feels ready for new Swedish comics, the future of the Comic Art School of Malmö feels really bright and it is with a spring in my step that I go to the school each week.

On stage with Matthias Wivel at Contemporary Comics in Copenhagen, while Paul Gravett and Chris Ware prepare for their artist talk.

Then there’s the fact that this was the year when I finally got started with my PhD. I’ve been in and out of the academic world for years, but during 2010 I really got going. During the year, I’ve had several talks with my professors, Cristine Sarrimo and Inger Lindstedt, who have guided me in this, in many aspects, new world, and I finally decided on delving deep into the graphic novel Persepolis by Iranian French artist Marjane Satrapi. This is pretty new and I am at the moment just getting started, but I’m really enjoying the process.

I have also taken part in organizing an academic conference on comics in Copenhagen (a big thanks to Rikke Platz Cortsen for the initiative to Contemporary Comics!), worked towards the release of a new Scandinavian academic journal on comics, been part of the formation of a Nordic academic group for the study of comics and so on…

On stage with Liv Strömquist at the Book Fair in Gothenburg.

Looking through my blog, I realize that another thing I have done a lot this year is standing (or sitting for that matter) on stage. I have been interviewed, I have interviewed, I have been part of debates, led debates, held award ceremonies and so on, all over Sweden, in Denmark and in the US. This has mostly been fun, especially since I have had the honour of delivering awards to some really deserving people and interviewing some truly amazing artists, like Liv Strömquist, Chris Ware and Guy Delisle.

A blurry image of me on stage in my signature yellow vest, talking to Malin Biller at the Book Fair in Gothenburg.

My absolute favourite of the year was the all too short interview I got to do with the artist Malin Biller at the Book Fair in Gothenburg. Seeing as she has not only created what I consider the best Swedish graphic novel of 2010 but also in that book touched upon some really serious, personal and controversial subjects, this was a delicate assignment and one that I was very happy to be asked to do.

Whew! I get tired just rereading all of this… 2010 has also been a very good year for me personally. I’ve married, bought a house and have probably never been more happy and content in my life. But I’ll leave the telling of that story to my wife, whose New Years comic soon can be seen at her blog.


PS: OK, so this was not what you asked for, Johannes, but this was what it turned into… I’ll see if I can do the list-thingy you wanted as well :)