Title: Mina vackra ögon
Translation: My beautiful eyes
By: Nina Hemmingsson
Language: Swedish
144 pages, colour
Kartago, 2011
ISBN: 978-91-86003-76-0
I'd better start this review by coming clean and admitting that Nina Hemmingsson is one of my favourite Swedish artists, and getting a new book with her comics feels like Christmas. Yes, i have read many of these little gems on-line, but not all of them, and the feeling of having them collected in a sturdy book to put on the shelf simply makes me happy.
The book collects various things Hemmingsson has created over the last couple of years, including many really hard-hitting "enrutingar" (one-panels) as she calls them, with her alter-ego, the straight-talking, no-nonsense girl without any pupils, who seems more and more like a modern version of the classical figure Mannen som gör vad som faller honom in (the man who does whatever he feels like) by Swedish artist OA, from the turn of the century 1900.
There is also the full run of Hemmingsson's comic strip Prinsessan & gemålen (The Princess and the Consort), which made fun of the Swedish Crown Princess's marriage to a man of the people last year. These are hilarious, as Hemmingsson lets her princess say and think exactly what we all expect a born and bred princess to do, i.e. look down upon us mere mortals, act all aloof and not take inte account the feelings of her husband-to-be at all. Did I say hilarious?
Lastly, there's a section of Hemmingsson's drawings – eerie, strange and compelling. In this setting they work beautifully, much more so than in the last book, which only contained drawings and no comics at all. Here the contrast between the different parts of the book makes up a larger whole.
So what are you waiting for? Go get this book, and buy a copy for a friend while you're at it!
