Author: Fredrik Strömberg

Fredrik Strömberg is a journalist, author and historian, who has studied comics since the early 1990’s. He is one of the editors of Bild & Bubbla, Scandinavia’s largest as well as the world’s second oldest magazine about comics, and the Chairman of the Swedish Comics Association. He writes regularly for newspapers and magazines about comics, heads the Comic Art School of Sweden and sits on the editorial board for the International Journal of Comic Art. Among the books he has written are the English language Swedish Comics History, Black Images in the Comics, The Comics Go to Hell and Comic Art Propaganda. Strömberg lives in Sweden and is currently working on a number of new books about comics.

Partydrottningen by Patrik Rochling My rating: 4 of 5 stars Scriptwriter Patrick Rochling and comics artist Li Österberg keep adding to their low-key but extensive book series about a fictional Sweden. First out was Johannasviten (the Johanna series), five graphic novels which were later collected in one volume. Right now they are in the midst…

Jamilti and Other Stories by Rutu Modan My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is a great collection of early stories by Rutu Modan. I read most of them in the anthologies that her collective Actus Tragicus put out in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but rereading them in one go puts them all…

Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan My rating: 4 of 5 stars Re-reading this book in preparation for an artist talk with Modan in a few day, and actually enjoying it more than the first time around. Modan has a way of writing real people doing real things, having real relationships, and you sense that outside…

Henriettas monsterbok by Liniers My rating: 4 of 5 stars The second book by the Argentinian comics artist artist Liniers in Swedish and just like the previous one, Regnballongen, a wonderful, compassionate, thoughtful little book that is suitable both for those who recently learned to read, and for reading aloud.

Benny Björn tänker utanför ramarna by Philippe Coudray My rating: 4 of 5 stars The second collection of the French children’s comics Benjamin Bear/L´ours Barnabé, which is just as strange and at the same time pedagogical as the previous volume. In my review of the first collection Benny Björn på rätt spår I compared this…

Mannen som sköt Lucky Luke by Matthieu Bonhomme My rating: 5 of 5 stars The first album in what is likely to be a series of “extraordinary adventure” with Lucky Luke, probably inspired by the successful book series with independent, more experimental comics with Spirou and Fantasio. The latter are often enjoyable, albeit of varying…

Leopardkvinnan by Yann My rating: 3 of 5 stars A new album in the specials series with Spirou and Fantasio. One again, the script is by Olivier Schwartz and the drawings by Yann, who together previously created Operation Bat in the same series. These albums, which were originally intended as stand-alone stories in which various…

Linda & Valentin: Samlade äventyr 5 by Pierre Christin My rating: 4 of 5 stars The fifth collection of the classic French science fiction comic Valerian, with comics from the late 1980s and early 1990s. The stories in this volume follows the two space-time agents during a period where the future Earth from which they came…

Lilla Berlin – Leva life by Ellen Ekman My rating: 4 of 5 stars The third collection with Ellen Ekman’s comic strip Little Berlin (Little Berlin), and it is evident that Ekman has developed the strip, making it more diverse and allowing for more development of the various characters. It is still biting satire of…

Conquistador 1 by Jean Dufaux My rating: 2 of 5 stars The first part of an album series in the historical adventure genre, set in the early 1500s, during the Spanish conquest of South America. The main character is part of a group of mercenaries who are assigned the task of stealing the fabled treasure…

Regnballongen by Liniers My rating: 4 of 5 stars   This is a low-key story of two young siblings who spend a Saturday together, trying to busy themselves, despite the rain falling outside. Nothing much happens and the pace is quiet and laid-back, which is really nice for a change from many action laden comics…

Benny Björn på rätt spår by Philippe Coudray My rating: 4 of 5 stars Benjamin Bear is a strange little comic, a bit like a childrens’ version of the absurd Cowboy Henk , if anyone can imagine that… The protagonist is an anthropomorphic bear living in an undefined world seemingly without any humans. The comics…

Osynliga händer by Ville Tietäväinen My rating: 4 of 5 stars An extremely strong reading experience about a young Moroccan who is forced away from his little family to try to earn money in Europe. The Finn Tietäväinen takes his time to let us get to know the main character and his reality so that…

As per tradition, I have chosen and presented what I think were the best Swedish graphic novels from last year, for the international summing up of the year at Paul Gravett’s webpage. This year, I chose three very different books, which just goes to show how varied the Swedish comics culture has become.

Passio by Daniel Ahlgren My rating: 3 of 5 stars The fourth volume of Daniel Ahlgren’s Swedish pastiche of the decidedly American superhero genre. The story picks up where the last volume ended, with a cosmic threat in the form of giant “passion leeches” which the heroes have to stop, on all parallel worlds.

Den sommaren by Mariko Tamaki My rating: 5 of 5 stars A beautiful graphic novel, with lavish blue-tinted images. But even if I can lose myself in the pictures for ever, it´s the story that captivates.

Lektioner i mord by Henrik Lange My rating: 3 of 5 stars An entertaining book for those of us who have read a Swedish crime novels, or seen a version on TV, which should by now include most of the world’s population … This is a variation on Lange’s winning concept to summarise novels and…

När David tappade rösten by Judith Vanistendael My rating: 4 of 5 stars A beautiful graphic novel about dying of cancer, not a heroic fight and win over the decease, but actually dying from it. We follow David who learns that he has throat cancer, his adult daughter who recently had a baby, his new…

Vandrande stjärnor del 2 by Lars Krantz My rating: 5 of 5 stars Lars Krantz is likely THE most different and artistically interesting Swedish comics artist working right now. This second and final part of his epic Vandrande stjärnor (Wandering stars) is incredibly beautiful with its well-composed images, pages and spreads with black and white…

Find Me In This City by Mari Ahokoivu My rating: 5 of 5 stars Mari Ahokoivu is fast becoming one of my favourite Nordic comics artists. No sooner had I reviewed her beautiful children’s comic Sanni & Jonas: Vinternatt, than this book pops up; published almost simultaneously, which is a feat as there are not that many Finnish comics…

Tack och förlåt by Fanny Agazzi My rating: 4 of 5 stars Fanny Agazzi makes her book debut with a graphic novel of how it is to have a close friend dying abruptly and way too early in life. The story is autobiographical and woven into the story of how her friend Nabil passed away…

Frisörbesöket by Claes Jurander My rating: 3 of 5 stars Claes Jurander is an unusual fish in the Swedish comics pond. Art Professor, sculptor, animator and creator of what is probably the first Swedish graphic novel (Nilsson, 1974). That Jurander is a fine artist is also reflected in the comic books he creates (which, incidentally,…

Det kunde varit jag by Sara Olausson My rating: 4 of 5 stars This really is a book that touches it’s reader. No-one in Sweden at least will have missed out on the fact that comics artist Sara Olausson has a burning commitment to changing the fate of an EU migrant/beggar that she has befriended.…

Every year, my wife Hanna creates a Christmas card featuring our ever growing family, drawn in the style of some famous comics artist. For new years, she also draws a one-page cartoon about the year that has passed and what we have experienced. The latter has been on hiatus for a while now, since we’ve…

Det är inte meningen att man ska vara här by Thomas Olsson My rating: 4 of 5 stars Thomas Olsson made his debut in the mid noughts with the satirical strip Rogert. 2013 came the graphic novel Församlingen (The Congregation), about growing up in a fundamentalist Christian environment. Olsson’s latest graphic novel, Det är inte meningen…

Blå är den varmaste färgen by Julie Maroh My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is a book that I looked forward to reading, not least after it won the Audience award in Angoulême a few years ago. And maybe I had set my hopes too high, for I was not as smitten as I…