Month: June 2016

Världens bästa morfar by Tome My rating: 3 of 5 stars Le Petit Spirou is a spinoff of the classic Belgian comic Spirou and Fantasio, about the protagonist as a child, probably set somewhere during the 1950s and actually more successful than the main series. Le Petit Spirou is made by the duo Tome (Philippe…

Everything is right now coming together, after months of working all hours, all days of the week. Here’s the brand new issue of SJoCA, with a beautiful cover illustration by the inimitable Nina Hemmingsson.

A new teacher’s guide by yours truly was just made available online. It’s in Swedish and geared towards teachers in Swedish primary school, containing sections on why comics should be used in the classroom, how this matches the instructions in the government’s policy documents etc, as well as more practically oriented tips on workshops for different levels…

Spirou 1984-1987 by Tome My rating: 4 of 5 stars The Danish-Swedish publisher Mooz continues the publication of hardcover collections with the classic French children’s comic Spirou. This volume contains three albums from the 1980s by Tome and Janry. This creative team was clearly the heirs to the undisputed master among Spirou artists, André Franquin,…

More brand new books with contributions by yours truly. This is the second book from the Swedish Comics Archive, focusing on the comics culture in Sweden in the 1960s. I’ve contributed an interview with pioneering comics historian Sture Hegerfors, and an article about the likewise pioneering female comics artist Ulla van Rooy, who illustrated a…

It’s that time of the year when all the hard work that you have put in throughout the winter/spring comes to fruition. There are no less than five publication with material by your’s truly out or about to be published, and now the artist talks that I did at the comics festival in Stockholm are…

Ljusförgörerskan by Li Österberg My rating: 4 of 5 stars The second graphic novel with Li Österberg’s contemporary take on the Greek gods, and a much better, more coherent story than that in the first, Nekyia. We here follow the young woman Persefone, a minor goddess who is the daughter (and granddaughter…) of the god…

Spirou 1969-1972 by Jean-Claude Fournier My rating: 3 of 5 stars The Danish/Swedish publisher Mooz continues the publication of hardcover collections with the classical French album comic Spirou and Fantasio. This volume contains the first three albums by Franquin’s successor, the then young and inexperienced Jean-Claude Fournier. Taking over after the recognized master was surely…

Nekyia by Li Österberg My rating: 3 of 5 stars Re-reading this book in preparation for taking on Ljusförgörerslan (The Light Destroyer), the second graphic novel by Li Österberg set in her version of the Greek mythological world.

Superhästen by Emmanuel Guibert My rating: 4 of 5 stars Ariol is quickly becoming my favourite children’s comic. Guibert constantly delivers scripts that really feel like they depicts the reality of children, as opposed to all those stories about children, written by adults from a safe distance. In this volume, for instance, I loved the…

W obcej skórze by Anna Andruchowicz My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is a weird and wonderful original Polish graphic novel, which title loosely translates to “In a foreign skin”. It’s an eerie, silent story of a wolf in a forest populated with a combination of traditional animals and what looks like huge fantasy…

Den svarta undulaten by Lars Sjunnesson My rating: 4 of 5 stars Lars Sjunnesson is one of Sweden’s most internationally well-known and respected comics artists, which is not surprising. Since his debut in the 80s, he has consistently created provocative and distinctive comics with high artistic integrity. Sjunnesson’s most famous characters are the permanently agitated…