Stories from Greece - #1 "Losers"

Hello hello! Here's that comic I was talking about before, my first comic about Greece. It's called "Losers", and it's about media and about how Europe is bullying Greece to obedience. As I already mentioned there will be more comics about Greece soon, on other subjects and with new looks. I will colour this comic properly at some other, less stressful time.

(Läs serien på svenska HÄR.)

Historier från Grekland - #1 "Förlorare"

Hej hej! Här kommer alltså den där serien som jag pratade om, första Greklandsserien. Den heter "Förlorare", och den handlar om media och hur Europa mobbar Grekland till underkastelse. Som jag redan nämnt kommer det fler serier om Grekland snart, med andra teman och nya looks. Jag kommer göra en ordentlig färgläggning vid något helt annat, mindre stressigt tillfälle.

(Read it in english HERE.)

Statistik

Good morning, world! Well, I've been up since 9 as usual, but that's not the point. Here's some sweet statistics for ya. This is the views in total since I started the blog, and of course it's mostly swedish people who are reading it, but lately there has been a lot of russians, (Hello Russians!) aswell as other eastern europeans. Maybe because I talk about eastern Europe and Balkan all the freaking time, but it's nice anyway. Soooo, if you like my comics or me or whatever, and you think I should go to your country/town for some reason, send me and e-mail or something, because I'm looking for subjects to make comics about.

Now I'm going out because it's the last day my bus card is valid, so I feel that I should use it and not sit inside. See you later :)

Från "vad fan?!" till serie

Det brukar börja med tanken "Fan vad det här stör mig, det ska jag göra en serie om". Sedan börjar själva manusskrivandet, som är det värsta jag vet. För det tar så lång tid och jag läser mina egna ord så många gånger att betydelsen helt försvinner i mitt huvud. Tillslut bestämmer jag mig för att "nu får det vara nog" och så börjar jag rita. Det kan gå till på lite olika sätt, men så här gjorde jag när jag ritade min senaste serie "Förlorare". Det är min första serie om Grekland.

It usually starts with the thought "Damn, this annoys me so much, I'm gonna make a comic about it". Then I start writing a manuscript, and that's the worst thing I know. Because it takes such a long time and I read my own words so many times that I lose track of the meaning behind them. Finally I decide that "enough is enough", and I start drawing. The way I draw a comic can be very different from time to time, but this is how I worked when I made my latest comic "Losers". It's my first comic about Greece.

Eftersom serien har mycket text började jag med att dela in den i kortare stycken, för att se hur mycket, och vilken, text jag skulle ha i varje ruta. Sedan skissade jag upp rutorna lite fult på ett A4, och ändrade fram och tillbaka några gånger tills jag var säker på att det jag ville rita till varje textstycke också skulle få plats. 

Since this comic has a lot of text I started by dividing the text into smaller segments, to be able to see how much, and what, text I could fit into every frame. Then I made a messy scetch of the frames on an A4, and changed stuff around until I was sure enough that the things I wanted to draw with each piece of text also would fit.

Sedan tog jag fram de tjocka finpapperna (elfenbenskartong) och ritade ut rutramarna ordentligt med mina gröna penna. Linjal hit och linjal dit.


After that I took out the thick, fancy paper (ivory-something?) and then drew the frames properly with my green pen. Ruler, ruler, ruler..







Efter det skrev jag in texten i varje ruta med gröna pennan, för att se hur mycket plats den skulle ta på riktigt. Jag textar med linjal nu för jag är proffsigare än förut. xD (Ja, människor brukade klaga.)
Sedan tuschade jag rutramarna och runt texfälten, ovanpå det gröna.

After that I wrote the text inside every frame with the green pen, to see how much space it would take for real. I do my lettering with a ruler now, because I'm much more professional than I used to be. xD (Yes, people used to complain.)
Then I inked the frames and around the text areas, on top of the green.

Dags att rita! Jag skissade upp hela sidan med grön penna, och det tog sjukt lång tid. Det här är den svåraste delen av hela serien tycker jag. Det kan vara kul att försöka göra fina bildkompositioner och rita saker man inte brukar rita, men oftast är det bara svårt.


Time to draw! I scetched the entire page with the green pen, and it took forever... This is the hardest part with the whole comic, I think. It can be fun to try and do some really nice compositions and to draw things that one usually avoids, but most of the time it's just difficult.

Jag älskar att tuscha! Åååhh! Det är så jävla roligt! Nu börjar serien äntligen se ut som en serie, och alla timmar man lagt ner hittills känns nästan värt det.
Först textade jag, försiktigt, sedan tuschade jag tills jag hade någon sorts lineart.
Efter att jag gjort likadant med alla sidor lade jag till med svärta där det behövdes, scannade in serien, och lade till gråskala i Photoshop.

I love inking! Ooohh! It's so fucking nice! Now the comic is finally starting to look like a comic, and all the hours that one has spent so far almost feel like it wasn't a huge waste of time.
First I did the lettering, carefully, then I inked until I had some kind of pretty lineart-thing going on.
After I had done the same thing on all the pages I added some black where it was needed, scanned the comic, and added grayscale in Photoshop.



Jag kommer att lägga up serien på bloggen snart, på både svenska och engelska, så att ni kan se det färdiga resultatet. Mmmmm.


I will post the comic soon, in both swedish and english, so that you can see the finished result. Mmmmmm. Comic...

Soundtrack

En helt ovanlig söndag

Det känns som en lite konstig dag idag, jag vet inte riktigt vad jag ska tycka om den x) Jag har inte tecknat något idag, men planerat en himla massa. Planerat serier, jobb och framtida resor, men allt känns ändå lite abstrakt fortfarande. Som att det kommer bli en lite luddig höst.

It's feels like this is a weird day somehow, I'm not quite sure what to think about it x) I didn't draw anything today, but I've done a whole lot of planning. Planned comics, work and future trips, but everything still feels abstract. Like I'm heading for a bit of a fuzzy future this fall.

Nu händer det saker

Page 3, my favorite :) I will upload more pictures and stuff tomorrow (this time I mean it). I'm translating it to english right now, and ohh.. I wish I used even simpler words. Or had wicked language skills.

I should be sleeping, but I'm talking to Calle and Ulrika, and listening to Stevie Wonder instead. I'm unemployed/freelancing (xD) now I guess. I don't have a boss, but I still have to Work work work work.

Deadline-dagar

Oh, I've been working so hard with my new comic this week. It's those dreadful last days before a big deadline.. well, two deadlines actually. It also happens to be the warmest week all summer, and I'm spending most of it on the balcony, or in the bedroom - drawing. I only ever leave the apartment to go to the store 50 meters away to buy food. If I didn't do that I swear I'd never put on pants. I mean, shorts.
At least I'm getting a lot of stuff done. I will give you proof of this tomorrow, Internet. Together with some cool statistics. Talking about cool.. It gets a bit lonely here, inside, all alone.. but my new best friend, a noisy little fan, is keeping me company. And keeping me alive in this heat, I guess.

Talking about the weather.. Yesterday, on one of my adventures to the food store, I saw a newspaper headline that read "Hotter than in Italy!". HAH! Who cares? Just let us enjoy the sun for once, no need to compare us to a sort-of-warm country like Italy. Everybody already understands that we are jealous.

Trivia: Today I have drawn a lot of muscular legs.

Manus

Regnet öser ner över Malmö och jag ligger i sängen och skriver seriemanus. Eller försöker i alla fall. Jag har så mycket Grekland jag bara vill få ur mig och skicka ut i världen. x) Det går framåt, men det känns som att jag har fått extrema koncentrationsproblem på sista tiden. Just nu tänker jag till exempel mer på presidenter, Tour de France, konstiga drömmar, London, Adele och det orättvisa vädret. Den svenska sommaren är ett skämt. Alltså, jag skojar inte, den är ett jävla skämt.

The rain is pouring down over Malmö, while I'm lying in my bed writing comic scripts. Or at least trying. I have so much Greece I just need to get out of me and send out to the world. x) I'm getting there, but I feel like I'm suffering from extreme concentration problems lately. Like now for instance, my head is full of presidents, Tour de France, weird dreams, London, Adele and the ridiculously unfair weather. The swedish summer is a joke. I mean, I'm not joking, it's a fucking joke.

Serbien och serier

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Het på historia!
Så jag lånade några böcker om Balkan på biblioteket, som den jag posar med här nedanför. Ju mer jag försöker förstå gamla Jugoslavien, ju mer förvirrad blir jag. Men vad fan, jag har inte gett upp ännu. Men det känns som att det aldrig finns tillräckligt med information (speciellt aktuell och nyanserad sådan) om vad som händer i östra/sydöstra Europa, och det irriterar mig så himla mycket. 

Jag minns inte att jag läste någonting om Jugoslavien när jag gick i grundskolan, eller ens gymnasiet. Fast jag kommer ihåg ett konstigt scoutmöte i Ekeby när några ledare försökte förklara vad som hände i regionen genom att rita upp länderna på whiteboarden och visa hur de attackerade varandra genom att göra en massa pilar och cirklar kors och tvärs över kartan. Det måste ha varit runt år 2000 eller något sånt, så jag kan inte ha varit mer än 11 år gammal. Och så klart fattade jag inte ett dugg.
Det hade varit intressant att minnas det där mötet, bara för att få veta om de förklarade bara eller bara snackade skit.

I alla fall, jag vill resa igen så mycket att det kliar i hela kroppen, och jag tror att Serbien står på tur. Och kanske Bosnien eller Kroatien också, när jag ändå är i närheten.. Jag har fått höra att Serbien ska vara ett galet ställe, men det tror jag inte på. Ett helt land kan ju inte vara galet. Och jag är i alla fall en sån person som vill se saker med mina egna ögon. Och... i Belgrad i slutet av september kommer det att vara en intressant seriefestival x) Mmmm.

Nu måste jag sluta blogga och börja jobba, för det finns frukost som måste ätas och serier om Grekland som inte kommer att rita sig själva (tyvärr, det hade varit skönt!)

Why is there a sad old lady on the cover?

I'm hot for history!
So I borrowed some books about the Balkan countries on the library, like the one I'm posing with above. The more I try to understand ol' Jugoslavia, the more confused I get. But damn it, I'm not giving up. I seems to me that there is never enough information about what's going on in the east/south-east of Europe, and that really annoys me. 

I don't remember that I read anything about Jugoslavia when I was in elementary school, or even in high school. I do however remember a scout meeting in Ekeby when some scout leaders tried to explain what was happening in the region by drawing the countries on a whiteboard and make a lot of arrows and circles to explain how they attacked eachother.I think that must have been around year 2000 or something like that, so I can not have been more than 11 years old. And of course, I didn't understand anything. 
It would have been nice to remember that meeting, just to know if they did a good job explaining or of they where talking absolute bullshit.

Anyway, I have this itch to travel again, and I think Serbia is next. And maybe Bosnia, or Croatia aswell..
I've been told Serbia is like the Wild West, buuuut.... I don't really believe that, and I'm that kind of person that has to see things with my own eyes anyway. Also, in Belgrade in the end of September there is an interesting comic festival..... x) Mmmmm.

Now I have to stop blogging and get to work, because there is breakfast that has to be eaten and comics about Greece that won't draw themselves (it would have been awesome if they did, though). 

Seriemöte och en gammal Saab

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Åh, jösses. Jag kom nyss ihåg att det är meningen att den här bloggen ska handla om serier och konst och.. sånt. Det har kanske varit lite väl mycket "och sånt" på sista tiden, men nu händer det grejer igen!
Jag gick upp tidigt för att gå på möte idag. Bara ordet möte gör mig trött, men det här var riktigt bra!
Jag har angagerat mig i ett serieprojekt som heter BOOOM! (Bilder Och Ord Om Malmö), som kommer att äga rum i Malmö i höst. Själva huvudattraktionen är en vernissage/utställning, som kommer vara den 27:e oktober. Jag är glad att jag gick dit, inte bara för att få en massa information, utan för att jag också fick träffa min kära vän Evelina :D Hon var inte där av en slump, utan för att hon är en av människorna bakom hela projektet. Gött

För övrigt drömde jag att jag bedrev svarttaxi-verksamhet från mina föräldrars gamla Saab, men tjänade inte direkt storkovan. Don't quit your day job!

"The car"

Oh my, I just remembered that this blog is supposed to be about comics and art and.. stuff. There has been too much stuff and not enough comics lately, but now things are happening again! :)
I got out of bed and hit the street much earlier than I'm used to, to attend a meeting. Most of the time when someone mentions the word meeting my reflexes tell me to yawn or make up an excuse to leave the country or something, but this was a really great meeting! I'm involved in a project called BOOOM! (Bilder och ord om Malmö - "Pictures and words about Malmö") that will take place during the fall, with an exhibition and a blog and other interesting stuff. I'm so damn excited!

The exhibition will take place on the 27th of October.
I'm really happy that I went to the meeting, because now I know more about everything and I feel more motivated, and I also got to meet my friend Evelina! Yay! :D She didn't just happen to be there, she is one of the people behind the project. Nice.

I have been really tired lately. Ever since I came back from Athens and Gdansk it's like I can't get enough sleep. And I have weird dreams, like this night when I was pretending to be a taxi driver in my parents old Saab they used to have when I was a kid, and I went to pick up an old polish woman from the airport. She was gonna pay me 500 kronor, and I can't even drive.
Maybe the dream tried to tell me to get any job there is out there so that I don't starve before winter. Or my dreams has started to comment on the gas prices - either way, I don't really get it.
Don't quit your day job!

Athens - part 1

I miss Greece, I really do. Not the temperature when it pass 38 degrees, or the broken sidewalks that makes my sandals slip all over the place, or the insane traffic.
I loved walking around Athens, but it was a bit of a challenge.

Something that I really Do miss, is talking to the athenians about what's going on. It's a big difference to actually be in a place, and to just read about it in the newspapers. Also, the articles about Greece are starting to slow down a bit. Maybe because the election is over and the goverment is "doing its best to stabilize the economy". According to the news Samaras say that they will privatize more, as much as they possibly can I guess, and that is supposed to help. But of course it won't, it will just make things worse by robbing a poor country of their last assets.

I saw a glimpse of that man at Syntagma square on election night, after the votes had been counted. It was a sad evening for the opposition, but a really good one for me. I remember this really agitated woman who was screaming like a possessed person in both english and greek to a news crew about how New Democracy will be the death of the greek people. The moment the camera was off, she was completely calm. I was a bit shook up.

It was a really good start. I saw people vote, shop, relax in the sun, celebrate, mourn, and scream at news crews - all in one day. I even had a siesta, and my first swim in the sea. It's soooo much more blue and salty than what I am used to, and yeah.. a lot warmer aswell. x)

Here are some crappy cellphone photos. Enjoy!

Election-...thing, in Kato Patissia where we lived.

At Acropolis. I DO know how to be a tourist aswell... honestly.

MT

Tomorrow, I will blog the hell out of this thing. Greece, life, comics and other stuff.  For now, however, I just want to tell the world that I have seen "The Iron Lady" with Calle. Odd movie.
And I really wish that Margaret Thatcher was just a fictional character.

Gdansk next!

Hello, dear blog readers. What's new?
Well... I came back from Athens on wednesday, but it's still stuck inside in my head. And I really miss it. Ah, Greece... the trouble you're in.

I had a great time, interviewed people, accidentally ran into the new president, met wonderful athenians, experienced a lot of heat and poverty. Exept for a pile of new comic material, I also have a tan. Yeah, you heard me, a tan.
There will be photos soon, but only crappy mobile photos, since my camera was stolen at the airport in Frankurt -.- I wouldn't be me if I didn't do something stupid and completely ridicilous every now and then - and this time it was to forget my bag in the bathroom. If the person who took it would have just left the memory card behind I wouldn't even care about the camera - I just want all the pictures I took! But maybe it was all for the best. That unknown man or woman saved you all from touristy photos of Athenian graffiti, stupid looking animals and me in a bikini. Be greatful.

It's depressing and cold to be back in Sweden, but I'm okey with that. Because I'm leaving again in a few hours. Gdansk, here I come!
I have been invited to Baltic Comic Festival in Poland, to hold a lecture about the swedish comic scene, and I'm really excited! I've never been to Poland, and I'm really curious about what kind of comics they have.

Grekland!

Hello from Athens, Blog. See you soooooon..... With pictures and...stuff. x)