Photo-report from the Swedish Book Fair!

It's been almost two weeks since the annual book fair in Gothenburg, Sweden.
The book fair is a big event, with 101280 recorded visits in 2008, and it keeps growing!

This year the Swedish Comic's Society (Svenska Seriefrämjandet (blir det rätt på engelska?)) and comics in general was given a stage all of our own down at the large first floor of the fair.

Last year, the fantastic Jenny Berggrund, was in charge of the stage. That time it was a smaller stage, hidden on the second floor.
This time around, the honor of coordinating was given me. About the same time I was back from my USA-trip in August, I got the notice, and started working together with the Comic Society in Gothenburg as well as artists, publishers and comic-enthusiasts from all over the country to put together a great schedule for the weekend.
It sure was a lot of hard work, and many long hours, many phonecalls and countless emails, but we got everything together! Thanks to the hard working Gothenburgers, and Jenny for answering her phone when I needed her to! ^^ This was a new experience for most of us, and even though things might not have gone by as smoothly as we'd hoped, it sure was a great weekend, and we got a lot of positive feed-back from the by-standers, fair visitors and comics people. But, hey, "perfect is no good". Still, we learn, and I'm sure next year will be even better!

Here follows a "photo report" from the fair.
Photogrophers: Jan, Anders, Johnie and I.

Pic from the comicsbattle held at Friday.
(serie scenen; swed. "comic stage")

THURSDAY the 23rd
Sadly, I didn't have my camera present during the day, but this is what went on:
"Live drawing" with Stef Gaines, Yvette Gustafsson, Stina Hjelm, Jesper Nordqvist, Lars Krantz and Valentin Schönbeck. The concept of "live drawing" is simple. The artist's presented on stage, then given a random theme, and have 20 minutes to draw on this theme. During the drawing, we also had short interviews as

"Bild & Bubbla" held a debate about french comics in Sweden. Attending: publishers from Agerings, Albumförlaget, Galago and Kolik. Confrencier: Fredrik Strömberg

Thursday evening, Johnie, my wing-man, and I, along with many others, danced the night away at the Galago party.
Three of the present students from the Comic Art School in Malmö :)
During the four days of the fair, the students did a terrific job, helping out by the stage!

FRIDAY the 24th

Spotcomics - a phone app. that lets you view comics on your I- or androidphone.

Live-drawing with Karl Holmqvist.

Stafett-comic with Malin Biller and Jonas Darnell.

Live-drawing with Jenny Berggrund.
We had premiere for something entirely new! Comickaraoke!
The students from the Comics Art School in Malmö did karaoke on the comics stage, but instead of singing to the music; they drew.
Succes! The crowd enojed it, and the students seemed to enjoy their 3 minutes of fame as well :)

Live-drawing with Johan Wanloo.

Fredrik Strömberg interviewing Liv Strömberg on her work and latest book.

Malmö vs. Gävle.
The first of the weekend's two comic battles!
Friday evening, it was the two rivaling Comic Art Schools having it at each other.



After five close battles, Malmö was announced winner.
The great Yvette Gustafsson was on stage, explaining the rules and raising the crowd spirits. Max Gustafsson was in charge of the music.

Also; there was live-drawing with Jan Kustfält, Johnie Ekman and Jesper Nordqvist.
(sadly, no photos..)


After the fair, some of us headed over to the MUS/MOUSE/MAUS exhibition. I was so impressed with all the other artists and their work. The comics can be seen in Stockholm and Gothenburg as well and are included in the latest issue of Bild & Bubbla.

Karl Holmqvist, a great guy who's helped out tons, enjoying the fine art at the exhibition.
Afterwards, we enjoyed fine dining at a Gothenburg restaurant. It sure was a loong time ago I spent so much on one meal, but after the first two hectic days of the weekend, it was worth it, and money well spent!

SATURDAY the 25th

Finnish comic artist Johnie Ekman interviewing Sara Hansson, Sara Granér, Lullis Lange and Lisa Ewald of Dotterbolaget about their exchange with finnish feminist comic artists and their trip to Helsinki this summer.

Live drawing with Jonas Darnell.

Stafett comic between Karl Holmqvist and Jan Kustfält of Nasses Necrozin.

The girls vs. the boys!
The second comics battle was held saturday evening. This time it was, in true middle school-spirit, the girls vs. the boys!
Yvette Gustafsson, Malin Biller and Stef Gaines were pumped to take on the guys!

Lars Krantz, Jimmy Wallin and Max Gustafson were confident as well.
Yvette and Jimmy fighting each other with "cats in the alley".
Max Gustafson.
Stef Gaines.
After a very long, hard, but truly entertaining ("Jimmy! Don't steal Malins pen!" "But, she stole my joke!") game of five battles, the girls were declared winners!

As a prize, the ladies were given the honor to draw their feelings of the not so long ago swedish election on the big board on stage. Lovely!

Also on Saturday, but sadly no pictures:
Live drawing with Fanny M Bystedt, Oscar Hjelmgren and Sara Granér.
Niklas Asker and Malin Biller told about their latest books. The "urhunden" award was presented. And Bild & Bubbla held a interview with the creators of the comic version of Loranga, Masarin och Dartanjang, comicartist Sara Olausson and publisher Camilla Nyman.

SUNDAY the 26th

Live drawing with Tony Cronstam, who was a quick drawer and instead of me asking him questions, he turned around and started interviewing me! Fun!

Live drawing with Malin Biller.

Fredrik Stömber interviewing Sven-Bertil Bärnarp on his comic "Medelålders plus".

Also on Sunday, but no pictures:
Interview with Stefan Diös on the swedish translation process of Kalle Anka (Donald Duck).
Live drawing with Joakim Lindengren, Max Gustafson and Fabian Göransson. Stefan Eriksson, teacher at the Comics Art School in Vingåker, did a short presentation of the smaller of the three comic schools in Sweden.

Below are the drawings from the fair presented. After drawing, the artist was asked if we could put the picture on the stage wall (which all gave permission to) and throughout the fair, the collection grew! After the fair, the pictures were sent to svensk seriearkiv (the swedsh comics archive) so that they can be enjoyed not only for the weekend, but also for generations to come.

Me and my mental-support group; Anders, Karl and Johnie!

I'd like to thank all the artists, publishers and comic enthusiasts that have contributed to making this such a great weekend! I am overly proud and think that we all did a superb job!
And, yes, it's hard to imagine, but I'm sure next year will be even better!

Peace, love, over 'n out
// Fanny

If you happen to have any pictures of the events I do not; please feel free to email them to me and I will post them on this blog. (fannymbystedt@gmail.com)