Goldenbird

SPX13 – Highlights

Ainur — Wed, 01 May 2013 20:52:35 +0000

The Stockholm Comic Festival 2013 was a success – even though I didn’t see much of it, except the Small Press Expo. The yearly SPX at Kulturhuset, Sergels torg, is the bustling belly, the guts of the festival. It’s both a market and a social forum, and this year felt particularly frantic, in a good way. Many zines were sold and swapped, and many good friends were greeted and encouraged to go on with this often tough but rewarding craft.
Here are some instagrams by Tinet, who documented my signatures. Sadly I didn’t return the favour – what was I thinking??
But there are lots of nice pictures on her blog, anyway! My friend Kaarina flew with me to Stockholm. She is the perfect travelling companion, always optimistic and cheerful. In fact, this trip made me realize again how many lovely and kind people I know, and how much I value their friendship.
I also want to thank Stina for being a graceful host and wonderful artist to discover, and Valentin for being a generous host in absentio – too bad we couldn’t meet!
It was also good to get some drawing practice. My characters grow feral and rambunctious when I don’t groom them regularly with brush strokes, especially Falco and Mayann. Suddenly I realized that I have been drawing Falco since (approximately) 1995 or 1996. He was conceived after my family moved from Germany to Finland, maybe because I felt like a sophisticated southerner in the far barbaric north myself. Admittedly, 18 years ago he was a different type of character, a living personification of a whole bunch of mortal sins in fact, but now he is paying the price… And grew to be even more popular.

Hitta oss på SIS 2013

Ainur — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 16:50:00 +0000

Klicka på kartan för att ladda ner den i större storlek.

Nosebleed Studio har gjort en fin karta som visar var man kan hitta något av det bästa som mangatecknare i Sverige har att bjuda på, och det visar sig att de sitter i samma hörn som jag och mina homies! Hurra!
Egentligen borde man kanske fylla i alla sjyssta typer som ställer ut på Small Press Expo (som i år är en underavdelning, men kanske den viktigaste delen enligt mig, av Stockholms Internationella Seriefestival). Det är dock upp till dig, besökare! Hoppas vi ses 27-28 april på Kulturhuset, Sergels torg (tredje våningen).

Stockholms internationella seriefestival 2013

Ainur — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:37:30 +0000

Det är seriefestivaaal! Kom till Kulturhuset vid Plattan i Stockholm nästa helg. Var där eller var kvadratisk! Temat är “Eskapism” och det är förstås som klippt och skuret för Goldenbird och mina andra serier som jag kommer att sälja och signera på Small Press Expo, festivalens blodomlopp, under lördagen och söndagen 27-28 april. Jag kan inte lova något nytt (förutom den färggranna utgåvan av Goldenbird 3-4 som jag lät trycka upp för Helsingfors seriefestival i fjol) men jag har en del goda nyheter: Jag har fått ett stipendium som möjliggör serietecknande på heltid nästa år. Äntligen arbetsro!

Flygarässet som hellre är ett svin än en fascist, Porco Rosso, får en specialvisning 18.30–20.00 på Klarabiografen med Serietekets filmklubb. Hayao Miyazakis legendariska animelångfilm (紅の豚) presenteras av Tinet Elmgren, vem annars… Jag har förmånen att sitta bredvid denna seriekändis och grisentusiast under Small Press Expo, och jag ser lika mycket fram emot att dela bordet med det finska stjärnskottet Kaarina Uimonen, vars livliga penseldrag och uttrycksfulla figurer man kan njuta av på engelska (Inkblot) och på finska (Orava). Här är Kaarinas Tumblr.

Men tillbaka till den närmaste framtiden. Det är full rulle hela veckan för serieintresserat folk i Stockholm. Jag anländer själv först fredag kväll, så jag missar en del kul som följande vernissage:
Ola Skogängs ockulta stad
Åtta mangatecknare ställer ut
Piracy is Liberation @ Kafé 44
Utställningarna fortsätter dock under helgen. Här kan man få tag på hela programmet.

Christmas postcards – Joulukortteja Tampereelle

Ainur — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 09:04:20 +0000

Festive owlet

Lähden pian Tampereelle huomisen joulumarkkinoille Tammelantorille äitini kanssa. Eija Elmgrén on kirjoittanut historiikin Tammelan pallokentästä, ja kirjaan sisältyy myös mielenkiintoisia haastatteluja ja monen tamperelaisen muistoja urheilusta ja vapaa-ajan vietosta – rusettiluistelusta 1950-luvun iskelmien soidessa!

Goldenbird on tietysti myös mukana, ja kuulemma lumisadetta ei ole tulossa… Lämpötilatkin pysynevät siedettävissä lukemissa, niin ei tule liian kylmä torilla. Toivottavasti nähdään!

Joulupöllö

I’m going to Tampere for tomorrow’s Christmas market at Tammelantori with my mother, who has written a book about local history. We will sell our books and comics and other nice things like these silly Christmas cards.

Postcards

Ainur — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 22:12:14 +0000

The public library in Kallio, a district of Helsinki pretty close to my own neighborhood, invited artisans and hobbyists to a flea market this weekend. You can see photos of the event on Flickr.com, and there’s even a nice photo of me and my friends Miia and Kaarina at our table. Miia is the creator of Rakkaat siskot, a clever and insightful comic about gay issues, social commentary and geek humour. Kaarina is the mastermind behind such wacky characters as Walter Ego and Orava (The Squirrel). We had lots of fun together and I hope that our laughter invited more visitors than it scared away.

Here are some of the postcards that I drew. I also made a bunch of Christmas cards, but it just feels wrong to post them in November. Who knows, maybe they will appear in YOUR mailbox in a month.

Puppy and tennis ball

Siberian cat

Chow chow with glitter varnish

Puppy with biscuit

Ambush

Ainur — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 05:00:01 +0000

Finally, the next page in Goldenbird chapter 5. It’s a miracle!

Click on the tag Chapter 5 to read everything this far. It’s been so long since I sketched the pages that I’m starting to get new ideas about this scene. What’s on those trucks? I haven’t drawn Maxim guns in a long time… No, just scaring you!

Small Press Heaven

Ainur — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 16:21:39 +0000

Helsingin 27. sarjakuvafestivaalit

As previously announced, I will be selling Goldenbirds (there’s a new, colourful edition of chapter 3-4 out!) and Swedish Comic Sin vol. 2 & 3 at the comics festival in central Helsinki this weekend. You will find me sharing a table with my sister Tinet Elmgren, hopefully in the neighborhood of the talented and funny Kaarina Uimonen, in the Pienlehtitaivas tent (“Small Press Heaven”) on Lasipalatsi square. If you like fantasy with more than a touch of political consciousness (social/magical realism?), you should take a look at Tinet’s work. Also, if you like piggies.

Do not miss the amazing Elmgren sisters’ show, exclusively and for the first time in Finland, on Sunday 14:00 (2 PM) 9.9.2012! Location: the Pienlehtimanala stage (“Small Press Hell”), Pienlentitaivas tent, Lasipalatsi square.

Puhumme myös suomea – vi talar också svenska!

Picking up where I left off

Ainur — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 13:59:13 +0000

who can guess the inspiration?

The break has been far too long. I have worked hard (not on Goldenbird, sadly) and partied hard (not that kind of party) and moved to a new place. Hopefully the artistic feng shui is better here – right between the old working class neighborhoods of Sörnäinen and Vallila in Helsinki. I’ve also started to hang out with some nice comic artists – eventually I will give them proper presentations here, but I’d especially like to mention Kaarina and Miia. Haleja!

I’ve started a project for the Swedish historical review Scandia. I already blog for them, so why not some comics, too?

Coming up: the Helsinki Comics Festival in September 7-9th. I will be there – in the Pienlehtitaivas tent (“Small Press Heaven”) with my sister Tinet. We will represent Swedish Comic Sin and also sell our own stuff in most languages (very little Finnish I’m afraid – we speak it but translating takes time).

Phew! That’s a lot – but it’s only a fraction of what I’ve been doing off-comics. An anthology on anti-Catholicism coming up soon – I write about Jesuits in literature and propaganda, Falco would be so proud.

Nyarlathotep 18

Ainur — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 07:17:00 +0000

Edit: Looks like I use both the archaic spelling “ye” and the modern “the” (pronounced the same, by the way), which is a bit sloppy writing! Should I blame the fact that “it’s all a dream”? No, seriously, I ought to fix this…

I got an invitation to lend some of my originals to an exhibition on Finnish adventure comics. I should select some with Andy, don’t you think?

This is one of my favourite pages with Mochi, but all black and patterned fields are missing from the original, so it may not be very interesting. Is it cheating to repaint an original?

Nyarlathotep 17

Ainur — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 18:24:50 +0000

Edit: Some info about the Egyptian deity Upuaut, Opener of the Ways, One with Sharp Arrow more Powerful than the Gods. Of course, Mochi really is a vintage Akita Inu, but this is Mayann’s dreamworld.

There’s an interview with me about another project at the Swedish Comic Sin blog. You can order books 2 & 3 from me here in Finland, too.

Swedish Comic Sin 2: 20 € (+shipping fee).
Swedish Comic Sin 3: 10 € (+shipping fee). Delivery after May 20th, 2012.

The Nyarlathotep storyline starts here.