Det är alltid roligt att chockera folk med min högst motsägelsefulla personlighet.

"Gårdagen började kl 8.00 med att jag hade lektion för en gångs skull. Översättning. Det är för tillfället bara jag och en tjej till som går på de lektionerna, så jag brukar försöka småprata lite med henne. Igår köpte jag ett fanzine som hon hade gjort och fick hennes webadress. Hon verkar väldigt snäll och tystlåten, men hemsidan avslöjade en helt annan person - kolla in www.kommiekomiks.com/ Jag tror inte det är bland mina kursare jag ska söka vänner..." (http://elin79.blogspot.com/)

Om du läser detta, Elin - det är lugnt. Jag är van. Jag tycker bara att det är roligt. :o)

sergei is very mature as a church leader	sergei is not a complete package on offense due to his inability to see and use his linemates
sergei is a very cute guy	sergei is on the phone
sergei is a creation of the modern day communist dr frankenstein	sergei is tough
sergei is gay	sergei is a transsexual replicant
mitsu is a total package	mitsu is on a roll in us now
mitsu is highly inaccurate at long distances and should only be used in medium to close range skirmishes	mitsu is so popular among those desiring increased power
mitsu is more effective than rear part of mawashi or mae	mitsu is extremely sweet natured and smart
mitsu is dangerous	mitsu is fucken dope

Last winter, there were some mighty storms raging. Many trees have fallen, but this one was caught up by the one across the path.


There is a hill nearby, where you have a splendid view to the mainland.


Mitsu likes to gaze over the land and the sea spreading out before her.


But after a while she gets bored and wants to play with mum ...

Killed pigs brings us to the next topic: dead animals found in the forests around my mum's place.


Mum showed me a dead young moose. A few months ago, the big landowner around there, Kent-Hugo, had shot one of the two kids of a mother moose, and a few days ago, mum found the other one dead, as well. It seems like it has died 'naturally', of a disease or so, though it's kind of hard to tell, since a large part of it is pretty much eaten by now. The fox(es) have marked the carcass with their shit to ward off others, but Mitsu was still gnawing at the facial bones.


Last winter, me and Mihai found a dead fox next to a small red house owned by Kent-Hugo. Mum asked Kent-Hugo about it, and it turns out he shot it. He claims that he did it 'to protect the rabbits'.Yeah right. Anyway, another fox seems to have marked also this carcass ...

Since I got new, developed pictures, I'll make a few photo entries here.

First of all, the happy pig farm Ängavallens gård:






Here is where the piggies roam. They all stayed inside their houses on that day, though, because the wind was so cold.


The eating house of the pigs (I think).


No pigs, but at least we got to see some sheep ...

Last night, I had this weird post-apocalyptic dream that had something to do with our visit to this pig farm. It was something about the way the pigs are slaughtered, I think, though it's all kind of dim now.
The pigs at the Ängavallen farm are killed in a way that is as non-traumatic as possible. They are beckoned to the slaughterhouse in the night with light that streams out of the house, making the pigs curious. They walk towards it in their own pace, and when they come into the house, they walk, one and one, through corridors that eventually lead them to a troughful of food. The slaughterer comes, and before the pigs even start suspecting anything, he has slipped a device that delivers a strong electrical shock over the pig's neck, which instantly stuns the pig unconscious. No pig ever sees blood or smells the fright or pain of other pigs.
We watched a video of this at the farm, and it was kind of sad ...

As announced previously, I've spent the weekend trying to sell my comics at Small Press Expo in Stockholm. It's an annual festival for fanzines and independent comics. They also have a market where fanzine makers can get a table for free, so I gave it a shot.

I got a table next to the friendly furries from Chainroaker. Commerce was hot in the first couple of hours, until people, apparently, ran out of money.


(English version right here.)

But by the end of Sunday, I had actually sold about a third of my magazines. Yay!

The theme of this year's SPX was animation. They showed some interesting stuff that I, unfortunately, didn't see much of, because I didn't dare leave my table unattended. (Though now that I think about it, I probably would have seen it as a privilege if someone had stolen my comics out of genuine interest ...)

Another nice feature was the very own comics webzine of Small Press Expo. Yes, cartooning in public has never been more fun! I improvised a strip about my pet pig Sergei for it ...

This year was actually the first time that SPX had a contest for 'the best fanzine in Northern Europe'. I would have liked to enter if I'd have known about it in time, but then, it might be just as well that I didn't, because the three winners this year are all established comic artists, anyway (as far as I know). The 1st prize was taken by a flashy Finnish anthology, while the 'shared 2nd prize' was given to Li Österberg and her cool nun fanzine, and this guy with his cigarette fanzine.
I didn't get a chance to look closer at the Finnish anthology, to see who contributed to it, but Li Österberg has gotten several books with her comics published, while the Bolivian reportage comics of this guy whose name I can't remember have previously been published at least in the weekly Arbetaren.

Don't get me wrong - I like these artists and the comics they make, and I'm happy for them. But one might just wonder why quite established artists have to publish their works in fanzines. Because they couldn't get deals? In some cases, maybe. But in other cases, I'm leaning towards the assumption that they, unlike us other poor sods who can't seem to get our comics published in any other way, are making the active choice to publish their comics in fanzines ... because fanzines are really cool.

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... Anyway, I didn't just sell my comics. I also traded a few with other fanzine makers. The best deal was definitely "Medley" by Lisa Medin. It's a kind of shonen manga parody about the synth-popper Axel, set in a world where music has a strange, strange power. Somehow, it reminds a bit of Full Metal Alchemist, but it's completely different. And crazy.

¤ ¤ ¤

What this weekend has taught me:
1. Stockholm is actually a quite nice city.
2. I have to draw more comics, dammit!
3. Aeron ia a good cover boy. Issue #2 was the # picked up most frequently (by females, at least). Too bad most of the comics inside it are so crappy ... (-_-); (But the # bought in the greatest quantities was, of course, #0, with short stories only.)
4. I'm definitely going to SPX06.

Argh, I blew 3500 crowns on printing. I'll have to raise the price of my comic books ...

The reason is that I'm going to Small Press Expo in Stockholm this weekend, where I'll be selling comics and trying to get somehow ... noticed. Or something.

In other comics news, I just got the second volume of Bounce Comics in the mail. This Australian-based webcomics anthology is printing my comic Driftwood. Its choice of comics is a bit uneven, but then, as it is now, *anyone* is quite likely to find a comic in it that they like! ^_^ There are several very good comics in it, so go buy it!

Finally, internet.