The Nordicomics Islands exhibition was unveiled for the first time yesterday at the Reykjavik City Library! A steady stream of comics-curious people flowed into the exhibition space all afternoon, and the event caught the attention of the Icelandic media, including several newspapers – and the national broadcasting service RUV even came to interview us for the 7 PM news! If you know your Icelandic, you can read a written article of the interview at their website.

Residence artist Josefin Svenske presenting her work

Hugleikur Dagsson introducing his work

You can find more photos on the Facebook page of the City Library!

Nordicomics Islands – Contemporary Comics of the North
Exhibition open 12th January–10th February, 2013
Venue: Reykjavík City Library, Tryggvagata 15, 101 Reykjavík

Nordicomics Islands showcases the diversity of Nordic comics and contemporary influential and up-and-coming artists of the region. The exhibition comics revolve around the themes of distances and differences between places and people, an outsider’s view on the world and the historical and emotional landscape of the North, always through the personal viewfinder of each artist. In Nordicomics Islands, the Northern comics mentality takes on many guises, ranging from poetic, understated emotion to reveling, grotesque absurdity.

Artists in the exhibition:
Mari Ahokoivu (FI), Lene Ask (NO), Hugleikur Dagsson (IS), Nuka K. Godtfredsen (GL), Eeva Meltio (FI), Søren Mosdal (DK), Linus Strandberg (AX), Josefin Svenske (SE)

Nordicomics Islands will travel through the island capitals Reykjavík, Nuuk, Mariehamn and Tórshavn during spring 2013. Tour schedule and more information can be found here.

Nordicomics Islands is supported by the Nordic Culture Fund and the Icelandic-Finnish Cultural Foundation. The Reykjavík exhibition is organized by the Finnish Comics Society together with the Reykjavík City Library.

Poster artwork by Josefin Svenske

Date: 15th January, 2013, 10:00–16:00
Venue: Reykjavík City Library
Tryggvagata 15
101 Reykjavík

Nordicomics and The Reykjavík City Library are arranging a 1-day workshop for comics artists interested in discovering new ways of visual storytelling. The workshop concentrates on discovering ideas from personal experience and constructing the most fantastic, escapistic comics from mundane details and events you encounter every day. Sign up by e-mailing nordicomics@gmail.com!

The workshop will be lead by Josefin Svenske, Swedish comic artist and co-founder of Kolik Förlag, one of the most diverse quality comics publishers in Sweden. Josefin has worked as a full-time artist since 2005 and is one of the main teachers at Kvarnby Comics School in Malmö. Josefin is also the first residence artist of the Nordicomics Islands, and her workshop will kickstart the spring 2013 tour for the whole project. Watch this space for more details!

www.borgarbokasafn.is
www.josefinsvenske.se

Nordicomics Islands artists

Nordicomics Islands residence artists have been selected! The decisions were first announced at the Altcom festival in Malmö 10th Nov. From over 40 applicants, the Finnish Comics Society chose the following five artists for the four residencies:

Reykjavik, Iceland: Josefin Svenske (SWE)
Svenske will work on a personal story about her own family history and document her stay in Reykjavik through a comics diary.

See Josefin’s works at her website: http://josefinsvenske.se

Nuuk, Greenland: Mari Ahokoivu (FIN) & Søren Mosdal (DEN)
During residency Ahokoivu will research and work on a graphic novel that involves Nordic folklore about bears and nature while Mosdal focuses on his new graphic novel ‘Nastrand’ that explores the viking Thorkell Farserk’s life after his death in Greenland.

See Mari’s works at her blog: http://mariahokoivu.tumblr.com
See Søren’s works at his website: http://sm.anport.dk

Tórshavn, the Faroe Islands: Eeva Meltio (FIN)
Meltio will work on a comics short story about the tradition of pilot whale hunting in the Faroese Islands.

See Eeva’s works at her website: http://kaarnadesign.org

Mariehamn, Åland: Linus Strandberg (SWE)
Strandberg will work on his autobiographical graphic novel ‘Kumlinge’ that focuses on his childhood experiences of growing up in the Åland archipelago.

See Linus’ works at his website: http://arkizine.blogspot.se

CUNE Comics-in-Residence artists

The first three artists to participate in CUNE Comics-in-Residence programme were selected from 60 applications by the residence coordinators of Helsinki, Riga and Tallinn. The decisions were announced in Tallinn 17th Nov at the Koomiksipäev event.

Helsinki, Finland: Kristel Maamägi (EST)
Maamägi’s project will be a story about her grandmother and how it is possible to face life’s everyday challenges in one’s own creative way, and how not being an artist does not necessarily mean having to live an artless life.

See Kristel’s works at her website: http://kristelmaamagi.tumblr.com

Riga, Latvia: James Turek (GER/USA)
Turek will embark on a series of open workshops to places known or unknown in and around Riga. The sessions’s aim is to draw in places and to interact with people one normally does not, and to bring a sense of adventure and fun to making comics.

See James’ works at his website: http://absoluteturek.blogspot.com

Tallinn, Estonia: Tommy A (NED)
In his project, Tommy will explore the gap between comics and high art and its complexity in an essay drawn as a comic, using the language of the medium to fully illustrate the unique aspects of comics.

See Tommy’s works at his website: http://tommya.nl

CALL FOR PAPERS
NNCORE 2013 International Conference in Comics Studies
University of Helsinki, Finland, May 23-25, 2013
Organized by the Nordic Network for Comics Research in cooperation with the University of Helsinki and The Finnish Comics Society

The NNCORE conference provides a major international forum for presenting and sharing recent research in comics studies. The NNCORE advisory board members Jan Baetens (University of Leuven, Belgium), Bernd Dolle-Weinkauff (Goethe-University, Frankfurt, Germany), Thierry Groensteen (independent scholar, France), Ann Miller (University of Leicester, UK) and Roger Sabin (University of the Arts, London, UK) will speak and/or comment on papers at the event.

We invite proposals for presentations in comics studies in any discipline in the human and social sciences. Preference will be given, but not limited, to papers that relate to the NNCORE research themes:

• Telling stories, challenging convention
• Comics in between: intertextuality and inspiration
• Contesting and creating identities and communities
• The power of comics: propaganda and censorship
• Manga and the globalization of comics
• Learning from and through comics: comics as a didactic tool

Please submit an abstract (max 500 words) in English for a twenty-minute presentation. The abstracts should be e-mailed to Kai Mikkonen at kai.mikkonen@helsinki.fi by Nov 10, 2012. Please include your title and institutional affiliation(s). Selected participants will be informed by Dec 15, 2012. For any practical questions please contact Warda Ahmed at warda.ahmed@sarjakuvaseura.fi.

NNCORE is a Nordic comics research network funded by the Danish Research Council (De Frie Forskningsråd) for a two year period ending summer 2013. For more information about NNCORE activities please see the website (www.sdu.dk/nncore), which includes further contact information or contact the NNCORE manager, Anne Magnussen, magnussen@hist.sdu.dk.

© Kaisa Leka

Pop-up Comics Center / Sergei Kuryokhin Center
Sredniy Prospekt 93, St.Petersburg, Russia

Comics Center Helsinki goes St. Petersburg this November! The center will be open in 17.–22.11 at the Sergei Kuryokhin Center on Vasily Island. There will be several courses, workshops, exhibitions and animation screenings during the week. An anthology with comics about the city will be compiled afterwards.

PROGRAMME

Saturday 17.11.
Exhibitions open
Opening concert with AAVIKKO!
Accompanied with live illustrations by Finnish and Russian cartoonists!

Sunday 18.11.
13–17 Non-stop animations for children
13–17 Open animation workshop for the whole family
18-21 Long animated movies for grown ups

Monday 19.11.
16–18:30 Open workshop for children – old school 3D pop-ups
19–22 Workshop for adults – Comics for teachers and how to teach comics

Tuesday 20.11.
16–18:30 Open workshop for children – Photo comics
19–22 Workshop for adults – Travelling comics and comics diaries

Wednesday 21.11.
16–18:30 Open workshop for children – Stencil art for kids
19–22 Workshop for adults – Comics and street art

Thursday 22.11.
16–18:30 Open workshop for children – T-shirt printing (bring your own shirts!)

Google Maps location

ST.PETERSBURG PUT IN PANELS!

© Mari Ahokoivu

PARTICIPATE IN A BOOK!

During Pop-Up Comics Center in St.Peterburg, many new comics will be born! Some comics will be created during the week, some are going to merely see the light as vague ideas for new stories.

From all the comics related to this visit we are going to edit and publish a collective anthology book. The link throughout the stories is St.Petersburg itself and life in the city. Foreign visitors of course see the city through travellers’ eyes, while its own habitants live and breath the city life daily.

If you want to offer your story to be published, you can bring it to us on location in November or send it by email ( pop-up-piter@sarjakuvakeskus.fi and remember 300 dpi resolution!). The deadline is until the end of this year, so even if you only get started now, you can finish your work in good time.

Hugleikur Dagsson (b. 1977) is a playwright and Iceland’s most infamous comic artist. His satirical comic strip Should You Be Laughing At This? is dark humour at its darkest and funniest, and has been published in several countries, most notably for the English-speaking audience by Penguin Books.

Lene Ask (b. 1974) is a Norwegian comics and children’s book writer. Though initially a photographer, since the debut of her graphic novel Hitler, Jesus og farfar in 2006 Ask has worked extensively in the field of comics and illustrations.

Place:
Cultur Center Stoa
Turunlinnantie 1, Helsinki
Dates:
4th–23rd Sept, opening Monday 3rd Sept 18:00

In 2011–2012 Nordicomics organised a Baltic tour that started from Tallinn and travelled through Riga to Vilnus, making also a detour in Hungary at the 8th International Comics Festival of Budapest in May. Finally in September 2012, the Baltic exhibition will be part of the Helsinki Comic Festival showcasing contemporary comics from the Northern and Baltic countries.

Nordic comics cultures have many similar traits. The field of comics is lively, active and international in all Northern countries and new artists and publishers are constantly emerging. However the artists still often remain unknown outside their own countries. Nordicomics gives these artists a possibility to showcase their artwork and network across the borders.

Artists in the exhibition:
Emmi Valve (FIN), Joonas Lehtimäki (FIN), Joakim Ojanen (SWE), Hanna Gustavsson (SWE), Oskars Pavlovskis (LAT), Martin Zutis (LAT), Esben S. Titland (NOR), Kristoffer Kjølberg (NOR), Rikke Bakman (DK), Mikkel Sommer (DK), Kristel Maamägi (EST), Joonas Sildre (EST), Yoshi (LIT), Akvile Miseviciute (LIT)

Nordicomics is supported by the Nordic Culture Point and Nordic Culture Fund. Nordicomics Baltic Tour was organised by the Finnish Comics Society in collaboration with the Finnish Institute in Estonia, Kuš!komikss and Kitokia Grafika.

Visit the Helsinki Comics Festival website:
sarjakuvafestivaalit.fi

Image by: Mikkel Sommer

Place:
Comics Center Helsinki / Sarjakuvakeskus
Hämeentie 150, Helsinki
Finland

Nordicomics Baltic Tour ended in Lithuania last week. In this last workshop the participants created comics naturally about Vilnius. The theme inspired stories about such diverse subjects as the local unusual celebrities and dreams of becoming a Lithuanian lottery winner.

Comics Center Helsinki presents comics originals from the workshop. The exhibition will be open all June. Artists featured include Egle Vitkute and Egle Shaltmira from Lithuania, Ingrida Picukane and Martins Zutis from Latvia and Maura Manninen from Finland.

The Vilnius workshop was a collaboration with Kitokia Grafika and was funded by Nordic Culture Point.

www.kitokiagrafika.lt
www.sarjakuvakeskus.fi

Contact for more information:
Maura Manninen, Nordicomics coordinator
maura.manninen@sarjakuvaseura.fi