The BaBa sketchbooks

Today we photographed all the bonusmaterial for the upcoming BaBa book. The preface is also beeing written and some missing strips is beeing searched for etc. The book is slowly progressing but I think it will be finished in time for the bookfair in Gothenburg this autumn (September).

Until then, here are a few pages from Rinaldo's BaBa sketchbooks. Over the years he filled 63 of those. All featuring germs of ideas for BaBa strips and more finished gags. These sketchbooks were the place where the strips were born. It's facinating to be able to follow the creative process by looking in these sketchbooks.
There will be a few pages in the BaBa book but not as many as I wish there could be. So here are a few from sketchbook 60 for your enjoyment.

Working on the Ba-Ba book

Today I'm working on the compilation of the Ba-Ba book that is scheduled for a september release. All the original dailies are scanned and I'm now trying to sort through the supplementary bonus material. Got loads of clipped strips and Rinaldo's sketchbooks, foreign publications etc.
It takes time but it's fun to do. Just to give you a glimpse of it here are a few photos of what's on my living room table. :)

More on Baba

Picked up a stack of BaBa dailies yesterday at Svenskt Seriearkiv to have them photographed. As I've written before we are working on a reprint book featuring a selection of the ca 3000 BaBa strips drawn by Rinaldo between 1937 and 1953. (All but four of the strips I've seen are in pantomime, so this book should appeal to an international audience as well. I hope.)
If everything goes as planned it will be printed in time for next years bookfair in Gothenburg.
Going through the original art makes me really inspired to get back to the drawing board. So confident lines and wonderful use of black and white spaces. I'd call BaBa Swedens answer to Americas Krazy Kat in a way. Its whimsical, strange, funny and graphical in a way seldom seen in newspaper strips. Some times you have no idea what's going on and some time it's just absurd and crazy.

Since the publication date of the book is so far away I just have to treat you with a few panels scanned straight from the original art. The panel above is from early in the run and the ones below are from later dates.
I hope you like them as much as I do. :)