Coffee break

Just an ordinary day at work at Egmont.

Bamse is having a coffee break, reading the latest issue of his comic book.

That issue got some press coverage in Arbetarbladet.
We happened to do a story about how a giant christmas goat was burned.
And the night after the subscribers got it in the mailbox ...
the christmas goat in Gävle burned.

Well, well ...

Found a font

Remember the "Looking for a font" post?
Here's what the cover ended up like.

Now, off to the Gothenburg bookfair!

Bamse & Nina Kanin

Next week will see the release of "my" new book: Bamse och Nina Kanin på äventyr! ("Bamse and Nina Kanin's adventure") This is the third book I've written in the series of new Bamse books. (Twelve books in total. The other books are written by Mårten Melin, Charlotta Borelius and others.)
The two other books I wrote were re-makes of comic book stories*, but this one is an all new story. (*Based on plots by me and scripts by Mårten.)

Artwork is by Thomas Holm who did both pencils and inks.
And he recently surprised me with giving me the original art to one of the spreads!
Thanks, Thomas! I love it!

Looking for a font

For the next issue of swedish comic book BAMSE we are seeking to find the font that was used on the Uncle Scrooge covers of the late 60's. Not the logotype font but the one/s used for the catchy phrases/titles. See the image below.


Does anyone know the name of this font?

Here's a preview of the BAMSE cover, sans color.

Comics exhibition in Gagnef

If you happen to be near Gagnef, Sweden this summer you should visit the Ottilia Adelborg museum.
Why? There's a comic exhibition there showing some of the current Swedish comics made for kids. You'll be seeing finished original art, pencils, rough idea sketches etc.
All lent to the exhibition by the following creators: Annika Giannini (Tivoli), Hedvig Häggman-Sund & Adam Blomgren (Bamse), Joakim Lindengren (Strumpmysteriet), Johanna Kristiansson & Joakim Gunnarsson (Katten Nils), Lena Furberg (Mulle), Lisa Sjöblom & Richey Wyver (Tails from the Burrow), Natalia Batista (Mjau!), Sara Olausson (Loranga), Susanne Fredelius (Doris), Tina Landgren (Helmet Girl), Yokaj Studio (Teckna manga).


The exhibition is presented by Gagnef kommun and the comic book Tivoli. It's open June 19 to August 15.

Bamse 7 2010

Just downloaded the softproof for BAMSE 7 2010. And I just wanted to share the cover with you.
For a change this is a cover with Bamse's kids instead of Bamse himself.
Turned out to be a pretty dramatic cover. "The secret of Stonehenge"

It's fun to be able to design covers in the style of Dell's old Four Color comics these days. Not everything has to be cluttered up with loads of promotional text and flashy images to sell. :)
Artwork by Lars Bällsten, inks by Bernt Hanson and colors by Lise Jörgensen.
Idea and layout sketch by Charlotta Borelius and yours truly.
On sale May 4th.

Bamse 6/10 preview

BAMSE 6 2010 marks the "comeback" for one the best Bamse artists of the 90's: Thomas Holm. So, I thought I should give you a sneak peak of what the return to the pages of BAMSE looks like.

[If you live in Scandinavia I assume you are familar with "BAMSE - the strongest bear in the world". If you live in another part of the world I guess you've never heard of him.
To make a brief summary: Created by Swedish comic artist/writer Rune Andréasson, Bamse made his debut on the TV-screen and as a weekly sunday page in 1966. In 1973 he got his own comic book, that soon became one of the most popular in Sweden. Sales peaked in the early 90's when Egmont took over the production from Andréasson. It's still one of the top selling comic books in Sweden. Myself, I wrote my first Bamse script back in 1991 and today I'm on staff as a "project leader".]

Now, on to the sneak peak. What you'll see below are some panels with Thomas own coloring. Made as a guide for the colorists. Unfortunately, very little of his coloring made it into the final version. But here it is for you to enjoy. :)
[If you live in Sweden or Finland, where Bamse still is published, you can pick up your own copy on April 13 and compare this with the final version.]







Although this is Thomas' comeback to the pages of the BAMSE comic book he has also recently made a few Bamse childrens books, some covers and a new comic book featuring Bamse for really young kids.
It should also be mentioned that the story in 6 2010 is written by Jens Hansegård, wich is also writing scripts for the Scandinavian Donald Duck weekly.

BAMSE 6 2010 is number 498 since the start in 1973. So, number 500 is just around the corner... :)

Just arrived

Issue 3/10 (#495) of BAMSE just arrived at the office.
For the cover of this issue we have tried a different approach. By parents Bamse is usually seen as a nice carachter that avoids conflicts. But for this cover we decided to show him upset, angry and furious! (His daughter is missing in the lead story and he begins to accuse every crook in sight of kidnapping her. The story itself is a reprint from the 80's.)


Now, let's see if the parents will avoid to pick it up, or if the kids will be curious enough to why Bamse is so upset, that they'll convince the parents to buy it.

Hmm... maybe the parents would prefer a pink background and hearts instad? ;)


[Layout and rough sketch: Joakim Gunnarsson. Pencils: Lars Bällsten. Inks: Bernt Hanson. Coloring: Lise Jörgensen (Yours truly on the "cute version").]

Stupid mistake...

As some of you know I work as an editor at Egmont in Sweden and one of my books is "Bamses Äventyr". For issue 24 I had written two special pages about two of the stories, as a bonus for readers wanting to know more about the stories behind the stories.
However, I made a stupid mistake and sent off 98 pages to the printer instead of the usual 96...
What to do? Two pages had to go and the easiest solution was to simply remove these.
But here they are!
(These are probably of no interest for the majority of the readers of this blog, but it felt like a waste not using them anywhere.)

Three Bamse covers

It's been a busy week so far, and still two days more before the weekend. Not much time to blog on, but I thought I should share some upcoming Bamse covers. Might be of interest to some. (?)

First out is a 128 page giant featuring reprints of Bamse's time travelling stories from 1999 and 2000. It will be released on October 15 and has a new cover roughed by yours truy and with pencils and ink by Ted Johansson. Color by Lise Jörgensen.




Then we have two covers for the regular comic book.
#13/09 will be on sale next week and #14/09 on September 29.
(My roughs, Lars Bällsten's pencils, Bernt Hanson's inks and Lise Jörgensen's coloring on both. Only my layout roughs and the finished colored covers shown here.)




[Edit: The cover above was recently voted "Best Bamse cover of 2009". :) ]

Now, I gotta rush to work. It's already past eight a clock in the morning here in Sweden and "I'm late, I'm late" as the white rabbit said before he jumped through the rabbits hole...

Bamse på skattjakt

A public service announcement:
Today my second Bamse book will be released! :)
The title is "Bamse på skattjakt" ("Bamse on a treasure hunt") and will be available in bookstores here in Sweden and via Adlibris.
The book is based upon a comic book story from 2006. (While I've written the script for this book the comic book was plotted by me and scripted by the very talented Mårten Melin) The artwork in the book is by Lars Bällsten with inks by Bernt Hanson.

Here are some samples. Enjoy!

Too much Bamse stuff...

I mentioned that I was going through my closet, sorting through all of my Bamse stuff. Well, I took some photos that probably will make some hardcore Bamse collectors go drooling for hours. The rest of you will probably think I'm a lunatic that should get a life. ;)
Well, now that all of my extras has been packaged down and storaged most of this will go back into my closet and my apartment will look normal again. :)

Here we go...
First we have some photos of mixed Bamse comic books and albums. Some rare items and some common.




Then some foregin editions. Notice that these sometimes have variations of the Swedish covers or covers not used in Sweden.

Some promotional editions and giveaways. Some for a travel company, one for a stuttering association, a styleguide only available to licence partners etc. Good luck finding them. :)


Some odd and rare stuff.

Some mixed paper lots. The stuff you keep...



Back in the 90's, before web approval and digital printing we had to approve black/blue and white preview copies like these. I kinda miss them. They smelled so heavy of chemicals that you could get a headache though. I guess these are the only surviving copies.

To finish this post some Rune Andréasson (The creator of Bamse) oddities that I've bought over the years.


If you see something in these pictures you want to ask about, please do. I'll only be happy to answer. (If I can.)

Now, enough of this "archive porn". :)

Bamses äventyr #21

The new issue of "Bamses äventyr" is in the stores now.
And it's got a cover by Gerben Valkema!
Gerben is mostly known for his covers to the Dutch Donald Duck weekly and the comic strip Elsje.
I'm happy that he agreed to take a break in his busy schedule to do this cover for us! :)

/Joakim.

Bamse på skattjakt

Last month I finished the script for my second Bamse story book "Bamse på skattjakt". ("Bamse's treasure hunt") This one is based on a comic that I plotted and Mårten Melin scripted for Bamse in 2006.
The comic book version featured artwork by Lars Bällsten and the book will also be drawn by him. In fact that's what he's working with right now.

Here's a preview of the cover. (Rough sketch and inks by me, pencils by Lars.):

And a sneak peak at the interior (yet to be inked):

The book will be out in early August this year.

BAMSE covers

Finally, here's the finished cover (still missing its logo) for BAMSE 6/09.

I showed my rough sketch a while ago. But here it is again: Since then Lars Bällsten has pencilled it, Bernt Hanson inked it and Lise Jörgensen colored it. Watch for it in the newsstands in Sweden, Norway and Finland on April 21.

And while I'm at it here's the cover for no 5. (The colors on the published colors will be different. Artwork by Ted Johansson after my very, very rough layout..)