2013, you little $%&§#

I was contemplating whether to write any summary of the year at all, since so much crap happened, but then maybe it’s better if I provide the scoop on some things straight from the source instead of letting people speculate wildly behind my back, or having people only know other people’s perspective.

So, some fun things that happened this year, ordered top-to-bottom according to what I believe are the most interesting topics to presumptive readers of this post:

THE WEATHER
The winter was extremely long and frustrating, so when my winter residence contract ran out, I had to shack up in two temporary apartments in Kreuzberg (right next to Schlesi, above) and Friedrichshain for almost two months until I could move out to my garden.

[I actually deleted most of the text in this post because it was too negative and depressing. Most people who count have read it already, so there’s no point in continuing to radiate that negativity and depression. Yay!]

RELATIONSHIPS
I broke up with Ilan for good, at last.

MY COMICS
I finally gave in and got an android phone (which pretty much ruined my attempts at photography), and by coincidence I was shortly afterwards offered to draw a comic specially designed for smartphones: Electric Tsunamis (in Swedish – I’ve also published it as a printed zine in English). Indeed, “hairy men” and “eastern bloc cars” were somehow the main themes in my comics this year, with an ode to hairiness published in C’est Bon Anthology vol. 23, and my 24h comic (more like 56h comic, still unfinished) The Slow And The Relentless.

Thanks to working too much and a half-assed crowdfunding campaign, I could finance the printing of the English book edition of Driftwood and its companion book Flotsam and Jetsam.
The new zines I published last year were My garden and some of those I share it with (a big hit in Berlin because ‘gardening’ and ‘piggy’), two “teaser” zines with Driftwood chapters 7 and 8 in anticipation of the book, She’s a Killing Machine (my first 24h comic in its own zine at last), Tunguska #11 and the aforementioned paper version of Electric Tsunamis.

I had a MASSIVE writer’s block with Dog Island. V^(oo)^;V But good things take time!

TRAVELS
I went on vacation to Bulgaria, my first actual vacation in ages (otherwise I just travel to various comics festivals, and/or keep working while I travel).

DAYJOBS ETC.
I started working inside an office for my awesome main dayjob, which is great since half of the year I live in a trailer with barely any electricity. In spring/summer I worked almost too much, but in the fall it calmed down again, and in any case we published a big bunch of really nice comics last year. Some favourites were Luchadoras by Peggy Adams, Vom Jenseits by Erik Kriek, Flut! by Eric Drooker and Geschichten aus dem Viertel by Gabi Beltrán and Bartolomé Seguí.

At the end of 2012 I had cut all ties with a notorious ex-boss and ex-publisher, leaving several dayjob projects for him unfinished, as since years he himself had not finished his jobs and contributions to them (in the years I worked for him, he had piled projects on me by the dozen and paid me for them in advance in a twisted scheme to tie me to the company by obligation, intentionally letting many of the projects linger unfinished for years). This year at SPX Stockholm he tried to force me to sell books for him by handing various innocent people plastic bags with books that they should deliver to me. Then he took legal action and tried to sue me, but the court rejected it because apparently there wasn’t enough of a case. Then he tried to harrass me through my sister (asking her to “help” him sort things out with me), and more recently through my mother (offering her a job as if nothing happened). Since the beginning of the year he also hasn’t paid me any more royalties for the Swedish edition of Driftwood, but since he with his amazing PR skills, and clever focus of his time and effort on feuds with various enemies instead of on actually selling books, sells by average maybe 2 copies of a title per year, there’s not enough ground for me to take action against him either, I guess.

So, goodbye 2013, you little $%&§#, and hello 2014!