Back from Helsinki Comics Festival
I’d actually applied to be in the “International Exhibitors” section this year, but since I spoke Finnish nobody took me seriously. Which was just as well, because now I got to have a table next to Ainur and Kaarina in the small press area!
So then I also got to hear about 5000 comments about how the massive book Driftwood wasn’t really a “pienlehti” (‘small magazine’, the Finnish word for small press). Yay! V^(oo)^V
Compared to last year when all three of us had been placed at one single table, and it was really cold and there were floods in the small press tent, it was really nice this year when we all got our own tables and the weather was warm and sunny. Somehow magically it didn’t even seem like any drunk men pissed on the tent the night between Saturday and Sunday, so the small press tent had a pleasant odour all weekend! Amazing!
I sold some books and zines and met some nice, fun or ‘interesting’ people, and I bought these:
* Nyarlathotep, Ainur’s latest zine – a Lovecraftian side story from Goldenbird.
* Laivakoirat (The Shipperkes/The boat doggies) by Syssy Hiitteenkallio – epic maritime doggie comic.
* >> by Oleg Tischenkov – one of the books with his philosophical and cute “Cat” comics, detailing a bit about the background of the comic and how it came to be.
P.S. I also photographed some doggies:
It’s Helsinki Comics Festival tomorrow!
At Lasipalatsi Square in central Helsinki, the 28th edition of the festival has once more set up its tents. Now on Saturday and Sunday we will brave the Finnish September temperatures again … Luckily the weather seems a bit milder and less prone to floods than last year!
I’ve been so busy with boring dayjobs that I haven’t had time to do any press work at all for Driftwood. This is the only photo I’ve made of the books so far (right after opening the first boxes upon delivery):
They are really awesomepants. I’ll be selling Driftwood at the festival for 20 € each, and 10 € for Flotsam and Jetsam, the short story and behind the scenes info book.
Of course it’s not enough for me to present only the big fat Driftwood book as a new thing at the festival. I also made a zine with (my apparently totally innovative e-book comic) Electric Tsunamis (in English), mainly because I want to see if I can sell more printed copies than Bonniers can sell electronic copies! 😀
I will of course also have all other English-language books and zines that I have currently in print …
See you this weekend – Saturday the 7th from 11:00 to 20:00, and Sunday the 8th from 12:00 to 18:00!
* * *
Bonus doggie etc. chalk drawings from the festival grounds:
Sneak preview of my submission to C’est Bon Anthology vol. 23: “Hair”
Of course I could not resist that theme.
Let’s see if they want to publish it … :3
Last night at Netto …
“… Suddenly, three hot & hairy antifa punk looking Spanish guys enter Netto!!”
(Tinet:) “It’s ALWAYS like this!!! ALWAYS when I buy toilet paper, there are HOT GUYS ALL OVER the supermarket!!!”
