Muppets, muppets, muppets!

For all fellow muppet fans out there, if you haven’t discovered it already, go check out Ryan Dosier’s blog, The Muppet Mindset.

muppet_mindsetHeader art by Dave Hulteen Jr.

Ryan is just about the most dedicated muppet fan I ever came across. He writes interesting muppet articles almost on a daily basis. On Muppet Mindset, you’ll find the latest news on muppet TV shows, films, comics and other products. There are frequent interviews with key members of the cast and crew of various muppet productions. I for instance enjoyed  reading about Jerry Nelson recently. Jerry was part of the classic group of Muppet Show puppeteers, performing characters such as Floyd Pepper, Robin, Crazy Harry, Lew Zealand, and many many others. One of Ryan’s ideas is to make his blog an outlet for muppet fans to express their fandom through articles, fan art etc. Yesterday’s post was thus a humble contribution from yours truly.

Triangle vs Saxophone from Andreas Qassim on Vimeo.

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Bamse #10 2010

Lille Skutt’s brother Happ and his house mate Lille Sixten are back in a new adventure written by Susanne Adolfsson, introducing a brand new character in the Bamse universe.

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Great cover by Gunnarsson, Bällsten, Hanson and Jörgensen.

Happ and Sixten discover a new born baby rabbit outside their door. They can’t find its mother, so they must learn how to take care of it. Turns out the baby is very, very hungry…

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Happ and Sixten name the baby Suddan. Here are some rough design sketches. I decided to make her a Lop Rabbit with hanging ears.

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I drew this comic about a year ago in Liverpool in my dad’s house. Brings back memories of a quiet summer, a damp Yemeni mafrash (living room) turned into a temporary studio, walking the dog, feeding the cat.

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Kerstin Hamberg’s ink original.

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The way it ended up in the magazine.

Happ, Lille Sixten och Suddan is one of those rare stories dealing with contemporary social issues in a way that in my opinion makes Bamse unique among children’s comics. Very nice work by writer Susanne Adolfsson.

All images in this post are ⓒ Rune Andréasson.

Bamse #9 2010

Featured in the latest Bamse – Världens starkaste björn is yet another Rune A story, “Lången, Tjocken och Lillen”, pencilled by yours truly. My friend Hakim found this funny, since he likes to call me “Tjocken” after my Arabic name Shoqi.

lången tjocken lillen figurdesign blog

As always, great character design by Rune Andréasson.

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First page of Rune’s script.

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My interpretation.

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Bernt Hanson’s ink original.

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The finished page in the magazine.

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A competition, continuing Rune’s story. The shopkeeper Uffe is my design. This is also my very first inked page in Bamse. If you compare with Bernt’s highly finetuned lines you’ll see that, in football terms, Bernt plays in La Liga, while I play in the Swedish league, maybe division 4 or 5.

All images in this post are ⓒ Rune Andréasson.

Nice!

On my way home from work I passed this boutique in Lund. I passed it, stopped, and went back. Wasn’t that a particularly nice window? I reached for my mobile camera.

julfönster distans

Picture a dark and snowy Lund. All shops are closed due to bank holiday. Hardly any people out. Small street, small shop. And in the middle of all that darkness: a mega-cozy window decoration! Don’t you just want to go in there and buy like all those magazines?

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One of those occasions when you realize you realized some old childhood dream of becoming “one of those guys”. I used to drool over windows like this, and now I actually made something in it. And I’m in good company, surrounded by Åsa-Nisse, 91:an, Lilla Fridolf, Pettson och Findus, Donald Duck etc. (please note who’s in the middle…). I’m “one of those guys”. Wehey!

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I think my ego just grew a centimeter or two. It’s nice!