CELEBRATING THE DUCK! (Norwegian style)

Posted on December 22, 2009 by Andreas Qassim

This year Donald Duck turned 75, believe it or not. A group of Norwegian fans decided to celebrate the duck by arranging a festival and an exhibition in Oslo called Celebrating the Duck. They invited cartoonists from around the world to interpret Donald as the 75 year old man he is today. The response was so good that they decided to extend the exhibition into 2010 and invite more cartoonists to join. I was very honored to be one of those cartoonists. At the moment we’re around 50 cartoonists included in the exhibition, among them some of my heroes like Bud Grace and Freddy Milton. Below is my contribution. If you’re in Norway next year, keep an eye out for Celebrating the Duck (Norwegian style)!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE AND HAPPY NEW DECADE!

MEGA BAMSE BLOG POST!

Posted on December 5, 2009 by Andreas Qassim

I’m in a Bamse mood today. Believe me when I say I’m not always. As a freelancing artist for Bamse you get SO fed up from time to time. Why am I doing this, you think to yourself. But then you get a blog reply like Tob’s in the last post, and you’re reminded of why you’re in this business. Sometimes, it IS actually worth the effort.

Since christmas time is coming up, here’s my present to all you Bamse fans out there, a MEGA BAMSE BLOG POST!

BAMSE #16: SJÄLV-MÅL eller GLÄDJE-MÅL

Yet another Rune A-script, the follow-up to KICK-NICKE (Bamse #12). Kick-Nicke and Spark-Mark (another former professional football player) compete in training the junior football teams against each other. They are VERY serious about this, to the dismay of Bamse, Skalman and the others.

In spite of having remained in the archives for several years, this script is unfortunately still relevant. Sports get professional too early these days. I heard on the radio about English parents (mostly fathers of course) being a bit too serious about their children’s football, screaming and shouting from the sidelines, calling the referee names and so on. Is it really that important to win? Shouldn’t all children be allowed to participate and play just for fun? Skalman comes up with a plan how to deal with Spark-Mark and Kick-Nicke’s elitism. Classic Rune A material!

Page from Rune’s script.

My interpretation.

Kerstin Hamberg’s ink original.

Finished page.

BAMSE #17/18: BAMSE och det MAGISKA LJUSET

Most likely, DET MAGISKA LJUSET is the last Mårten Melin script pencilled by me you’ll ever see, since Mårten isn’t working with Bamse any longer. There is more than a little melancholy in this since I think Mårten is THE foremost Bamse script writer to have emerged after Rune. My first Melin script was BAMSE och HUSVAGNSFOLKET, and it was clear from the outset that this scriptwriter was something out of the ordinary. If you like Mårten’s stories, there are plenty of books out there that he wrote. Check them out when you’re up for some REAL literature. And check out Mårten’s blog while you’re at it!

Anyway, DET MAGISKA LJUSET is a comics adaption of an illustrated short story Mårten wrote for BAMSE’s ÄVENTYR. I like the occult elements of this story. Scary stuff. I like scary…

Sorry for the crappy quality of the sketches. I had no scanner at hand so I had to do with the iPhone and “natural lamp light”.

Cleaned up sketch of page 4.

Finished page. Ink by Kerstin Hamberg.

BO MICHANEK 50

Bo Michanek turned 50 this year. Bo was one of two artists drawing for Bamse during the eighties and early nineties (when Rune still wrote all of the the material for the magazine). I grew up reading Bamse, and some of my all time favorite Bamse stories were drawn by Bo, like DE TRE SVÄRDEN and VARGENS LIV.

Technically Bo Michanek is on a whole other level than the rest of us. He’s the perfectionist’s perfectionist. He used to draw Bamse with the precision of an architect. He was actually still with Bamse when I started, so my very first Bamse drawings were corrected by him. I was so nervous the first time I met him, since I respect him so much.

Simon Bülow and Oskar Forsgren, both Bamse artists, compiled a booklet paying tribute to Bo Michanek on his birthday. This was my contribution:

Bo Michanek is the youngster in the middle. I think you need to be a nerd like me to really appreciate these. 🙂

FRITIDSRESOR’S BAMSE SHOW

And like this wasn’t enough I will end this MEGA BAMSE BLOG POST by throwing in yet another clip from the animated backdrops to Fritidsresor’s Bamse show I worked on last year. I’ve been wanting to add more of these to the portfolio, but I’m planning a complete restructuring of the site, so until then you’ll have to do with these sporadic blog entries. Earlier this year there were talks about doing more shows, but then I guess the financial crisis happened. Rats! I had such a good time making these animations. If anyone out there is able to finance the production of A REALLY GOOD BAMSE GAME using this technique, please get in touch with me! 🙂

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

[kml_flashembed publishmethod=”static” fversion=”8.0.0″ movie=”http://www.andreasqassim.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/scen_afrika-asien_720x576_final.swf” width=”400″ height=”300″ targetclass=”flashmovie”]

[/kml_flashembed]

All material in this post is © Rune Andréasson.

Bamse Julalbum #19

Posted on November 26, 2009 by Andreas Qassim

Bamse Julalbum #19 is out now. This is the fourth Julalbum cover I’ve penciled.

Idea by Mårten Melin, ink by Kerstin Hamberg, coloring by Lise Jörgensen.

In the stores right now: Bamse #12/09

Posted on August 30, 2009 by Andreas Qassim

The 10 page “Kick-Nicke” is my 4th original Rune A-script. A sequel is in the pipeline. There’s something special about Rune A storytelling. It flows like a river. It’s like he had so many stories in him he could hardly contain himself. Kick-Nicke is another example of great character design, I think. You can tell there’s personality and history to him. The design matches the story. Read Bamse #12, and you’ll see what I mean!

Rune’s character design.

Analyzing the character design on the backside of the paper.

Page from Rune’s script.

My interpretation of Rune’s script.

Kerstin Hamberg’s ink original.

BAMSE #10/11

Posted on July 14, 2009 by Andreas Qassim

The lead story of the latest issue of Bamse, “Sommar, Sol och Badköping”, is the second original Rune Andréasson script I illustrated. It’s probably THE Bamse comic I’m most pleased with (i.e. of those I’ve done the artwork for). I liked the script. I was inspired when I drew it. There’s more action in those 20 pages than there usually is in a whole Bamse magazine. Stylistically it’s more Rune-ish than any other of my Bamse works. Maybe because Rune designed so many of its characters. Rune was a great character designer. The only thing I’m not so pleased with in my drawings is the scales of the bear-mermaid. They look spikey and not very fishy. Don’t know what I was thinking. Never mind, the rest I have no problem with. Beautiful ink work by Kerstin Hamberg!

badkoping_figurdesign1 blog