I’ve been busy lately with several projects for the upcoming Malmö Comics Festival I Seriernas Värld. One of these is the mask exhibition at Teknikens och Sjöfartens hus (26 Oct-22 Nov), where a group of professional comic artists will exhibit their masks. I handed mine in today (at least one hour prior to deadline!).

It’s supposed to be a somewhat distorted mask of Buster Keaton. My thoughts behind this is that I always wished I was a better storyteller. To be so you need to be able to keep your cool, to have a poker face. Especially when you want to tell a funny story. Buster Keaton was a very funny man, in spite of being known as “the stone face”, or maybe because of it, I’m not sure. So instead of loosing out to four year olds in “the angry game”, like I do, I wish I was as cool and funny as Buster Keaton…

And these were the sketches leading up to the finished piece:

Young Buster of the 20s or so. Wasn’t he somewhat reminiscent of The Spirit?

Old Buster, as he appeared in the 60s.

Good ol’ Buster after having been squeezed through my twisted mind.

The finished piece is enormous, like A1. I loved working in this large format again. Long time ago. Notice how it completely fills up my drawing table, to the extent that I had to turn it 90 degrees. After two days work, my back is but a shadow of its former self…

And now for the very best part of this project: If you happen to be 11-14 years of age, you can participate in a mask workshop 26-30 Oct (at Teknikens och Sjöfartens hus) that will be headed by me and Mia Widén, a great artist, graphic designer and creator of comics. By pure coincidence she happens to be from the same little village as me (Sandsbro, 5 km outside Växjö). Participants get two hours to create their own mask that will be part of the exhibition!

The finished exhibition with all the masks (there will be at least a hundred of them) opens Fri 30 Oct. It’s going to be cool. Don’t miss it!