Swedish Comics 1
Åsa Grennvall Åsa Grennvall (b. 1973) is sometime
s called the ‘uncrowned queen of feel-bad’ of Swedish comics. She doesn’t shy away from depicting anxiety, depression, self-harming and dysfunctional relationships in her graphic novels, many of which contain autobiographical elements. Åsa Grennvall trained at Konstfack University College of Art and Design in Stockholm. Her first graphic title, Det känns som hundra år (‘It Feels Like a Hundred Years’), was published in 1999. Since then another eight books by her have come out, including Sjunde våningen (‘The Seventh Floor’, Optimal Press, 2002), which was awarded the Urhunden prize, Sweden’s most prestigious honour for comics and graphic titles. It has also been translated into French, Korean, Finnish and Italian. In 2014 Åsa Grennvall joined forces with Sofia Olsson, another comic artist, to found Syster förlag, a new independent publisher. Syster published Grennvall’s latest work, entitled Deras ryggar luktade så gott (‘Their Backs Smelled So Good’), a graphic novel about Jenny, a playwright who begins to contemplate her parents’ shortcomings after the birth of her own children and the emotional neglect she suffered as a child. It’s a book about escaping from established patterns, taking a good hard look at your own emotional baggage and ultimately breaking free. 10