New Swedish Books. Spring 2016 1
NEW SWEDISH BOOKS CYRIL HELLMAN (WORDS) PETER BER
GTING (IMAGES) FOREVER TRUE KARTAGO FÖRLAG RIGHTS: KARTAGO FÖRLAG Forever True Football is the most popular sport in Sweden, but it is increasingly tainted by hooliganism. The journalist Cyril Hellman was frustrated by the lack of stories about this problem in Swedish, and decided to write a tale that was fictional, yet rooted in reality: about the love of the sport, about male friendship, male aggression and male violence. At the centre is 30-year-old Patrik, who has given up his studies and his relationship to dedicate his life to passion-filled football matches and the ensuing punchups. At the restaurant where he works as a waiter he meets the kitchen manager Richard, the leader of a competing firm. They come together in mutual hatred; condemned to meet every time they go to work. There’s a general idea that social realism presumes a naïve, simple, ‘gritty’ kind of visual narrative. Drawing virtuoso Peter Bergting – well-known for his fantasy covers and adventure comics primarily for the American comics market – puts that idea to shame in this book, taking on the genre with epic skill. 60 Cyril Hellman Photo: Gabriel Liljevall Peter Bergting Photo: Gabriel Liljevall