Metelkova under attack!

We first met Stripburger when they visited Sweden in 2005, which gave us an entrance into the whole Balkan comics scene and it has been highly valuable for us as a cultural organisation and as publisher of an international comics anthology. Through this first meeting with Stripburger we made lots of important connections that last even today and has lead to us publishing several creators from the region in CBA over the years.

We always wanted to visit them at Metelkova to see everything that’s going on there, and we truly hope that will be possible also in the future.

But they are now under attack and are threatened with eviction.

Read more and sign their petition!

Non-governmental organizations in Slovenia are increasingly targeted by the government’s restrictive measures and hostile rhetoric. Leading the government, the radical right Slovenian Democratic Party and PM Janez Janša direct their hostility especially towards NGOs engaged in independent cultural production and defending human rights, media freedom and the environment. Legal and financial restrictions have been applied to them and the epidemic is used to justify such measures. The media, the judiciary and independent state bodies are also under attack.

The government has, for example, been blocking payments to film producers for a whole year, while the Ministry of Culture started changing the rules for the composition of commissions that decide on co-financing projects of non-governmental cultural organizations so that the Minister will have full control over the allocation of funds. Amid such developments, and in the circumstances of a dramatic second wave of the epidemic in the country, 18 non-government organizations were recently requested by the government (Ministry of Culture) to vacate their premises in the building at No. 6 Metelkova Street in Ljubljana, in which they have been operating since the mid-1990s.

Some tips for comics creators in Corona times

These are hard times for everyone, not least self-publishing comics creators. But there are some ways for fans to support your work, both for physical books and for digital works online. Here are a few:

Fosfor
Fosfor is our very own non-profit zine distro, and a part of the Hybriden webshop. Our goal is to be a platform for comics creators who normally find it difficult to reach larger audiences and to strengthen the general culture of comics self-publishing. In the webshop, buyers can easily get an overview of a wide variety of comics. Sellers only need to fill out our form for their works to be posted on the site within a short while. After the first orders come in, we’ll ask you to send the first batch of actual products.
One important point is that Fosfor should not be seen as a service where you hand your stuff over to someone else who then sells it for profit. Rather see it as a place for shared exchange that everyone benefits from. When other creators share the link to Hybriden and Fosfor, it means that customers who go to the site for other reasons may also find your stuff while they’re there. Customers also don’t need to pay for postage from several different sources, but can get all their comics in one package, which means they’ll also save money.
All profits go back to the creators themselves, we only add a small sum to cover packaging and similar costs.

Digital Seriefestival
Mostly relevant if you’re a comics creator in Sweden. They’re allowing artists to post a ‘virtual table’ in a facebook group and for facebook users to browse their work and links. It goes live on the 10th April.

Patreon
Patreon is a great way for people so support you through a subscription service to your work. They can make monthly donations, and in return, you can offer exclusive rewards or perks for different price tiers. For instance, for $5 a month, someone could get access to blog posts about your artistic processes, $15 a month could give people access to a twitch stream of your work, maybe even tutorials etc.
There are lots of different approaches to it, and it’s a nice way to get consistent support from fans. Small monthly donations from multiple people can add up to helpful amounts.
Patreon takes 5% of your earnings.

Ko-Fi
Not all the supporters of your work will be able to pitch in a monthly amount – and ko-fi is a bit like a tip jar where people can give you a one-off payment of $3 to show their support. It’s worth mentioning that Ko-Fi does also feature a monthly-tip system like Patreon, and for paid membership ($6 a month) you can sell commissions on your page.
Ko-fi takes 0% of your donations, but only registers payments through PayPal (which takes 2.9% + $0.30) or Stripe (which takes 2.75%).

Big Cartel
Is an online shop which allows you to have 5 items up at any time for free. These don’t necessarily have to be physical items – you could put digital commissions up on here.
Big Cartel does not charge any commission – but like Ko-Fi it only registers payments through either PayPal (which takes 2.9% + $0.30) or Stripe (which takes 2.75%).

Gumroad
Gumroad is quite a popular way of distributing E-comics, for people to buy and download as PDFs.
For a free account, Gumroad charges 8.5% + $0.30 per sale.

Setting all of these up can be a bit daunting, but most of them offer helpful advice on setting up your pages – and it’s always worth doing some quick research of your own on what kind of ways other artists are using them. Cross-referencing these can be useful when figuring out how you can best use them to your own advantage.

Some ideas for information helpful to convey:
-Pricing tiers based on sketch, inks, and coloured works.
-Charging extra for drawing a background.
-Pricing based on how much of a character you draw – the head, a bust, the torso, or the full figure.
-Remember to charge per character you draw per piece!
-It’s also worth putting your own terms and conditions for your commissions so that people know what to expect and to filter out any requests that you don’t feel comfortable with.

Digital Commissions
When selling digital commissions – it can be helpful to create a clear graphic illustrating the different pricings you have. Having an image (or up to four) to show this means you can post it on multiple platforms (instagram, twitter, facebook, mastodon, tumblr, etc).

Good luck, and stay healthy!

WINTER SALE at the Hybriden webshop!

Nov 29 – Jan 1, we’ll have a huge sale at the Hybriden webshop. Titles from CBK, Tusen Serier and Wormgod will be sold extra cheap. Many titles at 50% off the regular price and several of the CBK books even more!

While you are there, you should also check out the zine section (Fosfor), and we’re just in the process of adding new prints to the shop, digital prints as well as linocut and silk screen!

And you can pre-order the upcoming CBA vol 47: Science/Fiction (to be released in Jan/Feb), also at a reduced price!
And we’ve finally added a bunch of our old back-issues (C’est Bon #1-11, CBA (pre-vol) #2-5, or at least what’s still available).

To the webshop.

Fosfor (zine distro)!

Many self-publishing comics creators still have very few opportunities to reach a market outside comics festivals. With Fosfor, we give these creators a platform to reach out to more readers. We want to be able to spread zine creators’ works and open up one of comics’ greatest cultures to more people!

Fosfor was started once upon a time by former CBK crew members Steve Nyberg and Christoffer Frostgård as Sweden’s first distro for comics zines. It was taken over by CBK and was reborn in June 2019 as part of Fanzineverkstaden and Hybriden in Malmö.

You’ll find it along with publications from CBK, Tusen Serier, Wormgod etc at the Hybriden webshop.

Want to sell your zines, prints or stickers via Fosfor? Go to the site for instructions…

We <3 XM24

We’re back from CRACK! and in the last few weeks we’ve also been to the Tenderete festival in Valencia.

But never mind that now.

Another sister festival to CRACK!, Tenderete (and also AltCom), has been taking place at a squat in Bologna, XM24, which is now being evicted.

We’ve never been there ourselves, but it doesn’t matter. They’re part of the family and we support them in fighting this eviction.

XMAS2016 SALE!

Until January 1 we have a Christmas SALE in our webshop, where you can now buy all of our books, along with Tusen Serier’s and Wormgod’s, at 30% off the regular prices!

Take this chance to make your life (and your collection) complete! Shop the last Christmas presents in our store! MAYBE they’ll even arrive before Christmas (no, they won’t, but still…)!

Use the coupon code: XMAS2016 at the check-out in the webshop.

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Rest of 2016…

Here’s a list of exhibitions and releases from CBK/Hybriden, festivals and other events we’ll be attending, basically everything we can think of that will happen dureing the rest of this year:

Berlin Zinefest – Oct 29-30
Rakel Stammer will share a table with our friend Tonina Matamalas and bring some of our books.

Oulu comics festival – Nov 4-6
Leon Stekla & Gonzalo Rodriguez will attend, showing the Tusen Serier exhibition DUBBELMORAL v2.0 at Bingo.
Leon will hold a few comics workshops and Gonzalo will do some graffiti. They will also sell books.

Bleed exhibition + release of CBAvol35 – Nov 18-28 @ Hybriden
The exhibition will feature bleeding cool art by the CBK crew with friends (such as Vladica Čulić, Merima Dizdarević and possibly more). If all goes as planned, there will also be a fountain of blood (draw your own conclusions), so don’t miss it!

Örebro comics festival – Nov 26-27
Mattias Elftorp & Kinga Dukaj will be there, representing CBK, Tusen Serier & Wormgod. There will also be the Void exhibition by Susanne Johansson (formerly shown at AltCom 2016).

The Mother exhibition – Dec 1-21 @ Hybriden
Rakel Stammer, Marie Tillman and an assortment of guest artists from Mexico will explore the concept of motherhood together in this Tusen Serier exhibition.Read more here.

Mitt Julmarknad – Dec 10-11 @ Mitt Möllan
Christmas market on our home turf. An opportunity to find not only all of our books but also lots of other stuff from the Hybriden shop (exclusive stuff that only exists in our physical store, not online)!

Tröls julmarknad – Dec 17 @ Lilla Tröls, Malmö
Another opportunity to buy all your Christmas presents from us! With Tusen Serier & Wormgod.

We may also be at Garaget’s bokmässa (Nov 27, but we don’t know yet if we will be there).

And we’re kind of planning a Mellandagsrea at Hybriden, with a Best of Tusen Serier exhibition, but we don’t have any confirmed dates yet.

 

So now you finally have something to look forward to! A little ray of light in the darkness of winter and dystopia.

Hybriden opens

We’re finally ready to open Hybriden, the new space we’ve been building since the beginning of the year!

Hybriden is Malmö’s new comics hang-out! A space for exhibitions and workshops, an artists’ studio and comic shop/library, open for anyone (if not necessarily at all times). Here, you will be able to see exhibitions of comics you’ve never heard of, by recognized and unknown comic creators. Join workshops to learn how to draw comics or experiment with new forms of storytelling. In our shop you will find books from CBK, Tusen SerierWormgod and exquisitely selected international comics found at various festivals in different countries. We also have a comics library section where you with zines, anthologies and graphic novels where you can sit and read in our sofas.

WHAT: Opening/exhibition/release/workshop
WHERE: Hybriden @ Mitt Möllan, Claesgatan 8, Malmö
WHEN: Friday, March 11, 16-22

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EXHIBITION
The comics in the international comics anthology CBA have been called “supposedly poetical”. They have also been called “witty, challenging and eye-opening”. Judge for yourself when the all-new editorial crew show their own comics and artworks.
Same goes for Tusen Serier, where the inner circle shows their own works along with samples from the upcoming titles.
Artists: Amanda Casanellas, Christina Cromnow, Henrik Rogowski, Kinga Dukaj, Luddvig Melin, Mattias Elftorp, Oskar Aspman, Stefan Petrini, Steve Nyberg, Susanne Johansson, Shko Askari, Amalia Alvarez, Tanja Komadina, Jorge Varas Varilla, and Yossra El Said.

RELEASE: CBA vol 30: A NEW HOPE cbavol30cover
The members of the new crew have made the comics in CBA vol 30: A NEW HOPE, to signal a kind of new beginning for the series, and because we wanted to find out what we’re actually doing. Anything from angst-ridden animals to a psychosomatic virus to a postapocalyptic Malmö and fragments of lego. You have to see for yourself what all this means in the new issue…

JAM COMIC WORKSHOP
Between 16-19 you can join a jam comic workshop where we collectively create a story on the theme of WHATEVER. No pressure, we’re just drawing togehter because it’s fun! No experience required, just bring a bit of imagination!

COMICS!
And of course, all our books will be available, as well as a few extra titles, in the bookstore section.

We’re going until 22 or when we fall asleep/run out of wine!

www.hybriden.se
www.tusenserier.org
www.cbkcomics.com

+ You will also find us at the SciFi-mässan (Malmö) this weekend, March 5-6, where CBK & Tusen Serier share a table with Wormgod and the comics course of Malmö Högskola!

+ Also do not miss the ongoing (until Monday, March 7) special offer at our new webshop!

WELCOME!

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Second Christmas!

Join us in celebrating the birth of our web-shop!

Once upon a time, there was a small group of comic artists with a big dream. 15 years later the shop was finally born. We invite you to celebrate this magnificent event, internally known as “Second Christmas.”

2ndXmas

Saunter through our virtual bookshelves, sigh with pleasure upon seeing our works in all their glory and find that not only CBK‘s works are presented. Tusen Serier and Wormgod are our first affiliates that we are proud to represent.

Use coupon code: newcbkshop2016 to get a 20% discount on everything but subscriptions in our new shop.

We love taking orders from you!