Guests at OCX 2012

Sharmila Banerjee

Germany

Sharmila Banerjee is a comic artist and illustrator living in Berlin. Her comcs have been published in several anthologies, and she has published her own fanzines. She runs the small-press publisher Salmiak Comics together with her boyfriend Martin Ernstsen, and she is a member of the comics collective The Treasure Fleet.

Marc Bell

Canada

Marc Bell works as a cartoonist and illustrator, and has one foot in the alternative comics camp and the other lightly stepping into the field of contemporary art. In the world of comics, Bell is best known for his bizarre and incredibly detailed work like the charming Shrimpy and Paul, but his unique style is impossible to miss, whether he draws, paints or does sculptures.

Tom Devlin

USA/Canada

Tom Devlin guests OCX as a part of this year's focus on the Canadian prestige publishing house Drawn and Quarterly, where he is creative director. With a background as a comic artist, he has helped bringing many talents from the underground scene into the light, in addition to old classics like the successful reprints of Tove Jansson's Moomin-comics from the 50s. Devlin also spearheaded the now defunct comics publisher Highwater Books.

Dongery

Norway

With a steady stream of fanzines, Dongery has changed the common conception of what comics could and should be in Norway. Their publications always balancing the line between "so silly and absurd it's hilarious" and "so incomprehensible it must be art", Anders DaMonso, Sindre W. Goksøyr, Flu Hartberg, Bendik Kaltenborn, Kristoffer Kjølberg and Marius Horn Molaug have reached far beyond the normal demographic for black-and-white xeroxed fanzines in small editions. Lately the group's productivity has suffered from the various members' individual projects, but now it's finally time for the long awaited Dongery tome, an exhaustive 1400-page rerun of Dongery's most obscure moments, collected in two volumes. Dongery has infiltrated OCX since the beginning of the festival, and this year it's finally time for a Dongery Show, presentation of their new book and an exhibition of Sindre W. Goksøyr's art.

Mads Eriksen

Norway

Mads Eriksen is the creator of the immensly popular comic strip M, which runs in several newspapers and is published in it's own monthly magazine. In the strip, Mads appears as the main character in a surreal version of his own life, and more or less obscure references to popular culture is an important ingredient.

Pascal Girard

Canada

French Canadian Pascal Girard has become a hit with his lo-fi style and a sense of fine-tuned details in everyday settings. Girard writes in French, and has the French speaking market as his main audience, but thanks to Drawn & Quarterly, English readers all over the world have been treated to the neurotic epic Reunion and the soft-spoken teenage drama Bigfoot.

Kristian Hammerstad

Norway

Kristian Hammerstad has his education from England, and works with animation and illustration. He has drawn for Penguin Books, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine and Wired. His first comic book Kryp was published by Jippi Forlag this spring, and consists of three stories inspired by the horror comics of the 50s and 60s. Hammerstad's style evokes a timelessness that incorporates elements from the popular culture of the last fifty years, executed with both a love of the genre and a certain detatchment.

Haakon W. Isachsen

Norway

Haakon W. Isachsen is a comic editor and writer, and has recently made a book celebrating The Katzenjammer Kids' 100 year anniversary in Norway. He appears at OCX to discuss the centennial anniversary of comics in Norway with Terje Thorsen, Tor Lier and Knut Nærum.

Bendik Kaltenborn

Norway

Bendik Kaltenborn is an illustrator and comic artist. His books Seks sultne menn (2006) and Serier som vil deg vel (2009) have won several awards in Norway and abroad, together with his many contributions to international anthologies. At OCX he will be talking about his participation in the Nordic anthology Kolor Klimax together with editor Matthias Wivel.

Tor Lier

Norway

Tor Lier, also known as Waldemar Hepstein, is a comic artist, editor and translator. He published the album Hyl! in the early nineties, and in 2003 a collection of his comics called Snork! was made. He has been the editor of the Norwegian MAD Magazine, as well as Pyton and Fidus. He appears at OCX to discuss the centennial anniversary of comics in Norway with Terje Thorsen, Haakon W. Isachsen and Knut Nærum.

Børge Lund

Norway

Børge Lund, born 1973, has rapidly become one of Norway's most popular comic artist with his strip Lunch, set in an office heavily influenced by the troublemaker Kjell. The little man with the big ego finds himself at the lower part of the food chain, but thanks to his bad ideas, lousy work morale, tasteless comments and the occasional harebrained scheme, he still manages to stay the centre of attention.

Lunch first appeared as a contribution to Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet's comic strip competition in 2007. Today the strip is published in over 50 papers and magazines in Norway and abroad, including major newspapers in Mexico, Panama and Ecuador, and has so far been collected in two albums published by Egmont.

Ulli Lust

Austria

Austrian Ulli Lust has lived in Berlin since 1995. She works there as a comic artist and has won several awards for her comic books. In Today is the last day in the rest of your life (2009), which was recently published in Norwegian, she tells the story of her own youth with rebellion against her parents, the thirst for adventure, and a searching for her own identity. She has also founded the popular website Electrocomics, that offers digital comics.

Lina Neidestam

Sweden

Lina Neidestam, born 1984, is the creator of the comic strip Zelda, chronicling a big-mouthed feminist with big dreams but little ability to follow through. She wants to work in media and change the world, but gets caught up in facebook and youtube. She goes to France to write a book, but spends the days on men and booze. She gives art school a shot. but when it gets too challenging, she gives up and goes to Asia to find herself. But she does not like what she finds.

Zelda first appeared in the paper Metro in 2007, has since landed in several Swedish newspapers and has so far been published in two albums by Kartago. Neidestam has also made the graphic novel Maran, a sex story set in a traditional setting, and maintains Sweden's most read comics blog: linakanritafint.blogspot.com

Knut Nærum

Norway

Knut Nærum is a comic artist, writer and humorist. As a comic artist he has made, among other things, the satirical comic Bloid, which has been collected in nine albums. In addition to contributions to several anthologies, he has himself been the editor of the anthology Fidus, and is now writing manuscripts for Donald Duck & Co. He appears at OCX to discuss the centennial anniversary of comics in Norway with Terje Thorsen, Haakon W. Isachsen and Tor Lier.

Seth

Canada

Seth is a Canadian comic artist, illustrator and designer. Nostalgia is a recurring theme in his stories, including It's a good life if you don't weaken, which has recently been published in Norwegian. This longing for earlier (and simpler?) times also manifests itself in Seth's drawing style, which is strongly influenced by comics and cartoons from the 40s and 50s.

Jillian Tamaki

Canada

Tamaki's work run the gamut from typical illustration assignments like the celebrated coming-of-age story Skim (written by Tamaki's cousin Mariko Tamaki), to the more experimental and personal work found in books like Indoor Voice and Gilded Lillies. Visually, Tamaki's work spans from naturalistic pencil drawings to ornate embroidery, and her comics explore a range of different storytelling techniques. At the time, she is also making the webcomic Supermutant Magic Academy.

Karstein Volle

Norway

Karstein Volle is a Norwegian comic artist and illustrator, presently living in Finland. In Norway, he is best known for his comic strip Fakta fra verden (Facts from the world), breaking most expectations about what a comic strip should be. Unlike most other strips it has no regular cast of characters, is drawn digitally in a pictogram-like style, and gives you exactly what the title says: somewhat dubious facts from an alternative reality, disturbingly like our own.

Amanda Vähämäki

Finland

As one of Finland's most interesting comic artists, Amanda Vähämäki appears at OCX to present Kolor Klimax together with Matthias Wivel and Bendik Kaltenborn. Lately, the Finnish comics scene has been perhaps the most vital of the Nordic countries, with a vibrating energy reminiscent of the american underground. Vähämäki is associated with the comics collective Kuti Kuti, and has contributed to a lot of anthologies, in addition to her solo work in Souvlaki Circus (Buenaventura Press) and The Bun Field (Drawn & Quarterly).

Joost Swarte

The Netherlands

Joost Swarte has been making comics since the late sixties, and has also excelled as a designer in many disciplines. Swarte's comics are recognisable from his classic ligne claire style, a keen eye for details and a sometimes absurd sense of humor. A collection of his comics (published in English as Is that all there is?) will be released in Norwegian this spring.

Roy Søbstad

Norway

Together with people like Jens K. Styve, Tor Ærlig and Jason, Roy Søbstad has been one of the central artists associated with renowned Norwegian publisher Jippi. Søbstad's stories about the obnoxious pubescent characters Jesper and Jonathan are recognized by a minimalist style and carefully balancing between a humor reminiscent of Beavis and Butthead, and finely tuned human descriptions. A collection of his work was published in 2008 to great reviews, and he has recently finished his latest book, Ulvene i korridoren, published by Jippi.

Chris Ware

USA

Possibly barring Alan Moore, Chris Ware is undeniably the most celebrated among contemporary comic artists, and for good reason. We can't think of anyone during the last 20 years who has done so much to develop the medium of comics as and art form, and elevate it's status, as this modest man from the American Midwest. Ware has won several prestigious awards for his graphic novel Jimmy Corrigan and his still-running series ACME Novelty Library, and is one of extremely few comic artists every culturally conscious person is expected to know. Ware is a master in his trade, and his work has a unique graphic signature that lends itself to everything from drawing style and storytelling to typography and graphic design.

Matthias Wivel

Denmark

Matthias Wivel is an art historian and writes about comics. He has edited several Danish anthologies, and writes for The Comics Journal. He appears at OCX to talk about the Nordic anthology Kolor Klimax, which he has edited.

Øyvind Holen

Norway

Øyvind Holen (b. 1973) was a comics critic in the newspaper Bergens Tidende from 1990 until 2007, and has written about comics in every newspaper and magazine he has worked for as a journalist.

Now he makes his debut as a comics creator. Together with artist Mikael Noguchi, he published Drabant this spring, a story set in the graffit scene in Oslo at the beginning of the 90s. He has previously written four non-fiction books.

Previous guests

Lene Ask
Bjarte Agdestein
Vanessa Baird
Brian Bolland
Henrik Bromander
Henry Bronken
Dave Cooper
Becky Cloonan
Warren Ellis
Mads Eriksen
Martin Ernstsen
Max Estes
Manuele Fior
Lars Fiske
Andreas Gefe
Glömp
Simon Gärdenfors
Flu Hartberg
Mette Hellenes
Mikael Holmberg
Igort
Jason
Håvard S. Johansen
Ronald Kabíček
Bendik Kaltenborn
Martin Kellerman
Killoffer
Harald Kolstad
Steffen Kverneland
Ida Larmo
Sigbjørn Lilleeng
Gunnar Lundkvist
Mawil
Tony Millionaire
Geir Moen
Christopher Nielsen
Andrew Page
Tommy Sydsæter
Tore Strand Olsen
Arild Midthun
John Kåre Raake
Kati Richenback
Øystein Runde
Johnny Ryan
Olivier Schrauwen
Dash Shaw
Endre Skandfer
Stripburger
Liv Strömquist
Inga Sætre
Rui Tenreiro
Kim Thompson
Brian Wood
Jim Woodring
Danijel Zezelj
Tor Ærlig