Studio Qassim has begun work on a brand new and exciting project called “TL på Zoo” (TL at the Zoo). It’s an illustrations and comics assignment for a Swedish book club for girls called “TL-klubben” (www.tl-klubben.se). The idea is to make a comic book (from scratch!) for TL’s members, its story taking place in a zoo. What’s unique about the book is that its characters will be created by club members. A number of drawing contests will be held, and the winning submission from each one will be redesigned by me into “a real comic book character” as it will appear in the upcoming book. The winner of competition #1 was Abigail.

Her drawing as well as my redesigned version were published in TL-magasinet #6/08 (the magazine that comes with the monthly book package). Redesigning members’ drawings is an interesting challenge that reminds me of Mega Man 4, where the game designers arranged competitions among fans to get new ideas for boss characters. I really like Abigail’s drawing, and so I took great care not to “wreck” it. My job is not so much to make it better (Abigail’s drawing is good as it is!), but to design this character and future characters in a coherent style that will be possible to draw (in different angles and expressions) in the upcoming comic book.

TL-magasinet #6 also feautures a quite lengthy interview with me, one of the better ones I’ve been involved with actually (except that they spelled my surname wrong, but I guess I can live with that). Except for the article, my (first and rightly spelled) name was on the cover (in good company with Håkan Hellström and Panic at the Disco – WHOA!), my picture in the table of contents, AND in the editorial I was presented as “one of the coolest cartoonists in the world”! Not bad indeed. It’s great that TL wants to promote their comic artists. Unfortunately the article is not on TL-klubbens website, you have to be a member to read it.