Look for it to pop up at random places in Malmö during the month before the festival starts (and during the actual festival, of course). If you can’t find it elsewhere, drop by Hybriden, and if that’s closed you can get it at Fanzineverkstaden (Tue-Thu between 15-21 @ Ahlmansgatan 11A).
AltCom 2018 in Malmö, August 23-26 is an international festival for alternative and underground comics. This year in conjunction with the TRAUMA noise festival (Aug 24-25).
There will be exhibitions, market, talks, international guests, free festival anthology and two nights of music to makes your ears bleed. This year’s theme is HOW TO SURVIVE A DICTATORSHIP.
Sweden is normally seen as truly a democracy, but we’ve only had universal suffrage for about 100 years and the right to vote can’t be taken for granted in the long run. Even now, there are sections of society not covered by democracy, and there are parts of our lives that we have no direct influence over when we vote every four years. For example, corporations are not democratically structured, even though work takes up so much of our lifetimes. If you are undocumented or homeless, it’s easy to see how you’re not really included in the democratic process. Furthermore, the decisions are made by people who can earn more in a month than many of us get in a whole year.
Sometimes, people are coming here to escape dictatorships but we close the door in their faces instead of seeing the potential exchange of experiences. Several of the guests at AltCom have similar experiences to share.
What would happen if, after the election, one of our parties would have enough power to abolish democracy for all or parts of the population? How would we handle such a situation? What are our strategies for surviving a dictatorship?
AltCom is not only a comics festival but also a forum for discussing these and similar issues.
AltCom 2018 is organised by Tusen Serier in collaboration with CBK, Koshk, Wormgod, Noise Against Fascism, Panora etc, with support from Region Skåne, Malmö Kulturstöd & Kulturrådet.
Soon(ish), we’ll start publishing more information on the site, like international guests, artists included in the anthology, more detailed program etc.
For comics collectives, small press publishers and individual creators: It is now possible to book tables at AltCom 2018!
The market will take place Sat-Sun, August25-26 at Panora* (but don’t miss that the festival begins already on the 23rd).
Interested? Send an email to booking [at] altcomfestival [dot] se with the following information:
– What’s the name of you/your group (what you want it to say in the festival program)
– Approximately how many titles you will have to sell (in order for us to plan how the table space will be shared)
Please note that having a table at AltCom 2018 is FREE of charge.
* We won’t be in Folkets Park this time, like we have been for the last couple of festivals, so even IF there’ll be rain again it won’t be as much of a problem.
Because of popular demand and also because we can, we’re extending the deadline for sending in comics to the anthology! New deadline is May 31!
Join the anthology for AltCom 2018: HOW TO SURVIVE A DICTATORSHIP!
Send us comics about your thoughts, experiences, strategy tips and tricks on the subject.
As always in AltCom, we will hand the book out for freeduring and after the festival.
WHAT we want:
Pages: 1-5, black/white/gray
Language: English
Format: 140x182mm (portrait orientation) +5mm bleed on all sides
Files: High-resolution, preferably .TIFF
If you are unsure what we mean by “high-resolution” or “bleed”, please ask. Lots of artists don’t know, and it’s better to ask than to send us files that we can’t use.
WHEN we want it:
Deadline: May 31 (formerly May 15)
WHERE we want it:
Send submissions to: submissions [at] altcomfestival [dot] se
Please help us spread this invitation to anyone who might be interested! Here’s the Facebook event.
As usual, no one gets paid for participating. But on the other hand, no one pays to get it either. Everything is voluntary.
And yes, we do accept comics that have already been published elsewhere, as long as we like them and they fit into the theme.
AltCom 2018 is organised by Tusen Serier in collaboration with CBK, Koshk, Wormgod, Noise Against Fascism, Panora etc, with support from Region Skåne, Malmö Kulturstöd & Kulturrådet.
AltCom 2018 is now confirmed, and it will take place in Malmö August 23-26.
You won’t get much more info than that at this point, but we’re planning an overhaul of the website pretty soon. Meanwhile, you can check out what happened last time, at AltCom 2016. But there will be exhibitions, market, talks and international guests as usual, as well as a special collaboration with the TRAUMA noise festival. AND…
…there will be a festival anthology again this year. If you want to get started on your comics already, the deadline will be in April or May, the format will be 140x182mm, black/white and 5 pages/person (same as usual if you’ve participated before). You won’t get paid for contributing, but on the other hand no one will pay to get the book either since it will be given away for free during and after the festival.
We will publish a proper call for submissions pretty soon, so look for it here.
And so begin the preparations…
AltCom 2018 is organised by Tusen Serier in collaboration with CBK, Koshk, Wormgod, Noise Against Fascism, Panora etc, with support from Region Skåne, Malmö Kulturstöd & Kulturrådet.
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Speaking of anthologies, CBK is right now looking for comics and texts for CBA vol 40 – worst case scenario which is planned to be released in time for AltCom. Check it out!
The AltCom experience of 2016 is over, as much as something like this is ever over, because when a festival like this is at its best, it lingers in your soul/mind/5D construct.
We actually managed to create this separate plane of existence. A space that is its own thing and when it’s over it’s like you’re going back home, even if you already live in the same city. And when I say “we”, I don’t mean me, I don’t mean the organizers or volonteers, I mean all of us who took part in it. The guests/exhibitors/musicians/visitors. The smokers and drinkers. The ones who woke up, went to the festival and stayed until they passed out or went home (sometimes when the morning sun had come out and the birds started singing, sometimes when the wine was over, sometimes when it was just the right time to go). The ones who arrived late at night, the ones who left early. This international family that’s made up of people you almost only meet in these liminal existences. These special relationships with people you meet a few times a year, in different parts of the world, that you consider to be friends even if you hardly know most of them in any deeper sense.
It started with the preparty sessions where a few of us sat down with some wine after putting up exhibitions, discussing anything from printing techniques to working conditions to drug culture to Pokémon Go to the effect the internet has on communication and on underground and zine culture. Then it all grew as the actual festival started. People meeting, inspiring each other, giving birth to new collaborations, extending invitations to future events, other worlds to visit in the future. An intersection of pasts, present and futures.
The lost/found piece, by Alkbazz…
Many of us will meet again, because this part of the comics culture is borderless by nature and part of a network of recurring aquaintances, but we may never meet again in this exact same constellation of people.
And then there’s the story of the lost luggage that arrived just in time for the Saturday afterparty so we could complete the exhibition a few hours before it closed, the stolen items, the missed flight, the missing guest, like an offering to the god of Branquignole. Maybe the price to pay for everything else running more or less smoothly. Sleep was another casualty, but what are you gonna do?
So thank you to everyone who came, who let people stay in their homes, who participated, volunteered, carried tables, held talks/performances/workshops, who brought their art or simply their presence. For an AltCom festival that became something beyond the sum of its parts. Not unlike the language/artform of comics itself.
/Mattias Elftorp, 2016-08-02,
about to go into a 2 week coma
so you may not hear from me for a while.
Don´t take it personally, I love you all.
In the coming period, we will add some documentation to the site, like comics interpretations, photos, videos etc.
This is what we have to offer so far:
Comics interpretation by Radovan PopovićVideo: FeberdrömVideo: 3ZBPhotos by Le Garage LMore photos…
Radovan Popović made this comic during the festival, out of pure inspiration. It felt like a good description. Feel free to (literally) draw your own conclusions:
Look for it to pop up at random places in Malmö during the month before the festival starts (and during the actual festival, of course). If you can’t find it elsewhere, drop by Hybriden, and if that’s closed you can get it at Fanzineverkstaden (Tue-Thu between 15-21 @ Ahlmansgatan 11A).
