We (Yosh, Kajfa and Soya) are finally home from our first book fair! During the two days we were there (23 and 24 September) we have been running around a lot between the display cases among a lot of books! Books books books! It was a hectical weekend, but we also a lot of fun!

Signing sessions

During the two days we were there people could find Yosh signing her new book “Yosh! Teckna Manga!” at B.Wahlströms and Science Fiction book store’s display area. Yosh drew a potrait of every person who wanted their book signed. A lot of people left with a smile on their faces. Seems like it the potraits were appreciated! On the first day we were a little bit worried the books wouldn’t sell. The second they we were worried there weren’t enough books! The signing sessions were fun. The staff at B. Wahlströms and Science Fiction book store were all very nice and helpful! They made sure there were enough books and candy for Yosh.

Yosh together with her editor Lina wondering where the people are.

Oh my! Where did you guys come from?

Yosh drawing a potrait.

Lasse also got a signed book!

Yosh having a signing session at Science Fiction book store. In the background you can see My Bergström and Fredrik Strömberg chatting.

Some kids felt a bit awkward when being potraited!

Mangatalangen

There was an award ceremony later for those who won the Swedish manga talent contest “Mangatalangen”. We were of course there to cheer on Soya, who was awarded with first prize for her comic “highvision”. We were very proud of Soya! As host you can se Ola Lindholm, a TV celebrity who had held a couple of shows for kids. Together with the award ceremony the arrangers handed out the anthology with all the winners’ and finalists’ contribution. In this anthology you will of course find Soya’s comic. But you will even find Yosh’s “Panda In Sakura Garden”. After the award ceremony people were gathering around the winners to get their anthologies signed. Soya also got interviewed by Gecko.nu.

All the winners and Ola! (By request of the second winners ReYa we have blocked their faces out.)

People who saw the award ceremony.

The anthology was free for all! LOOOOOOOOOT!

Soya and the other winners signing their books.

Soya also got interviewed by a journalist from a local news page Gecko.nu

Manga artist meeting

Since a lot of skilled manga artists would visit the book fair we arranged a manga artist meeting on Saturday! Last time when we arranged something like this we had A…sa Ekström and Diana Jakobsson attending. We had a lot of fun and that’s why we decided to arrange another one. This time we were 10 persons. With the help of Aggi we found a coffee shop nearby the book fair where we all could fit into. We looked at each others’ show cases, talked gossips and exchanged experiences. These are the people who were there Yokaj Studio, Kwok-Hei Mak, ReYa, Jesper Nordqvist, Aggi, Karrey och Monika.

From Left: ReYa, Jesper Nordqvist, Kwok-Hei Mak, Aggi, Karrey and Monika. Out of range: Kajfa and Soya.

Dinner

Photo: Restaurant Fragetecknet.

Yosh was invited to a nice dinner together with editors, sellers and other authors working at B. Wahlströms. They went to a restaurant called Fragetecknet (eng. Question mark). The food was delicious! And the company was pleasant!

Kajfa and Soya set out for some adventure in central Göteborg! After an hour of wandering and some French hotdog they decided to return to the hotel to go through the fine haul of the day (Soya and Yosh recieved a lot of manga as prizes from the manga talent contest). At the hotel Kajfa and Soya could finally relax. They read manga and had a nice time. When Yosh got back from the dinner she unusual energetic by the double expresso she ordered to the desert. The only way for the others to get some sleep was to put a manga in the hands of Yosh…

Workshop

On Sunday Yosh held a workshop at Barnens Torg (eng. Children’s Square) right after she had her signing session at Science Fiction bookstore. She showed the kids a lesson from her book “Yosh! Teckna Manga!” and also picked kids from the crowd to draw them on the whiteboard. After the workshop Yosh had to hurry to her next signing session.

Yosh introducing her book.

The workshop drew the attention of kids as well as adults.

YYosh takes a look at the whiteboard and laughs at her own drawings.

Cosplay

There was a cosplay contest at Barnens Torg. Yosh had the honor to be one of the jury. Few could avoid noticing Jack Sparrow wandering around among books. Not very surprisingly Mr. Sparrow was one of the winners of the cosplay contest.

A lot of people waited for the winner announcement.

Lolita cosplay was appearently most popular!

Sunday Comic

Yosh’s last stop was to sit on a stage together with Fredrik Stömberg (a Swedish comic expert) and Kwok-Hei Mak (another Swedish manga artist) to discuss manga. The whole event didn’t have a lot of preparations and luckily it all went quite well. Yosh was very calm and didn’t say anything embarrassing so we could all relax!

Fredrik Strömberg introduced the stage talk.

Yosh and Kwok-Hei joked around a lot when they thought the microphones were off…

They tried to look more serieous when the noticed about the mics…

Summery

It was hectical! In the beginning we weren’t impressed by Yosh’s schedule since we are used to tight schedules. But when we were at the fair we understood how intense it was! Luckily most of the display area Yosh had to attend to were located very close to each other. She didn’t had to run long distances but at the same time she was only running around in a small area of the whole fair. To make sure Yosh could get a glimpse of the fair we (Kajfa and Soya) took pictures of different people and display cases to later show Yosh what she had missed!

Look here Yosh! Du missed your chance to meet Miffy and Moomin!

Vi hittade en till Mumin(Mark Levengood)!

Thanks

We all had a lot of fun at the fair! We want to thank especially Lina (Yosh’s editor) and B. Wahlströms for inviting Yosh to the fiar. We also want to thank Bonnier Carlsen and Schibstedt, who arranged the manga talent contest. Thank you for inviting Soya to the fair so she could receive her prizes. We also want to thank the staff of Science Fiction book store for being so nice when Yosh were signing at the display area. Thanks Kokoro Books for inviting Yosh to hold the workshop. Also, we want to thank Sture Hegerfors and Fredrik Strömberg for inviting Yosh to talk at Comic Sunday. And finally, we want to thank all the manga artists who attended to our manga artist meeting!

Vi hade alla tre mycket kul pÃ¥ mässan! Vi tackar framförallt Lina (Yosh’s redaktör) och B. Wahlströms för att de hade bjudit dit Yosh. Lina, som själv var pÃ¥ Göteborgs bokmässa för första gÃ¥ngen, gjorde ett jättebra jobb som guidade Yosh runt och sÃ¥g till att hon hade energi. Vi tackar även Bonnier Carlsen och Schibstedt, som hÃ¥llit i tävlingen Mangatalangen och bjudit Soya till bokmässan sÃ¥ att hon kunde ta emot sitt pris. Tack till SF-bokhandeln för att de var sÃ¥ trevliga när Yosh skulle signera hos dem! Tack till Carin frÃ¥n Kokoro Books som bjöd in Yosh till workshoppen. Tack till Sture Hegerfors och Fredrik Strömberg för att Yosh fick vara med pÃ¥ Seriesöndag. Och slutligen tack till alla tecknare som kom till tecknarmötet!