Written by Mikael Lopez

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DECEMBER 2024

I’ve written quite long year-in-reviews for the past two years (2022, 2023), but this year’s y-i-r will be much shorter since I’ve mostly focused on one project.

The Hermes

That one project is The Hermes, my adventure book with the amazing Tim Fischer. I posted some early concept art for it at the very end of last year’s y-i-r, and I recently posted some more concept art of some supporting characters. We’re at the halfway point now, and the preliminary relased date for the French edition (published by Kinaye) is set for fall of 2025 (the English-language publisher still to be determined). Really looking forward to everyone finally getting to read this next year!

● The Hermes

▼ A panel from The Hermes by Tim Fischer ▼

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▼ An unlettered page from The Hermes by Tim Fischer ▼

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▼ A color test for The Hermes by Tim Fischer ▼

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Book of Fuligin

Book of Fuligin, the Book of the New Sun anthology which includes my horror story “A Column of Ashes” (a collaboration with H. Berlin), was crowdfunded early last year, and it was finally printed and sent to backers this year. A few copies are available in the Strangers shop.

● “A Column of Ashes”

▼ The cover to Book of Fuligin by Artyom Trakhanov ▼

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▼ A page from “A Column of Ashes” by H. Berlin ▼

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The Cult of Dreams

Oscar Westberg/@gudgurkan ran a crowdfunding campaign for his illustrated “fantasy journal” The Cult of Dreams which I had the privilege of editing. The campaign raised 800% of its initial goal and is available to buy here. Highly recommended!

▼ The cover of The Cult of Dreams by Oscar Westberg ▼

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▼ The first page of The Cult of Dreams by Oscar Westberg ▼

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Peow2

Peow “came back from heaven to do overtime” as Peow2 earlier this year, releasing four new books and reprinting a handful of titles, three of which I was involved with as assistant editor: Soft: Director’s Cut, Dreaming in Color, and Ex.Mag V: Bloodsucker. I’ve (assistant) edited 13 books for Peow so far, and I hope to get to add more to that list in the future.

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Conventions

I went to 12 conventions/markets this year, including my first convention outside of Sweden, Oslo Comics Expo (Norway), which was held in a tent in front of a library. I sold out everything I brought with me to Oslo – Norwegians really love comics. Next year I’ll try to go to Copenhagen Comics (Denmark) and Helsinki Comics Festival (Finland) as well, completing my tour of the four big Nordic conventions.


I’d hoped to announce my next book and collaborator at the end of this year, but I can’t do that quite yet. Hopefully very soon!

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Third and final playlist, the one I made for me and H. Berlin while working on “A Column of Ashes” which was published in the Book of Fuligin anthology, a tribute to Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun:

(Fictional soundrack titles with the real artist and title in parenthesis)

  1. The Garden (Mica Levi - Intro)
  2. Quincunx/A Column of Ashes (Alberto Iglesias - Viaje a Galicia)
  3. Tephra (Alberto Iglesias - Tributo a Cormac McCarthy)
  4. The Man in the Box/The Endocatopter/Truth and Penitence (Marco Beltrami - Axe Gang)
  5. Beneath the Endocatopter/A Sating Quantity of Blood (Ryuichi Sakamoto - The Seed and the Sower)
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After posting a playlist for “Autopsy,” I was asked to post more playlists, so here’s the one I made for me and Tim Fischer when we worked on “Lápida” which will be published in the upcoming After the End anthology:

(Fictional soundrack titles with the real artist and title in parenthesis)

  1. Camila/A Dying Rainforest/Lápida (Tangerine Dream - The Dream Is Always the Same)
  2. Fierro Rojo (Hong Kong Express - Midnight Market)
  3. Vuelo del Dragón (Daniel Lopatin - Windows)
  4. Eliana/Matias (Daniel Lopatin - Back to Roslyn)
  5. Orestes/The Beginning of Something New (Daniel Lopatin - Pure Elation)
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I’ll be tabling at the Stockholm International Comics Festival again this year (at tables H73-74)! I’ll bring a reprint of A Cold Place Between the Shores, the last copies of Berzerkid, and a bunch of @peowstudio books (plus some extra items).

And @gudgurkan will debut a special early edition of his new book Cult of Dreams which I’ve edited!

25-26 May at Kulturhuset

(The image above is the official poster for the festival by Iris Hautaniemi.)

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