Seriefrämjandet have released their 4th edition of ‘Svensk Seriehistoria‘, translating to ‘Swedish Comic Book History’.
Published in January 2021, the 304 page full color album is written in Swedish by Ulf Granberg, Claes Reimerthi, Thomas Storn, Peter Nilsson, Nisse Lindberg, Johan Andreasson and Jakob Hallin. The album’s cover can be seen above.
Edition number 1 in the series was initially launched in 2005. We then see edition number 2 released in 2016, and edition number 3 in 2019. The first 3 editions album covers can be seen below.
The series covers themes such as history of the comic book industry, insight into various publishing houses, interviews with creators and artists, and general comic book knowledge.
About The Publisher – Seriefrämjandet
Reading the Seriefrämjandet website, the organization describe themselves in the following manner:
The series promotion was founded in 1968 and is Sweden’s organization for the art form cartoon series. The promotion of comics works to spread knowledge about the unique uniqueness of comic book art and to develop the Swedish comic book culture.
The activities include the cultural magazine Bild & Bubbla as well as books about and with comics, the comic book award Urhunden, the Swedish Comic Book Archive which preserves comic book history, the Comic Book Agency that creates and mediates assignments, the comic book Room for Comics and festivals, exhibitions, lectures, debates and much more.
The series promotion has its seat and office at the Series Center in Kulturhuset Mazetti in Malmö and local associations are located in Gothenburg, Skåne and Stockholm. The series promotion is aimed at children, young people and adults – from the curious reader to the professional practitioner.
About The Album – ‘Swedish Comic Book History – 4th Edition’
Seriefrämjandet give us a small description of their 4th edition album:
The Swedish Series Archive continues to write Swedish series history, now focusing on the emergence of the 1970s album market, alternative series and fanzine.
In the 1970s, the French-Belgian album series made a successful entry into the Swedish series market with Tintin and Asterix in the forefront. This album revolution is depicted in the fourth book from the Swedish Series Archive, with special focus on the leading album publisher, Carlsen.
In other texts, the book depicts the contemporary publication of fanzines and alternative series. With roots in the political landscape of the late 1960s and inspired by American underground series, these contrasted strongly with the commercial series release.
The book also highlights the small, relatively unknown publisher Red Clown, whose motley publication many remember with a nostalgic shimmer. After looking more closely at the publication of horror series in Sweden in the previous issue, this time a chapter is devoted to the publication of science fiction series.
In a separate chapter we also get to meet the cartoonist Nils Egerbrandt (1926-2005), known for comics like Olli , 91 and Kalle Stropp , whose life’s work now finally gets its well-deserved place in the Swedish comic book Hall of Fame.
The ‘Swedish Comic Book History – 4th Edition‘ is now available for purchase in Sweden, including on-line at Adlibris.
The Phantom 