Interview with Linus Larsson

Name: Linus Larsson

Story: Commune

1. Tell me a little about yourself. How long have you been active as a comic artist and what have you been up to?

My name is Linus Larsson, I'm currently 27 years old, and I guess I've been making comics all my conscious life. I studied at Estetiska programmet at Martin Koch-gymnasiet, Hedemora, and then two years at the Serie- och bildberättarprogrammet at Högskolan i Gävle. After graduation, I enjoyed an involuntary vacation for a couple of years before being employed as a graphic designer at a logistics firm. During the larger part of the last decade, I've mostly tried to find out what the hell I want to say, while improving on my craft with a weekly web-comic about fanged "poseur-angst". Never underestimate the importance of routine in creative endeavors.

2. Why did you want to participate in this project?

To be frank, a friend showed me volume 2 at last years comic festival in Stockholm, and I was intrigued. I'm well aware that making erotica, porn or whatever you want to call it, is a brutal challenge. The success of "sexy", at least my view of it, lies in the engagement and involvement
of the reader. This is achieved through story-telling, not merely the art itself. And I wanted to take on that challenge. Whether I succeeded or not, I cannot say. I have long since forgotten how to read my entry for SCS, dissecting it back and forth into absurdity. Maybe in a year or so, I can pick it up and read it, and make my own judgment on the matter.

3. Have you drawn any erotic comics or incorporated sex in your stories before?

No, not as the subject matter itself. Only as a "tool" to shine light on "other" aspects of life and the psyche of humankind as a whole. But then again, one could debate whether or not sexuality infuses everything about everyone all the time. But I'd rather look at it from another direction - everything about everyone infuses their sexuality - or rather everything about everyone affect everything about everyone - all the time. To isolate a part of our being is usually meaningless. So, yeah, um... let me rephrase that - Yes, I've made stories about sex before.

4. What has been the most difficult and challenging thing about this project?

To make the comic erotic. Sure, it's an anthology that primarily wants to collect stories about sex, and not necessarily making them all highly arousing. But I tend to dwell heavily on intellectual debate, and I constantly feared I would lose emotional tension.

5. What has been the most fun part?

The exact same things as mentioned above in point 4. I just enjoy experimenting with things I've never done before. Not knowing really were to start, what to do and how to do it triggers my interest. I guess I'm terrified of reducing art to craft, and thus get a twisted pleasure and satisfaction from being tormented with doubt, endless revisions and dissatisfaction of the result.

6. What are you up to now and where are you heading? Any plans?

Right now, I've alleviated myself from "creative" endeavors at work, assisting the design department merely with a solid technical base for them to right-side-brain-away upon. It has given me a much more structured weekday, and thus both time and sheer energy to work on
different projects back home in the studio. SCS3 is an example of that. I'm fleshing out a couple of comic ideas at the moment, painting with oils (usually at night, when I need to wind down) and trying to ignore and reject all my desires to work with animation again...