So. Like I said. Yesterday I went along with my mother to Göteborgs Bokmässa 2008 (Gothenburg Book Fair), to buy lots and lots of books, but MOSTLY because I wanted to visit the few – but proud – comic related booths I knew where somewhere inside the mace of booths.

And it was a mace alright. The map we had did jack shit. It was a mace in itself, so we stopped using it pretty quick.

After strolling around for awhile, looking at all the funny people (there where a lot of ‘em, I felt like I fitted right in for once), we finally found a place that sold sci-fi, fantasy, manga and such books. I found a lot of stuff I wanted there, but bought nothing. I wanted to save myself for all the upcoming comics, which still where nowhere to be found.

After strolling around some more (you’re never walking when you’re doing stuff like this, always strolling) for maybe more than an hour, we found out that all the comic booths where RIGHT NEXT TO that sci-fi shop. And I really mean right next to it. Like, if we’d just turned around while at the sci-fi shop, we would’ve seen it. Seriously.

So finally. I got what I wanted. But it wasn’t much. Just a few booths, with a few fun things. Got a picture of David Nessle (Kapten Stofil) and Martin Kristenson (he doesn’t really do anything… lol), which made me feel good – Martin reminded me of Jerry Holkins (but why was he so bald?). And that made it feel a little more like Comic-con. Just a tad.

I also caught a glimpse of Mikael Sol (Michael Sun, heh), a Swedish cartoonist. I actually follow his blog, which made it feel a bit awesome. Due to my lack of social skillz, shyness and anxiety, I did of course not have the courage to actually talk to him, but I got a picture.

Cheese.

After a long while, I actually DID talk to him (well… he started talking to me so…), and I manage to squeeze out “I, uh, read, ehe, your, gasp, blog, hfffff…” so… yeah. That was about as far as that conversation got. But that was more than enough for me. I bough the latest number of “Hjälp” (“help”) of him, which contains a short comic by him, but I think he SCREW ME OVER with the pricing, that bastard (although, unintentionally). He was just packing up the comics when I bought it, looked at it and said it cost 50 kr. And it did indeed say that on the cover. But when I walked by a couple of hours later, they’d put up a sign which read “All comic 25 kr”. Wtf. And he was nowhere to be found. HE OWES ME 25 kronor, gnnnaaah!

I looked around some for Rene Engström, but since I had no idea how she looked, smelled or sounded like, I was clueless. I’m pretty sure I went right by her at some point though.

After looking at some presentations on the second floor, where “Grafiska torget” was – of both InDesign tips and an old man talking about color in typography – I started strolling around the comic booths again. There where a really nice place just around the corner that had lots and lots of graphic novels, where I would’ve gladly spent the whole day.

But the day soon ended, and we went home.

In the end I didn’t buy too much, but I’m happy. Especially with the “how to draw manga”-book, not that I want to, uhm, draw manga (haha! fail), but still. It’s a great book. I spent about 500 kr, give or take.

Next year, I’m going to have a booth at Bokmässan, mark my word (yeah, not gonna happen).

Or, maybe I’m just going to Comic-con 2009.

(Yeah, not gonna happen.)