The Swedish artist
Janne Karlsson has further brought to BM’s attention that he has released in 2014 two
other chapbooks of his original poems and illustrations:
GRAPHIC POEMS (24 pages)
&THEN SOME!! (16 pages)
If you are familiar
with Karlsson’s work, you will know that it is difficult to nail down or
rationalise his shit. The poems are pithy, self-ironic, and squirming with a pulsing,
deep unfathomable anguish. Sometimes he offers us brief glimpses of tenderness or of
illumination, but his core intention appears to expose our human frailties & in particular, our failed quest for meaning.
& THEN SOME!! provides a darker vision of humanity and is perhaps
the better chapbook. The ideas appear less constrained and more tinged with despair.
Yet somehow, as you turn the pages & look at the weird iconic characters struggling,
trying to make “perfect sense” of their lives, you have to laugh madly along with
Karlsson at how totally fucked up our Western world is. One of his many observations is that we are self obsessed- yet paradoxically, with little or no
self awareness. Spot on!
(The graphic poems above have been included with the permission of the artist)
RESOURCES:
Read a poem from & THEN SOME!! from Dead Snakes here:
http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/janne-karlsson-cartoon.html
See Karlsson’s site to
find more info on how to embrace his modern day insanity: http://www.svenskapache.se/
