Invader #2: Mats Jonsson

“The brilliance of Mats Jonsson’s comics is knowing just how funny some of the most pathetic moments of adolescence can be, and not being afraid to share those, no matter how ridiculous it makes him look.”
--Jeffrey Brown

Mats Jonsson was born in 1973 and spent his formative years in a small industrial town in the north of Sweden. First published in 1991, he’s a regular contributor to the comics anthology Galago and the author of four graphic novels.

One of the pioneers of the autobiographical comics genre in Scandinavia, he was ridiculed at first, but then received critical acclaim for Hey Princess and the follow-up Pojken i skogen (The Boy in the Wilderness), which won the Urhunden award for the best Swedish graphic novel of 2005.

Mats is also a spoken-word artist and editor of Galago. He lives in Stockholm.

Hey Princess is a story about moving to the big city and being young, insecure and desperate to feel as hip as everyone else.

Originally published in Sweden, Hey Princess received praise from both critics and readers for its incisive and entertaining account of indie pop-listening young people in the mid-1990s.

Hey Princess takes its place in the proud tradition of self-deprecating, confessional, sex-obsessed and guilt-ridden autobiographical comics, but stakes out a unique identity by virtue of its Nordic setting and biting social criticism. … This seminal book in the thriving Swedish indie comics scene is a graphic novel packaged in the style of a traditional pulp novel.

Read the interview with Mats Jonsson at Avoid the Future.

Read the preview at CBR's Robot 6 blog.

Preorder the book at Top Shelf.

Preorder the book at Amazon.