The basis of the Astoria project is to remove the comic form from the verbal, traditional storytelling; to communicate moods and abstract concepts using only picture montage, like music can evoke sensations and emotions in the listener by the combination of sounds.

In short, I am going to make pictorial music using the characteristic image juxtaposition of comics as a modifying element.

In its final form, ”Astoria” will consist of thirteen individual, wordless comics, experimenting to different degrees with form and expression – these comics correspond to songs or tracks of a rock album.

Out of thirteen parts, two are interpretations of actual songs; the rest are abstractions on given subjects. Please refer to the relevant subpages for details on each song.

The final book will  be same format as an LP cover (12″, in case you were born after 1985) for the sole reason that, in Europe, both records and comics are published in ‘albums’. While the precise pagecount is yet undecided, it is expected to total around 175 pages.

While the book is in progress, several songs are intended to be published as 7″ singles, or demos.

Like on a rock album, the component ’songs’ of Astoria will straddle the entire scale in terms of speed and mood; I also want to present the separate ‘track’ as a singular visual statement , not blending in with the rest.

It has been necessary to approach each song individually in order for it to stand out in its own right – which is why one comic is a series of linocuts, another consists of art concréte-compositions, and yet another is a computer font.