The Astoria Sessions

Update, October 2009

Allan Haverholm — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:58:34 +0000

A quick note to let you know that the Astoria Sessions is still active, although hibernated during summer. There has been moving of workspaces, financial crises (oh, you noticed?), and general summertime laziness blocking productivity, but we’re getting back in the groove…

Setting records straight

Allan Haverholm — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 19:55:08 +0000

There is understandable confusion about the nature of the Astoria project after the first two singles have come out:

Although both Resistansen and Black Sabbath (intro) are based on existing songs, the remaining eleven projected songs will be all original material. I hope this clears things up.

Next single out may be These Fjell Veins or Cerebration, depending on which is completed first. You’ll see it here first!

A beautiful failure ;)

Allan Haverholm — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:25:57 +0000

The Astoria demos (and Mix Tape, too) have been reviewed by Derik Badman over on his Madinkbeard blog. He seems to like them a lot!

EDIT: To wet your apetites a bit more, here’s a few pull quotes from Derik’s piece:

“All in all [Astoria is] a hugely ambitious project, one that will either end in genius or brilliant failure.”

“Haverholm’s success with the watercolors in “Black Sabbath (intro)” and the pencils in “Resistansen” give me confidence that the other Astoria multimedia works will also prove visually evocative.”

Now scoot on over and peruse the analytical beauty that is Madinkbeard!

Tonight’s the night…

Allan Haverholm — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:43:19 +0000

Ohh… Idiot!

Not you, me. In the fracas after MoCCA I completely forgot to announce the release party for the latest collection of 676-books from Aben Maler publishing.

As reported earlier, my own Astoria single Resistansen is among the four fine outings, which also count Philip Ytournel, Ida Kvetny and Christian Skovgaard.

With the exception of London resident Skovgaard, all us four authors will be present at the show held @ trashionable CMYK kld gallery in Copenhagen. So come, drink, chat, buy!

And here’s why I’m such a jerk: the show is tonight, Friday June 26th. That means of course that even those of you in the area probably can’t make it, but we appreciate any effort

The show is 8 in the PM. First half hour = free beer. Come meet Stupid and his way cooler friends!

676 Release, 8pm June 26th. CMYK kld Gallery, Jægersborggade 51

MoCCA update

Allan Haverholm — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:58:30 +0000

Safely home from New York, now. Still jetlagged to the point of falling asleep on the couch earlier than usual

Immediate reactions were very positive to Black Sabbath single and Mix Tape alike, and prospect publishers didn’t turn down the outline at first glance. I guess we’re good for a second date …

Blogging has been sporadic as both my iPhone blog apps have defected, literally. In NY I mistakenly thought it was just bad WiFi, but now it seems it’s a software problem of some kind :/

Posting this thru Ping FM, hope that works out. Otherwise, we’ll always have Twitter :/

Out and home again

Allan Haverholm — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:42:39 +0000

It’s been a fun few weeks, MoCCA coming and going, the whole NY experience and all.

I managed to have the Black Sabbath single done for the festival, plus a similar-format outline of the entire project. The latter may be up on the site as a PDF in a few days.

Generally, immediate reactions were great to my water-colored Sabbath interpretation, which I’d managed to print, assemble and trim by myself late Wednesday night before leaving for NY.

Also, Danish publisher Aben Maler had an early start on their latest collection of 676 booklets and, as mentioned earlier, my Resistansen is one of them.

Resistansen doubles as a single off the Astoria album, but unfortunately the size is a couple inches too small to count as a single proper. Of course, the main attraction was From Wonderland With Love, the Fantagraphics anthology of Danish comics I am also part of.

A big, beautifully flexibound book, Wonderland features a lot of my personal favorites in the Danish comic field, and a few that I look up to as well. It couldn’t have pleased me more to be signing our book on Sunday at the Fanta table.

I’m posting all this in hindsight because A) there was no WIFI at the 69th Armory where the festival took place and B) the WP iPhone app that I’ve used to post here went belly-up, and I mistakenly thought it meant the hostel WIFI was b0rked, too.

All in all a great MoCCA for me, but I realize it’s been pretty lame for those who have been waiting for news from me. Don’t worry, I found a replacement for the bust blogging app

Final Black Sabbath touches

Allan Haverholm — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 12:16:53 +0000

I’ll be doing some last-minute corrections to a couple of Black Sabbath spreads that were sticking out.
Then scanning, assembling final pdf and crossing all crossable digits that the printer is *real fast*
ELSE “Sabbath@MoCCA”=FALSE

Allan Haverholm — Sat, 30 May 2009 23:48:58 +0000

Rumors of single not coming out for MoCCA were grossly exaggerated. Still crossing fingers for printers to come through though!

Not Mike Royer :(

Allan Haverholm — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:34:44 +0000

Here’s a few samples of today’s inking session on Engine City.

The vigil observer will notice that I’ve focused on the characters in most panels/spreads. True, I started with the fun part

Allan Haverholm — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:55:57 +0000

Working ass off on Engine City in way overdue prep for MoCCA. Alas, inks are a far cry from Mike Royer’s. Previews up later!