Seq Art: Hey Princess by Mats Jonsson

Hey Princess, a Swedish import via Top Shelf Productions, is a dense, thick-as-a-brick, loquacious, autobiographical collection spanning 1993 to 1999 in creator Mats Jonsson's life. It was the golden era of Britpop, indie pop, muddy festivals, clubs, and excess. The book's title comes from a song of the same name by the Swedish indie pop band Popsicle, and it fits the stories perfectly.

Jonsson suffers much in the pursuit of both coolness and love, and encounters many roadblocks, mostly in the form of seriously insane (but hot) girlfriends, shitty apartments, cockblockers, and less-than-good jobs. His tale "The Darkness of Love" about his certifiably batshit crazy girlfriend Åse really shook me because I've had more than a few male friends trapped - and I do mean trapped - the similar situations, just too genuinely scared to break up, even though it would save their sanity and themselves.

Hey Princess is also interesting in that it provides a history of Swedish youth culture during the 90s. Sure, grunge and Generation X in the U.S. got plenty of press, as did Britpop culture in the U.K., but I never really knew much about the young adult culture in the rest of Europe during that decade. I'm not sure if it's just Jonsson's storytelling abilities, but the Swedish scene looks much cooler than the U.S. ever was at that time. Hey Princess reminded me a lot of the best writing of Jamie S. Rich (The Everlasting, Love the Way You Love) and Kieron Gillen (Phonogram), especially his thoughts on girls and music. I've included one of my favorite passages below (click to embiggen). The art is a little rough, but you can definitely see Jonsson's style develop throughout the book. Some comic readers instantly reject rough, black and white art, but done well, I actually prefer it over full color work.


Recommended if you spend way too much time listening to music, feeling unfulfilled by life, and (as a side benefit) see a representation of a country better known for IKEA and Bergman films than comics. (Although thanks to Top Shelf, that's changing as well).

Here's Popsicle's "Hey Princess". (Note: the song is only about 4 minutes long, not 7+ as indicated.)



And, I also learned a new word in Swedish from Hey Princess:

Buksvågrar: Two men who have had sex with the same person. Literally translates as "abdominal brothers-in-law".