Kickstarting Comics: Jennie Gyllblad’s ‘Farmor Stina’ — A Graphic Novel Memoir Of Gyllblad’s Grandmother’s Life In Sweden During WWII

Another Kickstarter campaign to get behind — the brilliant Jennie Gyllblad launches something very different but something that looks quite incredible: Farmor Stina.

Gyllblad’s someone I’ve featured here at Comicon a fair few times now, someone incredibly talented whose work I’ve followed and loved for many years. You can go look at the the Webcomics Weekly feature on Skal or the Kickstarter for Artemisia, the KS for Promenad, the KS for Blod, and the KS for By Man & Angels. All of it gives you just some small indication of just how good her work is and just how powerful and varied it can be.

But her latest project is something very, very different, even for Gyllablad — ‘Farmor Stina – a graphic novel memoir of my grandmother’s life in Northern Sweden during World War 2.’

Here’s Jennie with how she described the project to me…

To cut a very long story short: I’m making a graphic novel memoir of my grandmother’s life in Northern Sweden during World War 2. So this is dealing with heavy real-life events, both personal family things and, y’know, Nazis.

Well, that was all I needed to know this was something I really was looking forward to and was really hoping that Jennie would get the necessary funds to make this quite fascinating-sounding project a reality. Well, seems I wasn’t alone in seeing what a great project it was as it passed the initial £4,500 goal on the launch day and is now looking for further funding to make it a reality.

It’s a different sort of Kickstarter, one where jennie’s raising funds to allow her to make a start on what’s bound to be a difficult, time-consuming, and demanding job. The initial £4.5k was essentially a research budget and funds to get a digital copy of the Prologue part of the project.

Jennie was saying that it’s a project she’s wanted to get done for seven years now but always had to be on the backburner as things like paying the rent and eating and having to make art for that just kept getting in the way. And, as should be obvious, this one isn’t simply a case of sitting down and writing/drawing it. There’s going to be months and months of research to do for it, none of which pays the bills. Hence this Kickstarter.

Or, as she put it so brilliantly to me: ‘I haven’t been able to afford to start researching it. It deals with real warcrimes, religious sects, family issues and other things that I gotta handle super carefully — which is asking a lot from a comic creator who is not an academic and has spent a lot of their career drawing fantasy tits.’

But thankfully, a lot of folks, including me, have a lot of faith in Jennie and her ability to make Farmor Stina something very special, taking it past its initial goal and on the way to a stretch goal of £7.5k to get a physical copy of the Prologue done.

 

As for more on what it’s about, the best way to do that is to hand you over to Jennie, in words and art, to tell you how it all came about….

‘In 2017 I got devastating news.’

‘My grandmother had passed away in the hospital following an infection. She was 94.’

‘I quickly flew home to help clear her flat out and organise the funeral.

‘It was while we were busy clearing out her whole life from this flat that my dad came across something quite special… a cupboard filled with her diaries.’

‘I decided to take a peek before we were going to dispose of them, but what I ended up reading at my parents kitchen table back in 2017 was… A lot.

‘My grandmother grew up in a religious (Laestadian) family in a town called Övertorneå up in the North of Sweden. During World War 2, their home became a field hospital for the military who guarded the Swedish border. She enlisted as a member of “Lottakåren” (the Swedish Women’s Voluntary Defence Organization) and helped refugee children from Finland. She snuck out to dance and party with the soldiers and ended up falling in love with a Lieutenant.

‘… And she saw how the Nazis burned the Finnish villages across the Torne river.

‘But this was only a small part of her life. She became a single parent during a time when women didn’t have the same rights that we take for granted today. She tried to seek help from the church, but was ignored.

‘She practised what you could call “Nordic Folklore” and told me a lot about tomtar, troll and other beings in the forest as a child. She was an incredible tapestry artist with a special interest in Sapmi arts and craft. She also talked candidly about her own mental health and the day to day life in the town.

‘But Granny didn’t just write in those diaries. She wrote on – and in – everything. Every time I return home to my parents, I’ve been sorting through her things and going through her notes (all written in Swedish cursive). It’s been over 6 years now.

‘But it’s a lot. And it deals with sensitive topics and historical events that’s going to take time to sort through, research, fact-check and organise.

‘This has left me with one burning need: To draw a comic about her experiences.

‘I think the perspective of a woman from a religious family in Northern Sweden during the Second World War is something that definitely is worth sharing, so we can see how far we’ve come in some respects and, in others, how much things stay the same.

‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

‘It’s now coming up to 7 years since I began reading granny’s words and trying to sort through her various other belongings, including photos from wartime Northern Sweden.

‘I think it’s time to make this into a memoir of sorts…’

 

‘The aim is to give me the space to get started and make the Prologue of the comic. But, alongside it, I also want to make a more intimate slice-of-life type diary comic that shows what it’s like to actually make something like this. This’ll also give supporters something tangible to look at while I keep doing the “invisible work”. Some higher tiers invites backers along on the research journey with me. Depending on how things progress, I may end up combining these two in the future, but it’s too early to tell.

‘My aim is to have the Prologue deal with the beginning of World War 2 from her perspective up in the North of Sweden, living in a religious home that is turned into a field hospital for the military.

‘In the future, I want to use Granny’s experiences as a jumping point to elaborate on other cultural curiosities and historical events from that part of Sweden as well.’

Okay then, seriously, how good does that sound and look? Definitely a project you should all be getting behind.

Tiers to pledge include a digital version of the Prologue when it’s completed, a chance to get the slice-of-life comics as they’re completed + the Prologue when it’s done, access to behind-the-scenes stuff, physical paperback copies of the Prologue when it’s done, behind the scenes videos, a Kickstarter exclusive art print, postcards, original artwork, and original postcard art.

 

FARMOR STINA – by Jennie Gyllblad is funding now on Kickstarter
Campaign ends Thu, May 23 2024 11:00 AM BST.

And once you’ve pledged, head over to Jennie’s website and store for more great works. You can also support her work over on Patreon and she also regularly streams making comics over on Twitch.

To finish, here’s a couple more pages of the slice of life portion of Farmor Stine and a video from Jennie that explains and shows more of the project…