Photo: Anna W Thorbjörnsson

Swedish comic book artist Kim W. Andersson is the the creator of the romantic horror comics LOVE HURTS, ALENA (adapted into an awesome motion picture!) and space adventure saga ASTRID.

His books are published in several countries (full list below) and you can catch him in conventions and comics festivals all over the world.

Contact
Wanna get in touch with Kim W.?
Please email at contact@kimwandersson.com

Links

  • Instagram – (@kimwandersson) As Kim W. works with pictures, Instagram is where he posts the most. Live video streaming in Stories!
  • Patreon – In support of my comics creating. All live streams are saved here for later viewing pleasure.
  • Webtoon – Astrid : Cult of the Volcanic Moon is being serialized on webtoon! Get the app and read it for free at your leisure on your smart phone.
  • Kim W. on Facebook – This is the best place for info about upcoming events, like conventions and festivals.
  • Twitter – (@kimwandersson) Not super active on twitter, mostly reposts from instagram.
Cover of the US edition, Dark Horse Comics

ASTRID
With every comic I make I add a new challenge. So after loads of short stories and a graphic novel it was finally time for me to create my comic book character. The one I can go on adventures with for as long as I live, in numerous books… introducing: Astrid.

I looked back at my earlier books and tried to see what was most fun and inspiring. The never-ending well of inspiration that I found in making Love Hurts and the opportunity to dig deep in to the souls of the characters in Alena. That was what I brought into creating the galaxy in which Astrid lives. And also create a character that you really like and root for, that’s Astrid.

From DarkHorse.com:
Formerly the Galactic Coalition’s top recruit, the now-disgraced Astrid is offered a special mission from her old commander. She’ll prove herself worthy of another chance at becoming a Galactic Peacekeeper . . . if she can survive giant insects, brutal sects, and the ancient evil of an uncharted volcanic moon, of course!
Swedish comics creator Kim W. Andersson (The Complete Love Hurts, Alena) weaves a comedic sci-fi epic for fans of Firefly and Mass Effect!

Cover of the US and French edition, Dark Horse Comics and Glénat BD

ALENA
Alena is a romantic horror graphic novel following the tradition of my short story comics, Love Hurts. But this time a lot darker. It came out 2012 and received Sweden’s most prestigious comics award, The Adamson Statue.

After making my short comics for a couple of years and gathering a following of mostly teenage girls I wanted to give them a really good story. A story about young love and horror.

Alena is a very personal story, tackling a lot of questions and issues I had growing up. It was a totally new challenge for me to write not only a novel length comic but also something so much more intimate and serious. I’m very proud of it and the reception it has gotten all over the world.

From DarkHorse.com:
”Alena’s life is a living hell. Since she arrived at a snobbish boarding school, she’s been harassed every day by Philippa and the girls on the lacrosse team. But Alena’s best friend Josephine is not going to accept that anymore. Not from the counselor or the principal, not from Philippa, and not from anyone else at that horrid school. If Alena does not fight back, then Josephine will take matters into her own hands. There’s just one problem . . . Josephine has been dead for a year.”

“School is hell, and angsty teens stew in soup of their own hormones as sharp implements meet quivering body parts. Kim W. Andersson enters classic slasher horror territory with Alena, and proves that in Swedish, lacrosse rhymes with gross!”
—Peter Snejbjerg (B.P.R.D., Starman, Preacher, Books of Magic)

”Kim W. Andersson is the Dario Argento of comics, bringing all the visual air of the grand guignol to the pages of this masterpiece of modern horror. Alena is essential reading if you love your comics blood red and intellectual.”—Peter Bergting, (Domovoi, Baltimore, The Portent)

“Thrilling, scary, and touching with a large dose of pitch- black humor. No one depicts heart, pain, and violent death like Kim W. Andersson.” —Sara B. Elfgren, author of The Circle

Original cover of the Swedish edition and the movie poster

ALENA THE MOVIE
Alena was turned into a movie. I know, it’s insane! I got to work closely with the producer Alexander Rönnberg and the director Daniel Digrado in the making. Working on the script, designing stuff, casting and more. It was an adventure to make my comic into a living thing and quite a surreal feeling the first time actor Amalia Holm stood infront of me as Alena.

“Let the Right One In meets Show Me Love set in a boarding school. Count on vengeance, violence and broken teenage hearts.” —Stockholm Film Festival

Cover of the Swedish deluxe edition
Cover of the US edition, Dark Horse Comics

LOVE HURTS
Love Hurts are romantic horror short comics. They are all freestanding and playing with many different genres, but always love stories and always with a horrible twist. I made one every month for a few years early in my carrier for a magazine called Nemi. They got collected in books in Sweden as they stacked up and Dark Horse collected them all in a complete edition 2015.
I really loved making these comics, every one with a new challenge for me to tackle. They where my education, they taught me how to make comics. Under the watchful eye of my mentor, Peter Snejbjerg.

From the foreword by Peter Snejbjerg from The Complete Love Hurts (Dark Horse Comics):
”…And in between the meetings at the studio in Copenhagen and all the beer drinking and the Yoda-and-Luke stuff, Kim came up with an idea so brilliant I have envied him it ever since: a collection of short stories that would let him tackle any genre, any style, any subject, almost: Love Hurts, a blend of romance comics with horror and, well, basically anything Kim cared to throw in the pot. And he worked his butt off, because that is Kim, too. When he gets the bridle between his teeth, he just doesn’t let go. And I watched him grow by leaps and bounds with every installment, beyond every expectation.”

Publishers