Kannustan hankkimaan käsiinne uusimman Photo Raw -lehden, jossa on muun muassa vaimoni Marjaana Malkamäen haastattelu. :) Photo Raw on kotimainen valokuvaukseen ja visuaaliseen journalismiin painottuva lehti, ja uusimmassa numerossa on muun muassa Lauren Greenfieldin juttu, joka on yksi meidän henkilökohtaisista suosikeista. Marjaanan haastattelun voitte lukea myös täältä.

And in English: I'd higly recommend to get the newest Photo Raw Magazine, which includes an interview of my wife Marjaana Malkamäki. :) Photo Raw focuses on publishing in-depth photographic long term projects on essential issues, as well as visual journalism. The newest issue also features Lauren Greenfield, who's a personal favourite of ours. You can also read Marjaana's interview from here.

I spent the beginning of May in Rovaniemi, teaching graphic design students at the University of Lapland. It was a rather rough week, I must say, but also a really rewarding one. These workshops give good perspective, presenting a chance to take a step back and examine what, how and why I work like I work. And even though I worked around the clock, it still felt like a nice break from my everyday chores. Critiquing and focusing on the lectures was surprisingly draining. I regard myself as a fairly visual-minded person, so talking and explaining, all this verbal stuff felt laborious. :) Hope I made some sense, anyhow. The students were really great and it was a pleasure seeing their work and exchanging views. Seeing all this talent feels inspiring, and I always get this great urge to do my best at kicking them forward. Hope I was able to give them some ideas and tips, since I'm really looking forward to the next workshop anyhow.

Going back to Rovaniemi always stirs very contradictory feelings. The Faculty of Arts has moved to a new location and  feels sort of odd, a little out of place. Everything is too techy and slick, if you'd grown used to that old garage smell the previous building had. But the whole city has changed. The shops have been shuffled, old bars have disappeared and new ones emerged – and my god, they even have coffee shops there now. Walking around the downtown area feels like from a dream. Sort of like coming home only to notice the furniture's been changed and there's no-one home.

As I waited for the train, I felt sorry I had to leave so soon. I spent some good times in Rovaniemi, back in the day, and everything feels nostalgic. Yet sadly, that's all there's to it. Times have changed. The city has changed.

Or have I just changed?

I recently finished my contribution for Flight 7, which'll hit book stores just before SDCC in July. As many of you know, the series will end in volume eight, so this is my second last short-story in the anthology series. I'm already a little saddened to see the end of the line, but I'm also excited to see how things'll progress afterwards – most of us have now started working on graphic novels with some pretty cool titles on the way. I still remember picking up the first book and admiring the style and marksmanship of the storytellers. Now, looking back at the stories, I can actually see how much everyone has evolved during these years. I think it has a lot to do with the whole forum concept, of exchanging ideas online, developing stories together and learning from each other. This method has made some amazing collaborations possible, bringing people together from all parts of the globe. But most importantly, I think it's due to the friendly, creative and encouraging atmostphere amongst the crew. To this day, I still feel humbled and privileged to be amongst my favourite artists – and I'm baffled how on Earth I even got there. Seriously, I'm a bloke from totally the other side of the World, and suddenly I'm chosen to jam with all the cool guys. It still gets me hyped. :)

So, getting back to the upcoming volume, guess what.

Kenneth's back. :) I was seriously amazed at all the positive feedback I received from my previous Kenneth Shuri story in Flight 6, that I decided to go back to the character and begin evolving the concept. It's still a little early to say, but I have several ideas for longer storylines which will hopefully some day develop into full graphic novels. That lead me writing Kenneth Shuri and The Big Sweep which sort of begins where The Excitingly Mundane Life of Kenneth Shuri ended. The 20-page story is a sort of in-betweener, bringing more depth to the characters and leading them to the point where the longer stories will kick off from.

It's a little difficult to extract previews from the story without spoiling too much of the plot, but here's a few extracts to satisfy your appetite. :)

I have to thank Daniel Taylor and Dean Trippe for their help on coloring the comic. It was a joint effort but I know I couldn't have made the deadline without their help. And as I said earlier about collaborations, this is another awesome example of how Flight brings people together. I've admired Dean's work for such a long time, so I was really humbled by the fact he was interested in helping me out. That totally made my day.

But more on Kenneth and Flight 7 later. Please check back here (or Facebook) for updates. :) Take care, everyone!