Svalan Sörblom

You have entered into the weird forest. You are one of its creatures now. Welcome. You will never leave. The only path laid out before you, your only choice, is to go deeper, deeper, until you are completely and utterly lost. Not until then can you find who you are and where you’re going. If you’re lucky. Comics by: Tomasz Kontny [PL] & Tomxyz [PL], Mattias Elftorp [SE], Michael Elton Crye [US], Athanasía Aarniosuo [FI], Knut Larsson [SE], Susanne Johansson [SE], Svalan Sörblom [SE], Xico Santos [PT/SE]. Text & illustration by: Mattias Elftorp [SE]. Cover & main editor: Mattias Elftorp [SE].

Liminal space, a concept that deconstructs the notion of fixed boundaries and absolute realities. It is a space that challenges the dualities of self and other, inside and outside, past and future. A bridge to cross, a door to open. A place to question and transcend. Liminality has always been a part of humanity. Maybe not as a state of transition but rather as a state of constant becoming. It is a space that disrupts the linearity of time and questions the stability of identity. That area of blurred boundaries is very much an integral part of the creative process for us as humans and artists. A realm of ambiguity. A pause in time, a shift in state. A realm of potentiality. Where form and meaning await. Here (or in there) we can push the boundaries of the unexpected. With comics, the idea of the liminal space can be used to craft stories and narratives that exist between different realms of reality.

In this volume of CBA the focus is on superheroes, but instead of the conventional view we have instead subverted the genre, resulting in comics and texts that really explore something different within the superhero genre.