A Giant Step 
Books
"It was a dark and stormy night." This is the opening sentence that literary critics love to revile. I have to admit I don't really see why. It's much used, yes. But that's because it perfectly describes a scene in just seven simple words. Believe me, there are much sillier clichés out there, many of which literary critics love to use.
Books are the most democratic of all media. When I write the word "house", I might have a certain house in mind, but unless I go on to describe this particular building in length, my readers visualize their very own version. Some might see a big house before their inner eye, some a small, some a wooden construction painted in this or that color, others a building of stone or other material. And architectural styles I'm not even going into. The point is, when writing I'm only producing a string of symbols, symbols that are interpreted in the readers' mind according to their fancy.
For this reason, I don't see much difference in writing a book and a script for a comic book artist. In both cases the end result depends on the efforts of the reader/artist. If it was a good book/comic, it's thanks to their interpretation.
Book reading in relation to the watching of videos and films, can be compared to making a meal for yourself based on a recipe, or eat out at a restaurant. Both can be good or bad, but you have little say over how the restaurant prepares your food. Likewise, watching a movie, you are spoon fed the information, no longer allowed to construct your own house. This is why a movie based on your favorite novel always tends to be a disappointment.
Reading is democratic, it is good for you, and it is good for your brain. So read, read, read. The day we stop reading, our civilization comes to an end. It matters little if your book is printed on paper or in digital form. It's the very act of reading that matters.
A WORD ABOUT DRM
Many digital books come with DRM, which is short for Digital Rights Management. What it does is to lock the ebook you bought to one particular device, thereby preventing you from sharing it with others. The intention behind DRM might have been good – safeguarding the livelihood of writer and publisher – but it represents a serious attack on our rights as readers and book buyers. The book you bought is no longer your own. You are not allowed to move it between devices, from tablet to phone, etc., you can't give it away, and the publisher might even take it back without pay or compensation, like a thief coming in the night to raid your bookshelves. That can't happen, you might say, but it actually did when Microsoft left the ebook business and deleted all books from their servers as well as the devices of people who had bought them. So beware. My own ebooks, by the way, are DRM free, and we should all think twice before we buy books that are not.
Books
We all love books. Here's a little library of books, consisting mostly of my own work. And also some free stuff.
Read MorePaintings
If there's a common denominator in my work, it's probably that none of it should be taken too seriously - art is far too important for that.
Read MoreComics
A collection of comic strips created over the years, with focus on my solo efforts. Many of these strips are previously unpublished.
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