“Simon Gardenfors spent four months bumming around his native Sweden…The Swedish setting could have made this unique if anything had been done with it…”

Good point about how you received it as a non-Swede. Now I wonder if Gardenfors wrote it more for the Swedish market (which might not find a Swedish setting an angle?) or the international one (not being sarcastic here, I’ve heard of writers with other less-commonly-read native languages keeping the international markets in mind too, like Rutu Modan and Taban lo Liyong).

John Says:

“I pretty much agree with you…”

I haven’t read it but from the review seems like it’s not my cup of tea either.

John Says:

“…but will add that another of the Top Shelf Swedish books – Hey Princess – does pretty much everything 120 Days doesn’t – satisfying a lot of your criticism about it – and uses the Swedish culture angle to its advantage. You should give it a shot if you haven’t already!”

Did either of you see the commercial for them? It’s always cool to see publishers discover more stuff to translate. :) I wonder where English-language publishers of comics will focus on next after Japan, South Korea, the Francophonie, and now Sweden?

Johanna Says:

“…I guess I went the wrong way — and now I don’t think I have Hey Princess any more. Oh well, my mistake.”

http://www.worldcat.org/title/hey-princess/oclc/489009480