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Bored Panda reached out to Kenneth, who kindly told us more about himself.
“Growing up in Trondheim, Norway, I was the kid who spent hours glued to my desk with pencils and markers in hand. My father tried to get me into soccer (a total fail, as you can read about in the comic), and ski competitions were my dreaded weekend activity. Instead, I found my escape in comics—Donald Duck, hugely popular in Scandinavia in the ’90s, and newspaper strips like Ernie, Calvin and Hobbes, and Garfield.
Before daring to pursue my childhood dream of becoming a full-time comic artist, I studied graphic design and worked in advertising for many years in Stockholm, Sweden. That’s where I reside today. However, with the freedom of freelancing, I’m sometimes lucky enough to bring my work and travel to other places. I make sure to visit Marthe in our hometown often, and we’re still the best of friends after almost 40 years.”
The creative process comes in all shapes and forms, so we asked Kenneth to share his approach.
“I usually just keep my eyes and ears open for inspiration everywhere, and I keep an extensive library of notes in my iPhone app. It could be a situation, a phrase, or a little seed of an idea that can be turned into a story. Since I use my friends and family for inspiration, I also have a lot of (true) stories to start with, and I go from there.
I spend a lot of time piecing together longer, in-depth stories spanning around 20 strips. These allow readers to follow an engaging and entertaining sequence, often ending in some form of insight or resolution. Usually, I’ll write the beginning and end first and fill in the gaps while sketching. New ideas for strips often come as the story progresses, and I love the challenge of tying it all together. After finalizing the text for the panels, I sketch and ink in Procreate on my iPad.
So far, I’ve produced over 1,700 Bestie strips—and hopefully, many more to come!”
The artist explained how the idea for creating the Bestie comics came about: “It basically started with me drawing silly comics about my childhood friend, Marthe, just to tease her about the hilarious things she did and said. I loved finding humor in stupid everyday situations, and we’d crack up at the exaggerated (and sometimes painfully accurate) versions of our experiences.
Through the years, Marthe never stopped providing inspiration! My passion for making comics has stayed with me, and I eventually created the comic strip Bestie while attending a comic art school in Sweden. I guess I was in the right place at the right time because, one year later, the comic was picked up by a syndication agency, and it slowly grew from there. I never knew I’d be able to make a career out of mocking my best friend!”
“It’s now been 8 years since I started getting published, and the comic has evolved a lot. Many more friends and family members are included, and the characters and stories, though often inspired by real happenings, have increasingly started to take on a life of their own.
I pride myself on creating a hysterical comic strip with a focus on adult friendships and relatable storylines. My art style has been described as very alive, and I take that as a huge compliment. Among the more personal storylines, I’ve revealed my own coming-out process while keeping it light and full of humor. I wish I had this type of positive representation of being gay in the comics I read growing up, and I’m proud to contribute this to today’s newspaper comics.”
Kenneth added by sharing more about the inspirations for the characters.
“I think we all have those friends in our lives who have such big personalities that you think to yourself, They’d be great as a comic character—especially the over-the-top ones. Besides Marthe being my eternal muse, her mom is high up there. She used to babysit me and has been portrayed numerous times as a strict, helicopter parent. Readers also enjoy Grandma a lot, with her intimidating face and no-nonsense, hardened attitude.”
The artist has very recently published his Bestie: Friends Without Benefits comic selection on Amazon. We were wondering what the biggest challenges he faced while launching it were.
“A book has been in the making for years, and I’m super excited to finally offer the first volume, Bestie: Friends Without Benefits, featuring chronological strips and personal bonus pages. Because of shipping and production costs, it took a while to find the right solution for self-publishing from my corner of Scandinavia. Print-on-demand services made it logistically and economically sustainable, and I’m super happy with the results! The follow-up is already in the works!”
As for the audience’s takeaway, Kenneth shared: “Beyond being an homage to friendship, these comics help me remember not to take life too seriously and to keep things playful—especially in everyday life. I hope it does the same for my readers!”
