Secret Agent action, high stakes drama, and deadly dragons! Get ready for Mikael Bergkvist’s Not Otherwise Authorized. Also known as NOA from Source Point Press. Mikael has been blazing a trail in comics for a while now. Mikael may be from Sweden but his reach is far. You might have seen his work on the internet, the comic store with projects from publishers like Source Point Press, or the newsstand as a long-running contributor to Warrant Publishings Shudder or Vampiress Camilla. Let’s find out more about his latest, Not Otherwise Authorized.
JOESEPH SIMON
Hello, Mikael. In NOA we have a combination of action, and subtlety, the monster genre.
Your art reminds me of a mixture of early comics such as newspaper comics with a more cinematic modern polish and your own idiomatic style.
I’m curious what tools of your creative trade were used in these 3 issues. What is your background in art?
MIKAEL BERGKVIST
I started doing comics professionally when I was eighteen. I drew for a Swedish romance book called ”Starlet” and when I got my first pay, I bought a cake for my friends at the art school I was attending. I drew those 36 pages in three days. I was a very bad student at that art school because the papers wrote about me, and no one else there. I was self-taught, I used perspective in third class when I was a little kid to tease my teachers. I was not a humble person in that respect. I was respected but hardly loved. The one idol that I had was Neal Adams. I was this kid, far up in northern Sweden, dreaming of someday meeting him. Batman was published in black and white with Neal in Sweden, and it just blew me away.
As for how I do it, I use Ipad Pro, with an Applepen 2, working in Comic Draw. I like it because can I sit at Starbucks and do the pretentious thing, whereas I look important and busy writing, while also having coffee, which I consume enormous quantities of.
JOESEPH
Of course, NOA is a comic and with art, there must be a story.
NOA’s story features Agent White, a Swedish secret agent who is good at his job…except his superiors want a button-down agent who plays it safe and is not so flashy or risky. Agent White happens to be the latter.
Frustrated, his superiors send Agent White to America, offloading what they think is a problem agent to the States. Thankfully, for America, and for the world, Agent White is exactly the kind of agent to save the world.
What kind of person is Agent White? What drives and motivates him as an Agent? He seems happy working for whoever.
MIKAEL
Pretty spot on. Agent White is simply bored. He is much like a human tank, simply moving forward in a straight line. It’s too bad if something happens to come his way. This is what he does. He loves it and he’s very, very good at it. The thing with him is that he doesn’t care. He just wants something to fight for, to create clarity and purpose in his life. To be a knight with a dragon to slay.
JOESEPH
Every hero has a villain to fight. Nimrod, the villain of the NOA story is Nimrod. After tracking and killing rare and endangered species around the world, Nimrod comes up with a way to bring about a prehistoric creature back to life. In this case, Nimrod’s creature is a dragon. What is the science behind Nimrod’s dragon resurrection?
MIKAEL
Nimrod is really nasty piece of work, as we see eventually. He’s not even one single person. One could argue he’s not human. He has an intelligence that easily surpasses that of humans. In this case, he collects ancient left-over DNA from several species that lives today, with a common shared ancestor. That ancestor is the monstrous dragon we see resurrected. He spliced all those ancient DNA remnants into a whole genome, which then recreated the original creature. It’s then released upon New York as a distraction for his real, far more sinister plan.
JOESEPH
Is Nimrod a mad billionaire criminal? A billionaire criminal who is also a mad scientist or something more sinister?
MIKAEL
Nimrod is an artificial creature created in a Chinese lab trying to solve the riddle of immortality, who got loose and took over the company and instilled himself as its owner. But this is a spoiler. We meet him as a Bond-villain type, with enormous resources to back him up. He has technology to manipulate DNA to put Star Trek to shame, and he is indeed immortal. And he has the backing of a very dark, secret movement in one of the biggest countries on Earth, China.
JOESEPH
What other details can you reveal about Nimrod or the dragons?
MIKAEL
If God willing, there is a second series, Nimrod will up the ante. Now when he is established, we can really cut loose with him, to be the Dr Doom like villain he truly is. Nimrod truly and honestly sees himself as a God. And since his origin isn’t of a woman born, who knows? He is planning to remake Earth into his own image, with every living thing by his design.
ON AGENT MARC SAUNDERS
JOESEPH
Comics revolving around action is not out of the ordinary to your creativity. You are behind the feature Agent Marc Saunders for a Swedish anthology. Talk about your series, the anthology and Swedish comic industry. Are there are any plans for Agent Marc Saunders to get translated?
MIKAEL
Actually, Marc Saunders had his own comic book in Sweden. It was one single story each issue, which was 104 pages each. It was full color and I wrote and drew everything myself. No one else was involved. As the project continued, there were money discussions, and I sold the book to the publisher and continued with other things. The book was one of the best-selling books, but the logistics of the thing were not working.
JOESEPH
How is Agent White different Marc Saunders?
MIKAEL
To begin with, Marc Saunders was the God Of War masquerading as a human of black descent. He had entered an agreement with the Goddess of Earth, whom he loved, to try to prove himself as a humble hero for mankind, limited by his human body, instead of being a bringer of war and famine. It turns out to be much more difficult for him than he realized. Its damn difficult trying to be a good guy. Each story was inspired by old pulp stories like The Spider or The Shadow. Big, gigantic, end of the planet scenarios, with intense action, butt loads of dead villains, and basically full on war each issue.
Each story was 104 pages, eight frames per page, and it was essentially full speed ahead from beginning to end with Marc saving the planet. And then it restarted again in the next issue. It was funny, because Marc Saunders was/is a truly evil warrior. Like viciously evil to the core. But he loves her, and she wants this humane and fully good hero. So what are you to do if you want to hit that ass? You smile and you try your best.
Agent White, on the other hand, is a spoiled rich brat with a complete lack of respect for life, or anything. He just wants to drive cool things and blow shit up. It’s easier to get permission to blow evil people up, so he became what he is. For him, bad guys are moving targets. For him, it’s all fun and games, and that’s a little scary seen from the outside. Especially for his boss at the Swedish Royal Kings security detail.
ACTION FILMS
JOESEPH
Action movies definitely inspired NOA. What is it about action films get you excited? Likewise what films got your blood boiling and why?
MIKAEL
I go with the classics, like Terminator 1 and 2, Commando, Predator, Aliens, Die Hard, but also Jurrasic Park and Indiana Jones. I want one-liners and humor. I like that one scene in Goldeneye when Bond steal the tank and gets jiggy with St Petersburg. Its called entertainment for a reason. In your imagination rules need not apply, and why should they?
So, I should like Michael Bay, but he never lets you breathe. He wears you out, you know? Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven is slow but amazing because when the release comes, its earned. It deserves that power. Can you imagine Michael Bay directing that movie? I cant. It short-circuits my brain trying to think about it.
JOESEPH
If NOA is turned into a TV show or movie, who’s ideal to play Agent White?
MIKAEL
Dolph Lundgren. I am from the same city in Sweden as he is. He has that cool dryness I want from the character. You might think he’s boring, but then he arrives at that meeting in a helicopter with Gal Gadot, with a huge smile on his face.
JOESEPH
There’s a kind of sub-narrative in NOA that revolves around Easter eggs for action movie fans. Any that you would like to whet the reader’s interest with?
MIKAEL
I can give you one, and then you can find the rest yourselves, knowing how I play it. There is a funny fight aboard a ship in a kitchen with knives. It of course alludes to ’Under Siege’ with Steven Seagal. The whole thing is filled with stuff like that.
JOESEPH SIMON
There are two people who are very important to NOA. Neal Adams and Claudia Christian.
ON NEAL ADAMS
JOESEPH
Neal Adams is a legend in comics who, sadly, passed recently. He also was your friend and a part of the creation of NOA. How did you meet Neal and how will NOA fit into things?
MIKAEL
I came in contact with Neal while doing Marc Saunders. He was a bit impressed with the insanity of a periodical comic that was 104 pages per issue. I think he could relate to that. So, when I started doing commercial ads and comics for various clients, similar to his Continuity, we started to collaborate, so I could charge more money, and Neal could have some fun. Neal was very, very smart. This was a very intelligent guy. And serious money was made.
When it comes to NOA, Neal simply designed Agent White. And he made some edits to the story, because of his enormous experience in the US market. I can be a little too lighthearted with the humor, which is a European feature, and Neal countered some of that. Thing is, I have always been a bit in the shadow whenever Neal has been attached to a project we did, and he got tired of that. So, while he – now his family – owns part of the concept, he himself stepped out of any of the actual credits. But this is fact, he designed the character’s look.
No one at ComicsFirst will ever deny that fact. But Neal limited his involvement deliberately and he did that to give me a break.
JOESEPH
I’m sure there are tens of thousands of fans who never met Neal. For those who never did, tell us about the man behind the name Neal Adams from your perspective due to your friendship.
MIKAEL
For Neal, being a real man and a real human was all that mattered. You could sense it from his Green Arrow. He was a father figure for many great artists and people because of that. If you could take the straight honesty coming your way, it would greatly enrichen you and your chances with comics, or any other endeavor. Kill your ego. Defeat the problem. Fight for your family. And never hide your victories. Don’t lie. Pay your bills. Be proud, just not falsely so. And finally, if you don’t think your work has value, it’s no point in doing it. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth getting paid for. Because every time you cheapen your work, you also cheapen others’ work. You adjust the clients’ expectations of what to pay not only you but everyone. You hurt all your pals in the biz and what they are being paid.
I can say I can’t live up to all of that. Life is complicated and painful. But when you try at least, it gets a little less so. And Neal just wanted you to go in there and give it your full attention.
I was in real trouble at one point, and without losing a beat, he bailed me out of it. Neal believed in his own gospel.
JOESEPH
It’s quite the footnote that DOA is the last project Neal worked on. It must be an honor, and even more so, considering your friendship.
MIKAEL
Yes, it’s an honor. But I just miss him. We lost someone very special.
ON CLAUDIA CHRISTIAN
JOESEPH
The famous people attached to this project don’t stop with Neal Adams.
Awesome actress, author, advocate, musician, and a lot more, Claudia Christian’s credits create a long list worth hunting down.
In fact, Claudia’s credits, especially with acting and voice acting give an interesting perspective to engagement in genres that cross over and are interrelated to comic books.
NOA started out as a shared idea with Claudia Christian during dinner! That’s an interesting factoid. What NOA would stem from a part of your conversation? Tell us more.
MIKAEL
I got in touch with Claudia in regard to Agent Marc Saunders, about a thing that unfortunately didn’t happen. But we kept in touch and finally met in London, at this beautiful fancy restaurant. I had an idea called ’Unknown’ at the time, about a monster. It was essentially the skeleton concept of what would become NOA. The conversation evolved the idea and spotlighted some of its weaknesses and strengths of it. Claudia is a joy for any creative person to work with. She actually has another project called Dark Legacies kickstarting right now. I just know that creatives simply enjoy doing things with her. Me included. She has a way of supporting and evolving things very beautifully, and it gets better because of it. She’d make a great editor for any book.
ON COMICFIRST ENTERTAINMENT
JOESEPH SIMON
Neal, Claudia, and yourself formed a company called ComicFirst. Talk about that.
MIKAEL
ComicsFirst is primarily me, Claudia Christian, Lars Hagelin, and formerly Neal Adams. We have only just started, but we do an updated version of what Continuity used to do. For example, Hash Rush is an online game, and in the game, you can buy and sell using cryptocurrency. We were tasked with creating a comic book based on the game, which you could buy as an NFT inside the game. That one 22-page comic made us much, much more money than I think most comic book artists make from a full year of work normally.
The downside is that almost no one in the comics community knows about it. We are doing a similar project now, which is still secret. NOA is actually our first ”regular” comic book.
It is happening because of reasons, and also because I love comics and it has been a longstanding dream of mine.
ON SOURCE POINT PRESS
JOESEPH SIMON
Also of equal importance is Source Point Press, NOA’s publisher.
I’ve heard a lot of great things about Source Point Press. What should readers know about this exciting publisher and how did you guys get in touch?
MIKAEL
The first project ComicsFirst did was an ad comic for the Zapata flying platform. We approached Source Point with Neal Adams and his stunning cover as our argument. That didn’t fly, they wanted to know if the comic was any damn good. That was it for me. They were the guys we wanted to do business with.
That book was a NY comic con special only, so it was never printed again. But we were in touch now, so when the Hash Rush project included a physically printed edition, they did that beautifully. One single copy was auctioned at over 10 000 USD, which is a little nuts.
Again, these sorts of projects sort of vanish in the traditional comic book news I think. That’s my impression at least. Anyway, Neal also liked them, because they turned out to be reliable as a clock. For Neal, as mentioned before, that stuff mattered.
IN CLOSING
JOESEPH SIMON
What should people dig into next after NOA (that’s already published) or know about that we haven’t covered? What should they look forward to forthcoming from you?
MIKAEL
I do action. The genre might look like fantasy or sci-fi on the surface, but I am a true and honest barbarian. I am looking at a fantasy comic right now, but it doesn’t matter. Things are going to blow up.
JOESEPH
Thank you, Mikael. I’m looking forward to NOA. I hope readers are as well. For those interested in NOA, where can they go to get more information or to buy it?
MIKAEL
Previews, https://www.previewsworld.com/Catalog/Series/147340-NOA-NOT-OTHERWISE-AUTHORIZED, probably Source Point Press website, or go pester your local comic shop. (Don’t. It’s just an expression. Those people are amazing and one of the reasons I still love comics. Support comic shops!)
JOESEPH
How can readers keep in touch with the great things you’re doing?
MIKAEL
I am mostly active on Facebook. Facebook.com/amikael.
The AMikael thing is because Mikael was taken, as was Mikael1, Mikael2, and so on. There’s a lot of Mikael’s out there. So, I started in the other end, with amikael. Had that failed, I would have tried bmikael, cmikael, etc. But I lucked out.
Other than that, I am doing more things with Source Point soon. 🙂 They have a lot of other cool books too, you know.
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