Minna Sundberg (born 9 January 1990) is a Finnish illustrator and cartoonist born in Sweden. She is known for the webcomics A Redtail's Dream (aRTD), and Stand Still, Stay Silent (SS, SS).
Biography
Minna Sundberg was born in Sweden in 1990 into a Finnish immigrant family which returned to Finland in 1997.[1] She obtained a bachelor's degree from the University of Art and Design Helsinki, Finland, Graphic Design department. At age 25, and as the first Finn,[2] she won a Reuben Award in the category Online Comics – Long Form.[3]
Career
During her first year in university, planning to make a career as a webcomic artist, she made several attempts to start a "practice comic", the last of which evolved into A Redtail's Dream (aRTD).[4][5] A Redtail's Dream became a 556-page tale built around concepts from Finnish mythology.[6] Her following project was Stand Still, Stay Silent about an imaginary post-apocalyptic world set 90 years into the future.[7][8][9] The supplementary info page on "Language Families" from Stand Still, Stay Silent showing Indo-European and Uralic families was published as a poster and gained popularity[10] outside of comics fandom, earning praise[11] by linguists. Sundberg's work was cited as a representative example of the maturing genre of webcomics, while her style was called "perfectly assured" and "awe-inspiring".[12] She also worked as illustrator, including cover art, for several publications.
In March 2021, Sundberg released a short comic called Lovely People, about bunnies living in a social credit system, and revealed that she had converted to Christianity.[13][14] On 28 March 2022 the last page of Stand Still, Stay Silent was released, ending the webcomic. On 31 October 2022 she published A Meandering Line, a short comic detailing her conversion to Christianity and beginning on 13 January 2023 Journey Upstream which she calls an overtly Christian comic, about a traveling group of animals.
Religion
In A Meandering Line, Sundberg writes that she is a Calvinist and was interested in monergistic churches (such as Reformed Baptist, Presbyterian and Lutheran) shortly after her conversion to Christianity. She ended up joining a Reformed Baptist church in Finland.
Selected works
- Sundberg, Minna: A Redtail's Dream, s. 608. Author's Edition, 2014. ISBN 978-91-637-4627-7
- Sundberg, Minna: Stand Still Stay Silent Book 1, s. 324. Author's Edition, 2015. ISSN 2342-8880 (print) ISSN 2342-8899 (online).
- Sundberg, Minna: Stand Still Stay Silent Book 2, s. 260. Hiveworks Comics, 2018. ISBN 978-1-9466-9806-3[15]
- Sundberg, Minna: Stand Still Stay Silent Book 3, s. 304. Hiveworks Comics, 2020. ISSN 2342-8880 (printed book), ISSN 2342-8899 (online).
- Sundberg, Minna: Un Réve de Renard, s. 600. Édition Akileos, 2019. ISBN 978-2-35574-455-6
- Sundberg, Minna: Stand Still Stay Silent Livre 1, s. 328. Édition Akileos, 2018. ISBN 978-2-35574-353-5
- Sundberg, Minna: Stand Still Stay Silent Livre 2, s. 260. Édition Akileos, 2019. ISBN 978-2-35574-363-4
- Sundberg, Minna: Stand Still Stay Silent Livre 3. s. 304. Édition Akileos, 2020. ISBN 978-2-35574-453-2
- Sundberg, Minna: Lovely People, s. 80. Author's Edition, 2021. ISBN 978-952-94-4704-6
- Illustrations for Dragon Art. Inspiration, Impact & Technique in Fantasy Art (2009) ISBN 978-1-4351-1771-6
- Cover art for Foxhunt (2009) ISBN 978-0-578-02605-3
- Cover art for Syvyyksien valtias Original title Storlax The power of the deep (2010) ISBN 978-952-230-106-2
- Cover art for Crossed Genres Quarterly 4 (2011) ISBN 978-0-615-57863-7
- CD cover art for music band The Winter Tree (2011)
- Cover art for Legazy (2013) ISBN 978-1-908600-22-6
- Cover art for Australian series of children fantasy Zarkora books. (2015)[16]
Awards
- 2015 Reuben Award by the National Cartoonists Society in the category of 'Online Comics – Long Form' for Stand Still. Stay Silent.[17]