Swedish artist, musician, and author Simon Stålenhag loves leftovers. No, not the type your mom used to make you eat that combined remnants of former dinners into a jumbled together meal, but husks of humankind’s technology rusting on the sides of dusty roads and amid barren fields in somber haunting landscapes. His dystopian universe of a decaying alternate '80s and '90s is filled with abandoned robots, discarded machines, and forgotten battle drones of a sorrowful bygone era.
Stålenhag’s surreal retro-futuristic art book, "The Electric State," tells the story of a young girl and a little yellow advertising robot traversing the country in 1997 to locate her missing brother in the aftermath of a devastating humans vs robots war.
It was the inspiration behind The Russo Brothers' $320 million live-action film now streaming on Netflix that has loyal fans of Stalenhag's work in an uproar over the drastic thematic and tonal changes to the much darker original material.
But beyond this disappointing recent adaptation of his work lies an entire world of imaginative melancholy seen in his previously published narrative art books (and one upcoming release!) that you can still enjoy for their artistic purity, all of which are infused with Stålenhag’s spare storytelling prowess and striking digital paintings.
Venture into his weird wonderlands where lost tech and tranquil landscapes meld to absorb the mysterious majesty of this rare artist's full catalog of remarkable works…
1. "TALES FROM THE LOOP"
- Publisher: Design Studio Press
- Released: December 1, 2015
Originally conceived as a crowd-funded project based on his astonishing artwork, "Tales From The Loop" is a series of stories set in an alternative Sweden of the ‘80s and ‘90s. It's an unsettling wonderland where children sift through the remnants of rusted-out robots, weird machines, and abandoned vehicles as dinosaurs and creatures roam the highways and countryside.
These wild encounters take place in the rural corners of Mälaröarna, a string of Swedish islands west of Stockholm, where a massive particle accelerator had been built and reveals the unexpected side effects of that experimental atom-smasher. It delves into our existential interactions with technology in a fusion of engaging imagery and words. Stålenhag’s debut book was adapted into Prime Video's sci-fi anthology series of the same name which was released in 2020.
Buy Tales from the Loop at Amazon.
2. "THINGS FROM THE FLOOD"
- Publisher: Design Studio Press
- Released: November 1, 2016
This is the direct sequel to Stålenhag’s first book published back in 2015, "Tales From The Loop." Now we return to the site of all those strange occurrences and consequences in the placid Swedish countryside of Mälaröarna, where the Swedish government began construction of Earth’s biggest particle accelerator in 1954.
Nicknamed The Loop by the locals, this location and its surrounding farmland and wilderness regions are scattered with odd machinery and beasts that defy definition. In an alternative '90s, dark waters from the underground scientific facility have risen to flood the town and deliver a menagerie of natural and unnatural nightmares.
Buy Things from the Flood on Amazon
3. "THE ELECTRIC STATE"
- Publisher: Skybound Books
- Released: September 25, 2018
This third book in the planned trilogy takes place in a bleak war-torn America of 1997 and became the template for Netflix's ill-fated, mega-budgeted sci-fi epic starring Chris Pratt and Millie Bobby Brown.
A teenage girl name Michelle and her cartoonish toy robot travel on a cross-country trek to the west to look for her lost brother amid monstrous leftover battle drones, toppled advertising robots, and zombie-like citizens that are all slaves to a complex virtual-reality network. Their road trip destination is the dystopian state of Pacifica and the dark moodiness of this book exists in stark contrast to the more playful, family-friendly, action-centric Russo Brothers film.
Buy The Electric State at Amazon.
4. "THE LABYRINTH"
- Publisher: Image Comics
- Released: November 23, 2021
This stirring Stålenhag offering is a 184-page descent into a post-apocalyptic realm in a ruined world where a giant eight-wheeled transport lumbers along a wasteland of destruction towards a fortified bunker deep in the forest.
The futuristic vehicle carries a trio of passengers: two scientists investigating a planet-killing event, and a young boy called Charlie. When extreme isolation and claustrophobia start to close in, inhabitants of the compound deal with a range of disturbing memories and dark truths about what has led them to this remote outpost base.
5. "SUNSET AT ZERO POINT"
- Publisher: S&S/Saga Press
- Release date: December 9, 2025
Sure to be found wrapped under the Christmas tree this coming holiday season for any serious geeks on your gift list is the newest Simon Stålenhag treasure featuring a trip back to his wonder-filled, retro-futuristic dystopias, this time inside the mysterious hot zone of an abandoned Swedish military installation.
Kicking off in the year 2024, but bouncing back to the early 2000s, "Sunset at Zero Point's" moving story is slowly unveiled on a remote Swedish island that’s home to a clandestine weapons lab condemned for years. It explores themes of masculinity, sexuality, and friendship through the decades-long experiences of two young men investigating this fading, off-limits forbidden zone.
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