Simon Stålenhag | |
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 Simon Stålenhag signing a book at theGöteborg Book Fair in September 2016 | |
| Born | (1984-01-20)20 January 1984 (age 41) Mälaröarna,Stockholm county, Sweden |
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| Known for | InspiringTales from the Loop andThe Electric State |
| Website | simonstalenhag |
Simon Stålenhag (born 20 January 1984) is a Swedish artist, musician, and designer specialising inretro-futuristic digital art. His work primarily focuses on nostalgic Swedish and American countryside environments, with retro sci-fi elements.[1]
The settings of his artwork formed the basis for the 2020Amazon television drama seriesTales from the Loop. His graphic novelThe Electric State was adapted into the 2025Netflix filmThe Electric State.
Stålenhag grew up in Mälaröarna, a rural area nearStockholm,[2] and began illustrating local landscapes at a young age. He was inspired by different artists, includingLars Jonsson.[3] Stålenhag experimented with science fiction artwork after discoveringconcept artists such asRalph McQuarrie andSyd Mead. Initially, this body of work was done as a side project, without any planning behind it. Thematically, his work often combines his childhood with themes from sci-fi movies, resulting in a typical Swedish landscape with aretrofuturistic bent.[4] According to Stålenhag, this focus originates from his perceived lack of connection with adulthood, with the science fiction elements being added in part to draw audience attention and partly to influence the work's mood.[5] These ideas result in a body of work that can feature giant robots and megastructures alongside regular Swedish items likeVolvo andSaab vehicles.[3]
As his work has evolved, Stålenhag has created a backstory for it, focused around a governmental underground facility.[3] In parallel with the real-life decline of the Swedishwelfare state, large machines slowly fail, and the eventual result of this remains a mystery. In a 2013 interview withThe Verge, Stålenhag said, "The only difference in the world of my art and our world is that... ever since the early 20th century, attitudes and budgets were much more in favour of science and technology."[2]
Outside of his usual canon, Stålenhag also drew 28 pictures of dinosaurs for theSwedish Museum of Natural History's prehistoric exhibits after he rediscovered his childhood interest in the creatures, and contacted the museum to see if he could do anything.[6] In 2016, he followed this with pictures of hypothetical results of a rising ocean underclimate change forStockholm University's Resilience Centre.[7] He also did some promotional artwork for the sci-fi video gameNo Man's Sky.[8]
Stålenhag uses aWacom tablet and computer for his work, which is designed to resembleoil painting.[2][3] Initially, he attempted to use various physical media to mimic a more traditional style, includinggouache. Even after switching to digital methods, he has stated that he puts "a lot of effort into making the digital brushes behave naturally and preserve a certain amount of 'handwriting' in the brush strokes". The majority of his work is based on pre-existing photographs that he takes; these are then used as a starting point for a number of rough sketches before the final work is completed.[5]
Most of Stålenhag's artwork was initially available online, before later being released for sale as prints.[9][4] Since then, it has been turned into two narrative art books:Tales from the Loop (Ur Varselklotet in Swedish) in 2014 andThings from the Flood (Flodskörden in Swedish) in 2016. Both focus on the construction of a supermassiveparticle accelerator called the Loop.[10]
Stålenhag covered the western United States in a third art book,The Electric State,[11] which wascrowdfunded viaKickstarter.[9] It is centered around a teenage girl and her robotic companion traversing the fictional state of Pacifica in an attempt to find her long-lost younger brother.[12]Simon & Schuster published the UK edition in September 2018, andSkybound Books published a North American edition the following month.[13]The Electric State (the Simon & Schuster edition) was one out of six finalists for theArthur C. Clarke Award in 2019.[14] Also in 2019, the Skybound edition was shortlisted for the Art Book category of theLocus Award.[15]
Stålenhag's fourth art book,The Labyrinth, was announced in late 2020. As with his previous books, a crowdfunding campaign was run on Kickstarter to fund its printing and distribution.[16]Image Comics published the North American edition for wide release in November 2021.[17]
In August 2024,Free League Publishing launched a Kickstarter page for Stålenhag's fifth book. Described as his "most personal work yet",Swedish Machines explores masculinity, sexuality, and time in an alternate version of Mälaröarna outside of Stockholm, Stålenhag's hometown.[citation needed]
In 2016, a Kickstarter campaign was launched to fund atabletop role-playing game calledTales from the Loop, based on the book of the same name.[9] Set in the 1980s, in either the United States or Sweden, players roleplay as a group of teenagers dealing with the impact of the Loop; this focus on nostalgia and young protagonists meant multiple media outlets compared it to the TV seriesStranger Things.[18][19] Different classes of characters are equivalent to stereotypical childhood roles, for example, "Jock", "Bookworm", or "Computer Geek".
An English-language television series,Tales from the Loop, produced byAmazon Studios in conjunction withFox 21 Television Studios, Indio Film, and 6th & Idaho Moving forAmazon Prime, was released in its entirety on 3 April 2020 and adapts elements from Stålenhag's narrative art books.[20] The initial season comprises eight episodes of 50–57 minutes each. All screenplays were written by Nathaniel Halpern, while each episode had a unique director from a diverse pool, includingMark Romanek,Andrew Stanton, andJodie Foster.[21][22]
The movie rights forThe Electric State were sold to theRusso brothers in 2017, and plans for an adaptation were confirmed in 2019.[23] Producers for the film includeIt: Chapter One andChapter Two creatorsAndy Muschietti andBarbara Muschietti.[24] The film adaptation was released byNetflix on 14 March 2025.
As part of the crowdfunding campaign forThe Electric State, Stålenhag produced and released anelectronic music album with the same title as a backer goal.[25][26] In 2018, he released his second album,Music for DOS, containing ambient music authored using oldkeyboards and theImpulse Tracker software package.[27]
Additionally, Stålenhag has been involved in a variety of advertisements, films, and video games.[3] This includes his work on theplatform gameRipple Dot Zero, in collaboration with Tommy Salomonsson.[28]
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