Daria Tessler // *1979, Finland. Born in Finland, Daria Tessler grew up in California, where she studied printmaking and mathematics. Daria is the creator of Animalsleep, a collection of silkscreened art, illustrations, children's books, and mini comics.
Her artist friend Sean Christensen conducted an interview with her especially for this edition of 'Behind The Comics'. In between there are also pictures from her studio and the process of creating her mini kuš! which she silkscreen printed.
Aseyn / // *1980, France. Aseyn is a cartoonist living in Paris since forever. He varies techniques according to the story he wants to tell, from the softest to the hardest. Aseyn has published several comic books since 2010 and is currently working on a long sci-fi saga. His favourite manga is a short story by Katsuhiro Otomo called "Speed."
Aseyn: I'm living in Paris and I work at home. I use computer or traditional techniques to draw my comics, it depends on what I want to say, but mainly it depends on what I want to see once the work is finished.
As I work every day for comics and illustration, mostly mainstream, when it comes to my own stuff, I consider different ways to tell a story, leaving aside the usual codes. I'm counting on the reader to fill in the blanks. It's not a lazy statement, I prefer to rely on the cleverness and feelings of people. Anyway, I keep the panels. When we see panels, we think "it's a graphic novel, there's a story". That's a clue.
In my work, I depict things that make me dream, fantasise, or just interest me to draw. But things that can speak to everyone who sees them, just by their nature. A palm tree, a cell phone, a girl walking. So why would I tell the story if you can do it yourself? Technically I draw a lot of stuff, without thinking or any method. After I've done like 20 of drawings, I look at the whole thing, and I put together the pieces. As you can see in these images, it's not sexy, and most of the time, I erase things that I consider useless.
In the particular case of my story for Gaijin Mangaka: Environment is important ; not only what we can see but what we can hear. That's why I use lyrics, or quotes from songs or book that touch me. That's not original but as an illustrator I must rely on other people’s work and this work is often words that accompanies your illustration. And of course I prefer drawing text than writing it.
The song in the comics is 'I Follow Rivers' by Lykke Li. I do not particularly like this song. It just came from a misunderstanding I had. I remembered "deep shit honey" instead of "deep sea baby". As the songs are often found in love stories, in the beginning as well as in the end (and it's often the same song), I thought it could make a good short story, this story of misinterpreted lyrics. Here, we are at the end of a love story and of course the two characters are in a deep shit.
Hetamoé // *1984, Portugal. Hetamoé is a visual artist from Lisbon and a founding member of the zine label Clube do Inferno. She works in a variety of media and is currently pursuing a PhD in the field of painting. Thomas no Shinzō by Moto Hagio and Yotsuba&! by Kiyohiko Azuma are her top favorite mangas.
Hetamoé: I live and work in Lisbon, where I’m finishing a PhD in Painting. I have, for that reason, two separate work spaces: a desk at home, where I mostly write and draw on the computer with my graphics tablet (a Wacom Intuos Pro); and a small studio, where I paint and make everything that’s too messy for the house. Because I follow Parkinson’s Law − “work expands so as to fill the time and space available for its completion” −, I tend to be all over the place no matter what I’m doing. Often there are books, random drawings and stationary everywhere, which can be very annoying for those with whom I share space... I’m also overly sensitive to criticism while working on a piece, so I’ll shut myself at home or my studio and won’t come out until it’s complete! However, despite my best attempts at seclusion, I inevitably come across comments and advice from my loved ones that fill me with self-doubt and force me to rethink my practices. Though I’m reluctant to such destabilization, I know it helps me become a better artist, so in the future I’d like to control my insecurities and actually listen to more feedback at production stages. Below is a photo of my desk at home, where I made “Trance Dream Techno” for š! #25 ‘Gaijin Magaka’. I tidied it up a little so you won’t think too badly of me!
Ben Marcus // *1983, USA. Ben Marcus is an artist and illustrator living and working in Chicago. His favorite manga is Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo.
Ben Marcus: I live in Chicago. I have a studio in Garfield Park. I drive to it from my apartment in Pilsen when I'm not at my 'day job'. It's a nice little studio.
I'm still learning how to make comics. The comic I did for kuš! was my longest comic to date. 8 pages! I'm more of a weird narrative drawing person than a full on 'comic' person. But it's coming together, I was happy with what I made. Although it was really hard for me to do. This is my drafting table at the start of my process. Just flipping through sketch books, looking at drawings of Buddhas, trying to figure out the look of my characters. The proportions of the facial features is important to me and I draw and re-draw them. Too many times. I wanted my characters to have a contemplative complexity to them. A depth of consciousness that a sense of animation is born of. I drew everything by hand and scanned it and added the half-tones in photoshop.
In 'Behind The Comics' kuš! contributors give an insight into their work. After a longer break this blog feature finally returns! GG is telling about creating her story 'Lapse' for š! #25 'Gaijin Mangaka'.
GG // *1981, Canada. GG grew up during the 1980s in a small Canadian prairie city. In this pre-Internet era, isolated geographically and culturally, drawing and making up stories was her means to connect to something more. Her favorite manga at the moment is Seiichi Hayashi's Red Colored Elegy.
GG: My work space is pretty minimal. I don’t really stick to one set up. Sometimes I’ll sit on the floor to draw or sometimes I’ll work in bed or sometime I’ll stand or sometimes I’ll even sit in a chair at a desk like a regular person. But even though my set up is flexible and portable, I can only really work from home while alone. I find it extremely difficult to work in public places like cafés or new/unfamiliar places if I happen to be traveling.
Before I started focusing on making comics, I traveled a lot for a few years and that forced me to keep my physical possessions to a minimum and I just got used to living like that. It’s so much easier to keep my surroundings organized this way. This is especially good because my work process is a bit messy – not messy in the sense of paper laying around everywhere and paint splattered on the floor – but in the sense that a lot of it happens in a jumble of information stored in the weird space between my mind and my hard drives and I’m constantly adjusting my methods.
Weng Pixin // *1983, Singapore. Pixin is from sunny Singapore. She loves to draw comics inspired by memories and desires. When she isn't drawing, Pixin loves to watch television, read books and hold her cat like a baby.
Pixin: Hello! This is the area I live where tons of construction work is going on all the time. Singapore is a very small country. Due to limited land area, there is a constant motion of destruction and construction to use every space possible for the economic growth of our small nation.
Imagine the noise of bulldozers knocking down walls, concrete crashing, cars and trucks honking, stilettos clicking on every sidewalk. Hence I introduce to you, my corner: Where I blast music to the right and to the left, I watch YouTube videos. I use my noise to over-ride the noise outside.
L.L. de Mars contributed a comic to š! #15 'Cats' and gives a little look behind his desk, telling about his process.
L.L. de Mars // *1967, France. Lives and works in a very very small village. Playing the clarinet allows him not to draw comics; writing essays on Italian painting allows him not to play the clarinet; making animation movies allows him not to write essays; teaching medieval theology allows him not to make any cartoons; making documentaries allows him not to teach; painting frescoes allows him not to film anything. Thanks to all these methods, he can find time to sleep... Visit: www.le-terrier.net
L.L. de Mars: Each new story moves my work into new modes; the forms taken by the work itself must be regarded more as a speculative way I want to bend it than as a functional couple "right shape for right project."
Inés Estrada // *1990, Mexico. Inés is an illustrator and comics maker from Mexico City. Every day she is exposed to huge amounts of car smog and colours that might have damaged her brain for worse. She enjoys making sandwiches and stickers and together with Ginette Lapalme co-edits the bilingual anthology Gang Bang Bong. Her self-published book 'Ojitos Borrosos' was nominated for the 2012 Ignatz awards in two categories - "Outstanding artist” and “Best collection”.
Inés: This is my studio. It is also my bedroom. And also the only room in my house! I live in a really small apartment, but I like it that way. I love the orientation it has, it gets sunlight all day, which is perfect for drawing. I live in Mexico City, and let me tell you, we have sunlight for 12 hours all year round. It’s a beautiful thing that sadly everyone takes for granted here... I can tell you that I wouldn’t be able to survive somewhere like Latvia with such harsh, dark winters!
Lai Tat Tat Wing // *1971, Hong Kong. Lai Tat Tat Wing is one of the most prolific Hong Kong comics artists. He’s been published over 20 conceptual and experimental comics books in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and also in France. Recently Wing devotes his energies to theatre and animations for television. He loves sports and goes swimming 2-3 times a week.
Wing: Hello, I am a 41 years old comic maker from Hong Kong. Crazy about doing comics already when I was very young. I used to bring my hand made comics to school and share them with my school mates, most of the stories were about fighting between animals and silly things happening on the school playground. One of the strangest stories that I remember was a little boy who always picks up food which was left on the playground by his school mates and puts it into his mouth. How I love strange stories!
Jeroen Funke // *1976, The Netherlands. Jeroen is part of the colorful comics group Lamelos (featured also in kuš! #4 'food' and 'š! #4 'Lost in the City'), founded with his buddies at the Kampen Art Academy in 1997. He also creates a lot of solo projects, like murals, children’s books, monstersuits and comics books with his characters Victor & Vishnu, Pinky and other funny guys.
Amanda Baeza // *1990, Chile. Amanda grew up in two different hemispheres and currently lives in Lisbon, Portugal, where she obtained a degree in graphic design. She makes zines with her siblings, together they are known as Los Spoquitos. Amanda eats comics for breakfast and plays the baritone saxophone at lunch.
My creative process is led by my curiosity. I feel the need to explore different techniques for each comic I make. Even though this sounds pretty random, I try to choose techniques that fits with the story I'm working on.
My workplace right now is our floor. I feel comfortable spreading my sketches all over it and sometimes I find nice friends lying over there while I'm drawing. They give me the best tips.
Marlene Krause // *1984, Germany. Marlene founded the
comics anthology Two Fast Colour
together with Martina Lenzin. She has contributed to publications like ORANG, Colibri, Nobrow and Turkey Comix. Her first
graphic novel ‘A un autre endroit’ is published by L’Association in May
2013. Marlene loves black chocolate with almonds and riding her bike up and down the hills of Barcelona.
Now read about her adventures drawing her comics for š! #13 'Life Is Life':
Well, unfortunately on New Year's eve I
crashed with my bike and broke my left collarbone. At first I wasn't even able
to walk, so I spent loads of time at home, and the first thing I did was
sending this NewYears-greeting to my friends:
It says in German: "Happy New Year! oh,
what's that? ---My broken collarbone--- My bike is well though... See you soon!"
'Behind the Comics' continues with š! #12 contributor Julie Delporte. She gives us a very colorful insight on what pencils she uses for her comics!
Julie Delporte // *1983, France. Julie lives in Montreal, where she publishes books and zines with the collective Colosse. She was a fellow at the Center for Cartoon Studies during the year 2011/2012. She has just finished a children’s book about a little girl who turns into a raccoon. Soon a compilation of her journal comics will be published by Koyama Press. Color pencils and dogs with long ears are her favorite antidepressants.
On November 3rd we release the new š! #12 'future 2.0'. One of the contributors is Irkus M. Zeberio and he gives us a very special video insight on how he drew his comics!
Irkus M. Zeberio // *1982, Basque Country. He was born in Donostia-San Sebastian and went several years ago to Barcelona. There, he graduated from the Massana School of Arts and Design. Now he works as an illustrator and cartoonist. Earlier this year Nobrow published his comics book 'Cramond Island'-the first installment of Jean Baptiste Baigorri’s epic and absurd adventures.
To show how he works, he sent us the following video about the process of drawing one of the comics pages:
Irkus also wrote: I did this page in about 3 hours, maybe more. The video says 3
hours, but you know, you have to think, rethink and do some rubbish before. You
can say that I work with Photoshop, with a bamboo, and exceptionally I draw something "in reality" before. You can also say that the story
is about New Norway in 2190, it's a tropical communist country managed by a
computer called KomUnix 2.0. It's about Jules Karnibal, a guy from the
Federation of the Saharaui Countries where the Basque nomad community is. The Sahara arrived
from the original margins of Africa until what we now know as The Small Germany, so
Latvia could be in this Federation too. :P
I'm a digital era man. My working secret is revealed!!! Haha, not a secret really... My only secret is the brush I use, a little mixture between a really good Martha brush and the inking of the masters.
Seems like we have to rethink and start calling him "IrkUnix 3.0"... If you like to see the whole comics you should get š! #12 'future 2.0', which will be out very soon and contains futuristic comics by twenty-eight more artists from Europe and North America on 180 full color pages.
'Behind the Comics' continues next week with a look at Julie Delporte's color pencils. Previous entries you can read by clicking this label.
Last week we released four new mini kuš! One of them was "The Flames" by Akvilė Misevičiūtė. Now she gives us an insight on how she created this comics! But as usual first we would like to introduce her:
Akvilė Misevičiūtė // *1987, Lithuania. Akvilė graduated with
a degree in printmaking from Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts, now she lives and
works in Spain and imaginary spaces where she makes street art and
illustrations. She loves other people's trash and positive things in life. Her shorter comics have previously also appeared in š! #9 and #10 and other international anthologies.
So here is what she tells about the process of making her comics:
Nicolò Pellizzon impressed us with his mysterious submission to our artventurous issue. Now, after a short introduction, it is time to take a look behind his comics entitled 'Stolen Paintings'!
Nicolò Pellizzonwas born 1985 in Italy. He studied painting in Verona, the city of Romeo and Juliet. He nearly finished his first book of comics and illustrations, called Anatomy Lessons and his work has been featured in the Italian anthologies Teiera, Delebile and G.I.U.D.A. Next to drawing he likes swimming in dark scary lakes and reading novels by Ursula K. Le Guin and Richard Matheson.
Generally when I draw a comic I do always the same things, but in a scattered and nebulous order. For example, I can write part of a scene and then stop after four words to draw something or to write a dialogue. Sometimes I begin drawing and writing at random.
Jean de Wet contributed the beautifully haunting comics 'Necropolis' to š! #11 'artventurous'. Lots of readers were very captivated by his art and gave raving feedback. So we invited Jean to tell us how he created this story. As usual, first we shortly introduce the artist, before we let him speak.
Jean de Wet was born 1984 in South Africa. He is a freelance illustrator and artist based
in Cape Town. He graduated with a BA in Information Design from the University
of Pretoria in 2007, and moved on to focus on illustration, comics, books and
art. 'Necropolis' published in š! #11 is his first comics in an international anthology, but almost in the same time one of his illustrations was also featured in Nobrow 7. Expect lots of swamps, haunted houses, extraterrestrials, cursed peasants
and enchanted forests. Make sure to visit his website and follow him on twitter and tumblr!
Jean de Wet's artventurous insight:
I have various and fairly inconsistent ways of starting new
projects and comics. I mostly draw on different scraps of paper (which I
collect obsessively) or just start working and making notes in my sketchbooks.
I'll eventually move on and make some thumbnail sketches,
mainly to resolve to the compositions and pacing, or just to get a feel for
what the story wants to become.
In his autobiographic comics for š! #11 'artventurous'Olive Booger gave a gripping personal insight into his horrifying experience of participating in performance art. Now we asked him to tell us a bit about the process of creating this comics. If you are unfamiliar with Olive Booger, here's a short bio and his self-portrait:
Olive Booger was born 1982 in the banlieu of Paris and grew up in an ambiance à la Riad Sattouf. In 2006 he graduated from the Arts Déco in Strasbourg in video and comic arts. Since 2003 he self-publishes his Saltie Booger zines, contributes to international anthologies and last year his first graphic novel I like Short Songs was published. His comics have also appeared in Kuš! #6 and #7. He currently lives in Paris and works as illustrator and comic artist.
But let's read his report of how he created the artventurous š! story:
Before an artist starts working on a piece, he has to show some adventurous spirit, he has to open up to the world so he can get his inspiration: the raw material for his creations. For that reason, I studied in art school. I encountered weird artists there, as well as students discovering complete freedom after years of high school frustration.
I decided to pay tribute to the nice times I had with these people in my sad and lonely medium of expression - comics.
Finally Rūta Briede reveals her secret technique of how she creates comics. First, we shortly introduce her and then you can read what she has to say about her contribution for the upcoming š! #10 "sea stories".
Rūta Briedehas an MA in stage design from the Art Academy of Latvia. Together with her husband she works as a designer for Rabit!!and creates the most beautiful notebooks. Besides kuš! and š! her comics have appeared in the anthologies Crachoir, FinEst,Naturegraffix and exhibited in "L'Europe se dessine" at the Angouleme comics festival.
Now we let her do the explaining:
I can't work without two things - a "free" table and my pencil case filled with my drawing tools. For sketching I use black thin-lined pen + Muji classic 6 color pen.
We continue looking 'Behind The Comics' of the upcoming š! #10 'sea stories'.
Maré Odomo was born in San Mateo, California and has been living in Seattle since 2006. He’s got a BFA in Visual Communication from Cornish College of the Arts in 2010. He makes things that are small and honest and is best known for his Pokémon fancomic Letters To An Absent Father. His name can be translated to sea, so it is a no-brainer, that we had to invite him for the upcoming sea issue (especially after Ryan Sands suggested him to us).
So Maré told us the following about creating his comic 'Okinawa':
This is my work desk. I keep changing my setup (that's not usually where I put my computer) but I've been using a standing desk for a little while now. I'm trying to use fewer art supplies, or at least move them out of the way. But then I forget about them. I don't know what's worse.
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