Author: digicomixoy

Categories
Alt Text Included Art analysis

Art, predictions and time travel confirmed

I was watching a video by Danny Gonzalez about Conspiracy Theories while I was going through papers I have stacked everywhere. He talked a lot about time travel. Among my other papers, mostly art, I found evidence that I am a time traveler myself! (Or an oracle, but I think time travel is cooler.)

Youtuber Danny Gonzalez showing "proof" of time travel.

So here’s what I found out. I either predicted COVID19 in 2008, or I had already seen it happen in 2020, then gotten back to year 2008, made art about it, gotten amnesia and lost all my memories of my time traveling. Let me show you the proof!

Content warning: A disturbing drawing of a murderer clown and a victim with blood ahead

Proof of time travel

Lineart of woman looking at a crudely drawn spiky red sphere. Woman covers herself with a sheet. There's a little bit of red on the sphere and her sheet. There's a blue bubble around the woman and the sphere.

In this artwork we see lady liberty covering herself with a cloth (=mask) and she’s trapped inside a bubble with the weird shape that doesn’t resemble anything else than this…

3D illustration of covid virus to prove time travel
Photo from: https://www.cdc.gov/media/ – PHIL ID #23312 

How do we know it’s lady liberty? Well see the colors? It’s white, red and blue! The colors of American flag! It could also be Croatia, United Kingdom, Iceland, Norway, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Paraguay, Dallas, Labuan, Rocha, Sorbs, Federal Rebublic of Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro, Republic of Crimea, Espiríto Santo, Fort Smith, Gaugauzia, Kayin State, Khahassia, Mannheim, Mindanao, Liberia, Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Sabah, Schleswig-Holstein, Valledupar, Turov, Serbia, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Transnistria, Maracaibo, Bydgoszcz, Manatí Puerto Rico, France, Iowa, Cabo Verde, Costa Rica, North Korea, Thailand, Cuba or Hawaii (and there’s even more options here) because they share the same colours, but let’s just go with the most obvious answer, USA.

So what about this artwork? Is this COVID19 too? (Art from 2008 again.)

Red spherical creature with big eyes. It has 8 long sausage like things sticking from it and it has a trunk. it has 10 thin legs that are just lines and different lines indicating air come from it's trunk.

Clearly this creature is shaped like the COVID19 virus and it’s breathing! COVID is a respiratory illness, so breathing is a clear symbol for… breathing! But wait, there’s more!

This one predicts the stock market crash after the COVID19 lockdown in 2020. And the artwork is from 2008!

A woman with no nose or mouth, back facing the reader, wearing a dress made from newspaper stock page, holding a gladd of something red. Background ir yellow, but at the bottom it goes from orange to red. On the top there's red blood dripping, but it turns into red spores.

As you can see, the woman’s dress is made from the stock page in a newspaper. There’s blood dripping from the top of the artwork, but the blood turns into spores, that look like COVID19 viruses (yet again!). The red color on the bottom of the page looks like a fire that’s going on somewhere in the distance. The fire symbolises the destruction COVID19 did to the stock market. The woman also seems to hold a glass of alcohol. That probably symbolises the alcohol people drank during lockdown while getting pantsdrunk. Or maybe it’s not alcohol, but blood!

Other predictions

Being able to predict COVID19 alone isn’t that impressive. A real time traveler would know so much more! So here’s some more examples of things I have predicted with my art!

Remember the killer clowns of 2016? I predicted that in 2004!

A clown covered in blood with no shirt on stands in front of a bath tub holding a knife. there's someone in the bathtub. We see her foot that has a cut and a red hing heeled shoe, and her hand that has long red fingernails. The clown is smoking and has probably soiled himself.

One of the oldest works from me. What could it predict? Saimaa ringed seal livestream by WWF?

charcoal drawing of two saimaa ringed seals looking to left

This one predicts the rise of D&D podcasts! I knew that was going to happen in 2004 already!

Pencil drawing of a battle. A pixie woman and two elf men, younger and older are fighting a floating demon with horns, human body and elephant head and a small skinny demon in a loincloth.

Here’s a weird one. Seems like a completely normal drawing of a mermaid, right?

WRONG!

See the text hidden in the waves? “Pahuuden makkara” meaning the evil sausage. This is a prediction of the poisoned sausages of York in 2019! And the artwork is done in 2005!

A mermaid sits in a rock looking up. There's decorative swirld around her. the sea waves hide the word pahuuden makkara

How would you feel if I told you I also predicted the controversy behind the 2020 Froot Loops Toucan Mascot’s design change? Well I probably didn’t, but look, I made a lino print of a toucan in 2002! Close enough!

Green lino print of a toucan

This drawing of a horse looks just like the Ford Mustang logo, doesn’t it? Well, it’s a prediction of the 2020 Ford Mustang electric car naming controversy!

Smudged oil pastel drawing of a horse in gallop

This artwork from year 2003 predicts a hit movie from 2014! Over 10 years after this piece was made, the movie Sharktopus vs. Pteracuda hit the box officed with a storm!

Photomanipulation artwork of a white silhouette of a sea serpent and bubbles.

Now I assume you’re eager to hear my actual thoughts behind my own artworks. If you’re an intelligent human being, you probably guessed this was all just satire, so let’s go through the real ideas behind the artworks.

Lady Liberty and COVID19

I had just gotten new aquarelle pencils and learned that you can do all kinds of tricks with them. Tricks like scrape pieces off of them on wet paper! The “virus” on the first art piece is just me testing out how the pencil works on wet paper. I then decided to draw a sketch of a woman next to it. They are separate drawings at this point. But they look like they belong together, so I draw the bubble around them and add similar scraped aquarelle pencil on the woman’s cloth to make them match. That’s all there is. Two separate pieces on same paper to save paper.

COVID 19 virus breathing

That’s not COVID19, that’s pallosiira. It’s a character of mine based on an isopod species living in Finland. Also it’s not breathing, it’s sucking! For some reason Pallosiira sucks.

Market crash lady

The reason I used stock market page for the dress was that I didn’t want the dress to have words. It was the only page that had enough stuff other than words to cut out the dress shape. The background is yet again just me testing out the aquarelle pencils.

Killer Clown

This is fanart for a horror movie I saw.

Saimaa Ringed Seal

My teacher told us all to draw an animal. I chose the easiest one.

D&D podcasts

I was a tabletop rpg nerd as a teen. This is just fanart for a game I played.

Evil sausage mermaid

I was going to send this to a teen magazine under the pseudonym Pahuuden Makkara, but accidentally also put my real name on it! So I never sent it in.

Toucan

Yet another piece where someone else told me what to make (an animal) and I chose the simplest one.

Ford Mustang

It’s just a horse.

Sharktopus movie

I was obsessed with sea monsters at one point. It’s not even a sharktopus, but my point was to show that if you just squint your eyes enough and dig deep enough, anything can be a prediction of almost anything.

Did you like this post? Meybe you’ll like my other posts where I talk about my own art process in a more serious tone! The tag Art-Analysis is where I store my ramblings of my own art and the process of making it.

Categories
Comics Sustainability comics

How to Be a Conscious Consumer? You can’t.

You have probably read about a million articles on how to be a conscious consumer. I have too, we all have. But I have come to the realization that this whole conscious consumer thing is a hoax and a lie. If you think we can be wasteful or not be wasteful, but being a conscious consumer will not save the world, you’re absolutely right! Unfortunately media wants to tell us that with small changes we can change the world.

I love small changes, my whole blog is filled with small changes! But I don’t believe those will change the world if we don’t also make big political changes. This is why I made this comic.

Title: I don't give a flying f**k about being a conscious consumer. Let me explain why. Image: H-P, a bald man in a green sweater is smiling a forced smile spreading his hands. This is clrearly not a how to be a conscious consumer comic.
Panel 1: Text: Our system is broken. It wants consumers to make a change, yet make it almost impossible. Image: H-P is looking at things in sale in a store. He looks worried. The things in sale have ads that say: Made by hand from dead kittens! $3,99. Made in USA from Puppies we killed, $2,45. Good people buy brand X, $1,09. Panel 2: Text: I'm not interested in that. Image: H-P looks at the reader looking angry. Panel 3: Text: I'm interested in changing the system. Image: H-P has a sly expression, he smiles, he touches his forehead like he just got an idea.
This page has two timelines. Timeline 1: Text: Here's an example. Right now I produce about 11kg of food waste a year. To reduce waste, I can compost it all in my own home. Working like this for 10 years I reduce 110kg of waste! Images: H-P first looks at a sack on waste sadly, he then puts it in bokashi compost, then he stands proudly next to 110kg of ready made compost! Timeline 2: Text: One pupil produces 0,10kg of food waste every day. A school of 600 students produces 1140kg of food waste every year. I work towards a policy change that leftover food is redistributed, thus reducing the food waste by 50%. I have reduced 570kg of waste every year. Images: A student's plate is almost empty, but there's 0,10kg of things they don't want to eat on it. A school cafeteria lady then takes a huge wheelbarrow full of waste on already big pile of waste. Then the lunchlady suddenly changes, she's now giving the food to a man who has a beard and his clothes are a bit broken. They both look happy.
Panel 1: Text: It would take me over 50 years of composting to come even close to the impact one school has in a year! Image: H-P has grown old. He has a bald head and the sides are growing long grey hair. He also has long grey beard and he's missing a few teeth. Panel 2: Text: Even if it would take me 10 years to get the policy change to get through, it's absolutely worth it! Image: H-P looks at calendar pages. They start from 2013 and they all have red crosses on them, expect the last one from year 2022 that says DONE and has a green chack mark on it.
Panel 1: Text: It's time to stop obsessing over our performative #zerowastelifestyles Image: H-P has a red shirt that says Brand X. He's in front of a video camera and he's holding a tube that says Eco-deo. He's clearly filming a conscious consumer ad. Panel 2. Text: Frankly that's (picture of a bull taking a dump) designed to make us feel like we're doing something when we're only using our limited time so we can't do what we actually need to do... Image: H-P is looking at his phone very nervously, he's sweating a lot.
One big image! Big text: We need to become politically active!!! Small text: Voting is a start. But it's not nearly enough. Image: H'P looks feral. His teeth are sharp and his eyes have no pupils. He's sliding a vote into a voting ballot box.
Panel 1: Text: Search for a small local environmental/leftist organizations. Join them! Image: H-P is walking towards people who are holding hands. He's waving at them. First in the line of people is a man with dapper style and a leather jacket who extends his hand to H-P. Next to him is a woman in traditional Finnish Roma dress, next to her is a woman with afro hair and casual shirt, hoop earrings, scarf around her neck and jeans. Next to her is an older balding man in a suit jacket and sweater. Panel 2: Text: Offer your skills! That's how I did it! Uhh, hello! I have no idea if I'm in the right place, but I can draw comics and comics are a really good way to make information accessible! If you have any ideas on how my skills could help you out, please let me know! Image: H-P is holding comics in his hand. He looks very nervous but he smiles. He's also shaking a bit. He's talking to a long haired woman and a man with glasses. Both people smile gently at him.
Panel 1: Text: When I first joined the Left Alliance of Vantaa I knew nothing! It's okay to just go in to learn first. I sat through a dozen zoom meetings just listening and learning before I said anything. Image: H-P is sitting in front of a computer, he's wearing a pair of headphones. There's a zoom conference going on on the screen. Panel 2: Text: Climate is in crisis! Start actively learning about local politics and activism now and stop pretending that buying a reusable straw will make any actual difference. Image: H-P looks very tired as he drinks something with a reusable metal straw.

When I first posted this comic on Twitter and Instagram, many people misunderstood my point. So let’s make this VERY clear. I am not saying this so that you can think “Okay, so the small things I do don’t matter, better just buy a big car, a big house and use as much energy and resources as I can! YOLO!” I am saying this because we shouldn’t be obsessing over the small details.

Did the climate activist eat imported soy? Who cares, they are trying to make bigger changes happen! Did the environmentally conscious politician wear fast fashion, that means nothing if they manage to stop big corporations from dumping waste water into our lakes! Are you watching people, trying to see their mistakes like this? You are wasting your time. Instead of making one person feel bad for what they eat, you can spend your time to get an office full of people change their morning lattes to oat lattes.

tl;dr

If you absolutely have to police someone, police yourself or police big corporations. Individual activists policing each other will not further our cause for a more sustainable world.

Categories
Comics No Buy Year -comics

No Buy Year 2022, part 4

June was quite a boring month, sorry about that. The most interesting part of it happened inside my head while I was sleeping, which makes that quite uninteresting. (The moment someone says “I had such a weird dream…” I get so bored I fall asleep instantly. Rambling incoherent explanations of dreams aren’t interesting!!)

I did do a lot of crafts and I mended a lot of pants. I actually managed to fix 4 pairs of pants in June! On top of that I also made two pairs of fashionable pants! Not entirely from skratch though, I had some pants that were way too small for me, so I deconstructed them and made something new out of them! I might want to make a blog post about those too at some point. (I have to say, I do love having my very own blog where I can post whatever I want and write as much as I want with no fear of censorship or character limit!)

So let’s get into the comic already!

But before that I must say this: Are you Interested in reading all of the No Buy Year posts? Go to my No Buy Year -tag! Or start from the first post to read them all in the rightful order.

H-P Lehkonen presents, no buy comic of June:

H-P Lehkonen no buy comic
H-P Lehkonen no buy comic
H-P Lehkonen no buy comic
H-P Lehkonen no buy comic

Can you see how much I’m sweating in every panel? June was very hot here in Finland. We also happen to live in top floor of our apartment building and that makes our home even hotter. Finnish houses are built to keep the heat in, not out! Winters are great in these apartments, but the summers suck. July has started off way cooler even if there’s a deadly heatwave tormenting the rest of Europe. I am worried, as always. Climate catastrophe isn’t just our future. It’s here right now.

If you’re into my this whole H-P Lehkonen no buy challenge thing, you might also like this comic:

It’s a comic I made a couple of years ago and it talks about sustainability, zero waste lifestyle and poverty.

One more thing. I want to thank you all for reading my blog! Looking at my statistics some people actually come here to read my comics! I know you can just get these on social media, but really… that just isn’t as effective! I don’t have all this space to write whatever I want there!

Categories
Alt Text Included Working in Arts

9 Secret Convention Tips for Comic Artists

I’ve been to a lot of conventions. The first convention I ever went to was Nekocon in Kuopio in 2006. I was just a visitor back then, but nowadays I’ve been doing all kinds of things in conventions. So let me write some of my best lesser known convention tips for comic artists!

I’m not going to tell you all the things other people have already said a million times. I have in fact organized a wonderful collaboration ebook called Making Money from Webcomics, that was made in Saari Residency in Finland by an international comic artist group!

Cover of Making Money from Webcomics, an illustrated guide by Webcomic friends. A great book for convention tips for comic artists
Cover illustration by Eelis Nilukka

You can read this PDF ebook for free from the Helsinki Comics Center website here. I feel that I don’t need to repeat everything said in that ebook.

But I have some small tips that aren’t mentioned as often. I have been to conventions in Europe and in North America. All of the tips don’t work in every convention, but I’ll just write them out anyways. Use them if you will.

1. Get an orange or yellow high-visibility jacket or vest

Why? Well, conventions are often full. Like really REALLY full. If you want to go from place to place fast, wear a high visibility vest. People will assume you’re on your way to fix something and they will give you space. This won’t work if the vest is on top of a cosplay though.

2. Convention tickets cost too much? Host a panel!

Many conventions give out free tickets to people who do some kind of a programme. If you feel like you’re dumb af and can’t talk anything intelligent, host a panel. Invite people who can talk about things to it. Your job is just to ask them questions and make sure everyone gets equal amount of time to reply. I have often gone to a convention where I have an artist alley table, but the table plus the tickets to get in are adding up! So I host a panel or do a lecture about something relevant to the convention’s themes. That way I get free ticket for myself. I often share the table, so my table mate has to take care of the table while I’m doing the panel, but other than that it’s pretty simple. Also, some conventions give you free food if you host programmes!

(I also have to add, if you want to become a memorable comics artist, doing talks and programmes helps on that too.)

3. Make your business cards as stickers

I used to have normal business cards and after every convention I found them in the trash cans around the area. I had paid to get them printed! Next time I printed more, I printed circular stickers with my website and social medias instead. I never saw my business cards in trash cans anymore. I did sometimes see them out in the wild! Like in bar bathroom walls or telephone poles outside. But that’s just free advertising!

(Some say bookmarks work too, but I personally throw those away just as much as business cards.)

4. If you want to network, volunteer at the convention

Interested on networking? If you’re a total beginner and you don’t know anyone I suggest instead of trying to mingle with the cool kids in the bar, just volunteer at a convention. You get access to the greenrooms and backstages where you get to be the person the cool kids are so happy to see! The guest of honor needs a pen? You’re the volunteer who gets it for them! You also get to mingle with the other convention organisers while you’re on your break. Besides, if you don’t know how to approach people, it’s way easier to start a conversation when you’re carrying a pile of chairs together with someone than if you have no common goal at all.

(If you’re afraid that the cool kids would treat you like a lesser person or as someone not worthy of their time because you’re “working for them”… don’t worry. The actually cool people don’t do that. And the ones that do… They’re not the ones you want to network with. If they don’t treat the staff right, you really think they would help a beginner artist out? Not gonna happen.)

5. Network with the staff

The previous point works the other way around too. People who are working in a convention are VERY motivated to make the comics scene a better place to be in. They are the people you want to hang out with. The cool famous comics artist might be a cool person, but everyone is already trying to get something out of them and that gets tiring. That’s why it’s not always worth it to try to force yourself in on their inner circle. I know a ton of people who in one year are organising chairs and the next year they’ve published a comics anthology.

6. What conventions get you the best sales?

How to choose the convention that has a better chance to get you really good sales on your comic books? Check out who are the main guests! If all the guests are actors, don’t even bother.Selling fanart of the characters they play might work really well, but your original comics aren’t going to be a hit. If there’s a lot of comics artists as a guest on the other hand… that’s the convention you want to go to! The visitors often choose the events they attend based on the guests, so you need to choose the events you go to based on the people that are going to be there. You need comic fans to sell comics. Movie fans don’t buy them as much.

Drawing of H-P (bald headed white man with small beard) holding two stacks of paper and smiling. He's wearing a brown hoodie.

7. Apply for a travel grant

I know that about 45% of my audience is based in USA. This might not be for you, I’m sorry. But I also know that about 40% is from Finland and 10% from Sweden! This is for you. If you go to a convention in another country, especially if you go for the first time, you probably won’t sell much. No matter how much your friends who have been there for years tell you they sell so well and they make same kind of stuff as you. They sell well because they’ve been there before. They have established themselves as a part of that community. If you’re going for the first time you might very well make so little money that it doesn’t even cover your travels!

So apply for a travel grant. When the grant pays for your travel expenses you’re not going to be in as much pressure to sell a lot and you can concentrate on building some new connetions.

(Tip to Finns, sorry for the moon language: Kun kirjoitat apurahahakemuksen, älä kirjoita siihen että menet coniin. Coni on lainasana, joka kuulostaa epäammattimaiselta. Käytä vaikkapa sanaa messut, tapahtuma tai festivaali. Esim: Haen 2000€ matkaan ComicCon -sarjakuvamessuille Puolaan.</moonlanguage>)

(Another extra tip for everyone! To make it easier to get grants, email the convention and ask if they can send you a PDF invitation! It can look like anything, as long as it at least pretends to be official. A paper like that makes the grant foundation believe that your trip is well planned and legit! Basically every convention I’ve asked has been happy to write me an invitation.)

8. Volunteer in your local comics organization for better networking

Okay so this is a networking tip again. But let me tell you this works! I have been volunteering for the Finnish Comics Society long enough that I eventually became a board member and then the chairman. That job is not paid, it’s still just volunteering, but with more responsibilities. But I gain so much from it! First of all I get to know everything happening in comics, I get to go to every event ever, I get invitations to art exhibition openings and so on. But for networking it’s amazing.

This has just happened to me recently. I went to a comic con and saw very interesting art on a table. I went to talk to the person behind the table. They replied to me, but it wasn’t really a conversation. They wanted me to buy something and leave (not very good networking from their end). When I mentioned them I am the chairman of Finnish Comics Society, the person even got up and shaked my hand! Suddenly I was worth networking with! I have to admit, I didn’t like the attitude, but I understand if the convention has been long and you can’t bring yourself to be as excited about every person you meet. This artist was actually very wonderful, they were just tired from the con.

This helps me a lot outside of Finland too, because people often know about Finnish Comics Society, but they definitely don’t know who I am. So just having that thing they recognize, me being a board member, helps us connect in some way!

9. Start a mailing list

This isn’t only a convention tip, it’s an all around great tip for any comics artist. Start a mailing list, because on social media you can’t be sure who sees your posts and who doesn’t. I use Mailchimp for my mailing list, but I actually just started by sending a lot of emails from my own personal email! It doens’t have to be anything fancy, main point is that it’s a direct way people are sure to get the information on where you’re going and what are you doing!

I send emails about once a month or two months. I never send affiliate marketing links or spam. That’s not the point here. The point is to send people package of information on which cons you’ll be in, what comics have you published and where to read them!

I would also suggest getting your own website, like this one that I have. I have been posting my comics on Instagram and Twitter for a long time, but I have noticed that it’s actually really hard to browse through all of them and read them on one go! So that’s why I changed my old portfolio website into a blog oriented website. People can actually read all my comics, I can put alt texts in them!! (That hasn’t been a feature on Twitter since I started posting there, it’s very new.) I can make up my own categories and people can search through them based on that! It’s way better than having them all in one feed on Instagram where it’s impossible to organize them into categories.

Also, Millenials Kill wouldn’t work on Instagram at all. It needs to be read one chapter at a time, not panel by panel or page by page.

So those were the convention tips for comic artists! I hope they help!

I just realized many of these convention tips for comic artists were about networking. This is because I have personally found networking to be very difficult but at the same time one of the best things to help me further my career in comics. I have gotten almost all of my paid jobs in comics because I talked to someone who then told me about an opportunity I would have missed otherwise. I rarely drink alcohol, so networking in a bar is not for me. I’m also quite bad at small talk so I need a common ground with the person to be able to talk with them. I hope these tips help you too, because I have had to spend 10 years to find them and finally be able to network!

This whole post about convention tips to comic artists started from quite a weird place. When I get anxious, I tend to start cleaning. That’s what I’ve been doing a lot lately as I’m waiting for the results to come in from the University I have applied to. As I was cleaning, I came accross a huge pile of convention badges. Ever since my very first convention I have saved all the badges from the events where I’ve been either on the artist alley, volunteering, as a speaker or as a featured guest of some sort!

The badges were in a horrible messy pile, so I decided to film the process of me untangling them and talk about the different events I’ve been to. If you want to see me talk about the conventions I’ve been to, here’s that video!

Ps. I often do lectures on how to make webcomics into your career, which includes this kind of talk about convention tips! If you’re interested in getting me to your event/school/organization to do a talk, you can contact me through the contact form on my About page!

Categories
Art analysis Working in Arts

Life Outside the Circle webtoon, how it was made?

As many of you know, I’m the author of Life Outside the Circle webtoon, a comic about two men finding love in the Finnish countryside. Let’s talk about how I made the comic!

I could go on and on about the plot and characters and everything else, but on this post I want to concentrate on the art. So I’ll tell you the main points about the other parts of the process in short.

History of Life Outside the Circle

I got the idea for Life Outside the Circle webtoon in 2014. At that point I hadn’t even started my first Webtoon comic Immortal Nerd yet! In 2015 I started making my first Webtoon original series Immortal Nerd and after that one was over, I asked if webtoon would be interested in Life Outside the Circle. They were!

The plot I had was initially only written in Finnish. I paid a translator to translate it to English for me. Then I worked together with my editor Bekah Caden to make the comic the best it can be.

The Art of my Webtoon

I personally love the art of Life Outside the Circle. I’m so proud of the things I did with it! I think it’s the best looking comic I’ve done in my life, which is why I want to talk about the choices I made with the art in more detail.

Life Outside the Circle webtoon is in grayscale, there’s only one spot in the comic that uses colour. That part is the Helsinki Pride! And in there too there’s no other coloring than the rainbows that are in pastel rainbow colours. Like this:

The Helsinki Pride scene from Life Outside the Circle webtoon.

I have gotten wonderful comments on the colors. People have told me the impact of suddenly having the colorful rainbow flags surprising and memorable. The podcast Talking Comics told in their Thirsty on Toon series that they didn’t even remember the comic being black and white, because it felt colourful.

The drawing process

  1. First of all, I sketched the comic panels separately on red pencil.
  2. Then I inked them with a NIKKO school nib and indian ink. The kind of a nib that you dip in an ink bottle.
  3. Then I colored the smaller details with copic markers in different tones of gray.
  4. And in the end I used ink diluted with water to do the larger grey areas and the shadows.
  5. Then I scanned the illustrations and edited the red out of them on Photoshop, making them greyscale.

Here’s an example of what the scans looked right out of the scanner. Bad… The diluted ink wetted the paper and made it warp even if I used thicker paper.

Unedited panel from Life Outside the Circle webtoon.

But with a bit of editing I turned this into a neat comic panel!

Edited panel from Life Outside the Circle webtoon.

So this was the process for the normal comic panels. But this alone isn’t the thing that made me love the art I did for Life Outside the Circle… This is:

The emotions! I love drawing them! Let’s analyse these a bit further.

The Analysis

A dizzy toilet scene from Life Outside the Circle webtoon.

In this picture I have changed the tools I used for inking the picture. Instead of using a thin nib, I used a brush with the ink. Normally I would also make sure the perspective was believable, but in this one I intentionally bent the perspective. It’s warped. I did this so that the panel would look like what Juha is supposed to feel. Juha feels dizzy and he feels heavy. The darker heavier lines make the panel feel claustrophobic. Exactly what I’m trying to portray!

Very determined scene from Life Outside the Circle webtoon.

I use a lot of silhouettes in my comics. There’s three reasons for them. 1. They are simple. The readers eye doesn’t focus on anything else than the main point I want to portray. 2. They create contrast. For a very important part in the comic it’s good to create more impact with contrast. 3. They are fast to draw. I save a lot of time with them.

Beautiful forest landscape from Life Outside the Circle webtoon.

Here’s something I don’t save time with. Panels like this take ages to draw! But I often loved to start a chapter with a beautiful tall illustration of either nature or actual buildings in Helsinki. I love drawing environments and I think drawings like this create sense of time. A beautiful moment the characters have stopped to enjoy.

Aerial landscape from Life Outside the Circle webtoon.

So what about this one? Quite often I had to draw the same places over and over again. That was pretty boring. Not for me really, I could just reuse the same drawings but I didn’t want to do that too often. So sometimes I showed this aeriel image from the place! I used this in one panel in Helsinki too, but that one you have to go see yourself from here.

Angry Juha from Life Outside the Circle webtoon.

On this panel Juha is angry, but he’s trying to keep it in. I drew him with a black crayon, pressing hard and making jagged lines. The illustration was very big, but I scaled it on Photoshop to fit the panel. I think the artwork looks angrier, because I drew it with “angry motions”. While holding the crayon tight I tensed all my muscles. I made myself feel the anger Juha feels and I think it shows on the illustration.

Sad Juha from Life Outside the Circle webtoon.

So what about sadness and helplessness? I’ve drawn this with a very thin marker with no sketch. I held the marker very lightly to make it shake a bit more. I would let my hand make mistakes, like the lines that are too long on Juha’s hair. That’s not how I draw his hair normally. This all makes him look very anxious. I drew like I was scared of the paper! The coloring is also threwn in there in blobs, not spread smoothly like normally.

This is what makes me believe Life Outside the Circle is one of my most artistic comics. I set out to portray emotions and even the art, not just the story, emphasises the emotions.

I hope reading me patting myself on the back doesn’t make you think I’m a horribly self centered person. It’s quite sad that artists are often expected to dislike their own works and only find faults in them. Don’t get me wrong, I find faults in all my comics, Life Outside the Circle webtoon included! But the comic is done and published. Only focusing on the faults wouldn’t change anything. Letting myself enjoy my work and celebrate the best parts of it makes me want to draw more and come up with new ways to make my art even better.

Did you like this?

If you want to read my another post where I talk about the thoughts behind my art in my comic book I Survived Him, go here to read my post about the thoughts I had while making that comic!

And if you want to, you can subscribe to my mailing list and hear all the latest news about my comics career about once a month. No spam, no affiliate marketing.

Categories
Alt Text Included Art analysis Autobiographical comics Comics Working in Arts

Emotional Abuse doesn’t end when the relationship is over

My emotional abuse comic, I Survived Him, is definitely one of my favorite works of my own. I’m especially proud of the art in this one. The comic is now available on my itch.io again! But before you go get it for yourself, I want to tell you more about it and show some of my favorite pages.

Cover of the emotional abuse comic I Survived Him. It's a parody of the Judith Beheads Holorfenes painting by Artemisia Gentileschi, but all the characters are H-P himself. One H-P is laying on a bed. One holds him down and one is beheading him with a sword. All have a neutral expression.

I Survived Him was made in 2020. Even if it is a comic about emotional abuse, it doesn’t describe the abuse in detail. The comic begins from the moment the abusive relationship was over and the story describes the process of letting go and healing. I want to show you the first scene of the comic.

Panel one: Computer screen shows messaging app. Text: You: I'm just so worried. Him: You're still important to me and I love you! I think we've just grown apart but that's normal and it won't affect things between us! Panel 2: H-P is sitting on a floor, he looks younger and tired. He's holding a laptop and covered in a blanket. Text: That was the last time he talked to me. Panel 3: Dark illustration of H-P's silhouette. Text: I had challenged him too many times and this was the last punishment I got. Isolation.
Panel 1: H-P stands alone in the panel shrugging. Text: I lost most of our shared friends. They weren't all on his side. Some of them did their best. Panel 2: H-P's face closer, he crosses his arms. Text: But when talking about abuse, "Maybe both sides were at fault" sounds like "you deserved it". Panel 3: H-P on the foreground, he glances behind him. There's two shadows of people there. Text: H-P says: And every now and then they'd give me news of the things he said about me. The shadows say: H-P was also so difficult. H-P apparently likes talking shit about others. He said H-P is untrustworthy. He told me H-P uses his depression as an excuse to be too demanding. Panel 4: H-P has now also turned into a shadow silhouette. He talks to another of the shadows from last panel. Text: I tried to be the bigger person and just reply: This is not true. I never did that. But I know I can't convince you so I'll just hope for the best.
Big illustration. Closeup of H-P's head looking to the left. He looks tired and sad. His head is see through where his brains are and there's text in his brain. There's also partially obstructed text all around him. Text: In speech bubbles: But the worth thing wasn't the isolation. The worst thing was that the abuse didn't stop when he left. Because his thoughts were still inside my head. I was my own abuser now. Text in the brain: Remember that you should be ashamed. You're so hard to love because you're difficult. Text around him, partially obstructed: You're probably not really trans. Do you really think someone else would have the patience to love you? You're so demanding. You're just a fujoshi who wants to be a guy because you think gays are hot. Don't transition, you'll look like a woman with a moustache. You're untrustworthy and hard to work with...
Panel 1: H-P's hands drawing a sketch of a woman. Text: It didn't matter where I was and what I was doing. Everything reminded me of him. Panel 2: Black ink starts flowing from the pen on H-P's hand. His hand shakes. Text: And remembering him made me remember everything he said was wrong about me. Panel 3: H-P walking outside, it's fall. He wears a beanie and a big jacket. Text: One day I was trying to walk somewhere. I can't remember where, but then again, it's not relevant. Panel 4: H-P's head from the side, now drawn on a thicker black crayon like line. He looks terrified and his eyes are just black smudges. Text: Suddenly I remembered him again.
Panel 1: Light pencil drawing on two joined hands. Text: We used to walk here together holding hands... Panel 2: The hands from previous panel are now behind H-P as his memory. H-P is on the foreground and he looks anxious. Text: No. I don't want to remember him! I don't want him to be in my head! I want my mind back! Panel 3: Wider image of the road H-P is walking on. There's a magpie eating something off the ground. H-P is holding his face in his hands. Other than that, there's nobody else on the road. Text: Fuck you. Fuck your memories. I want to override these memories with new ones. Panel 4: Closeup of the magpie that now looks at H-P. Text: That magpie! Panel 5: H-P Yells at the magpie. Text: That magpie will be my new memory of thie road! Fuck you!!
Large illustration where H-P is walking on the road that has now changed into a lushious paradise with plants everywhere drawn on just light pencil. The magpie flies away and H-P is alone. Text: That was the moment I decided to do everything I could to heal from him. This comic is about that process. I don't want to make a comic about my traumas and relive them again and again when drawing it all out. I want to make a comic about how I healed myself so I can relive the moments when I was at my strongest.

I don’t often make autobiographical comics about such tough subjects. Portraying myself as the victim in my art isn’t really something I want to do. I very much believe in the theory that one can change the way they see themselves by controlling how they talk about themselves. Of course one has to be realistic, but I don’t want to unnecessarily dwell on the negative parts of my life. Making a comic takes a long time and if I were to make a comic about something very traumatic, I’d almost have to relive the trauma for months on end! I’m totally not up for that! No way! What I can relive is the healing process.

This comic was drawn in 2020, now that I reread it in 2022 I felt powerful, I felt at peace and I felt strong! I have survived this and I am proud of that. When I finished the comic I still felt scared, and some days I still do, but it becomes rarer every day. I love seeing this comic and remembering how far I’ve come.

The Art

I told in the beginning that I was especially happy with the art on this one, so here are two pages from my absolute favorite scene artwise.

Panel 1: Deep pit of rocks with a shaky illustration of H-P laying at the bottom saying "help" Text: He caused the intense feelings by pushing me to hit the rock bottom and "saving" me from there. Panel 2: Light pencil illustration of a hand pulling H-P out. H-P looks relieved and happy. Text: Of course I feel overjoyed! I was just thinking of ending my life a moment ago! But an emotional rollercoaster like that isn't healthy. I really had to grieve giving up those feelings.
Big illustration of H-P sitting at the bottom of the pit. He looks at his hand that was just held a moment ago. He is alone. His hair is all over the place. He looks sad and defeated. Text: But after all those feelings were gone. Love. Shock. Desperation. Loneliness. Anger. Sadness. All I was left with was fear.

On the first page’s first panel you see me laying on my face in a bottom of a rocky pit. The pit is drawn on normal paper with ink markers and pencils, but that me! I drew myself on a piece of used napkin! The two illustrations were then combined on Photoshop. I love how I used the drawing material to really show the desperation.

And the rocky pit… man, that’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever drawn. I love it. I also love the combination of pencil and ink. All the illustrations that illustrate my memories are drawn on pencil only and I love it.

As said, I’m very proud of this one. I think this comes only second to Life Outside the Circle. It might be a good idea to later write a blog entry about the medias I used for that one too… I love the art on Life Outside the Circle!

So where can you get this comic?

I have a store on itch.io. The emotional abuse comic is $5, but you can choose if you want to leave me a tip. It’s up to you! I always try to keep my comics accessible to most people, so the tipping helps a lot in keeping the comic price fairly low.

Please note, despite this blog post having alt texts for more accessible reading, the ebook doesn’t have that.

If you’re interested in other comics I have for sale as ebooks, go read my blog post about Not #ZeroWaste, I Just Grew Up Poor.

Categories
Alt Text Included Comics Sustainability comics

Zero Waste comic, frugal ways to be sustainable!

Zero waste lifestyle can most of the times be pretty inaccessible for low income people. But in reality the low income people are already living a zero waste lifestyle like no tomorrow! This zero waste comic is about just that. An anti-capitalist look into the lifestyle and it’s problems.

Cover of zero waste comic. Title: Not #ZeroWaste, I Just Grew Up Poor Picture: H-P is sitting on a box drinking tea, looking annoyed. Behind him there's a compost bin, a broom, plants on a shelf and clothes on a drying rack.

I made this comic back in 2019 still being quite new to the zero waste idea. I have lived frugally and quite sustainably all my life. It hasn’t always been because of my sustainable life values. Mostly it’s been due to my working class background.

For some time I had to take the comic off of the internet, because the platform I used for my web shop started doing crypto/NFT business. I don’t condone that, as that is absolutely not sustainable! But now I have finally added the comic back online, this time on itch.io! You can get it here:

And here are some preview pages if you feel like you’re not sure if it’s a good purchase yet:

Text: Poor person's 1st lesson I don't throw away anything without thinking it throug first Image: H-P holds a t-shirt and thinks Text in thought bubbles: Can I reuse this? Can I repurpose the material myself? Can I give it to someone who uses it? Text: and if none of those work: Can I recycle it? And now if that doesn't work either, it's going to the normal trash bin in your home. Big text: But wait! There's more! Image: H-P peeking into the page from outside of it's borders. He looks bewildered. Text: There's a better step! My personal favorite! It starts before I even buy anything new!
Image: H-P is squatting, holding pants and looking at their manufacturing information and washing info. Text in thought bubbles: I need a new pair of pants... What fabric is this? Will it last long? Can I buy it second hand? Can I ask my friends if they have extras they don't need? Big text: Point being: I think before I buy! Text: Fun fact (not fun at all, very sad) Pants are a very bad example because the fashion industry is horrible and nowadays it's cheaper to just buy 5 pairs of pants that break easily than one pair that lasts 5 times longer. Let's not get into this too much though, this is only a mere reminder to smash capitalism asap. I don't buy much from general stores anymore. All of my clothes are second hand, but yes, I own pants from a certain swedish brand that has a name that consists of two letters.

Actually… Why wouldn’t you think it’s a good purchase? It’s absolutely free! You can of course leave me a tip (and I’d really love if you could), but that’s not mandatory.

Maybe one more page to really convince you this is the zero waste comic of your dreams!

Text: I use baking soda and vinegar to clean basically anything. It's good for the environment and I happen to have a lot of allergies so those are great options for me! I don't get allergic reactions from them! Image: H-P kneeling on the floor with a rag, vinegar bottle and a jar of baking soda. text: So what do I wash with them!? Image: Overflowing laundry basket Text: Laundry (baking soda to wash, vinegar to rinse) but only if they're not that dirty. I still use normal washing powder for more dirty clothes. Image: Shining clean oventop and kitchen side table text: cleaning surfaces (baking soda with water) Image: two jars. one of them has baking soda in the bottom with lid closed. One has no lid and a horrifying ghost shaped odor cloud emerges from it. text: Getting rid of smells (just put baking soda in it and wait) Image: H-P has a pencil in his hand, he looks like he just finished drawing the two jars. he says text: and everything else too. I'm not gonna draw it out, just believe me. Why did I even start drawing these!?

This comic has gotten some raving reviews! Such as this one:

“However, it uses a lot of space to blame environmental distress on politics and ostracize viewpoints.”

3 star review on Goodreads

If that’s not what you want to see, don’t read it. The book is first and foremost about the political change we need to both help the planet and make life fair to low income people. I wouldn’t name a comic “Not #ZeroWaste, I Just Grew Up Poor” if it wasn’t about the unfair resources we all have. A general happy zero waste comic isn’t titled like that.

Other zero waste comics?

If you like this type of content, I suggest you go read my newest adventures in sustainable living, meaning my No Buy Year -comics! Yes, you heard that right, I’m not buying stuff for a whole year.

Ps. Despite these pages on this blog post having alt texts, the comic PDF is old and doesn’t have those. So it’s not readable with any kind of a screen reading device.

Categories
Comics No Buy Year -comics

No Buy Year 2022, part 3!

Interested in becoming anticonsumerist? Well, get hyped by reading this comic! Or something. I don’t know how to get anyone hyped. I’m not a very hyped up person, nobody in Finland is. I just tried to come up with a sentence (any sentence) to start this blog post with. Let’s stop before I make things even more awkward.

So this comic is about May. If you haven’t read the comics I made in January – April, you should click the link below and read that first.

First part of the No Buy Year comics is here.

Or you can also go to my No Buy Year -comics tag and browse through all of the comics there!

Okay, I think now’s the time to read the comic and learn some new skills to become the anticonsumerist hero we all want to see in this world.

Anticonsumerist comic 001
Anticonsumerist comic 002
Anticonsumerist comic 003

I’m really glad all the things that broke were things I was able to fix. If my laptop would have broken for good, I wouldn’t be able to fix it myself. But I was able to buy a new power cord! Good thing the problem was just in that minor part. It would be very hard trying to be super anticonsumerist for a whole year while having to buy a new computer… Well, to be honest, I wouldn’t have to buy a new computer. I also happen to have a desktop computer! Making comics for living means I need to have a lot of equipment for making them! So I have a laptop, a desktop and an iPad. Oh and a phone. Does that count? I mean nowadays phones are more powerful than the first computer my family had when I was 13.

Now that you are here, I want to promote something cool. My girlfriend Sara Valta has a crowdfunding campaign going on for her book Polyamory Comics. The book is really good! I know, because I have edited it! This is the very first crowdfunding we’re doing, so we’d love all the help we can get. So if you have any ideas on how to promote it even better, please let us know! And also please get the book! There’s also ebook options available!

click here to get polyamory comics book now

What it’s about?

The book is about our family life. I live together with Paju and Sara, who both date me, but they don’t date each other. There’s a lot of comics that are informative about polyamory and queer identities, but also a lot that are just funny things that happen to us when people don’t really understand what polyamory is. The book will be over 150 pages long and in full colors!

Categories
Alt Text Included Comics Sustainability comics

Infinite basil! How to grow it?

I think I’ve seen like a million Youtube videos with this title. But guess why there is so many videos on this subject? Because it is that easy to grow infinite basil! If you’re a beginner in any kind of plant related sheningans, basil is the way to go. Here’s a comic that will show you what to do!

Lifehack Never buy basil again! H-P in a green basil colored shirt peeks into the image looking worried, he corrects himself "No, wait! That came out wring. The hack isn't to forget about basil. Let me explain."
H-P holds a small pot of basil. Now his eyes are green like basil too! He says "What I was meant to say was "buy basil only once and then grow more basil from that"!"
Here's how! You need grocery store basil and something to cut it with. In the illustration you can see basil pot and scissors.
Next you see an illustration that shows a basil stem with 5 layers of leaves. The stem has been cut so that only one set of leaves remain. Text says "Cut the basil from here. Leave some leaves on the original plant too. That way you can make that grow bigger too!"
Strip off most of the basil leaves. Only leave like 2 big ones and any small ones on top of those two. The illustration shows a very tiny green haired H-P eating a basil leaf the size on his head. An arrow points to the leaf, it says "Eat these."
An illustration of a store bought basil that has now been cut very short. All the short stems still have one or two leaves left. Text says: You can also grow this one! Just transfer it to some better soil, because this is probably just filled with roots and has no nutrients left for the plant.
This picture has a glass jar with two basil cuttings that only have a couple of leaves at the top. A plastic bag is placed over them and there's a picture of scissors next to this all. Text says: Then just pop the basil cuttings into some water and put a plastic bag over them! Remember to cut holes on the bag, so they can breathe. They'll probably grow roots without the bag too. I've tried and it worked well, it was just slower.
Now we see an illustration os a basil cutting that has grown roots at the end of the stem. H-P looks at it lovingly. His speech bubble is even heart shaped. He says: "Now wait for roots! (about 1-2 weeks)"
In the last image we see the infinite basil plant planted on a new pot. H-P is very tiny and green. He holds a gardening shovel that's bigger than himself. He says "When the basil has roots, just plant it into some soil and water it!"

And that’s how you grow infinite basil! When your newly planted Basil plant becomes big enough, you can just start the process all over again. Basil is a great plant for this, because it grows roots very easily, but if you’re not a lover of basil, you can try other similar-ish herbs too! One of the easiest ones is mint! Mint is very aggressive when it comes to spreading. In our kitchen the mint had actually hopped onto the basil pot right next to it’s own pot! It had just grown one very long stem and then developed roots at the end of that stem so that it can root into the basil’s pot!

If you want to read more comics about gardening tips, check out this post where I tell how to grow plants from the fruits you eat!

At the end of this post I’d like to remind you that you can join my mailing list. I email people once every other month about things relevant to my comics. No affiliate marketing or other unnecessary consumerism!

And again, big thank you to my Patreon backers, who make free comics like this possible!

Categories
Comics Sustainability comics

Grow plants from the fruit you eat!

Did you know that you can grown plants from the fruit you eat? Neat! It’s an absolutely useless hobby, because many of the plants won’t bear fruit like that, but oh boy is it fun! (That wasn’t a question. It IS fun!) Here’s a comic that shows you how to start germinating fruit seeds!

H-P is eating a kiwi fruit. He thinks: My life is sad and empty. I wish I had more plants to fill it with.
H-P looks excitedly at the fruit and yells: A KIWI!
H-P is poking the kiwi with a toothpick and thinks: Dig out a handfull of seeds from the kiwi with a toothpick. You can still eat the rest of the kiwi. Don't waste food!
Text: Now give the seeds a quick wash! When they're in the bucket of water, check which seeds sink to the bottom and which float. The seeds that sink are the seeds that are good to go. throw out the floating seeds, they won't work. Illustration has a bowl of water with some seds floating and some on the bottom.
Text: Now put several of the seeds into some soil. Plant them about 1-2cm apart. Don't worry about putting too many in at this point. They might not all germinate. Illustration of a seed being thrown into a pot with soil.
Text: Now put a plastic wrap on top of it and poke some holes on it for ventilation. Keep the pot in a warm place and keep the soil moist. Not soaking wet! Just moist. Secret tip: If you don't have plastic wrap, don't go buy new plastic! Any clear plastic will do fine. Your own trash might have some. Illustration of a pot with plastic on it.
Text: When the seeds germinate, pretend it's hunger games and weed out the weak ones. If you leave them in, they'll suffocate the strong ones too. Leave about 3 of the biggest ones! They are the winners! Illustration of a hand coming to pick out the smallest plant that yells "Nooooo!"
Illustration of an old H-P in hotpants and a very long beard. He is still very cool and sexy, despite his old age. He is holding a pot with a plant. He thinks: And now water it regularly, keep it in a sunny place and wait for the next 100 years... it's bigger than before.

This same trick works for a lot of plants! We have grown some citrus plants and an avocado too! Avocado seed is way bigger, so search for some tips that are especially for avocados. This kiwi tip isn’t as good for them, so to start germinating fruit seeds from all kinds of fruits, you might need some extra information.

Best fruit to grow!

Like said, most of the plants just won’t bear fruit, but there are some that will! My favorite one being tomato! Some tomato plants are genetically altered in a way, that their seeds are dead, but some aren’t. If you want to have a higher chance of actually getting your tomato seeds to germinate, buy an organic tomato instead of a regular one. It also helps if you buy tomatoes that are grown locally. That way you know the same breed of tomatoes has been able to survive in your area before too!

Here’s also a special tip for tomatoes. Tomato seeds have this… film, a weird slimy surface that can actually prevent them from germinating! But there’s a simple way to get it off. Suck the seed. Just put the seed in your mouth and suck it for a while! Your saliva will melt the film! Besides, the film just tastes like tomato, so this isn’t disgusting to do (except if you think tomatoes are disgusting… but why are you trying to grow tomatoes if you think so?).

Try it out!

Best part about growing plants from the seed is that you can try out basically anything. Worst outcome is that nothing happens. Best outcome is a beautiful plant! Okay… even worse outcome would be to spend a ton of money and THEN nothing happens. I’d hate that. So that’s why getting seeds from the fruit you eat is amazing!

If you like the comics and tips I post here, I suggest you to join my mailing list. That way you know what I’m up to when it comes to comics!

Also big thanks to my Patreon backers! Alongside them getting the access to exclusive comics, they also make this blog possible! So if you’re reading this and you aren’t a Patreon backer, you should send good vibes to all of my Patreon backers who literally paid this comic for all of us!