I met Roope Eronen, Amanda Vähämäki and their kids at the Fanzines! Festival in Paris last year. I was extremely excited since my favorite comics are from finland. We had a table together and went out with the whole Fanzines! team every night where we had a ton of fun talking about comics, beer and puke. Roope drew some of my favorite comic books such as 'KOIRANKAKKAA', 'ELÄIMIÄ' and 'OFFICES & HUMANS' which are published by Huuda Huuda. Papier Gache recently released 'Foxette', a great comic that came with a cassette Roope recorded. I can't believe our luck: Roope is going to come to Leipzig for the TMC 2014! 

You are one of the comic artists from the KUTI KUTI crew which brought finnish comics into an international focus. Can you tell us a little bit about the 'Kuti Kuti Story' and how it is working for you today?

Kutikuti started in 2005 first as a studio of about 7 comic artists. 2006 we started also to publish the free comics tabloid Kuti, from which we are best known about. Around same time Kutikuti started to organize exhibitions, and started to be more and more like a collective. Later we also bought a silk screening machine, but the seri-studio or ours was never succesful. No one had the time the machine would have needed. So we sold it, and now we have very small facilities for printing. We hope to get to print a lot with them in the future. Kutikuti was a studio until about 2011, and we moved a couple of times. But around 2011 we had about 15 people in our studio and it was too much mess etc. So we quit being a studio, and moved to a few different studios (now we are all slowly packing in one of them again...), and Kutikuti started to be more like an association. Now we are going to renovate that association to a more open and professional association and agenture. I think there are now about 20-25 people in Kutikuti.

How come finnish comics are so wild and awesome? Maybe because of the social security system... You can afford to be an artist in Finland because you can still get support from the state if you're poor. It's not too nice life with all the bureaucracy but it's still possible to live without a real job. I don't know how it's going to be in ten years, probably it won't be so easy to be an artist anymore... But well, many comic artists have another job, so i don't know how come there are so many good authors here. We have quite sweet water, could it be that? Or then because we don't have so strong tradition's weight on us.

Most of your characters are animals altering between cuteness and being shitty. Why do you chose to draw animals? 

And do you have any idea why comics and animals are going so well together? It's probably a coincidence that I've drawn so many animal comics. I did a couple for the early issues of Kuti and then got more and more ideas for animal comics. Also people liked those comics and supported me to do more. Also I'm not too good in drawing people, but I'm learning!  Well there's a long tradition in animal comics and animal stories overall. So it's deeply rooted in human culture. I think the animal characters are more universal and easier to use as more neutral figures to represent ideas. But I don't know if the wall painters in Lascaux thought it that way. Maybe they did?

You're very much into music, too. Can you tell us a little bit more about your own music? And what's the hottest stuff you're listening to right now? I'm playing improvised music at the moment with bands Avarus and Keijut. I used to play with bigger variety of instruments, but now I'm only playing synth. I'm not saying I'm master of any instrument, I'm actually not so good player in traditional way (but I'm learning!). But I've improvised a lot with these and some other bands. The bands' music has been mostly experimental free music, coming from nowhere and going anywhere. It's very hard to do it live, but super rewarding. Also in my solo shows I've wanted to have a big level of uncertainty and improvisation, getting myself to pretty uncomfortable situations. But when you manage to make great music in a situation like that it's incredible! On the other hand if you miss your train it can be frustrating, embarassing and depressing. I'm also making solo recordings as Nuslux at home, then I sometimes even make compositions. And sometimes I record some experiments. You can listen to some of these in Nuslux's soundcloud. Avarus is now playing almost weekly which makes me happy. I'm also super excited about Keijut, that's more bound to making audiovisual super experiences with light, projections, special effects and synths. I'm listening to a lot of music! Especially I like many kinds of electronic, experimental, psychedelic and free music. But lately I've been more and more into library music (Roger Roger, Nino Nardini, Fabio Fabor, A. Alessandroni, Joel VDB etc). Also I've enjoyed exotica a lot lately, especially Eden Ahbez which I've been listening to every day for a little while. Somehow I've begun to like easy listening too, more and more. Just two real nerdy questions at the end of this interview: what kind of pens and paper are you using?

And what's your favorite kind of beer in the world? I'm using almost any 0.3 - 0.5 mm black pens, brown Stabilos and Letrasets for colours (when colouring by hand). I'd like to learn how to use ink. I like many kinds of beer, but I'm most excited about Belgian ales. Thank you a ton, Roope! also check Roopes Flickr out KUTI KUTI is damn cool2!

The very first time I met Jho was at the Rolling Stone Cafe in Jakarta, Indonesia. We immediately had a good time talking about comics, Jakarta and how small the comic world around the globe is. Two weeks later Jho invited me to a comic meeting somewhere hidden in the meandering streets of Jakarta. I got sick the night before but wanted to go so badly and stumbled pale faced and sweating behind Jho and her friend to the meeting. The Comic artists around Beng Rahadian and the DB Komik crew gave me a great and heartwarming inside view of their work. I was impressed by the amount of work and the wild range of drawings and styles. In march I can only try to give something back: I am very glad that Jho is going to attend the Millionaires Club!

Hi Jho! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Hey! My name is Jhosephine Tanuwidjaya but people often call me Jho. I draw illustrations and comics for living but recently I'm more active in working on comic events and whatnot. My works are mostly indie, and I used to be a part of journal webcomic era back in the early 2000s ( see if you can find me here http://mekkablue.com/jcj/ ) with over 300+ strips from 2002-2006 though my website is now defunct. I have one ongoing serialized comic called 'KENTANG' (potato) in MAKKO, which is a local online publishing company in Indonesia. Other than that, I'm working on various personal projects such as 'Mr. Duck loves Jakarta' and 'Catharsis'.

Which artists had or still have a big influence on you?

Quite many which is probably why i have a pliable artstyle...

Definitely Osamu Tezuka, Astro Boy was the first series that got me hooked into making comics in general and it snowballed from there. André Franquin is also one of my biggest inspiration, notably the Gaston LaGaffe and the Spirou series. 

When I was younger I tend to favor japanese influences especially the whole dark cyberpunk, apocalyptic underground theme... stemming from Astroboy's futuristic story, then Black jack, then other cyberpunk comics. I think my art is still generally very japanese-influenced. But the internet era has really changed everything for me.  I got heavily influenced by various 'web' artists at the time (around 2003-2009) , notably Michaela Zachilli  (RAV) and James Stokoe (ORC STAIN). Their works blew my mind and made me rethink about the whole comic format in general, even until now. Then when I moved to Canada, I met more people such as Brandon Graham (KING CITY) and others which influenced me less about art but more about the motivations behind making and creating comics in general. 

Other artists include the ones in 'Journal Webcomic' era back in 2000-2003 such as Drew Weing, Les Mclaine and many others. I'm also a fan of comic strips artists such as Bill Watterson. 

Something we in Germany don't know about is that lots of indonesian comic artists are drawing for major publishing houses such as Marvel and DC. As well as you told me that you are working on plenty of commissioned artwork. Is it possible to find a good balance between your own work and the jobs you are doing?

Not really, it's still a constant struggle to get by with the amount of money we make as an artist especially if they have a family to feed. Most of the people who work in bigger foreign publishing houses such as Marvel/DC are either bound by a strict contract, or they work in a production house, so they have a more consistent income. Some of the local production house (such as STELLAR LABS) are quite good at balancing 'work' works and creative works, but many of the freelancers don't have that good of time management, sadly.

In my own case, commission/comic money is not enough, I still work other jobs as well such as being a hotel receptionist or security. I know some others work as a teacher or whatnot as well. We need income to be able to do what we actually want to do, hahaha.

Is there a certain indonesian drawing style or what's something very typical for indonesian comics?

I think Indonesian drawing 'style' is not as distinct as say, 'American' or Japanese styles. It's still developing.

Though in my opinion, maybe will never be as defined as the countries I've mentioned above and it's fine since we were exposed to so many influences from the very beginning. 

I think comic-strip format with humor as its genre dominates the industry, especially if it touches social issues. It also the ones that sells the most. Longer story-format is still less popular.

It is hard to draw and publish certain topics in Indonesia. You sometimes might have to deal with restrictions and censorship. Can you tell us more about this? And how does this effect your artwork?

We're surprisingly more lax than what most people think though Indonesia admittedly is a religious country, so topics such as LGBT, sex and extreme violence is still taboo in comics. Doesn't mean it non-existant, many of our artists circulate their comics via small events or online (such as extremely graphic 'Bad Comics for Bad People' by K.Jati) or use other means such as social media (facebook, twitter, etc) to voice out their opinions. 

But I think real LGBT issues are still rarely touched upon, aside from 'yaoi/yuri' version that tend to be fan-stories and more of a fantasy. 

It affected my work, an example was back then when a couple of publishers were interested in compiling my graphic diary about my time in Canada into a book but has to leave out the relationship part. Can't blame them, the investor is quite religious, and business is business. But the book was never made because I got cold feet about it, which is probably for the best.

  You studied in Toronto, Canada for quite a while. How was this different compared to studying in Indonesia?

I never studied in Indonesia so I can't really compare, but from what I heard seems like my study in Canada is less about writing reports and more about just doing it. 

  Excuse me for the following silly questions at the end of this interview. It's just something my nerdy me is always interested in:

To what kind of music are you listening to while drawing?

To name a few: Earth Wind Fire, Stevie Wonders, Robert Johnson, Nat King Cole, Waldeck, Payung Teduh, Dewa 19, The Groove, Daft Punk, BreakBot, Ouici, Jai Paul, various Japanese electronica/house/jazz groups.. I am not a musichead so I am not picky, I listen to most stuff but those are my faves both old and new. I also like reggae, hip-hop and R&B.

What's your favorite pen, ink, paper,…?

Drawing pens: Sakura SNOWMAN, cheap, only 1 buck a pop! Only can find it in Indonesia for some reason.

Paper: regular photocopy paper for sketching, but I like papers that are strong enough to carry water for quick painting for travel notes. I also tend to draw digitally nowadays.

Ink: Anything will do.  

Pencil: mechanical.. ah yes, the dark side. 

Colour: Watercolour, even if I'm not good at it. 

What kind of comics did you grow up with?

Mainly humor and comic strips.. Spirou & Fantasio, Asterix & Obelix, Doraemon, Osamu Tezuka stuff. At one point I just not choose anymore and buy everything that I can buy, until I started have to find a job of course... 

  Thank you so much Jho! See you soon here in Leipzig!

-A

Jho is currently drawing a comic diary about her voyages dans l'Europe. Keep track of it here http://blog.goethe.de/comiconnexions/

and check out Jho's website http://jhodesign.daportfolio.com

and also her tumblr http://jho-tan.tumblr.com