Flapsticks

Comic: Apokryfia – Venus and the Dream Machine (2011-17)

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avalkis_gorki_ja_bantuApokryfia is a series of graphic novels and comic strips. Graphic poems, if you will. The visions often start from sketch books, visual diaries.

Here’s a psychedelic companion musical piece for listening while reading – When It Is Raining from My Arms (2001):

je_apokryfia_venus1 je_apokryfia_venus2 je_apokryfia_venus3 je_apokryfia_venus4 je_apokryfia_venus5 je_apokryfia_venus6 je_apokryfia_venus7 je_apokryfia_venus8

Comic & game: Explosion Land (1991–) and my first oil painting (1995)

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bamandbum

Early 1990s Bam and Bum – a.k.a. Bum and Pow from 1995 onward.

Bum and Pow – an antropomorphic bomb and a dynamite – are my oldest comic book characters still in use, from 1991. They are nowadays part of the Narcosis the Cat Meets the Flapsticks -comic book world that was re-discovered in 2007 from my 1997–1999 mathematics and physics book doodles and illustrations. I noticed that some of the characters, beings and things had obviously escaped from the same universe so I started to investigate these little critters, their peculiar habits and their world in a more accurate way.

explosionland11st Explosion Land strip from 2010.

explosionland2Another usual day in Explosion Land.

In summer 1995 my grand mother Tellervo taught me to paint with oil colors. I chose the comic book characters Bum and Pow and Dumdow the Angry Triangle as my first motif. The painting was called Tight Spot (1995) which was also the name for a puzzle/platform computer game I was planning to code on Turbo Pascal.

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Unfortunately the game was never finished. There are f.ex. animated rolling VHS tapes, cassettes, CDs, disks and other nowadays defunct but collectible electronic media you were supposed to collect in the game.

screen_tspot   screen_tspot5screen_tspot2   screen_tspot3 screen_tspot4

Stay tuned for more Explosion Land comic strips next time!

kieli_suomi  SUOMEKSI:

Olen piirtänyt ja luonut sarjakuvahahmoja pienestä pitäen. Olen löytänyt niitä myös mm. näkemällä niitä luonnon muovaamissa muodostelmissa ja fraktaalimaisissa kuvioissa. Räjähdysmaan asukit Bum-pommi ja Pow-dynamiitti ovat pitkäikäisimmät edelleen käytössä olevat hahmoni vuodelta 1991 (tuolloin nimillä Bam ja Bum). Minulla oli myös näihin hahmoihin pohjaava puzzle-tietokonepeli Tight Spot tekeillä vuonna 1996, mutta se jäi kesken. Nykyään nämä räjähdysherkät sankarit esiintyvät Narkoosi-kissa & Fläpstikkaat -sarjakuvien tarinoissa omassa maailmassaan.

Comic: Narcosis the Cat

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narcosisthecat

Narcosis the Cat cardboard cut-out (2010) painted on acrylics.

narcosisthecat_album

Narcosis the Cat is the main comic book character in the wacky adventures of Flapsticks. Check out more comic strips at http://www.jukkaeronen.com/narkoosi-kissa
which are currently in Finnish, translations are coming. The blog will also feature English strips every now and then: here are all the strips currently available.

narcosisthecat_2narcosisthecat_4narcosisthecat_5

kieli_suomi  SUOMEKSI: Lue Narkoosi-kissa-sarjakuvastrippejä osoitteessa http://www.jukkaeronen.com/narkoosi-kissa

Pastel: A Scream for Munchies (2012)

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screamformunchies

  • A Scream for Munchies (We’re Out of Munchies!) | Munkin huutaja (munkit on loppu!) (2009). Pencil drawing, 15×17 cm. A picture from the upcoming comic book story “Narcosis the Cat 2: Flapsticks in the Museum of Modern Art’s History”.
  • Making of A Scream for Munchies.
  • A Scream for Munchies (We’re Out of Munchies!) (2012), pastel on paper, 29×42 cm.

In honor of Edward Munch‘s The Scream (1893–1910). Inspired by news on one of the paintings (or pastels) being sold on Sotheby’s on May 2nd 2012 in New York. Here’s an interpretation of the artwork with wacky Flapsticks-characters (get to know them here!).

  • There is a back story to Munch’s The Scream, and so is for this pastiche: “One evening Chuck out of the Box came back from the market while on the bridge of time and passages his spinal cord (= spring) suddenly started to tremble as the red sunset followed before him… He forgot to buy munchies!! And the store now already closed was…” [Don’t know why Yoda appeared as the story teller at the end there but oh well…]
  • A pastiche starring Chuck out of the Box. Can you also spot Totti the Total Totem, Dumdow the Angry Triangle, and The Bermuda Triangle?                      [ANSWER: Totti – silhouette walking at the bridge, Dumdow – at the boat in the lake, Bermuda – next to Dumdow.]

Etching: A Stream of Mirages (2006)

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Etching 24×12 cm (Kangastusten virta in Finnish). 6 made with varying colors (some are black and white). This scene is from an upcoming Narcosis the Cat Meets the Flapsticks comic book story Flapsticks in the Land of the Pyramids. It tells about the legend of a Horse of the Troika – three giant horses worshipped by the people of Ee-Gypt.

In this artwork the birds from top center gradually transform into mountains and finally as flying dragons. The labyrinth on top right symbolizes the sun. “Corner sun” is my favorite motif in naive works.

Labyrinths and dungeons are one of my favorite themes – both in real life. We like to find caves and tunnels and wander in them with my friend Kriku who also does f.ex. psychedelic art.