JigokuNeko is our latest Premium artist and author of the romantic comedy, Trouble Next Door! Check it out in the Premium section!
Thanks for agreeing to be interviewed, JigokuNeko, and welcome to the Premium tier!
Thank you, I’m happy to be here, in the site’s “roof garden” as it is!
So how did you first get interested in comics and manga?
I’d always been reading comics, every since I was a wee bundle of mischief. I think the earliest stuff was some comic adaptation of a Disney movie about a stray kitten and the standard European stuff like Asterix. Around middle school I found a comic book shop importing from the US and proceeded to leave some serious part of my allowance there on indie comics. Then, when I was wrapping up university (that’d be economics, I never took art classes actually) I woke up one day and decided to learn Japanese because I saw a travelogue and found it a very beautiful place and the kanji fascinated me. Of course, most of the people there were into anime and manga. Somebody loaned me Inuyasha and I was so hooked! Then my good ole comic book shop started importing the Tokyopop stuff and more money left my pockets.
Your style is very unique! While there’s shades of the manga style, there’s also obviously some other influences I can’t identify? What influences you the most as an artist?
I guess it’s a cocktail of manga and European-style with a lime slice of American mainstream and a topping of realism? I have no visual preferences, I will like the weirdest things and emulate elements of them until it all becomes so bastardized you can’t tell what in Chtulhu’s name it is! Though, what most inspires me is not images but music. I may like an illustration or photograph but true inspiration and the need to create something comes from hearing a song I really like.
You also have a pretty quirky sense of humour that can be seen in both your comic and some your illustrations. What are some of your favourite comedies?
I don’t actually like comedies per se, go figure! For me humor must be couched between slices of something else, like adventure. For example I love the humor in (the most amazing show ever!) Firefly, the way the differences between characters create the jokes. And the Harry Potter books had some laugh-out-loud burn moments Rowling doesn’t get enough credit for. As for romcoms, which you’d expect me to like since I make them, I actually haven’t seen a Hollywood-made one that I can even tolerate to watch again. I find them grossly unfunny and promoting totally wrong stereotypes for women…and just as often men. Virtually the only romcom I liked was “Bridget Jones’ diary” but hey, that was heavily based on Pride and Prejudice so it sorta counts.
Let’s talk a little bit about your series, Trouble Next Door; Can you tell us where you came up with the idea?
Have you ever had trouble with any of your neighbours in the past? Are any of the interactions in Trouble Next Door influenced by your own experiences?
I’ve been at odds with the neighbors quite a few times though nothing as cute as what goes on in the comic. Mostly it’s embezzlement of the building funds here, but hey, that’s the national pastime. And another time I duct-taped a “Do not park in my spot again” note to one of the asshats’ Benz who was all “too much fuss to park in my own spot”. And when I say taped, I mean taped all around the window. I must have left half my tape on it. But nobody ever parked in my spot again.
The main character of Trouble Next Door, Ilona is training to be a vet. Is there any particular reason you chose this profession? Do you have a love for animals yourself?
Would you believe that was tacked on with me having already drawn several pages? The script I had then was open to any type of student and I was having trouble deciding. I had to resort to googling lists of professions and at one time Ilona almost became a librarian. But yeah, I do love animals. In fact that’s also my people-filter: I don’t want anything to do with people who treat animals badly.
I see that you have two other series, Love Song and 9Lives, can you tell us a little bit about those series?
Well, Lovesong had its web run between 2010 and 2011 (so I’m only uploading revamped pages, don’t go thinking I can crank out so much!) and it’s another romcom although it’s more of a soapopera than slice-of-life. There are a lot of similarities in character-design, themes and tropes between this and TND. Basically every element I enjoy remains pretty much the same in every comic I do and only the story changes. On the other hand, 9Lives is a bit of an odd fruit. It’s a full-color oriental fantasy heavily influenced by my sightseeing during the time I spent as an intern in Istanbul, Turkey. In my free time I’d go visit all the palaces, bazaars and mosques and the aesthetic of their history fascinated me. Well, that and a trip I took to Egypt way before the riots and political unrest. I remember standing in the fringes of the desert and thinking “whoa, that’s a lot of sand to get lost in!”.
Do you have any future projects that you’re working on for your readers get excited about?
I’m heavily leaning towards a scifi adventure in the spirit of Firefly (have I mentioned this is my all-time favourite show? Have I?) with a band of outlaws fleeing the corrupted law across the planets. I know it sounds like so many shows and anime and games out there but I love that setup. Anyway, my stories rely heavily on character charm to get them going and less on action so that will be the focus here as well. I’ve done fantasy comics before but never scifi and I want to try my hand at it. I’m sorta curious to see how it goes since I plan for it to be more background-heavy as well as more heavily inked.
Well thank you for taking the time to answer our questions and once again congratulations on your well-deserved promotion!
Thank you very much! *enjoys sorbet at the roof garden*
Guest: JigokuNeko
