Welcome, how are you? I’m Eelis Nilukka, and this is my new website!
In this post, I’ll introduce myself, and tell you what I do and why I created this website.
I’m a comics creator from Finland. I’m originally from Northern Finland, but currently I live in the southern part of the country, in the Helsinki Region. I don’t make a living making comics, but maybe some day I will. That is actually the reason I made this website: a professional, even a semi-professional, comics creator should have a website. It just makes things easier when you have a hub where people can find your contact information and a directory of all your comics.
In most of my projects, I’m a one-man show. It feels natural for me: I enjoy working by myself and the themes in my comics rise from my own personal experiences. Besides, I can handle all the phases of creating a comic from start to finish – writing, storyboarding, sketching, inking, lettering, and I’m even slowly learning how to colour – so why not! However, one of these days, I’d love to collaborate on a comic with an artist, or draw a comic written by someone else.
How did my journey in comics begin, you might ask. Well, most of these artist origin stories are the same, so I won’t go very much into detail about what I was into as a child or how I learned to draw etc. I doubt that my childhood was that formative, although Moomin, Disney and the classics of Franco-Belgian comics were present. My consumption of comics was very superficial and occasional before I found manga in the form of Ranma 1/2 at the age of 13/14. From that, I continued to Inuyasha, Fullmetal Alchemist, Naruto, Fushigi Yuugi, Neon Genesis Evangelion… At that time, I also created my first DeviantArt account and found webcomics. However, I was still a bookworm first and foremost, and even though I made a good attempt at publishing some of my early comics online, I didn’t consider it anything else than a hobby. Even when I started studying graphic design, I never networked with other comics creators because I thought that making comics is very nerdy and not cool at all, and I desperately wanted to be cool, which, sweetiepie, that’s very adorable, but you’ve been a nerd all your life, learn to embrace it. And in time I did; but it took years, and I had to go through some pretty intense anxiety and confusion and artblocks before I emerged on the other side as a nerd who accepts his weirdness. Over time, I’ve also found comics that inspire me artistically and other nerds with similar interests.
To wrap this up, here’s some basic info about me, stuff I’d write in a book of friends:
- School: university degrees in graphic design and English philology
- Hobbies: reading (my favourites are Robin Hobb, Johanna Sinisalo, Ursula K. LeGuin and Margaret Atwood), watching YouTube (I’m not listing my favourites because half of them are cancelled on Twitter and I don’t want the mob to attack me), taking and editing photos
- Pronouns: he/him
- Favourite music: bands like Enter Shikari, Pvris, BMTH, MCR, Linkin Park, The 1975
- Favourite food: pizza with pineapple
- Favourite drink: ice latte with oat milk and caramel syrup
- Favourite quote: “Like life is short but also like terribly and insufferably long at the same time.” — Jenna Marbles
Nilukka 