We got in touch with Marko and asked some questions about his work. Firstly, we wanted to find out what inspired him to become a comic artist. The comic series author said: “I have always been drawing comics since I was a kid so it’s like second nature for me. These days it’s also my job so that’s even more motivating, lol. It’s sometimes hard to be creative and produce something new every week, but I’ll keep going since drawing comics for a living is my dream. Making positive stuff helps a lot too, because then it spreads to other parts of your life, and it’s a fuel that helps you achieve your goals and visions.”
The artist added: “But at the end of the day, I just want to do something that makes me laugh and hopefully it makes other people happy too.”
Next, Raassina shared with us more about his approach to character design: “I honestly don’t really pay that much attention to it, have to admit that most of my characters have been kinda ‘first draft’ kind of gigs. I guess I have a clear vision and then I execute it on the spot. But sometimes I do some more testing and research, like with Tiger from Nerd and Jock, that character went through multiple different versions before the final incarnation.
With a new character I would like it to be fairly simplistic so it’s easier to draw many times over, but also have at least some sort of originality so it stands out. Kinda basic, but not too basic, if that even makes sense.”
Asked to walk us through the creative process, from the initial idea for a cartoon to the finished digital illustration, Marko answered: “First is, of course, coming up with an idea. This is the hardest part for me, since getting good ideas can be tricky. Fortunately my jokes and ideas are mostly character-based, they just kinda move on their own when I put them in situations and then it plays out from there. But usually, I try to be creative by keeping my mind open and looking around. Sometimes I just open a 'random word generator' site and try to come up with ideas from that.
When I have an idea, maybe a joke or a setting, I’ll do a thumbnail version for it, see how it fits to my basic strip format. Then I either cut or add more panels, depending on what fits it best, and what kind of jokes I want to put there. I do like to make 6-8 panel episodes these days, so I can add more jokes and make them more fulfilling.”
“When I have a thumbnail ready, I’ll start making finished sketches based on it. This is probably the most time-consuming part of my art because you just have to think about all the little things like character placements/poses, backgrounds, finished dialogue, etc. One trick I use here is to make characters on separate pages and copy-paste them into the panels, it’s a more natural way for me to draw. But it comes with problems sometimes, especially with Jock, since he is sometimes so wide so it’s hard to fit him in.”
“After this is drawing the line art. This is the most fun part for me, since I can just blast some music/YouTube videos in the background and just let the pen flow. I guess you can say it’s the part where you have to think the least so it’s like being in a zone and following the lines.
Lastly I do coloring and some finishing touches. This is a fairly simple step for me too, since my coloring is simplistic so it doesn’t have too much going on. Sometimes picking and testing different colors can be time-consuming, but I’ll just try my best.”
Lastly, we wanted to know what specific comic artists or illustrators influenced Raassina’s work. We learned that: “I have tons of influences from childhood to the current day, it would take too long to just list them, but I’ll drop some notable names who have influenced me most in my path. Don Rosa, who made Donald Duck/Scrooge McDuck comics, was a huge inspiration for me as a kid. You can see some of his style of humor in my comics too. When I was a teenager, I started reading Dragon Ball so Akira Toriyama was a notable inspiration to my style too, and still is. Manga in general is something I read a lot and take inspiration from too.
But for my art style, the most notable inspiration could be Jeff Smith and his comic epic Bone. After reading that, I really fell in love with big and thick brush strokes. I used to draw comics with brush pens before going fully digital, but that bulky brush style still echoes in my art.”
