A couple of years ago we (writer Ehud Lavski and illustrator Yael Nathan), began creating short comics and uploading them to the internet. So far, our comics have been read over 20 million times and many people have a strong emotional response when reading them.
Working closely with someone to create a work of art is always a challenge, but it helps that we’ve been friends for much longer than we’ve been co-creators. There are always differences of opinion but when there are, we talk through them to see the other person’s perspective. When choosing a story for our horror comics, we’ll always pick one we’re both passionate about. That is how we continue to be excited about every new story.
The ideas for these short horror stories come from everywhere. Some appear fully formed. Some come from dreams. Others from nightmares. Whenever an idea burrows into my head and refuses to let go, I know it’s time to turn it into one of our dark comics.
Below are our latest works. The three of them (like a lot of our horror stories) are fairy tales in a way: a jazz singer that makes it rain when she sings, a mysterious tattoo artist that will give you a tattoo that’ll change your life, and an old man that might just have a time machine in the guest bedroom. Just like children, these scary stories are very different from each other, but we love them all equally. We can’t wait for them to join their brothers and sisters in the book collecting all of them.
We really hope you’ll like them. If you like our creative ideas check out our comic collection, now live on Kickstarter.
More info: kck.st
The Tattoo Artist
Ehud: When writing, it all starts with a bunch of messy, handwritten notes. Then I turn them into a script in FINAL DRAFT, a screenwriting program.
Yael: I then sketch the frames on an iPad, to see how the story flows. Once we’re happy with the form of the story and the plot twist, I pencil, ink, color, and letter the comics in ADOBE PHOTOSHOP.
Stormy Weather
Ehud: There are many people that inspire me. But if I have to chart the DNA of our comics, the biggest inspirations are Neil Gaiman, Guillermo Del Toro, and Junji Ito. Creators who are able to find beautiful, fantastic and horrific things in every corner of everyday life.
Yael: I think there’s hardly a single illustrator I don’t follow online on some platform. I love watching people create beautiful works. But my biggest inspirations are Claire Hummel, Miki Montlló, and J.A.W. Cooper.
Kurzweil's Time Machine
The book collects all 15 comics stories we've created in the last 3 years in a deluxe Hardcover publication. We pulled all the stops to make it the most beautiful book we could. The Bored Panda readers have been incredibly supportive of our scary drawings. We want to make a book they’d love to hold in their hands.
This is just the beginning for us. We have quite a few stories we want to tell, some short and some fairly epic. Creating these comics is the most artistically fulfilling thing for both of us. We’ll happily spend the rest of our lives creating them.
Right now we have two book-length graphic novels planned. The challenge for us is that we’re passionate about people being able to read our comics for free. So the problem we (and a lot of creators) are facing, is how to make a living while not limiting our readers to only those who can afford art. It’s a hard problem, but it’s one worth solving.
