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Finnish Comic Book Artist Kristian Huitula Illustrates Entire Kalevala

by Ted Heinonen

This past spring Ted Heinonen (over there on the right) conducted the following interview with Kristian Huitula, a Tampere artist who has richly illustrated and published the only comic book adaptation of the Kalevala that retains the actual text of the classic.
The first edition of Huitula’s comic book adaptation that appeared in the orginal language is in two volumes. His Russian edition of the Kalevala comic book was published this past March in one large volume. There have also been negotiations for English, Japanese, French and Danish translations. Ted says that as a graphic artist himself, he has “appreciated comic books since I could read, and my mother preferred that we spend our allowances on comics rather than buying candy – just as long as we ‘shared them’ with her.” His own reading still includes what are referred to as the “graphic novel” form of comics.

For more information about Huitula's work, go to his website.

Ted Heinonen: To start the interview, I’d like to ask about your background...
Kristian Huitala: I was born in Tampere, Finland, May 21, 1973. I still mostly live in Tampere although I’ve lived in Tokyo for almost a year.
TH: I’d like to know when you started drawing cartoons and who inspired you at that early age. Who were the teachers or others that you credit with encouraging you to pursue art?
KH: I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in media in 2000 from the Tampere Polytechnic Department of Art and Media. I was actually majoring in sound design, although during my studies I was intensively taking classes in visual arts also, including drawing, 2D- and 3D-animation, script-writing, etc. That is what was especially good about Tampere Polytechnic, the ability to take a wide variety of classes. To me it was good anyway, since I have always been interested to be doing many things at the same time, and to fully understand things in a wide perspective.
I think the first time I got into comics was quite early on, reading Donald Duck (Aku Ankka) when I was two years old. So maybe one could say that was my first “influence”.
I remember drawing some comic stories of my own before I went to school, mostly some sort of science fiction or western themes. In elementary school, when I was about seven, I discovered Marvel comics and became a huge Spider-Man fan for a long time ( I still am!). I especially liked the style of John Romita, Jr., and also the classic stories by John Romita himself. John Byrne’s X-men was also a big influence a few years later.
At that time, when I was about 13, I got my hands on some European comics that were more “adult” oriented, like Bilal and Moebius. I was really attracted not only to their visually original approach, but also the structure and wide variety of story themes.
Bill Sienkiewicz, an American, has always been an artist that I look up to. He has an incredible sense of color, form and style which is totally original and makes no compromises (Elektra Assassin,Stray Toasters).
At that time I didn’t really draw comics yet. Of course there always were some little things in school magazines, but not much besides that. I remember I was always drawing something, but not really in comic book style. I think I was quite critical of myself, and, already at that age, I was comparing my works to the artists I’ve mentioned. I felt frustrated that I obviously couldn’t do the things that I wanted to do – I just didn’t possess the technique necessary to achieve what I wanted. I think I have always been quite hard on myself.
In Finland, especially at that time, it wasn’t really even possible to study to become a comic artist as such, but to me the artists that I’ve mentioned have always been like the best teachers in the whole world. I know many people learn drawing by copying, but I have never done that either. I have just studied by looking at, then figuring out how it has been done, and then trying to adapt similar techniques to my own work – yet still at the same time trying to maintain my own style.
At the age of 10 I was selected to be in an art-oriented class in elementary school. That gave me the opportunity to focus on an artistic direction from relatively early on. But I was a lazy student at the elementary school level. I couldn’t always find the motivation to create art in the elementary school environment. I remember my works were usually always unfinished. I really needed more motivation than the teacher saying that “now you have to paint a bowl of apples”. I guess I just wanted to do something different but I didn’t know yet what it would be. I guess comics was the thing I was looking for – and to creating something that doesn’t really exist in our world, something more than just a bowl of apples.
TH: What are the degrees and awards you’ve acquired in your career?
KH: I have won couple of prizes in Finland, although I have rarely really taken part in any competitions really. One was a national drawing contest on a bird-theme back in 1989. I think I won the third prize. The other winners were some established graphic artists, so it felt quite nice to have won that award while being a young fellow among those tough professionals. I have been drawing birds also, not just comics and science fiction.
I think that I really got interested in drawing with a brush at that time, and became quite obsessed about drawing little details.
Of course there is a lot of nature and animals in the Kalevala, but I think my comics or paintings usually tend to be something else, something more urban. I like to deal with different themes, I don’t want to get stuck in a specific kind of style or genre – I have always wanted to explore new directions.
Nature itself can be a very inspiring theme. Especially in the Kalevala, nature has a very important role. After all, it’s a story about people living in a time when they still are in a very close connection with nature. For Finnish people nature has always been very important, and in Kalevala that connection with nature is inevitable. The nature around people is living, it even takes the form of divine creatures that live in harmony with people, as a natural part of their life and environment.

Kristian Huitula

In 1996 I won second prize when there was a competition during the celebration of the 100-year anniversary of comics. It has actually been the only competition for long graphic novel-length comics in Finland. I also wrote the script for the book – my first published graphic novel – based on my own original story. Winning the prize at that point gave me more confidence to go on making comics, although usually I tend to pursue my ambitions and vision anyway, regardless of what people say.
TH: Could tell us about your experience with the Japanese animation companies? I looked at the Production I.G. website and the project they are currently working on is quite incredible. It seems that most of the animation we have here in the USA is “Japanamation”or it’s farmed out to Korean production houses.
KH: Oh yes, the time I spent in the Japanese anime production companies was absolutely amazing. Obviously, being into comics I have always been interested in animation, and I have always been interested in Japanese culture in general – learning some Japanese, and training in Ninjutsu.
I sent a couple of written requests to some companies I found, including some samples of my previous works. I didn’t really even expect an answer, and I was actually surprised to get the invitation to work with Production I.G, since at first it was just a spontaneous idea. They were willing to invite me for a three month period that I was able to arrange for at that time.
It’s obvious that in many ways Japan is still a closed country towards foreign “gai-jins”, but I was very lucky that they already knew some of my previous works – some CD cover paintings that had sold quite well in Japan. So I was very honored to spend a hot and humid Tokyo summer with the wizards of the Japanese anime industry, and it was an amazing experience to learn their tricks of the trade.
Of course I already knewthe works I.G had been doing before, such as “Ghost In The Shell”, which is probably the most well known feature length anime movie outside Japan – when it comes to more adult-oriented animation. For three months I learned the whole anime production process from start to finish – every little detail – and I was surprised at the warm and open welcome I received from all the people there.
The following spring I returned to Japan to another company, working on the post-production for animation films, sound designing etc. After all, that was what I had been studying at that time in Tampere Polytechnic.
TH: Have ever thought of your Kalevala epic in animated form and if any of the companies you trained with might have been interested in taking on such a project?
KH: Concerning my Kalevala graphic novel, there was an animation project in pre-production phase with one Finnish media company, but unfortunately that seemed to get stuck in financial difficulties and it never really took off. But surely it would be an interesting concept for an animation movie or series. The financing obviously seems to be the biggest obstacle no matter how good the concept is. And animation production being an enormous project, it’s certain that it needs a lot of financing to get into production.
TH: The Japanese seem to enjoy the Moomins stories...
KH: Sure, the Moomins are very well known in Japan. But I’m not sure they are so familiar with the original Moomin comic by Tove Jansson, to my knowledge it is only recently that they have started publishing the original ones in Japan. I think some small Moomin toys are more popular, the ones you can attach to a mobile phone.
TH: Does their interest include Finnish folklore such as Kalevala?
KH: To my experience the Japanese know something about Kalevala also, although it’s not as well known as the Moomin phenomena. It might be a bit more difficult to merchandise also. The characters are not quite as cute and cuddly...
TH: As I mentioned in an earlier letter, your style reminded me of some of my favorite comic book artists as Milton Caniff, (Terry and the Pirates) Gil Kane and Barry Smith. The two later did the Savage Sword of Conan in the early 70’s, and even though they were black and white pulp comics there was a wonderful strength that only black and white ink drawing can convey. What media do you favor? Do you use traditional tools of drawing – pencil, pen, ink and paper – or a combination of rough sketches and then finish on a computer? What is your process?
KH: When making comics, my technical approach is relatively traditional. Basically it’s just brush and ink.
I do use computers for many different things, like designing the book covers and some coloring. There are many things a computer is suitable for, and makes some things much easier and faster. As long as you won’t let it start dictating the creative process itself. When doing something by hand there is always that “human touch” that makes a big difference. Using a computer is always a bit artificial, but it depends on what you’re after of course.
Most of my books are based on my own scripts, and I start drawing only after the last version of a script is completely finished. I might be doing some rough sketching at the same time, but to be able to estimate the story as a whole, it’s important to have the final script available – the script that really forces you to draw. It’s like imagining it in your mind’s eye, what it will look like when it’s finished.
I never really make a storyboard when I start the actual drawing process. Instead I make a very thorough page-plan, based on a script, that helps me estimate the length and structure of the comic. Then I know how much space and pages I can use for each chapter. I have found that process more rewarding. That way I can still maintain a lot of creative freedom when doing the final inking. If I first made a very detailed storyboard for each page it becomes too much like factory work. Usually I sketch just one page at a time, first making the lay-out and then inking, and perhaps adding some tones.
Of course this is possible only when I have a very well planned structure on paper. When drawing on the basis of somebody else’s sketching, the process is different. If I’m working on my own script my sketches are not usually very detailed, because I want to have a certain amount of creative freedom when inking. Then again, it depends completely on the style I’m going to use. Sometimes I prefer making a sketch with all the details, usually if the style is going to be very detailed and precise.
In a similar fashion to animation process, I make character designs to get into the characters of a story. It’s a bit like casting in a movie, it’s very important what the characters look like, how they physically interact with their personality and behavior. Usually I use a piece of paper double the size of the final printing size. That way it’s easier to maintain control and to draw in small detail.
I must say I’m very fond of black & white comics. Some might say color comics are just colored black and white comics, but it’s not exactly so. Obviously drawing in black and white is less costly, but to me black and white comics are a completely different world. Sometimes it’s so irritating to see how coloring has spoiled a very good drawing. It’s so unbelievable how strong and intensive impressions can be achieved using just black and white. Just look at some works of Frank Miller (Sin City), the way he uses black to give an impression of light and shadows is incredible. And maybe Jose Munoz and Didier Comes, although they use black and white in quite a different way.
Colors can be extremely impressive also, but if coloring is done merely to put in some color and is not used creatively, it just takes the attention away from the drawing. This seems to be the case especially when doing coloring with a computer – it is so easy to go the easy way.
I would say that the crucial point that makes hand-drawn images so much more appealing to the human eye is that they are “not perfect” – meaning that there is always a lot of variation in texture, etc. A computer does things always mathematically, and there is no variation. And it’s exactly variation that attracts the human eye. The funny thing is, that usually if you want to achieve some good-looking images using a computer, you try to add that variation to it to make it look more hand-made.
TH: Who do you collaborate with – if at all – on the story outlines and story boards?
KH: When it comes to more personal works like the comic books I have published, I have mostly done everything by myself. I’m quite a control freak and perfectionist, and I hate the feeling of things being not in control. (Maybe that’s why I didn’t get into the movie industry in the first place). But it sure is refreshing to collaborate with other people on some projects. It usually takes things in a totally different direction, and it’s always good to see things from different points of view. And of course I do commissions also, where the original ideas come from outside, and I just give them the physical form.
TH: It must be exciting to be the artist of the first serious graphic novel adaptation of the Kalevala. I know there would be good number of Finnish Americans who would take an interest in your work if is published in an English version – it would surely be a way of introducing the epic tale of Finland to a larger group. Back in the early 60’s my mother would buy us “Illustrated Classics”. They were classic stories that most of us had to read in public school – Treasure Island, Frankenstein, Robinson Crusoe, Black Arrow and others.
The transforming of the Kalevala to a graphic novel must have been quite an undertaking. How long did it take to get the story outlines together, and then the inking of the pages?

A page from the Russian edition of Kalevala by Huitula
KH: It took about 3 1/2 years altogether to make the Kalevala comic book. At the moment of making the first part I was still studying at the Tampere Polytechnic, so it wasn’t like a 9 to 5 job. But it was an intensive working period just the same. I started out in the beginning of 1997, at first making some sketches and designs, planning the structure, and of course reading it through. At first I was a bit skeptical if it could even be done. After all, the Kalevala is quite an enormous piece of literature. When I really got into it, I realized how much dialogue it contains. And as we know, dialogue is an important element in comics. It’s very tiring to read a comic that has too many text-boxes full of descriptions and explanations, without balloons and dialogue. When you think of it, it’s the dialogue between people that draws the reader’s attention and interest – because it explains the relationships between the characters, and that’s what people are basically interested in.
Anyway, when I continued making the adaptation, I realized little by little that it would be possible to make it work after all. My biggest concern was how much of the original text I could maintain, while still keeping the page amount in reasonable size. What my primary intention was from the beginning, was to use the original text form of Kalevala, without changing it in any way. To me, that always was the point of it, changing the text to modern day language would have diluted the whole concept. It’s the original text form that makes Kalevala so special, it’s the text that is a direct link to the past, that has survived through centuries in spoken Finnish. What I always felt was that changing any of the text would have broken that link, and ruined the whole idea. There was the possibility that the original text might be too difficult for people to understand, and the result would be obviously a financial disaster.
About that decision I wasn’t willing to make any compromises, no matter what. I relied on the fact that one picture can tell more than a thousand words. Later on I was pleased to realize that it wasn’t a bad decision after all. The Kalevala comic book got very good reviews throughout the Finnish media, and the public. It has been probably one of the best selling comic books in Finland, in graphic novel format. It even became quite popular among the Finnish school teachers, and what is especially rewarding is that it was discovered by people of all ages. I might say the biggest group in the audience has been middle-aged women, which is quite rare considering the usual target group of comics. But really there doesn’t seem to be much of an age-gap in the audience, people from 8 to 80 years old have been interested in the Kalevala in a comic book form.
TH: Were you happy with the end product? How were they received by the readers in Finland? Anything you would have changed or done differently?
KH: It’s certain that everything can be done in many different ways, and although I’m usually very critical of my own work, I’m surprisingly happy about the decisions I made in the Kalevala project. And there isn’t really much I would have done differently. I must say I’m quite satisfied with the final product.
TH: How is the project of translating to Russian going?
KH: It certainly is exciting that it’s going to be out in a Russian edition very soon. I have seen samples of it and it looks really nice. Hopefully I could have the English edition available also in the near future.
TH: I wonder if you have other ideas for stories to transform to the graphic novel style, maybe something from Russia or perhaps other countries with sagas like the Kalevala.
KH: The world is so full of incredible and interesting stories, I wish I could work on them all! Some other old epics might be interesting, but I think I’ll have a break and maybe concentrate on some completely different kind of stories. Franz Kafka has always had a strong impact on me, and for a long time I have had this crazy idea of making a comic book adaptation of some of his novels. Maybe The Trial or The Castle. There have been some comic adaptations based on his short stories, but I haven’t heard of any novel adaptations.
There are a few movie adaptations, but none of them really capture the true essence of Kafka’s novels, in my opinion. There is a sense of dark humor in his writing. It’s not always so obvious, it’s a bit hidden sometimes. It’s a sarcastic kind of humor, about how society works and so on. His characters are also extremely hilarious. But this is a side that has always been neglected in adaptations of his works. I personally find that the most interesting side.
TH: Tell me about your other comic projects you’ve worked on or are currently working on.
KH: Puunukke (The Wooden Puppet) is my latest published graphic novel, a psychological thriller about a ventriloquist and his dummy. Whereas my Kalevala adaptation was packed with text, Puunukke is much more visual. The story moves on at an extreme visual level – many pages without any text. So it’s kind of an opposite of the style that I used in Kalevala. What really fascinates me in comics is that there doesn’t seem to be any limits to what you can do. It’s basically just brush and paper and some imagination – and a zillion different ways to go.
TH: I see that you’ve done illustrating for CD covers for some rock bands, do you get many requests like that? What is your favorite commission work?
KH: Yes, I do quite a lot of commission work, and I get very different kinds of requests. It’s so different compared to my personal projects – in commission work I usually get a very strict frame to start with. And I like it that way, the better the client can describe what has to be done, the easier it is for me. The challenge is in how to visualize the client’s idea in the most satisfying way. When working on my own projects, it’s all up to me, and the possibilities are limitless to start out. So in commissioned work it is a relief to have some strict guidelines to work with.
TH: What would be the dream commission job you’d like to do someday?
KH: I’m not sure I have any specific dream commission, I’m quite satisfied with the way things are. Every day is like a new adventure and you don’t know what might happen the next day. Of course the appetite grows stronger while eating, and there is always that passion to get bigger and better. It seems that it’s impossible to be completely satisfied with your own work, there are always new levels to reach. I guess that’s the way it has to be in creative work – it’s a life-long journey.

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