“Eventually in 2020, right before COVID hit, I got a friend from the US to bring me a refurbished iPad Pro, and started experimenting with digital drawing on Procreate. I only started posting earnestly on Instagram after my wife Natalia Soler Huici, who is much more talented and funny than me, suggested that I start sharing my comics there. Around two years ago I decided to start creating a long-form comic about an Icelandic shepherd who goes through Viking Bootcamp and joins a Norse occupation of the Isle of Mann. It was fun making, but the wars of the last year made it less and less fun for me to deal with people killing other people, so I started trying to figure out ways to make a comic about Vikings, where the Vikings don't do anything that will trigger me. We live in exciting times!”
When asked about the recurring themes in his comics, the artist responded: “While my comics were originally only jokes about Vikings, it slowly became a mix of way too many themes, all of which I love dearly and cannot give up. Beyond the Vikings, I am very much into pop culture references and puns, so I often use the Viking theme for silly jokes about movies or TV shows. Sometimes I might just draw an image of a character I like saying something silly. It’s an exercise I enjoy doing – as mentioned, I don’t draw well, so I need the practice – but I also like playing around with drawing styles.
While I feel like I have a very specific style, in which most of my comics are drawn, I also like making The New Yorker style black and white cartoons, for example, or weird abstract stuff. I also have three recurring storyworlds that (usually) aren't Viking-related.”
The artist continued and told us about the characters appearing in his series: “I have my autobiographical comics, where I tell about funny things that happen to me with my wife and/or son. I have my conversations with the frankly quite abusive Viking ghost Mundi, who kinda looks like a mix of South Park’s Cartman and the Reddit ghost. And, finally, I have Klaus, who used to look like a wee-wee, until people started unfollowing me for it, so I just made him into an oval shape. He’s German, I guess, and he likes saying the wrong thing in the wrong time, especially butt jokes, because butts are hilarious.
Recently, I started doing a lot of stuff about UFOs and aliens, because I am very much pro disclosure and think that not enough material is being done about that that isn't meant to ridicule the topic. That being said, it is a real struggle to avoid probing jokes.”
Next, we were curious how Tirosh comes up with ideas for his new strips. He told us: “In the past my comics ideas mostly came from the sagas, but ever since I started aiming my comics at a more general audience, I find inspiration in really random ways. Mostly, when I shower, which is why I shower daily. Sometimes I might just draw random characters until one of them ‘speaks’ a joke to me; this sounds more mystical than it is, it just helps trigger that subconscious part of the brain that makes jokes.
Sometimes I concentrate VERY HARD, saying ‘okay, today you are making a New Yorker cartoon. THINK OF SOMETHING RELATABLE!’ or sometimes I’m just ‘I hate the world today and everything is falling apart, make a comic that will showcase that’. It’s kinda like my mind is my own private ChatGPT. Which, I guess, is actually what minds are. I haven’t used ChatGPT or other LLMs for making comics (except for one case where I made a comic about ChatGPT making comics); the way I see it, as long as I am using my brain power to create, it might be less good than what AI can think of, but it's more fun for me. Often I'll ask my wife to think of a punchline, and it's usually much funnier than anything I can think of.”
“Beyond my writing process, I usually just turn on the ol’ iPad when my son’s fallen asleep, and start drawing whatever idea I had, or doodling until an idea comes along,” the artist started telling us about his creative process. He continued: “I only ‘re-use’ character drawings if it’s a part of my long-form comic, to keep the look consistent. Otherwise, I usually try out different brushes to see what kind of effect they make. If my Viking comics are usually ‘clean’, my Klaus comics are usually ‘messy’. I've had a period of experimenting with shadows, and while I actually really like how it looks, it's a lot of work and I am never sure if anyone notices.”
Lastly, we wanted to learn more about the artists influencing Yoav’s work. The cartoonist jokingly told us, 'Oh em gee, I have so many.' It turned out it wasn’t a joke, and indeed, the list of people who inspire Tirosh is quite long: “Like many making webcomics, I was reading Perry Bible Fellowship, Cyanide and Happiness, and Poorly Drawn Lines from way before I drew anything.
Ever since I started making comics, though, there are really countless influences and I am afraid of not mentioning someone and breaking their tiny hearts. I guess Brad T Jonas (@bradtjonas) is a huge influence, the beauty of his craft is just breathtaking, and he manages to make depressing stuff feel hilarious. Julia Gootzeit (ohmyghoulia) and Yaplaws (@yaplaws) taught me a lot to not look at the page as something stale but rather as a part of the creation. Recently I started admiring The Other End Comics (@neilkohney) for the brilliant way that he constructs narratives, as well as his hilarious drawing style, something that Delphini Comics does amazingly as well (@delphinicomics). My buddy Richard Klos (@custardfist) makes NSFW comics that often trigger me, but I just love the way that he approaches stories, puns, and drawing, and it helps when you know that behind it all is a very good person.”
“My Dad Is Dracula (@mydadisdracula) inspires me with how he plays around with a very tight form; reading his stuff taught me a lot about working under self-imposed constraints. The beauty of Sedem’s (@sedem_illustrates) drawings always amazes me, as from Life on Paper’s stuff (lifeonpaperart). Then there’s the hilarious toons by Ellis Rosen (@ellisjrosen) and Asher Perlman (@asherperlman), who both manage to capture moments of life in amazingly observant ways. Quick fire round: @extrafabulous_comics, @realfunghicomics, @last_place_comics, and @deliberatelyburied stand out as well.”
Finally, the artist added: “Outside influences are countless… Monty Python is obvious, Frisky Dingo and Aqua Teen Hunger Force are a gift from god. Arrested Development, Peep Show, Not Another Teen Movie, The Emperor's New Groove, Seinfeld, Schitt's Creek, 30 Rock, the old South Park, Team America, mattresses_of_aarhus, Terry Pratchett, Frisky Dingo, Frisky Dingo, Frisky Dingo, MY WIFE and SON, and… I have work to do so I guess I'll leave it at that.”
