From Haujobb to the successful comic "Alisik": Interview with artist Helge Vogt.

At the recently concluded book fair in Leipzig, the fourth and last volume of the successful comic series Alisik was published. The fantastically realized, mysterious story of an undead girl, her blind friend Ruben and various quirky, lovable characters has found numerous enthusiastic fans in the world of comics. We talked to the inventor and draftsman of Alisik, Helge Vogt, who has made a name for himself showing off his graphic art over the years via the computer demo scene and who is gaining masses of great exposure for himself with his latest creation..

Helge's world of colors: About the artist

As a member of the demo group Haujobb, Berlin based artist Helge Vogt earned fame and enthusiasm in the demo scene before he became even more popular with his comic series Alisik. Above all, his pictures series SMD(short for sex, monster and detail) is legendary. With these images he won the major graphic competition of the largest, pure demo party Breakpoint four times in a row. A track record still unbeaten at a major demo party today! Equally fascinating are his paintings which he did for the gigantic music disk project BitJam Vol. 1 - Solaris. The style and character concepts which he later perfected for Alisik are already clearly visible here. He also used his pixel brush for the spectacularly cool and hard hitting demo You Should from Haujobb. In addition to Alisik, these days Helge is mainly working in book arts painting book covers for titles including Percy Jackson, The Three Investigators and Gryphony.

Now let's explore what Helge wants to tell us.

BitJam Vol. 1 - Solaris (Music Disk, Platform: Windows)

Hello Helge! Thank you for stopping by. The Leipzig book fair has just come to an end. How do you feel the event went?

Very good! Naturally it is always fun to meet people who read our comic. There were actually quite a few this time round which leads me to inevitably think of our first trade show when Alisik#1 had its first appearance: At that time there were not so many fans, of course, we had Joscha Sauer on the table next to us ("Nicht lustig")who was busy signing and his queue seemed to be endless! Many people discovered our comic while they were bored of queuing and then made a short detour to us afterwards.;)

One must not forget that the actual work can be quite lonely. All right, perhaps this sounds a bit exaggerated now, but I tried to avoid this feeling as best as I can, I got myself studio space with some friends, which cuts back on the isolation and keeps you all talking. But day by day you're still drawing your stuff alone and you never know if the general public will take to it! Therefore I was naturally pleased that the most frequently asked question at fairs tended to be: "What's coming next?"

With the latest published fourth volume of Alisik, the story about the restless ghost girl has come to an end. When you look back on the entire development phase, which moments stick out in your memory most?

Alisik has occupied me now for over 5 years. Beginning with the first drawings completed through to the construction of the core story across to the conclusion of the contract with Carlsen and Le Lombard (the publishers) including the work itself there really was not a single day in which I have not worked on Alisik. You could say I went to bed with her at night and got up with her again in the morning!

We've added new ideas every day. It really was a project made from the heart and with no commissioned work to get in the way, you could pretty much run with it as much as you liked.

Are you proud of what has been achieved?

Definitely! The first part is in its third edition now and Alisik has appeared in all German and French-speaking countries (even including parts of Canada). I certainly hope that there is more to come. Discussions are ongoing anyway...

How did the idea for Alisik came to life?

Actually Alisik began as the idea for a demo. I wanted to tinker with a small cartoon style movie. Therefore, many scene people are pretty familiar with the first images and animations for several years now. Unfortunately, the project never really took off -it seems to be quite difficult to create a viable2D engine. Virgill was there from the beginning and has delivered some very cool tracks for the original project. I am also pleased that since the appearance of Alisik that I had the time to finish some of those animations we started for the project, even managing to include the great music Virgill delivered for the original project. Please visit my channel at YouTube for trailers!

Alisik - postmortem magic in four volumes. Published by Carlsen Verlag. 7.99 Euro for the printed version and 5.99 Euro as eBook.

The story is co-written by Hubertus Rufledt and yourself, how did this collaboration happen?

I knew Hubertus from working at Disney. For example I worked on some of the comics of various Pixar movies like Up, Ratatouille and The Princess and the Frog. We had a shared office at that time and he had also followed my creation of the first animations for the demo closely. Then he said: Let us make a comic out of it, which led us to further develop the story.

Can you help us to imagine the development process for such a comic? Do the images come into existence first,  providing  room for ideas, which in turn are embellished and enlarged by the author with words? After that are more images created?

First, we develop the skeletal plot outline: let’s call it ‘the common thread’. The beginning and end of the tale is finalized. But in between these points we gave ourselves a great deal of creative freedom. In particular I had the opportunity to  design the chapter pages exactly I wanted. This gave me the opportunity to include most of the ideas I had for images in the past few years, directly into the comic itself...

Was it difficult to find a publisher because of the unusual, dark theme or was Carlsen Verlag always on board with you since early development?

Oh, they liked the idea immediately. The main problem was more along the lines of how to tackle such a relatively large project on the financial side, but Carlsen found a great partner with Le Lombard in Belgium, so everything was really fine.

When is Alisik coming into theatres? For me it's quite clear that it could make its way to the big screen, , as it would fit perfectly between the oblique worlds of films like "A Nightmare Before Christmas" or "Coraline". Have people like Tim Burton or Henry Selick already got in touch with you?

;) I've heard something like that several times from fans and, of course, such films were also a source of inspiration to me. Alisik - the movie would be so cool! Also, it's not sooooo unlikely, because there have been talks about it, going in various different directions.

On many pages in Alisik a small pink bunny with button eyes is popping up. What's up with this character?

The rabbit reflects the inner feelings of Alisik. If she feels sad, but does not want to show it, the little rabbit starts to howl...The rabbit also offers a solid connection to the world of the living, but I do not want to reveal too much of the story...

The level of detail of the images is extremely high in Alisik. How long does it take to complete a full book?

Probably about a year, every book contains about 100 pages which are filled with up to 8 individual images per page. Also it shouldn't be forgotten that I did more than 100 book covers during the years I was busy working on Alisik, because I have to make a regular living from something and that is my main job.

So, recently you've worked on the artwork for the "Percy Jackson" series of books, and you're also drawing for "The Three Investigators "and covers for the fantasy novels of the new "Gryphony" series. What can we expect next from you?

Oh, I don't know where to start: I have various things that are coming up that are really cool, including books where I'm also able to create the inside graphics. Some of these are to be released the next few months. I'm also working on a small children's book for which I write the text myself. But I've also started creating material for a new comic tale...

What about a video game? The last page in Alisik - book 2 shows pixel versions of the postmortem characters. They look like being made for a game.

:-(That's another issue. Some people from Haujobb are making games under the Gamejobb label. We have a lot of material started, but nothing has been finalized, yet. Perhaps the future will reveal the truth?

Is it important to you not to stand still, but instead constantly evolve yourself and your projects?

That's very important, but also a problem: You normally tend to focus on things which you're not working on at the moment, but it's especially important to finish your current project.

How do you create an image? Which programs do you use?

Microsoft Paint is a powerful tool! ;)

Of course, I don't use it. I start most of the time with the classic way, using a pencil and then continue working on it in Photoshop. Many things and details are only built via digital means, but some of the graphics in the comics are completely painted with acrylic or water colors.

Your love for the computer demoscene, in which you've been active for many years, can be spotted in Alisik in many places. The "Evoke" graffiti on the wall, a "Haujobb rulez" slogan, the name "Nero" which appears in the guessing game the postmortems are playing. Are there any more references to the scene?

Oh, you've already found some! Cool! Yes, there are more. One person wears a shirt with the logo from STILL, Ruben's brother uses an Amiga notebook, a Gamejobb poster hangs on the wall, there's a plate with the number 1337, a (hard to recognize) SMD image is painted onto a Skateboard, there are pixel graphics and probably more...

Why did you include these allusions?

On the one hand, because as I said Alisik started as a demo. On the other hand, however, because I find the demo scene to be cool; many good friendships have originated there.

Would you agree that the experiences you have made in the demo scene have helped you for in your career and the resulting recognition?

Definitely! The demo scene consists of so many damn creative people. Previously I have used the real comic style much more, with black outlines and stuff. In the scene I have tried to get familiar with a lot more new graphical styles.

What do you think about today’s demoscene? Do you follow the events and new releases? Are you still active there?

I am always very excited to watch the releases from the 3-4 largest demo parties. Unfortunately, I'm currently not able to attend any parties or to release something at a party, for example; I've been at a comic festival in Belgium during Easter when Revision was happening.

Now we have learned a lot about the artist Helge Vogt, but know little about the person behind. Please tell us a bit about yourself? What gets you excited?

Let's put it this way: Alisik has taken a lot of my time in recent years. Especially in combination with the whole book cover jobs and soon...I'm looking forward again to getting some more free time, to visit friends, go to parties ... Nevertheless the last 1 or 2 years were of course an unbeatable experience: It's just insanely cool to turn up at an event and see people who're waiting in a queue for hours just to get a small drawing or to meet for a chat.

What is Helge doing in the year 2025?

SMD6

When will we see a new SMD image?

2025. ;) Seriously: I am(unfortunately) just very busy with my job. The SMDs were next to my work at Disney always a nice change. The themes of these images have also been something what I wouldn't be able to do as profession. But if you create your own comic and in the same way paint fantasy book covers, then there's not really a whole lot of difference in creating this sort of work.

Of course I hope to release something soon again. Maybe at Evoke 2015?

Fingers crossed! Helge, thank you for taking time for us.

Thank you for the interesting questions! Oh, don't forget to check out websites (Alisik.de, Trickwelt.com) and the Facebook pages of Alisik and Trickwelt, and Instagram, Twitter, YouTube...

Thanks to ne7 for proof-reading and correcting the translation.

All images on this page are (C) Carlsen Verlag