This creator spotlight is a part of a series of interviews featuring artists from Cloudscape’s latest comic anthology, Fantastic Frights. Click here to check out the Kickstarter campaign for the book.
Graduate of Fine Arts University in Kraków, Poland. Currently making a living from drawing art and comic books. Often gets inspiration from her own dreams, mythological stories or ancient art.
What were you scared of as a kid?
My aunt used to scare me with old Silesian legend about a monster which was demonic clawed detached hand, scratching misbehaving children backs to bloody pulp. In the night she used to scratch side of my bed after telling this story to scare me.
Also I watched 1998 “Ringu” movie when I was 9 years and I was totally scared by it.
What’s your favourite aspect of the horror genre as it applies to comics?
I was intrigued by dark and mysterious themes for as long as I remember so making stories and illustrations in this tone is the most fun for me. As an infant my favourite book was original Brother’s Grimm Fairytales which was very weird and gruesome, and I think it went from there. My work is usually inspired by legends, folktales or my own dreams. Fun fact: my birthname is the name of vampire/zombie monster from ancient slavic demonology called Wieszczy.
What was the most interesting/challenging thing you experienced when working with the book’s two-tone colour scheme?
To tell the truth, at first I was little bit worried about color palette since most of my work is monochromatic, but it turned out to be fun experience and I’m very happy with the final effect.
What was the inspiration behind your story for this anthology?
When I was a kid I used to watch this horror show called “Are You Afraid of the Dark?”, the latin american dub.
In essence, there’s a lot this comic takes from that show. The structure of the story feels right at home there.
Obviously, on a surface level, they’re nothing alike: My story is about Oracles, Visions, and a Magic Mountain.
But the basic premise of a kid being left alone in a new environment, and having to deal with a stranger, often bigger and stronger than them, and whose intentions are not easy to read… That’s basically how the show goes, and it pretty much sums up the inspirations for the horror in my comic.
As for the fantasy twist, well… I was reading a lot of greco-roman history and literature at the time, so that’s how I ended up with a plot full of Oracles haha.
Where can people find out more about your work?
More of my work can be found on instagram https://www.instagram.com/olgawieszczyk/ or facebook https://www.facebook.com/olgawieszczykk/ hopefully see you there!
The Kickstarter for Fantastic Frights is live Oct 19th – Nov 5th.