Comic Art Museum - Brussels

Finland has had a great comic book tradition for many years. The country’s most famous author is the artist Tove Jansson (1914-2001), whose Moomin tales have travelled the world. What is more, the Belgian Comic Strip Center paid tribute to Jansson in a major exhibition in 2010. But the Land of a Thousand Lakes has always been at the forefront in modern music, too: with Suomirock in the 1950s and '60s and then a few decades later with heavy metal. Small wonder, then, that these two disciplines should come together harmoniously in Perkeros, by JP Ahonen and KP Alare. Very few comic strips centred on music have been realised with such brio. Which gives us a good reason for exhibiting this gem of the Great Northern comic strip in our Gallery. 

Willem De Graeve, Belgian Comic Strip Center

Led by Axel, their 22-year-old lead guitarist, the five members of Perkeros are putting their all into the group with a single objective: to record their first album! But as every musician in the world knows, the road to glory is paved with many surprises. Especially if, like Axel and his band, you discover that music can also reawaken some very ancient magic powers…
Between magic and music, JP Ahonen and KP Alare tell a story that is familiar throughout the world: the excitement of forming a group, with all that it entails in the way of friendship, and passion… and blunders.
A blend of comic book and French-Belgian comic strip, Perkeros combines big sound and humour with unexpected touches of fantasy: the singer with the band sells kebabs, the bass player is old and mad and the drummer is a bear – a real one!
Perkeros is like Gorillaz bursting into the world of Harry Potter: big sound, handsome visuals and 100% adventure… In short, the magic of music!

Jussi-Pekka Ahonen, alias JP Ahonen, the artist and co-writer of the scenario for Perkeros, was born in Tampere, Finland, in 1981. He has been a comic strip author since the mid 2000s and has published half a dozen albums.

The illustrator and graphic artist KP Alare, born in 1981, co-wrote the scenario for Perkeros. He is also a musician, so he knows what he is talking about.

The Publisher