The brief was simple enough — make a drawing, in black and white, depicting the two of us on one of our cycling journeys. We then placed the aforementioned brief along with some blank paper in envelopes and sent them away.

The recipients? All the comic book artists we had had the fortune of coming across over the years.

In no time mail began pouring in. Envelope after envelope containing the most wonderful pieces of art imaginable. We were all smiles!

Now we wish to share this joy with you. Within these covers you will be able to see how a group of talented individuals envision our small world of bike travel. Narcissistic? Perhaps. But surely in a more interesting fashion than that of continuously posting inane photographs online.

All this, and we did it all without even having to buy a selfie stick! How about that?

And here you have a long list of all those who ended up participating in our fun vanity project!

Sami Aho, Mari Ahokoivu, JP Ahonen, Hanna Arvela-Sarén, Maria Björklund, Terhi Ekebom, Roope Eronen, Matti Hagelberg, Jyrki Heikkinen, Filippa Hella, Olli Hietala, Tuuli Hypén, Pertti Jarla, Richard Jensen, Emmi Jormalainen, Kaltsu Kallio, Timo Kokkila, Jan Konsin, Ilpo Koskela, Kati Kovacs, A-K Laine, Karri Laitinen, Reetta Laitinen, Kivi Larmola, Jarno Latva-Nikkola, Marko Latva-Nikkola, Hanna-Pirita Lehkonen, Annukka Leppänen, Ina Majaniemi, Eeva Meltio, Tommi Musturi, Reetta Niemensivu, Emmi Nieminen, Hans Nissen, Jyrki Nissinen, Christer Nuutinen, Anni Nykänen, Kati Närhi, Antti Ollikainen, Pentti Otsamo, Robert Ottosson, Elina Ovaskainen, Milla Paloniemi, Kaija Papu, Ville Pynnönen, Ville Ranta, Kati Rapia, Joonas Rinta-Kanto, Jii Roikonen, Anna Sailamaa, Kari Sihvonen, Kasper Strömman, Aino Sutinen, Tiitu Takalo, Petteri Tikkanen, Katja Tukiainen, Marko Turunen, Riitta Uusitalo, Jari Vaara, Emmi Valve & Mikko Väyrynen

Act 1

L(eka): …okay, are you ready?
K(aisa): um, I guess so…
L: Then let’s do this!
K: Well, the book is called “Place of Death…
L: …and it’s a children’s book about death!
K: No, it’s not!
L: But it is.
K: You can’t go around telling people that it’s a children’s book about death! People will think we’re crazy! No one will want to buy their kid a book about death! Besides, it’s not even meant for kids, it’s meant for sensible grown ups who like to read graphic novels!
L: You’re just saying that because you don’t know anything about kids. I think it’s a children’s book about death and I’m sure the kids will love it!

Act 2

K: Maybe we should talk a bit about the background for the book instead?
L: Sure!
K: Like do you remember how we came up with the idea for the book?
L: Of course! As you might recall we were working on our upcoming book, and I came up with the idea to make a press release for it that was a bit different.
K: Yes, I do remember that.
L: So I had the idea to do a press release for that book in comic book form, 24 pages, all very simple. A small zine, if you will.
K: But it kind of snowballed, didn’t it?
L: Well yeah… kind of. First it it was 32 pages. Then 48. And finally, as you know better than anyone, 64 pages. With hard covers and two colour printing.
K: All of which I then had to draw.
L. Well, yes. But in all fairness I did do some sketching for you.
K: Do you want to see his sketches?! Stick figures! I had to redo all of them!
L: Yes, but the drawings turned out beautiful! Kaisa’s such a talented artist!

Act 3

K: I feel that people might not really get what our book is about if they only read the transcript above.
L: You might be right…
K: Maybe you should read the text on the title page for them!
L: It says “Place of Death” on the title page.
K: I mean below that!
L: Oh… well it also says “a story about the temporal nature of this world and the kindness of strangers”.
K: There you have it!

Act 4

K: You had one good idea though.
L: Oh, which one in particular?
K: When you came up with the idea to invite a whole bunch of comic book artists to draw us as bike travellers. That I really liked!
L: I am good at making others work.
K: Yes. I know. But when the drawings began pouring in I was ecstatic! I just loved all of them!
L: And then we had a small exhibition with them. All sixty of them!
K: Yes, but for those who didn’t make it to the exhibition we also made a zine where we published every single one of them.
L: Which you get if you order the book!
K: Nice! One more good reason to order the book!

Act 5

K: But maybe we should tell people how they can order our book.
L: I guess we could do that…
K: You realise we need to sell books as well, not just produce them?!
L: Well…
K: Well we need to! Now tell them how they can get their hands on our book!
L: Okay… you just go to www.placeofdeathbook.com and there you press on the shop link.
K: And the price?
L: I don’t want to talk about money. It’s so tacky.
K: The price!
L: Well the book costs 20 euros, and that includes the zine.
K: Plus postage!
L: Plus postage.

Act 6

K: I’m really hungry!
L: Me too.
K: Did you still want to say something?
L: No, I guess we’re good.