'Kaapuveikko'.
Juha Vuorma is a Finnish cartoonist from Northern Ostrobothnia, best-known for creating the long-lasting newspaper humor strip 'Kaapuveikko' ("The Hooded One", 1992- ). Also working for comic books, he is mostly known for creating outlaw-style horror westerns ('The Sermon', 'The Gunman and the Ghost') and comics depicting the lives of people involved in music-based subcultures ('Kirkonpolttajatar', 'Raivotar', 'Underground Metal Comix'). Besides creating comics, he is a painter, whose works have been widely published on album covers by underground metal bands worldwide.
Early life
Juha Vuorma was born in 1969 in Ylikiiminki, a town in the Finnish province of Oulu. As a child, he enjoyed reading Italian Bonelli comic book series like 'Storia Del West' and 'Ken Parker'. They gave him a lasting fascination for black-and-white ink art, and Italian creators like Gino D'Antonio, Renato Polese and Ivo Milazzo remained important influences on his own work. Another major inspiration is the horror manga artist Hideshi Hino.
'Kaapuveikko'.
Kaapuveikko
In 1992, Vuorma debuted as a cartoonist wih the newspaper humor strip 'Kaapuveikko' ("The Hooded One"), which has continued to run in Finnish newspapers and magazines ever since. Kaapuveikko is a panda bear with a hood, who lives in an old dried-up well with a black cat and a skull. In Finland, 'Kaapuveikko' has appeared in both large nationwide tabloids (Ilta-Sanomat) and local newspapers like Iijokiseutu and Viikko Pohjois-Karjala. The 'Kaapuveikko' strips have been collected and reprinted in several comic albums. In addition, the hooded panda has starred in a continuous story ('Kaapuveikko ja Verokarhu', Sarjamafia, 1999) and in a children's picture book ('Minä olen Kaapuveikko', Kaapu Press, 2014). The Kaapuveikko character also appears also in Juha Vuorma's acrylic and oil paintings, which have been exhibited several times in Finland.
Myrkky
Between 1995 and 2009, Juha Vuorma's 'Rietas Heittiö' comic was published in Egmont's Myrkky comic book series. The main character engages in all sorts of jobs, from telephone salesman to a soloist in a black-metal band. The Myrkky comic book started as a Finnish edition of Norway's satirical Pyton comic book, but in the end Myrkky outlived Pyton by several years. In 2013, Vyorma self-published a comic book collection of his 'Rietas Heittiö' strips under his Kaapu Press imprint.
'The Gunman and the Maiden'.
Horror westerns
One of Juha Vuorma's favorite genres is the horror western. In 1995, he created the horror western outlaw comic book 'Saarnaaja' (1995), which was also published in the USA by the Californian imprint Wild Rags under the title 'The Sermon' (1996). Later parts of this western comic ('Misanthropica', 'Blanco 1', 'Blanco 2') were mostly self-published by the author. In 2009, these comics were collected and published in one volume by the Finnish comics publisher Zum Teufel under the title 'The Gunfighterrrrrr - V Sermones ad Mortuos'.
Other English-langauge publications
In later years, Juha Vuorma has focused on self-published one-shot comic books, instead of series. Their subject matters vary from people involved in music-based subcultures to horror western stories and humor comics. Several of them were also released in English. 'Underground Metal Comix' (2020) is a small English-language collection of comics from his Finnish-language comic books 'Kirkonpolttajatar' (2015) and 'Raivotar' (2018). 'The Gunman and the Ghost' (2021) is an English-language edition of the horror western story 'Haamuvarjo' (2021).
Underground metal music
In the late 1980s, Juha Vuorma played bass guitar for National Napalm Syndicate, one of the pioneering thrash metal bands in Finland. He recorded a couple of demo tapes and one album with them, 'National Napalm Syndicate' (EMI, 1989). In the end however, he decided not to further pursue a musical career and focus on comics and cartoons instead. National Napalm Syndicate continued to record, with Vuorma painting a couple of album covers for them. In addition, Vuorma has designed over 100 cover paintings for underground metal bands from all over the globe, including Kalmah, Autopsy, Whiplash, Usurper, Edge of Sanity and Denial of God. In addition to album covers, he also did other illustration work for bands, including the producing all the images for the popular music video of the song 'Drink with the Living Dead' by Texas horror rockers Ghoultown.
Cover for the 2014 National Napalm Syndicate release 'Lex Talionis'.