126. JJOLEE: Telling stories through artistic bite-sized chunks on Webtoon

This week on LiteraryHype Podcast, I'm chatting with a  youngWebtoon creator who is making quite the name for herself. Jjolee is the author and illustrator of "Lost In Translation", which generated 58 million views, and she's currently working on "Cuffing Cupid". We're talking all about balancing deadlines with creativity, staying motivated, and processing the end of one project in order to move onto something new. 

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Cuffing Cupid

Lost in Translation

Transcript

00;00;05;29 - 00;00;14;06
Unknown
Hello and welcome back to Literary Hype. I am Stephanie, your literary hype man with a creator conversation today for Literary Hype Podcast.

00;00;14;11 - 00;00;24;23
Unknown
Web tune. And seeing so much growth right now, both on the digital spaces and in the publishing the books and physical formats. So it was about time I had a web tune creator on to talk about their work.

00;00;24;27 - 00;00;30;21
Unknown
So while I was at Emerald City, web two was sponsoring the Artist alley, and I got to talk to one of their creators, Jolie.

00;00;30;24 - 00;00;39;10
Unknown
She's behind Lost in Translation, which is like a Cape poppy drama. But also she's now working on cuffing Cupid, which is a little bit more of a mystery.

00;00;39;16 - 00;00;51;23
Unknown
This is such a sweet conversation, Jolie. It was so much fun and I may have made her cry. So let's see what happens now.

00;00;51;25 - 00;01;04;03
Unknown
Well, welcome to literary hype. It's so exciting to get to talk to you about your web two and series. So for anybody who hasn't heard of what you do, give a little synopsis of your work.

00;01;04;03 - 00;01;08;12
Unknown
Right now, you're doing cuffing Cupid. So talk a little bit about that one. That's my current series right now.

00;01;08;12 - 00;01;27;28
Unknown
It's about a private investigator who is really pessimist about love because he investigates a lot of love affairs and they always turn out to be, actually cheating. So, but one day he gets assigned a Cupid, and then chaos ensues over that.

00;01;27;28 - 00;01;37;20
Unknown
So it's really chaotic, and kind of funny, but there's a lot of mystery in there involved as well. So, you know, for you to check it out.

00;01;37;22 - 00;01;41;09
Unknown
What was your initial inspiration for this series?

00;01;41;11 - 00;01;52;03
Unknown
So after Lost in Translation ended, that's my first series. And that one's more towards like angst and like self, reflection and stuff like that.

00;01;52;06 - 00;02;03;02
Unknown
I wanted to try something new, so I wanted to go like a little bit of a comedic roots. But also I do like my darker themes. So I had to put the mystery in there as well. Yeah.

00;02;03;06 - 00;02;13;28
Unknown
When you're writing a graphic novel with a mystery, how much of it have you figured out ahead of time? Because you have to, like, leave the clues, of course, but you're not finished yet.

00;02;13;29 - 00;02;17;02
Unknown
Yeah. That was that was the tough part.

00;02;17;07 - 00;02;35;04
Unknown
I feel like I'm still learning the genre, as I'm writing it, for sure, but I, I did think about, the mystery part a lot, when I initially started. So initially, like, I wanted it to be a mystery, but I, it became like, more of a romance to mystery kind of thing.

00;02;35;04 - 00;02;35;20
Unknown
So,

00;02;35;22 - 00;02;38;13
Unknown
I had that concept of mine first

00;02;38;13 - 00;02;49;06
Unknown
before everything else. How much of it did you plot out ahead of time to do? Like, do you have, like, a murder board to keep track of everything? Yeah. Do you know that meme of the guy with, like, the red string burger? I'm like, yeah.

00;02;49;07 - 00;03;18;07
Unknown
Like, that's me. That's why we me every time I storyboard. But, yeah, I did want to talk about lost in Translation. It's it's a completed series, but, anybody who's watched or listened to literary knows I love K-pop. And this involves K-pop. Yeah. So introduce us to Lost in Translation. Yeah. So Lost in Translation was mostly about a K-pop idol who was caught up in a lot of scandals.

00;03;18;09 - 00;03;30;29
Unknown
And it was a lot about, him kind of coming to terms with that. But yeah, it's very angsty, very emotional, and, and it's still one of my favorite projects that I've ever, ever done.

00;03;30;29 - 00;03;40;02
Unknown
it's got a little bit of mystery as well. Yeah. A little, little twinge. People don't know the full story of what's going on with wild.

00;03;40;03 - 00;03;45;10
Unknown
Yeah. Who is your inspiration for mayhem?

00;03;45;12 - 00;03;50;04
Unknown
Or it's always a conglomeration. Yeah, yeah, I think it was like, just a lot of different,

00;03;50;06 - 00;04;03;01
Unknown
aspects, but a lot of mayhem came out of, like, my personal experiences. I also wanted them to all be really different as well. And kind of have, like, a good, chemistry going on together as well.

00;04;03;04 - 00;04;21;27
Unknown
Yeah. This touches a little on the, like, the parasocial relationships that are problematic of K-pop. Yeah, yeah. Hey. Gosh. How are you doing that? Okay. So what is it about K-pop that really inspires these relationships? Where we kind of glom onto these idols so hard?

00;04;22;00 - 00;04;32;20
Unknown
I think there's a lot of pressure in the industry. A lot of like, perception on what is, perfect, and what's loud.

00;04;32;22 - 00;04;50;08
Unknown
So it's it's I think that was a big part of why I wrote Lost in Translation to, I felt like even if I'm not an idol, I'm not an idol. I do feel like, pressure really, like, can mold the person and feel like.

00;04;50;11 - 00;04;57;03
Unknown
How do you handle the pressure that comes with, like, Lost in Translation had, like 15, 8 million views and counting, right.

00;04;57;06 - 00;05;02;16
Unknown
And now you're starting something new. So how do you keep that pressure from interfering with your creative process?

00;05;02;19 - 00;05;27;06
Unknown
It's really difficult to not look at. The number is, I don't like it affecting, like the way I write the series either. I feel like Lost in Translation has its own legacy, and I do feel like cuffing Cupid isn't high up as up there in terms of like in terms of what Lost in Translation accomplished.

00;05;27;06 - 00;05;48;24
Unknown
But, I still am really happy that I got to like, make Lost in Translation and have copied you, but maybe feel some of the shoes. I mean, not all of it, but you know, it's still lost in translation. Like helped me put my foot through the door first. And you did that while being a pharmacist? Yes. How'd you know?

00;05;48;26 - 00;05;53;22
Unknown
So what was it like having that creative outlet when you're in an industry that isn't very creative?

00;05;53;27 - 00;06;16;12
Unknown
I've always wanted to have, a career that's revolved around creativity. It was more of my parents pushes for me to not have that. So when I was working in the pharmacy, I thought, like, I wanted to have at least some agency back in my life, and that was lost in translation at the time.

00;06;16;12 - 00;06;38;22
Unknown
So, I was like, if you guys want me to do the pharmacy, I will have to like, you have to let me draw every time I go back home from work. And then over the weekend, draw all day so that I can draw this series and then, yeah, then it grew much bigger than I. Then I thought, and they thought too.

00;06;38;24 - 00;06;45;16
Unknown
did anything from pharmacy school or working in a pharmacy like, influence something in either of your web tunes?

00;06;45;22 - 00;06;55;15
Unknown
I'm not sure. I don't I don't know if it's like. I feel like maybe subconsciously it could have, but I don't have, like a direct thing that I like. Linked the two

00;06;55;18 - 00;07;03;12
Unknown
And with Lost in Translation kind of growing bigger than you expected, it got an actual K-pop idol involved. It had a day six.

00;07;03;12 - 00;07;05;28
Unknown
Get into this and in your process.

00;07;06;00 - 00;07;30;28
Unknown
I was a big fan of six. And I, I always pictured one of the members of, the K-pop group, Lost in Translation Club. They have, one of the members. I did picture him to have a voice similar to one of the members in Day6, and I just thought, like, I would just put it out there, like when you went to voice one of my characters.

00;07;31;00 - 00;07;54;13
Unknown
And Jae responded and said he'd love to voice him, and he's so nice. Like he knew I was a really big fan. So he helped, give his voice for a day, which is the character, and he didn't ask for anything in return, to be honest. He's like, so nice and I, I love, I, I appreciate it so much for what he did.

00;07;54;13 - 00;07;58;09
Unknown
And we still keep in touch actually. So it's been really nice

00;07;58;12 - 00;08;11;24
Unknown
What was your initial reaction when you found out that he was going to be part of it? Like, talk me through the emotions of that moment. Oh, my God, my heart was, like, pounding so hard. I don't think I could, like, keep still.

00;08;11;26 - 00;08;29;08
Unknown
So I was like shaking, like, oh my God, he's really going to do is you really got to do it. Yeah. And I and even to this day, I feel like I'm still, like, starstruck by, like, I can't believe he did that for me. Like, he didn't have to at all. So I'm really grateful for sure.

00;08;29;09 - 00;08;47;27
Unknown
I'm really, really grateful. And I will always be grateful, I think. So there's a music video that goes with it? Yes. Did you feel like it was a different process for you, for the drawings that became the animation for that? Yeah, it was a lot of pressure, because I really wanted to make it like, the best that I could be.

00;08;47;29 - 00;09;18;01
Unknown
Given I didn't really have much animation experience, and I didn't really know how to, give that works, that anyone else do it. So I was like, I'm just going to try to learn After Effects and I'll see what happens and I'll do my best. Looking at it now, I'm it's like a little hard for me to watch because it was my old art style, of course, but, it's it's still like a surreal moment because I think a lot of my readers really, really enjoyed it.

00;09;18;01 - 00;09;36;03
Unknown
And that makes me happy. And, you know, the song is a banger, so it is a banger. Yes. Like we could we can just play that all the time, I guess. So when you're creating these characters for these stories, does the character inform the art or does the art inform the character more often for your process?

00;09;36;05 - 00;09;47;12
Unknown
I'm not entirely sure because I feel like I design these characters and I don't quite know, like, fully like who they are until I start writing them.

00;09;47;14 - 00;10;05;28
Unknown
And I'm like, actually, like, this makes sense for this character. And, I think, like, even I'm learning more about the character as we go. Not that I don't like think about their story beforehand. I know a lot of their story is just not like there's details that sometimes you just don't think about, and it's more like a sort of conscious decision.

00;10;06;01 - 00;10;19;10
Unknown
And so I think I don't really know how to, like, answer that question, but it's like, I think maybe the character kind of forms as a story like continues. Michelle.

00;10;19;12 - 00;10;30;29
Unknown
I saw on Instagram that you were working on cuffing Cupid on the plane. What's it like having that weekly schedule and how are you, like finding the time to make sure that you're keeping up with that?

00;10;31;01 - 00;10;51;28
Unknown
I used to be a lot more on time with it during Lost in Translation. I feel like I didn't have, like, any issues of the deadline. It's like, hey, I was on time, like, every week, all right. But, I think as I started doing more conventions and stuff, it's been a little bit more draining for me to, do having to bed, but I'm still hanging in there.

00;10;52;05 - 00;10;57;08
Unknown
It's like sometimes I have to do two episodes a week, and if I gotta do it, I gotta do it.

00;10;57;14 - 00;11;18;01
Unknown
How do you stay inspired when you are doing conventions and meeting people? And that takes up so much time that you need to be spending on your art. Well, you answered it. You know, I meet people who love my art, and I think that's like one of the most motivating things I can like experience, because like them coming up and saying like, oh, I love your web too.

00;11;18;01 - 00;11;37;00
Unknown
And I just love like I just read it. I just, or I like I got my friends to read it and stuff like that. It's like seeing them in person is like another. Not that I don't like comments. I love comments, but like hearing that and seeing the like the light in their eyes. Meeting the creator and stuff like that.

00;11;37;01 - 00;11;56;01
Unknown
Like it brings like a lot of joy and I and sometimes like, I give some stuff which I'm like, oh my God, I don't deserve this. But it's like it. Yeah, I, I almost cry every time. I got a letter earlier and I was like, I can't read it now. Otherwise my make up is going to be like, yeah, like drained out of my face.

00;11;56;03 - 00;12;15;14
Unknown
Before this interview goes, I was like, I'm gonna hold off on. Well, I'm sure you could have come in with more makeup all over your face, and it would have been fine. No one would care. But with that, like when you turn something that you love as a hobby into a job, it's so easy to get burned out or the people that keep you going.

00;12;15;14 - 00;12;20;12
Unknown
Or do you have other ways to avoid burnout with something that is. Could have been just a hobby

00;12;20;14 - 00;12;36;27
Unknown
for sure. I think it's like, multiple factors into it, I think. I think people do help a lot for sure that, like, I think that was like the main thing that kept me going was lost in translation, for sure.

00;12;37;00 - 00;13;03;23
Unknown
I think I did get burnt out a little bit towards the end. So I think that's where my instincts of like, I want to personally finish this because I started this project and I want to finish this series for the characters I created. Right. Okay. It's so sorry. But yeah, that's that's like the main thing. I think if it's like, there's, like, a good balance of both.

00;13;03;25 - 00;13;04;12
Unknown
I'm sure.

00;13;04;15 - 00;13;13;05
Unknown
With Lost in Translation coming to an end, how did you process letting go of that story to move on to something else?

00;13;13;08 - 00;13;25;14
Unknown
I'm good. I might like actually. Okay. It was really hard to let go because I slowly lost in translation around 2017.

00;13;25;16 - 00;13;49;25
Unknown
And that was in canvas. And it got featured in 2020, and then it ran for, like, three more like crying and just like, don't like me, don't like that. Don't perceive it. It ran for three more years. So like total it's been five years since I started Lost in Translation. So it's really hard for me to let go.

00;13;49;25 - 00;14;14;19
Unknown
But, I tried to find a lot of my passion back into just drawing for a little bit because I wanted to get better, for sure. And not that I don't think the loss in general art was good, but I think, like, I feel like a part of me feels like I wasn't ready for that kind of, the kind of standard I had for myself with Lost Reflection.

00;14;14;21 - 00;14;37;05
Unknown
Like, I wish I could draw it, but I think that even if I tried to draw, I don't think I could make it better because I think my readers had already like they felt connection with my art style at the time. Right. So I don't think I could like re tie that connection by redrawing it just it looks better.

00;14;37;07 - 00;14;52;23
Unknown
So so after Lost in Translation ended, I just tried to find myself back into destroying art and then, like, huffing so bad was my other facet to keeping in touch with that side of myself.

00;14;52;26 - 00;15;00;19
Unknown
Does that give you confidence that they loved what you feel like? Wasn't the greatest art style? That if they love that, then they'll keep loving what you do?

00;15;00;20 - 00;15;02;19
Unknown
Or does that make it more scary?

00;15;02;23 - 00;15;20;24
Unknown
I guess, like in a way, it's like a little bit of both. So it makes me really appreciate when someone's like, I love lost translation or like, oh my God, you can you can read through that. But, I mean, I think it also just makes me feel happy that, like.

00;15;20;26 - 00;15;24;13
Unknown
Yeah, that I made it. Yeah. For sure.

00;15;24;20 - 00;15;36;18
Unknown
It's for anybody who hasn't read a webtoon before. What would you recommend for them to like if they're like, this, is that might be their first time hearing about webtoons or what this is. How would you recommend for them to get started into this world?

00;15;36;21 - 00;15;40;23
Unknown
Well, for me, when I start reading whatever it was out of order.

00;15;40;26 - 00;16;00;24
Unknown
But, you know, I just wanted to, like, get my mind off of this. And I think that's, like, a good way to do it. Like, if you just want to not think about, like, what's going on in life, right now or something like that, like, just put yourself in a into another story for a little bit kind of thing.

00;16;00;27 - 00;16;01;21
Unknown
Yeah.

00;16;01;24 - 00;16;07;06
Unknown
Well, since this is literary hype, the last question we always ask is what books or webtoons are you hyped about?

00;16;07;11 - 00;16;14;06
Unknown
Oh my gosh. Well, I love my friends. Webtoons. Of course I love Sub-Zero. I love Honey Lemon.

00;16;14;08 - 00;16;18;24
Unknown
I was a huge fan. Look at them back when I was making Lost in Translation.

00;16;18;24 - 00;16;25;23
Unknown
I don't read much anymore, because I, you know, I've seen, occupied by and Cupid, but. Yeah.

00;16;25;26 - 00;16;32;00
Unknown
Awesome. Well, thanks so much for taking time to talk to literary hype from webtoons, Artist Alley and Emerald City Comic-Con.

00;16;32;06 - 00;16;36;19
Unknown
Thank you so much for having me.

00;16;36;22 - 00;16;42;22
Unknown
Thanks again for Jolie for hanging out with me at Emerald City Comic-Con, and for the Web Toon team for helping to arrange this.

00;16;42;27 - 00;16;51;19
Unknown
you can check out both Lost in Translation and Cuffing Cupid on the Web Tune app right now. Or if you don't have the app, there links are in the show notes for you, so you can check those out for free.

00;16;51;21 - 00;17;01;16
Unknown
If you enjoyed this conversation, don't forget to subscribe to the Literary Hype Podcast. Give us some stars, leave a comment and share with your friends. Thanks so much for listening to the literary hype podcast.