‘Belzebubs’ Creator JP Ahonen on Animated Series About Satanic Family

Finnish artist JP Ahonen is ready to unleash the animated series “Belzebubs” onto the unsuspecting world.

Based on his successful webcomic, it will premiere at Helsinki Intl. Film Festival – Love & Anarchy. Banijay Kids & Family is handling distribution. Terhi Väänänen is producing for Pyjama Films, Samppa Kukkonen directs and Lassi Vierikko is responsible for the script.

The series debuts first-look stills with Variety.

“It started as a self-therapy project over 10 years ago. I was burnt out and going through depression,” Ahonen tells Variety.

“My wife and I had just had our first kid after experiencing several miscarriages. I wanted to be at home with our child, but I also needed to work. It got to the point where I thought: ‘I need to pack up my pencils and change professions.’”

The Inktober challenge, which encourages artists to create one ink drawing for each day in October, changed everything.

“The first thing I came up with were two black metal dudes. I started thinking about this stay-at-home dad, Sløth, who wants to be a good husband and role model for his kids, but he also tries to fulfill his dream of making a living through music. It’s funny because in the black metal scene, it’s basically impossible to make it big. If you do, they tear you down and call you a poser. So either way, Sløth is fucked,” he laughs.

Ahonen ended up juxtaposing black metal and satanic imagery with family dynamic. Sløth is married to Lucyfer, and they’re raising Lilith and Leviathan.

“They do weird things, but they stick together. It’s one of those don’t-judge-a-book-by-its-cover stories. On the one hand, you have God, abstinence and conservatism, and then you have Satanism, which is all about indulging in life,” he says.

“One fan said it’s like ‘The Addams Family’ meets ‘Modern Family.’ That’s it in a nutshell.”

It’s also a call for tolerance.

“I strongly believe in creating relatable stories, and this one is about liberal values. There’s a lot of prejudice toward these characters, but they’re open to whatever you’re into,” he notes.

“You have the grandma who’s an old-school Satanist, and the kids who are more liberal. They don’t mind dressing up as an angel for a school play. But at the end of the day, they all support each other.”

In the upcoming episodes, he gets to “really dive into their individual stories.”

“Even if you’re familiar with the comics, there’s so much more going on.”

The show also allows him to return to his music videos, as Belzebubs is also a functioning band.

“We made our first album in 2019, and it charted in Finland. The second one is ready,” he says.

“A musician friend and I were juggling some ideas that’d include animation and music, and then the comic suddenly went viral. We needed proper music videos, and that’s when Pyjama Films got involved. Things snowballed from there, much like in our “Cathedrals of Mourning” music video, and we started plotting an animated series adaptation.”

He’s already developing the second season of the show.

“I hope we get to do several. It’s evident there’s so much more we can do with these characters. The comic is still the beating core of this story, but the series pulls everything together.”

He hopes it will go global – after all, his fandom already has.

“This fandom isn’t limited to Finland. If I look at the numbers, I think it’s the U.S. first, then Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Italy. Finland actually comes in fifth.”

He’s still surprised that something that started out as a very personal project resonated with so many people.

“They know my history with depression and suicidal thoughts – all this really bleak stuff. It’s wonderful that now I can be there for them through my art.”