Prior to meeting her, all I knew about the creator of Idiot Comics was that she was Chinese and went by the nickname Tou Yeye. Her illustrations have a goofy, off-the-wall humor, but in our conversation, she admits to depressive tendencies. “I’m often depressed and sometimes very goofy,” she says. “I like the writing of Yukio Mishima and Tatsuhiko Shibusawa, along with films of Roman Polanski.” These tastes are mirrored in her comics: cheerful but shot through with black and white lines, melancholy but saturated with color, never entirely choosing one side.
一个画漫画的女生叫头爷爷，这个名字大概是在采访之前我对《笨蛋漫画》作家唯一的了解。请她说说自己是个什么样的人，她回答“经常比较抑郁，有时候又很幽默。喜欢三岛由纪夫、涩泽龙彦的文字，也喜欢波兰斯基的电影。”描述跟她的漫画不谋而合，快乐里保留黑白的线条，抑郁里永远有明亮的色彩，从不坚决地选任何一边。
“When I was a freshman in college, I was extremely introverted and didn’t have many friends,” she recalls. “I read a lot of books by Osamu Dazai, who romanticized the idea of running away from home. Thinking it was a cool idea, I used all of my New Year’s red envelope money to travel to Tibet.”
Tou Yeye’s foray into creating comics began with the conclusion of this trip. She wanted a way to document her travels, as seen through her wild imagination. Her inaugural comic, Yi Chang, chronicles the entirety of her journey through Sichuan.
她的漫画创作始于自己的一段心路经历，“大一的时候曾经离家出走过一段时间，当时我很自闭，身边没什么朋友。天天看太宰治的书，觉得离家出走很酷，就拿着压岁钱独自去了四川藏区。” 之后她想把这次出走画成一个漫画，旅程中所有的细节加上天马行空的想象，就变成了头爷爷的第一个作品《一场》。
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Several characters make frequent appearances throughout Tou Yeye’s comics. The short-haired girl by the name of Weiwei represents the artist herself, the snarky bird is one of her real-life friends, and the rabbit and the dinosaur are friends she dreamed up. Throughout Idiot Comics, these characters can be seen cursing each other out, throwing poop at each other, or falling prey to spilled milk teas.
In a separate series, Nightmare Shop, Weiwei travels to a monochrome world. As she wanders through this colorless realm musing on the meaning of existence, the bird and rabbit can be randomly spotted embedded within the surreal landscapes.
她漫画里的人物常常是固定不变的。常出现的短发女生薇薇，是她自己，鸟是她的好朋友，兔子跟恐龙则是她幻想出来的朋友。他们在她的《笨蛋漫画》里会不小心在地铁里被奶茶泼到，骂一些好笑的脏话，甚至互相丢大便。
但在另一个系列作品《噩梦商店》里，一切艳丽明朗的色彩都褪去了。薇薇、鸟跟兔子去到一个宁静的黑白世界，淡淡地讨论着关于宇宙的终极问题。
After graduating from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts with a degree in printmaking, Tou Yeye left China to study for two years in France. During her time abroad, she became friends with a lot of comics artists, whose bohemian lives seemed ideal. Back in China, she found a very different creative environment. She wants to keep doing what she loves but has to spend most of her time every day on French translations to make ends meet. “I know so many other comics artists who are really impressive, but they all have other jobs, or they’re still in school,” she sighs. “Still I’ve seen that the overall creative atmosphere in China is getting better and better.”
Tou Yeye says she may soon quit freelancing and find a steady job drawing things she might not really love. But Idiot Comics will go on no matter what. It’s a project that gives her and others a few minutes to escape from reality, a moment to enjoy a simple happiness.
头爷爷毕业于广州美术学院版画系，大学毕业以后去了法国游学两年，在法国学习期间，她认识了很多漫画家朋友，他们过着比较理想化的艺术家生活。回国后却发现国内的创作环境不太一样，她想继续画自己喜欢的东西，日常做最多的事反而是法语翻译工作。“我身边一直有很多画漫画特别厉害的人，但他们都有其他工作，或者还是学生。但我感觉到国内的总体创作氛围有越来越好的倾向。”
头爷爷表示接下来也许会结束自由职业状态找一份工作，画一些自己不那么热衷的东西，但笨蛋漫画一定会持续进行下去，给自己跟别人带来两分钟的简单快乐时光。
A limited number of Idiot Comics Vol. 1 is now available in the Neocha Shop.
《笨蛋漫画》Vol. 1 现于Neocha商店限量发售。
