Horror Favourites – Ferry Gouw

Ferry Gouw is an illustrator extraordinaire whose work with major musicians and famous brands has gained him notoriety and respect. Turning towards a much more personal project his latest work is a supernatural horror comic Leftovers is inspired by the Indonesian folklore he grew up hearing about. We grabbed the brilliant artist for a chat about the films that inspired Leftovers and the horror movie that scares him the most.

At the age of 15, Ferry Gouw moved from Indonesia to London, where he still lives and works. He studied Art and Design at Central Saint Martins before completing his Master’s degree in Filmmaking at Mike Leigh’s London Film School.

Working with clients such as Adidas, Levi’s, Stussy and Lacoste, Ferry turned his considerable talent towards the music industry, a place he had a deep passion for having been in English indie rock band Semifinalists.

Over the years Ferry Gouw has gained extensive experience in the music field working with headlining artists such as Sean Paul and Roxy Music as well as Paul McCartney on his chart-topping Egypt Station. It is his work with Jamaican-American electronic dance music collective Major Lazer however that most people may be unexpectedly familiar with.

As the art director of Major Lazer, designing all aspects of their visual output – from the character designs, record sleeves and posters, to music and lyric videos he also created the amazing Major Lazer’s cartoon TV show, a insane and entertaining mix of music and mayhem that drew heavily from classic 80’s kids cartoons we all know and love.

Focusing on his work as an illustrator, graphic designer, and video director, Ferry Gouw has recently turned his skills to creating comics, with his titles including Puffa, Life Cycle of Froggies and Memory to Flesh sitting alongside a 124 page Major Lazer graphic novel Major Lazer: Year Negative One which he wrote and drew every visceral action packed page of.

Set in an alternate timeline 1984 where Jamaica’s crown jewel is Nu Kingston—a retro futuristic metropolis where gang lords control hordes of zombie-like addicts with a drug called Spice, Major Lazer can no longer maintain neutrality and must rely on new weapons and old comrades to prevent total apocalypse.

Moving from Sci-Fi to straight up horror Leftovers, published by risograph superstars, PageMasters and available for Pre-Order HERE, is 28 pages of terror torn from the sinister stories Gouw heard while growing up in Indonesia.

Horror Favourites – Ferry Gouw

Below awesome artist Ferry Gouw talks more about his inspiration as well as the horror films that mean the most to him:

“Growing up in Indonesia, beliefs in the occult and the paranormal was just an everyday occurrence. Tales of common ghosts like ‘Tuyul’ (ghost children, kept as supernatural slaves by their greedy masters – with the help of a witch, to steal money while the neighbours are asleep), and ‘Pocong’ (the recently deceased, whose soul is trapped in their shroud because the knot had not been untied, so they are hopping around at night looking for someone to free the knot so they can leave their physical form), are abound since I was a little boy.

Common courtesies are also required, such as asking permission from the spirits when you were taking a leak at a tree, honking your car horn when making a turn down a haunted road or hill. So a sensitivity to these ideas is pervasive in the everyday culture and lives of all Indonesians.

Therefore the themes in a lot of Indonesian horror films I grew up with were taken from well known myths, urban legends, and ghost stories. The main horror siren I watched as a child was Suzanna, who starred in films like Sundel Bolong, and Perkawinan Nyi Blorong.

These were essentially B-movies from the 80s. Then a new wave of horror films came out in the 90s, helmed by young cool local directors. I remember Jelangkung (the Indonesian version of a Ouija board/doll) being a massive hit, which was aided by tales of the haunted production of the film itself.

Because of the richness of the beliefs and myths in Indonesia, the films rarely strayed from these well-trodden tales to find new stories to tell. So, as much as I found the films memorable growing up, they were no match to the real creepiness of everyday life, and what supernatural dangers could lurk in every corner.

The first, and probably last time, I was every truly frightened out of my skin watching a horror film was the first Japanese Ring. I went to see it at Prince Charles Cinema in 1998 when it came out. I read a tiny blurb of it in the NME, if I’m not mistaken, not knowing much about it and went with my friend Kiri, just for a good night out. I was pissing my pants from the opening scene.

That sense of the uncanny in the everyday, the thin line between the mundane and the truly horrific that I grew up feeling in Indonesia, I had never felt while watching a horror film before (perhaps with the exception of The Exorcist). So when Ring started in a well lit bedroom, with a simple conversation between two giggling girls, I was already anxious, and the climax of the scene being a simple ringing of the phone piercing the silence was truly unnerving.

A lot of the horror in the film also happens in daylight, in such mundane surroundings, the camera work is very restrained, and crucially the main object of fear is kept very abstract for most of the film. The fear of the unknown, the feeling of insecurity and uncertainty, to me, is way more powerful than a horrific image that’s overplayed.

But when the reveal did come and we finally watched the big set piece in the film… Let me tell you, I had never been in a cinema auditorium where everyone literally grabbed the person next to them and started climbing the seats and shrieking in panic, me and Kiri included. It was the most communal, visceral, and physical experience I’d ever had at the cinema.

Naturally when Ring was finally available to rent as VHS I raced to my other friend, James’s house and forced him to watch it with me (maybe thinking at the time that I’d pass the curse to him? Can’t remember). We set it up late at night, 10 or 11PM, perfect time for it. And I was pleased to see that it was still scary the second time around, and it also freaked my friend out in all the right places.

When it finished we looked at each other in satisfaction at having endured it together. Except, at that moment… the phone rang. We laughed nervously, James walked over to the phone, picked it up and stopped smiling. He turned to me and let me hear the receiver: it was the sound of static… I think I almost fainted. I remember saying, stop joking, you prick! He kept saying, I’m not doing it. We learned later on it was his girlfriend trying to call us, but the line didn’t work that one time.

These first two experiences watching the original Japanese Ring make this my favourite horror film of all time.”

The launch party for Leftovers will be taking place at GOSH! Comics, 1 Berwick St, London, W1F 0DR on Wednesday 8th November 2023, from 7-9pm where Ferry Gouw will be signing copies of his newest comic published by PageMasters. You can also pre-order a signed copy for mail-order or collection on the GOSH! Comics website by clicking HERE.