Every year we are faced with an awkward choice: do we grab centre stage and pretend that we’re actually pleased about getting old, or do we go along with the charade and get all jolly about passing time, and the fact that we’re one step closer to death? OK, that sounds a bit morbid, but hey, this isn’t Happy Shiny Pony I Love You Dot Com; this is FML, the website where we all know that bad things happen to good people. And to bad people. So let’s revel in the fact that birthdays are supposed to be anticlimactic, and expect the worst. And make the most of it. A pessimist is never disappointed, as they say. I’m not sure who “they” is, but it beats expecting a fantastic day, and ending up on FML with a story to tell.

Directed by: Logan Burdick
Starring: Ben Giroux and Ray Chase
Guest Starring: Teddy Vincent, WL Jenkins,
Alberto de Diego, Nick Thurston, Anna Rubley,
Jessica Bishop, Susan Berger, Juliana Tyson,
Jon Kennedy, Erica Mathlin, Kelly Huddleston.
1st AC / Gaffer: Alex Darke
Grip: Matthew Little
Location Supervisor: Aaron Ehberhart
Art Department: Karissa Barney
PA: Elissa Weinzimmer
Edited by: Logan Burdick
Post production: Noside Production
Sound Design: Gizmo Deluxe
Sound Engineer: S Joly /  JL Fauvel
Creative Director: Didier Guedj

O HAI THERE. This week, we have to start off with one of the best gifs in the world. Of course, it contains a cat. Oh, and people, please avoid drinking and driving. It really doesn’t work. (Or avoid being a girl and driving. All right, it was a joke, calm down, we love you really.)

I should really pipe down because this week we’re welcoming a young lady, and with great pleasure. She’s 26, her name is Erika Meza and she lives in Paris but is not originally from there.
Our guest, an illustrator, “which means that I work to pay my bohemian lifestyle of coffee, cookies and watercolors 24/7” is from Mexico. I wanted to find out how she ended up in France. So I asked her. “Well, the official story is that I came on holiday in 2011, and had my jaw down on the floor the minute I saw the AMOUNT of beautifully printed, gorgeously drawn, exquisitely articulated comics - the fact that there's actually several bookstores devoted just to it really, really impressed me. I knew right there and then that I wanted to work in this media, no matter what.”

Erika has also understood everything you need to know to fit in France: appreciate cheese. As well as her quest for cheese, she’s “looking for projects, even under stones. And under the tiny stones under the stones.”

If you are wondering how she is getting on in Paris, “Really well! I've been meeting genuinely amazing people left and right - and had plenty of interesting conversations. It's a bit surreal, after dreaming of living here for so long, one day I'm walking down the street and it's normal; the next I'm walking down the same street and suddenly it hits me and it's like 'OMG right. Paris.' Right now, my next challenge is to play some pétanque. I hadn't ever seen it, and it's so funny.”

Erika even has projects now that she is in Paris cheese hunting. She’s starting a totally silent comic book based on a creepy story that she thought of while driving. She also has two children’s books projects, one horror one and one about puppets. “The main project, though, is surviving in a foreign country, finding my way through its bureaucracy, mastering the language and getting into the market. Piece of cake.”

Cats or dogs?
For sleeping on, dogs. For sleeping with, cats.

What were the latest things you enjoyed in movies, music, books and comics?
I cannot share Ólafur Arnalds and Cloud Cult enough.

Who are the artists you like and whose blogs you check out frequently?
From the french side, Aurélie Neyret, Eleonore Della Malva, Benjamin Lacombe, Clément Lefèvre, Claire Wendling. My personal god, James Jean. And well, Pascal Campion, Brittney Lee, Alina Chau, Kei Acedera, Manuel Arenas, Victoria Ying, Kevin Kidney and Jez Tuya. Drew Struzan too. Too many, gosh…

Tell us what you enjoy in life, your passions, pastimes, vices, and everyday pleasures.
I obviously enjoy drawing and seeing other people’s drawings. On top of that, chocolate, coffee, jumping on the bed and in puddles. Sketching people on the metro. Hiding my sketches from the people in the metro. Playing hide and seek in the dark.

Tell us a crap joke. Or your biggest FML.
No joke, sorry – I suck at telling jokes, I always explain too much… but I once was arrested in San Diego for being on the trolley without a ticket, and the ticket was in the bottom of the bag I never clear out “in case I need this bit of paper one day”.

Do you have any phobias? Which ones?
Burned people and aliens. Please don’t mix those up.

To finish off, ask yourself a question that you would’ve liked to have been asked, then choose whether to answer it or not.
Well, I always seem to end up discussing both religion and politics when everybody says you shouldn’t. I just have it in me, I guess. But it’s definitely something I rather not answer here.

To see this week's illustrated FML, please click here.

So, Erika was nice, wasn’t she? That’s us at FML, we have nice people. And we have nice videos, like this nice compilation. And to end this week’s article, we’ll kick back with a bossa nova version of the Zelda theme. See you soon!

If you want to be the next published artist, send an email to alice [at] fmylife.com including a link to your website/blog/DeviantArt. But DON'T send your illustration right away! You need first to get in touch with me, and I'll tell you what you have to do!

It’s a buyer’s market out there these days. No longer are the days when you could set up shop in the street with a wheelbarrow full of radishes and start selling them by bellowing at passers-by. No, you need a permit for that now. And a degree in marketing. And proof that you once swam across the width of an Olympic-size swimming pool. See, the harder it is to find a job, the easier it is to lose it. But if one day your boss kicks you out on your ass, just stick on a KISS record, rock out and say that something better is just around the corner. Take advantage of your severance package and/or unemployment allowance, go on a holiday in World of Warcraft, don’t tidy your room, and drink some beer. Drinking beer injects money into the system, and thus helps the economy. So it’s easy, next time someone says to you, “You’re fired”, just translate it in your head as “Happy Holidays.” And to quote a great song, enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think.

Hi guys! It’s the weeke… erm, parrot guy, move please, thanks. As I was saying… It’s the weekend, so let’s all start dancing like Michael Jackson, even on Lego.

So, before you get the Saturday night fever, check out this week’s artist. “In private, people call me God or Mâ bâh.” But in reality, he’s called Gabriel Boubet, AKA Zukuzu. But God has a website. Two even, due to the fact that he works on Zukuzu and Yuri’s Storiz. And God is also 28, and lives in Paris. He draws and sleeps very little. “I make the most of life and the joys that it brings!” Beautiful.

What does Gabriel like in what he does? “Telling stories, taking people on trips into my world, in a serious or funny way, in a comic or illustration, if people like what I do, I’m happy.” What he needs? “Right now, a helping hand and some visibility. And ideally some assistants and a workshop. I’ve got a lot of stories and projects in my mind, but I have to choose the ones I do due to lack of time. I’d love to create everything I’ve got in my head with a team of passionate people.”

Don’t miss Zukuzu’s Yuri’s Storiz. It’s turbomedia, which means that it’s a digital interactive comic book. It’s what he’s what he’s working on at the moment; it’s the story of a boy who becomes the prisoner of an adventure in which he doesn’t control his life anymore… because it’s up to the readers to decide what happens to him. Great, isn’t it? Gabriel points out also: “I’m fighting to save him! A horrible person is threatening to kill Yuri, unless if a thousand of us stand up to him!”

When we ask him about his school days, he answers, “School what? I come from the streets, I didn’t go to school. I’ve been drawing on my own since I was little, and then I wanted to share my work. I worked for a few years at Disney to then set up as a freelancer in Paris, and then come back to my first love which is comic books. And I was sick of being dressed up as Goofy all day.”

And since Zukuzu likes talking about his projects, what about the rest? “For the moment, I’m working on Yuri to push on through the medium that I’m using and also develop the scenario (which will be surprising). It’s a long-term project. It’ll take a while, but I have faith. I’m going to try and spread the word about it, so I can get well known, and then develop my other projects. In the short-term, I’m going to start a collaborative illustration website with a great concept, you’ll see. And in the long-term, I want to create other comic book projects and fairy tales, create a studio with other passionate people, and become master of the world.” And to become master of the world, we all know that the next step is to finish this interview, so on to the next part (transition king over here).

What were the latest things you enjoyed in movies, music, books and comics?
So, maybe not the latest, but the things I really enjoyed…. I’m really into moved and my tastes are really removed from my funny little stories, but the last film to move me was “Take Shelter” by Jeff Nichols, brilliant. The book I always have on me is “Steppenwolf” by Hermann Hesse. I read passages, and I’ve illustrated it. The last good track is “Iron” by Woodkid. In comics I’d say the manga “Fighting cock” by Izo Hashimoto, which I’ve been dragging around since its release. It’s a story I would’ve liked to make up.

Tell us what you enjoy in life, your passions, pastimes, vices, and everyday pleasures.
My passions are food and sex. I also like to draw when I’ve got nothing to eat or make out with. For pastimes, I like creating screenplays or thinking up comic book dialogues, often while falling asleep. My vices, only “Devilman” can see them (sort of a private joke). Everyday pleasure, I’d say a fresh notepad, get drawing on it, then realise that I’ve been drawing all night when I start to hear the birds singing and that Paris is still sleeping… Nah, a good blowjob is better.

Tell us a crap joke. Possible joker: if you don’t have a joke, tell us your worst FML.
It’s the story of a fox that goes into a chicken run and eats a chicken. When the farmer realizes this, he asks the fox if he ate the chicken. And the fox says no. But it was him.

Do you have a phobia?
I’m afraid of nothing. I love danger. I laugh in the face of danger!

If so, which one?
Elephant cemeteries, chalk under my fingernails, people who dip their croissants in their coffee or cocoa make me want to puke so they can feel what I feel.

To finish off, ask yourself a question you would’ve liked to have been asked, then it’s up to you whether or not to answer it.
I don’t want Yuri to end, what should I do to save him? You just have to like his Facebook page and spread the word, but only if you really like him!

To see this week’s illustrated FML, click here.

There you go, that’s all for this week! Thanks to Gabriel for his contribution!

If you want to be the next published artist, send an email to alice [at] fmylife.com including a link to your website/blog/DeviantArt. But DON'T send your illustration right away! You need first to get in touch with me, and I'll tell you what you have to do!

If you've been caught cheating, you probably wanted to get caught and deserve a slap on the kettle. If you've been cheated on, you may have poor taste in partners and can have a tub of ice-cream on us.
FML's cheater's cheater is probably this guy:
"Today, I walked in on my boyfriend getting it on with the neighbour's daughter. As soon as he saw me, he started singing 'It Wasn't Me' by Shaggy, completely naked, still sitting with the girl. FML"
If you're about to get caught out, your best bet is to deny everything, go blank, pretend you've fallen down a staircase, hit your head and lost your memory. We're not necessarily condoning lies and deception, but sometimes a small white lie can save your skin when faced with the possibility of getting mown down by a Toyota. Leave the coming clean to the wimps and goodie-two-shoes.
And for all you who have been cheated on, if it makes you feel any better, cheaters are mainly cheating themselves. The day will come when their oversexed brainboxes will explode into thousands of shards of lies onto a psychotherapist's couch, and will cost huge sums of money to put back together. Anyway, here are a few real-life examples of cheating. Enjoy!

Directed by: Logan Burdick
Starring: Ben Giroux and Ray Chase
Guest Starring: Matt Little, Kelly Huddleston,
Jessica Bishop, Lars Slind and Erica Mathlin
1st AC / Gaffer: Alex Darke
Grip: Matthew Little
Location Supervisor: Aaron Ehberhart
Art Department: Karissa Barney
PA: Elissa Weinzimmer
Edited by: Logan Burdick
Post production: Noside Production
Sound Design: Gizmo Deluxe
Sound Engineer: S Joly /  JL Fauvel
Creative Director: Didier Guedj
Special thanks to Morgan Prêleur and Steve Maisel.