Simone Lia
Simone Lia came to light with her quirky comic called
Fluffy, a rabbit in denial who believes that Michael is her dad. She originally published it through Cabanon
Press whilst working with Tom Gauld.
Gauld told her to abandon her children book illustration,
as they were restrictive, whilst with comic books you can continue the story with
as many pages as you like.
Her simplistic style lets the message ring out and its
charm available to people who may not necessarily appreciate art. The message
within the story processes quicker, due to the extraneous variables being
stripped away and the bare characters and dialog left. Simone never tells us
weather Fluffy is a boy or girl, and that lets the reader identify it as they
wish – she says ‘Interestingly the girls
said she was a girl and the boys said he was a boy. I think the reader
subconsciously finds a way that a character relates to him or herself and looks
for similarities.’[1]
The comics so simple, we can place ourselves within the characters, relating to
the odd daily occurrences… perhaps why the series was so popular.
Simone portrayed the ‘child’ as a rabbit instead, as they’re
‘much sweeter’[1]
and portrayed vulnerability. Fragments of conversations that she overhears and
those of her own making inspire their dialogue. Their adventures are also partly inspired by
her own life, for example Fluffy and Michael have a holiday in Sicily to
escape, Lia took the journey herself to visit family.
Simone used a very drastic change in her life in her latest
work, ‘Please God, find me a husband!’. She had just been dumped by email and was
praying and felt God answer her prayer in a subtle way, and wanted to explore
deeper into the relationship. She then visualised her spiritual journey through
her quirky drawings, Because it was such a personal story, it took her four
years to complete,[2]
doubt within herself thwarted progress. Lia’s innocence and sense of humour
make the book less of a preach to Christianity and more of an honest
description of being a catholic in the modern world.
[1] http://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/feb/14/fiction.laurabarton
[2] http://www.ameliasmagazine.com/art/an-interview-with-simone-lia-about-her-autobiographical-graphic-novel-please-god-find-me-a-husband/2012/06/15/
[1] http://cotlzine.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/simone-lia-interview.html
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