In June Dark Horse will release Fluffy, a cute but emotionally complex graphic novel about a talking bunny (who denies that he’s a bunny) and his “daddy,” a grown man named Michael. Michael has a tough time raising the inquisitive Fluffy, and an even tougher time once Fluffy’s teacher starts stalking him. So man and bunny escape to Sicily to visit Michael’s family, but things manage to get even more complicated there.
The cartoonist behind this graphic novel is Simone Lia, a British-born artist who also writes and illustrates children’s books. She and fellow cartoonist Tom Gauld publish their own comics in the U.K. with their own Cabanon Press. She has already seen Fluffy released in Britain, and now she’s bringing its unique charm to the United States. www.simonelia.com, www.cabanonpress.com
PW Comics Week: Can you tell me a little bit about your background as a cartoonist?
Simone Lia: I have a degree in illustration, and I started off writing and illustrating books for children. A few years later, I did a master’s at the Royal College of Art in London, and I met an illustrator called Tom Gauld. He used to be really into comics and [would] bring in things for me to read. He defined comics for me as “using pictures and words to tell a story.” That simple definition really inspired me to have a go and not worry too much about how the outcome would look, but do my best to communicate and tell a story.
PWCW: And then you two formed Cabanon Press?
SL: Tom’s dream was to have a publishing collective with lots of artists, but in the end it was us two working together. We really encouraged each other and worked long hours to make our first comic, First. I remember coming in on the weekends and those poor old printers in the computer room took a pounding when we came in. We used letterpress to make the cover of First. We wanted to make a comic that was a beautiful object to hold in your hand, like an artist’s book.
PWCW: With Fluffy, did you have the entire story mapped out when you first started on the first part of it, Book 1, or was it more of a loose process?
SL: It was a very loose process. The book is about relationships, and I wanted to have a big journey in the story as a mechanism to show the relationship between Fluffy and Michael Pulcino. At the outset I wanted the characters to go on this journey without using an airplane, [so] I decided that Sicily would be a good place for them to go as it’s a bit of a trek from London but also quite manageable. I had a vague and fuzzy idea of how it might end, but I was open to lots of possibilities as I was writing the story.
When I was doing the research and making the journey on the train to Sicily I actually felt as if I were in the story already. I shared my carriage with five other women and it was so interesting the dynamic that went on in a small space. [For Fluffy] I changed the characters into men, but they are based on the people that I met on my own journey.
PWCW: Michael’s family life seemed as complicated and real as many often are. Did you draw much inspiration for that aspect from your own life?
SL: Some of the key characters have elements of people that I know in my life, people around me or family, and of course myself. Some of those elements are rolled up together and then they take on their own life and they relate to each other in their own way. The main character, Fluffy, was inspired by a few children that I knew, but the character really came together when I saw a little boy on a bus desperately trying to get his dad’s attention. His dad was trying to read a paper and this little boy was climbing all over him and wouldn’t stop talking. I could see his dad getting quite exasperated, and then that little boy just slumped into his seat and quietly said, “You never listen to me, Daddy.” It was so sad.
PWCW: Likewise, how about the relationship between Michael and Fluffy’s teacher? It’s certainly not the typical relationship you see in most stories, but it seems more reflective of how difficult connecting with people can often be in the real world.
SL: Yes, it’s a very stressful relationship. Michael is an internal person and quite passive—from the outside he looks calm and collected, but on the inside he has so much anxiety and guilt and worry about everything. Miss Owers is so needy and is something real for him to have anxiety about.
PWCW: How was creating Fluffy different from creating a children’s book?
SL: I didn’t have any limits. I could put whatever content [I wanted] into the story—so that was lots of fun. Some of it is quite dark—there’s an image when the little girl, Sylvia, appears to be eating Fluffy. I don’t think that would be allowed if I were doing a children’s book.
PWCW: Who do you see as the ideal audience for this book?
SL: Gosh, anyone who picks it up and enjoys it. I hope that people enjoy the characters and the story.
