Today I had the pleasure of interviewing one of my biggest comic creator inspirations, the hugely talented and as it turns out, great fun to interview, Simone Lia.
Aside from creating some fantastic work in newspapers and magazines, setting up a small press comic publisher Cabanon Press with Tom Gauld, writing and drawing four children’s books (Billy Bean’s Dream is on a constant loop at my son’s bedtime right now) and churning out weekly strips for children’s comics The DFC and The Phoenix, Simone is probably best known for graphic novel Fluffy about an extremely cute bunny and the build up of crises that his human parent has to deal with.
In Simone’s new graphic novel Please God, Find Me a Husband!, she tackles the theme of looking for a new partner while relying on her spirituality for guidance. She also introduces a new protagonist… herself, sometimes depicted very much like Penelope Cruz for reasons you’ll have to read the comic to find out!
With Simone Lia on the Southbank
The interview is due to be broadcast at 8pm on Sunday 15 April on Resonance (104.4 FM in London and available online everywhere), as part of Alex Fitch’s Panel Borders (the UK’s only weekly broadcast radio show about comics).
You can also listen to the interview online whenever you like here…
http://archive.org/details/PanelBordersDepictingThePersonal
Despite my rambling questions and less than slick interview technique, Simone gives some great insite into the creative process of the graphic novel and what’s behind the story.
