Simone Lia

Simone Lia uses anthropomorphism in her work so that her work appeals more to her audience. Her most well-known use of anthropomorphism is seen in ‘Fluffy’.  Fluffy has a wide appeal because the simple shape and minimal features make the character appear ‘cute’ which allows the reader to follow the story more easily as they find the character engaging.

‘we employ animals in comics because we inherently realize the limitations of our human forms and are constantly seeking alternate means of rationalizing our worlds through means that, while unrealistic, have some semblance of plausibility’¹ Though Fluffy has many of the characteristics of a small child with his naivety and constant asking of questions, it is the fact that Simone Lia has not drawn a child that the book is funny and endearing. A good example is Fluffy’s leaving of rabbit droppings which reminds the reader of his rabbit nature and creates amusing moments.

‘Fluffy’( serialised 2003-2005) Simone Lia

  

Much of the humour in ‘Fluffy’ stems from the bizarre relationship of the rabbit ‘Fluffy’ and her human ‘Daddy’ Michael. The book constantly refers to the fact that Fluffy is a rabbit but never explains how the family came to be. Because of this awkward and absurd situations occur between the pair where Michael doesn’t know what to say to Fluffy. Simone Lia uses sparse panels and a lack of words in these situations to exaggerate the awkwardness and show time going by. The use of close ups on Michaels face show he is lost for words and the angle changes represent an attempt to move on to a less awkward subject.

Simone Lia also uses inanimate objects as characters such as lamps, a singular dandruff flake, a bit of corn or here two blobs. She uses surreal characters to express emotion a common one is the worm. She sometimes expresses her own emotions through the worm character unintentionally saying that she is ‘drawn to the worm’ and when doing her personal work she finds there are ‘emerging emotions’ that come through the character.²

'How do you do’ (2010) Simone Lia

Though her characters are simple Simone Lia gives them great personality. "What I want to do with my work is to be really, really honest and tell the truth in pictures, so sometimes characters will say things that are a bit ugly, not what you want them to say, they'll take on their own life.”³ This idea of honesty explains the simplicity of the characters as they are stripped down so that nothing gets in the way of their message. She gets lots of her ideas and phrases from overheard conversations and real life, so her honesty is also her interpretation of ‘real life’ communicated through her illustration work. She will start with an overheard snippet and then develop personalities characters and stories around it.²

This need to communicate clearly influences her illustration style. She uses flat colours and carefully selected, well toned colour palettes, she sometimes uses an online palette generator to find schemes she likes.²  She has a unique way of mixing images and text that makes her work very likeable and applicable to greetings cards and decorative art work.

References

1. Scott Marsden
2. Simone Lia
3. Laura Barton

Barton Laura. (2007). Rabbiting on. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/feb/14/fiction.laurabarton. Last accessed 4th Nov 2014.

Lia Simone (2014) Interview at University of Gloucestershire, 24th Oct

Marsden Scott. (2013). #124 Encounters With Animals: Revealing our Humanity Through Anthropomorphic Comics. Available: http://www.graphixia.cssgn.org/2013/07/09/124-encounters-with-animals-revealing-our-humanity-through-anthropomorphic-comics/. Last accessed 4th Nov 2014.