She managed to live a life with few regrets, balancing out her personal life with her career. She was a devoted wife and mother, and dearly loved by her family. Her accomplishments are many and varied: avid gardener, accomplished pianist, black belt in taekwondo, and of course her contributions to developmental biology. It has been a joy to share her love of books and music, to observe the combination of a certain flamboyancy with a calm, thoughtful, steady personality. Did you approach this book differently to the first? Big Ugly is your second long-form comic with Avery Hill, after Something City in 2017.From the day Suzanne was brought to me right after she was born-stuffed into a red Christmas stocking, Dec 23-not drowsy and sleepy but with her head up, her eyes alert, that interest in everything around her has never changed. Something city was a book of short comics. It felt easier to go into it without too much of a plan. If the comics worked by themselves they were probably going to work together because they had the setting of the book in common. Big ugly is my first longer comic that tells one story which was something totally new for me. I had to go into it with more of a plan and less crossing my fingers and hoping everything made sense. What are the differences between that type of work and creating your own book? Comparing the two processes… are there things you enjoy and things that are more challenging with each? You do a lot of freelance illustration work.

With illustration work, there’s a lot of quick satisfaction. You often wrap a project up within 2 weeks to a month max. I always get a kick out of the speed but because of the nature of comics, I feel like there has to be more dedication involved. The satisfaction of finishing a book and finishing an illustration isn’t comparable though. Finishing a book feels like a big life moment. I also feel more vulnerable when creating comics, I definitely put a little more of myself into comics. You call the book a “Post coming-of-Age” what made you decide to focus on that point in life? Any personal experiences? It’s actually great to switch between both, I’m always really looking forward to returning to drawing comics whilst in an illustration and visa versa. I think it’s just a matter of relating more to that phase of life. It’s fun because it’s kind of neither here nor there time. I’m sure every phase of life comes with a lot of questions and thinking but for me, the late 20’s coming into 30 has been a very thought-heavy time. Your illustration work is full of beautiful characters, did it feel strange working on two specific characters during the creation of Big Ugly? Do you feel like they’re part of your family now too? I think without it being autobiographical I put a lot of that into the book.

#A day in space suzanne lord age rating full#

Thank you! It didn’t feel strange because of how long I was working on the book. I had massive pauses throughout but I started the book in 2018 so it wasn’t an intense period of drawing the same characters over and over. It felt really joyful to draw the characters and make them feel things and speak. Sort of like how animation brings illustration to life. How did you create the artwork for the book, what tools did you use? It’s a proud feeling of like, ‘aw my characters say stuff and I relate to them’. I move around a lot and do a lot of house-sitting and live on a boat so it’s important to be super mobile. #A day in space suzanne lord age rating full#.