In the early 2000s, I discovered a love for reading and making comics. One of my characters was Fluffy, a small rabbit who lived in a human world. I wanted to write a long form story about Fluffy and his dad and I set about doing this by self-publishing the story in four parts under Cabanon Press. Cabanon Press was an imprint that Tom Gauld and I set up for publishing our comics. I had no idea how to write and structure a long story and relied on intuition and creating new story-telling devices as I went along. In some ways, knowing little about graphic novels gave me a freedom to create and make mistakes. What pulled me along was a curiosity about Fluffy and his dad's relationship. Writing and drawing the story helped me to investigate it and people of different ages seemed to resonate with the characters in the book.
Years later, I began wondering what would happen to Fluffy as he grew up. I thought about the struggles he'd have as he became more aware of the complexities of who really was. Jonathan Cape were keen for a sequel and slowly, slowly a self-help book/graphic memoir was created and written from Fluffy's point of view. Publication is almost 20 years after Jonathan Cape originally published the four chapters of Fluffy as one book. A lot has changed in my approach to story telling, but what remains is the curiosity of who Fluffy is and his relationship to others and also a way of feeling out the story intuitively, page by page.
The book is titled
How to Make Life Better, When it Feels Like it's Getting Worse and is available for pre-order ahead of it's September publication.
I made the decision to continue the story of Fluffy as he tries to find his purpose in life and also get a job. He has been doing work experience in various places and the stories are being documented on Instagram and his blog. What I'm enjoying in particular about this process is that I have NO idea about what is going to happen as he goes about trying new experiences. Being able to publish instantly his stories and engage with anyone that reads and comments have sometimes changed the trajectory of what is happening in his life. Also, his antics are making me doing things I would NEVER do in usual life. Fluffy's following is intimate enough that I feel, as a creative it's ok to experiment and make mistakes and engage with others in a fun way.
It's all here mostly on Fluffy's Instagram, and also his blog and website. Social media: @Fluffypulcino