As she readies a major career retrospective in London, the creator of Tamara Drewe and Gemma Bovery looks back on a life in comic strips.
When did your passion for comic illustration begin?
I made comics when I was really small. I can remember being really pleased drawing little men carrying buttons and writing in text balloons. I was so fascinated by comics because there were so many in my house when I was growing up, particularly ones by Ronald Searle and in old copies of Punch. [My comics] started out mostly of things like animals but, when I was about eight years old, they became really quite violent. I can remember one involving lots of people being bumped off called Bullet Vengeance.
What inspired that particular strip?
There was an American base close to my village and the children of the soldiers went to my school. They would give me their comics once they had finished reading them, including copies of Superman and Spiderman, but there were always a few horror comics thrown in. I can remember my mother being horrified when she found me reading one.
What made you first consider art as a vocation?
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