10 Minutes With. . . Posy Simmonds
Artists & Illustrators|July 2019

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.

Rachael Funnell
10 Minutes With. . . Posy Simmonds

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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Still life IN 3 HOURS
Artists & Illustrators

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Movement in composition
Artists & Illustrators

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Shane Berkery
Artists & Illustrators

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Artists & Illustrators

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Artists & Illustrators

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Artists & Illustrators

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Vincent van Gogh
Artists & Illustrators

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Artists & Illustrators

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Serena Rowe
Artists & Illustrators

Serena Rowe

The Scottish painter tells STEVE PILL why time is precious, why emotional responses to colour are useful, and how she finds focus every day with the help of her studio wall

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Bill Jacklin
Artists & Illustrators

Bill Jacklin

Chatting over Zoom as he recovers from appendicitis, the Royal Academician tells STEVE PILL about classic scrapes in New York and his recent experiments with illustration

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