Rachael Ball has been making comics for a long time now. Part of the Deadline generation that did impressive work for the magazine whilst it existed then all but disappeared from view afterwards before coming back to the fold with vital, deep and fascinating new graphic novels, starting with The Inflatable Woman, which she first serialised on tumblr. That’s how I reconnected with her work and I’m happy to see that she’s now been busy making comics on a regular basis for a long time since.
Rachael’s art and writing are both gentle and coaxing, they create and delineate a narrative world that is always slightly absurdist but never cruel. It’s no so much a calm world, but it most certainly is never grim, where there is threat, it feels genuine as the characters are real enough for you to care about them and what happens to them.
Rachael can be found here
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So, here is Rachael
Can you tell us a bit about the first creator whose work you recognised?
When I was growing up we had a collection of comic books by Giles and a few by the American satirist Jules Feiffer’s (Sick, Sick, Sick and Passionella.) My favourite graphic novel though was ‘Kontiki and I’ by Erik Hesselberg who after the Second World War was one of Thor Heyerdahl’s team that sailed on a raft from Peru to Easter Island in order to prove that early humans could have made the trip. The drawings are really beautiful. It’s warm and funny and hand drawn with ink cartoons in a daily diary style.
Which creators do you remember first copying?
The first was definitely a copy of Giles’ iconic Grandma character. I think I was about 5 years old. I can picture myself doing it. I’m sitting on the arm of an armchair, drawing by a lamp. We were out of paper so my Mum gave me some tracing paper to use instead. I copied the Granma very carefully onto the tracing paper and was so proud of it. I took it to school the next day and other girls (not surprisingly!), accused me of tracing it. Poor me! I was so sad!
Who was the creator that you first thought ‘I’m going to be as good as you!’?
When I was a child my first passion was kid’s books, particularly fairy tales. I always wanted to write and illustrate children’s books. Still chasing that dream! I loved Thackeray’s Rose and the Ring and the illustrations of Robin Jacques. I can see their influence on my characters today and also perhaps how fairy tale tropes often seep into my stories. But yep those two! I wanted to be like them and be as good as them both all wrapped up into one!
Which creator or creators do you currently find most inspiring?
Chester Brown’s ‘I Never Liked You Anyway’ is a fabulous book. Brown is a master observer of nuance in characters. Jillian Tamaki, I’m always blown away by her work. She literally makes me gasp! I was having a good study of Clement Ouberie’s work the other day. His work is relaxed, human… beautiful! Superb use of colour and his technique is great. Storywise, ‘Beautiful Darkness’ by Fabien Vehlmann and Kerascoët can’t be bettered. It really stays with you afterwards and the cuteness of the characters makes the message of the story even more powerful.
Which creators do you most often think about?
Same as above.
Can you name the first three creative peers that come into your head and tell a little bit about why?
Brecht Evens – I love the way he thinks outside of the box, compositionally. His pages are so well crafted and the compositions are soooo clever. I feel like he uses some kind of perspective device but I can’t fathom what it is! They look like there’s vanishing points all across the page or none at all. They are almost medieval compositionally.
I’ve been following Ottilie Hainsworth’s Corona diary comics recently. They’re lovely. They make me laugh. It’s like she’s opened the window into her life for all to see.
The Finnish cartoonist Emmi Valve has started doing these lovely personal mailout comics recently. I got my first in the post the other day. Each envelope is filled with zines with her life and thoughts in comic form and extra special objects. She’s doing another in August.
I recommend them. They cost 12 Euro
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Finally, can you tell us a bit about your recent work and yourself?
My most recent published graphic novel was Wolf (2018 Selfmadehero based on the loss of my father as a child), Two very different but fun jobs I had last year – Lizzie Boyle invited me to create a script for a ‘Bella at the Bar’ strip for Rebellion’s remake of Tammy and Jinty. It was Illustrated by the fabulous Vanessa Cardinali with text by Jim Campbell. Bella was one of my favourite childhood comic characters so that was a real gift! I was also asked to illustrate a script for Tony ‘Ez’ Esmond’s “The Whore Chronicles’ based on transcriptions of interviews with prostitutes. It was a fascinating job. I felt that I had a real responsibility towards the woman behind my script.
I really enjoyed not having to do the writing as well! It was so relaxing illustrating somebody else’s words. I’d love to do more of that.
What I’m up to now – I’m about to actually get down to scripting AND DRAWING my next graphic novel, ‘The Patsy Paper’s which I’ve been planning for ages. It’s a satirical tale of my experiences teaching in a state school that was gradually falling apart under austerity.
I’ve also been working on a kid’s picture book sample and I’m planning on doing more light, short kid’s stories whilst making The Patsy Papers. The GN is proving complex so it will be nice to have something light hearted to balance things out.
Thank you very much for taking the time to fill this out and let us into your mind.
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content copyright iestyn pettigrew 2020
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