The SEQUENT’ULL Interviews: Lily Williams

By downthetubes Guests on August 18, 2024

The SEQUENT’ULL Interviews 2024: Lily Williams

Ahead of the free SEQUENT’ULL Comic Art Festival taking place in Hull on Saturday 31st August 2024, organiser and fellow creative Sean Azzopardi chats with guests at the event, continuing with independent comic creator Lily Williams…

Could you talk a little about yourself and your work.

My name is Lilly Williams and I am a comic maker and illustrator. I am a mum of two and, since having my first baby, my comics practice has been a lot about the experience of becoming a parent.

I started making diary comics when I was pregnant with my first baby during the COVID 19 pandemic. The comics are told from the point of my alter ego, a yellow cat-person that I call “Scaredy Cat”.

I was astonished by the strange, intense, gross, beautiful, funny, exhausting experience of being pregnant and becoming a parent. Isolated by the pandemic lockdown, I searched for other people’s stories about this and found them thin on the ground, so I began to make my own.

In 2021 I exhibited the work in a solo show “I am a sexy cat person performing the miracle of life” and in 2022 I found other illustrators making work on the same theme and was part of the exhibition, Lullabies in Lockdown.

I also make comics about other things, like finding it hard to get out of bed or digging your way to another world where animals and plants can talk and ideas are living beings called Gary and Almond.

What are you currently working on?

Currently, I am working on a book about pregnancy and birth, more of a factual guide, written by a midwife, but I’m not sure how much I can talk about that yet, it won’t be available for a good while. I also have an exciting project coming up with children’s theatre company “The Herd”, creating an illustrated map about play in Hull city centre.

Why comics, what are the core reasons for working with this medium?

I love the interplay of words and pictures. I studied fine art and worked a lot with painting and drawing, but I couldn’t stop putting words in my drawings and paintings. Finally, it clicked that I should be making comcis!

I also think comics as a medium is very democratic and accessible. You can buy a cheap zine and sit in your room and read it, you don’t have to go to a big fancy gallery and stand and stare and wonder if you’re doing it right. And you don’t have to be making big money to bring a comic home. I love all art forms and get very inspired by going to galleries but the elitism of the fine art world always bothered me, I felt more at home in comics.

So much creative time is absorbed by engaging with social media, conventions and other publicity tasks. While necessary to a degree, is it worth it?

I recently had to take a break from social media, it was making me so anxious and affecting my ability to parent my kids and get on with my work, so I don’t know really! I think if you can find healthy ways the engage with your audience that is really great.

One of the best things I did was share the first draft of my book Scaredy Cat Gets Pregnant with my Instagram followers, I got so much beautiful feedback from people, it gave me confidence in the work and I felt connected to people all over the world who’d had similar experiences to me.

I think conventions are great because you meet people face to face. That can be overwhelming too but I think it’s worth it! They are community events that bring people together and I think that’s really important.

Do you feel connected to a comics scene in anyway?

The comics scene in Hull is small, but we know each other and support one another where we can and this event is very exciting to me! I feel very connected with the wider creative community here in Hull as well.

I’ve had mentoring through LD Comics and that made me feel connected to the wider comics community. I gave a talk at the graphic medicine conference a couple of years ago and participating in that made me feel linked in to that community to an extent as well.

Could you recommend some current creators that are making good stuff?

Ah they’re are so many brilliant artists out there. On parenting and pregnancy, I love Pia Bramley’s work, and Beth Duggleby, who curated the Lullabies exhibition made beautiful illustrated poetry on the subject. I’m really enjoying Rachael’s Smith‘s Nap Comix on this too. Jessika Green has a brilliant comic about choosing not to be a mum, called Non Mum, and all her work is amazing.

I recently read Natasha Natarajan’s FML comics collection, which I really enjoyed, and Camille Jourdy’s graphic novel Juliette: Or, the Ghosts Return in the Spring completely blew me away.

Have you visited Hull before?

I visited Hull about ten years ago, and I’m still here!

• Lilly Williams is online at lillywilliams.net | Instagram

• SEQUENT’ULL Comic Art Festival 2024
11.00am – 6.00pm Saturday 31st August 2024 | Free Entry
Jubilee Central, 62 King Edward Street, Hull HU1 3SQ
• Facebook Event Page

Independent comic artists and publishers, selling comics graphic novels and prints.

Exhibitors Include: Breakdown Press, Colossive Press, Footprints Workers CoOp, Michelle Freeman, Sarah Gordon, Gareth Hopkins, Jake Machen, Shane Melisse, Douglas Noble, Alex Potts, Scarborough Zine Library, Mark Stafford, Lucy Sullivan, James Webster Sharp, Dan White and Lilly Williams