The SEQUENT’ULL Interviews: Lucy Sullivan

By downthetubes Guests on August 14, 2024

The SEQUENT’ULL Interviews 2024: Lucy Sullivan

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 Lucy Sullivan, creator of the acclaimed graphic novel, BARKING…

Could you talk a little about yourself and your work.

Sure! I’m Lucy. I’m a Londoner, raised in a pub (literally, my parents ran it) and have been making comics since 2017. Previously, I worked as a 2D animator, after graduating from Kingston School of Art’s Illustration/Animation degree taught observational drawing at a number of universities.

I moved into comics after having my daughter with a burning need to tell stories, and if I’m honest, to be in charge of every aspect of it. I write, draw and letter all my work so I guess I’m a bit of a control monster.

My best known comic is BARKING, a story that combines my own experience of a mental health crisis with anecdotal stories, research and folklore. It’s a tale of ghosts, grief and a phantasmagorical black dog, along with a critique of the mental health system and how we treat people at their most vulnerable. A new edition has been published this year by Avery Hill, who have produced a beautiful book.

Since BARKING I’ve collaborated with a variety of writers including Fraser Campbell, John Reppion, Jordan Thomas and Dan Watters. I’ve also created pin-ups and a short comic featuring Black Hammer’s Madame Dragonfly for Jeff Lemire.

After that my focus has been on my folk horror series, SHELTER. The first story, EARLY DOORS, was self published in ‘23 and was the winner of Broken Frontier’s ‘Best New Periodical Series’ that year (to my absolute delight!). The story follows Ealga Calhoun who, after landing in London from Ireland, finds herself in need of help. In West London they rely on local matriarch Mammy Magee. Mammy and her girls will fix any problem, for a price. The question is, can Ealga pay it?

What are you currently working on?

I’m in the writing and rough layouts stage of the next SHELTER story, MOTHERS RUIN. I received an Arts Council Development grant to research and write an outline for it. It was an amazing opportunity and one I heartily encourage creators to apply for.

My story is site and era based in 1970’s West London, so getting to spend weeks reading specific materials was very special. I will add though that my first story was 36 pages and my next will be nearly 200. Research certainly adds!

It’s going to be a while in production, as it’s drawn in Watercolour and Carbon sheets, but hopefully will be worth the wait. I do love working on this world with its mix of Celtic Folklore, London History and cast of extraordinary characters.

I hope folks will enjoy reading it just as much.

I’ve also been working on a very exciting commission for a feature film this year. Unfortunately, I can’t say what just yet but it’s a project close to my heart, and I will be shouting about it from the rooftops when I can say more.

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

There is no other medium that gives you such an intimate connection to your audience. When a reader picks up your comic it’s just them and your story.

You can literally put them in the shoes of another person’s experience and take them along for the ride.It’s truly an incredible gift for storytelling.

You might say books do that too, but it’s not as apparent and universal in the reading. Everyone will be imagining something slightly different of the place setting or characters. In comics, you can fully conjure the world for them.

I also love that their are no rules to what makes a comic. The scope and variety of styles and concepts is so broad its breathtaking. I couldn’t imagine working in any other medium.

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?

Good question. It’s one I’ve been contemplating a lot in recent years. I think when I first started in comics platforms like Twitter were invaluable. The community and support was vital for getting BARKING crowdfunded as well as finding an audience. However that platform is now a verbal bin fire. It’s often traumatic to go on so I try not to so much. I still use Instagram but the relativity of posts to comics sold in very small. I have other socials and will probably continue to use them but the efforts are often wasted. A lot of creators have used newsletters again. It’s a great way to keep up with their work and usually free. I send mine out just four times a year, and it’s totally free.

Speaking of… I must write Summer’s!

Do you feel connected to a comics scene in anyway?

Yes, to various splinter groups and scenes. The UK small press scene, International Kickstarter creators, London comic makers, Brighton creators, lots of parts of the UK, Canada, US, the Philippines… Comics is an incredible environment to bring people together. I love the different combinations of creators you get at various festivals and I have a particular fondness for smaller comic and zine fairs. It’s a truly lovely community and always open to more joining in.

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

Certainly can… Sarah Gordon makes wonderfully brooding, beautiful comics such as Vicious Creatures. Erika Price will dismantle your mind with her terrifying, expertly crafted Disorder series.

I’d buy everything made by Mark Stafford, who’s bringing a new comic to Sequent’ull. I’m a firm devotee of Gareth Brookes’ comics and zines and think about The Land of my Heart Chokes on its Abundance on a regular basis. Currently, I’m absorbed in Taiyo Matsumoto’s latest series Tokyo These Day.

Lots of excellent reading there.

Have you visited Hull before?

Once, but only to visit a relative of my partner. I’m brining my full clan this time and staying a few days so we’re looking forward to exploring the city more. I’m extremely excited for Sequent’ull and will be roping in my kid to help out on the table too. She may even have some of her own stuff to sell…

Come and find us to see if she met my deadline. Hope to see you there!

• Lucy Sullivan is online at lucysullivanuk.com | 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

Barking by Lucy Sullivan
Avery Hill Edition – 2024
124 Pages | ISBN: 978-1910395769
• Buy it from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link) | Bookshop.org.uk (Affiliate Link)

Loopy… cuckoo… stark raving… When the depression and grief Alix feels over the death of her friend overwhelm her, she’s institutionalised. But inside a psychiatric ward, things don’t get better for her – now she has nowhere to get away from her rapidly-spiraling thoughts. As Alix navigates disinterested attendants, group therapy, and isolation, she must build herself a new equilibrium and tame the black dog of her depression.

Inspired by her own struggles with mental health, Lucy Sullivan tells a powerful, emotional story about the problems that sometimes overwhelm us all – and the failures in the mental health system we depend on.