The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

My Cardboard Life

by Philippa Rice

Philippa Rice has been making her My Cardboard Life webcomic since October 2008. I first noticed them in the pages of Paper Science 2. Either I’m really crap at finding and following webcomics or Philippa’s not too hot with self promotion. Maybe it’s both. It’s probably me.

But in the last couple of months Phillipa’s self promotion (if it was ever at fault) has kicked into high gear. First there was the Paper Science 2 cover and strip (review here), and then she proved to be one of the people everyone seemed to be mentioning after the recent MCM Expo. And you can see why – her work has the immediate cute factor and delightful quirkiness that makes it something you immediately want to find out more about – and the incredible little diorama probably helped:

(Philippa Rice and friends at the recent MCM Expo, pics courtesy Sarah McIntyre’s Live Journal and Mondo-a-go-go)

My Cardboard Life starts out as cardboard, paper and scrap material collages featuring Cardboard Colin, Paper Pauline and a host of other delightful and wonderfully silly characters, which are then scanned and uploaded to the My Cardboard Life webcomic. There are now six little print collections – lovely little (6 x 3.5 inches) handmade things with every cover featuring a unique collage.

It’s such a simple idea, bold, bright and joyful. But somewhere in between the idea and the finished product there’s a little magic to create the nicest little thing I’ve seen for a long time. These quirky delights sit very well amongst other firm FPI favourites – Lizz Lunney’s work, Philip Spence’s Ninja Bunny – where the concept, the idea and the physical nature of the idea as an object have equal weighting and equal appeal.

But My Cardboard Life, whether online or in print is much more than a cute and quirky idea – the strips are genuinely funny as well. Rice takes the simplest of concepts and creates clever, whimsical strips from them, some are funny in and of themselves and some are funny down to those few simple lines Rice adds to give a complete dimension of expression.

But the very best of them play with the very nature of the strip’s form – making use of the cardboard and paper elements of the main characters. It’s very clever stuff.

Have a look for yourselves:

(The very first strip – rougher than most, but the concept works – and is funny – right from the start)

(As the strip progresses, there’s a subtle, yet noticeable change – the textures get more noticeable, the lines more refined – it gets better and tighter as it goes on)

My Cardboard Life is as perfect a piece of whimsical delight as I’ve seen in a long time – taking a simple, yet clever idea and executing it with fabulous style. You’ve seen just three strips here – there’s 300 on her website – have fun. And when you’ve seen enough, order those print versions – one just wont be enough.

Philippa Rice’s My Cardboard Life webcomic is updated regularly. She’s also online at her Juzzard blog, has a great Flickrstream and everything that’s available to buy can be found at her My Cardboard Life shop and her Juzzard Etsy store.