I totally missed this a few days ago, but the Guardian posted up the excellent Simone Lia narrating the first part of her brand new graphic novel Please, God, Find Me a Husband (just published by Cape) in an audio-slideshow format online.

The brilliant Tom Gauld will be in fine London comics emporium Gosh! this Friday, 9th March, from 6.30pm to celebrate the publication of his new book from Drawn & Quarterly, Goliath; he’s already popped into the store to create some fab artwork on the shop windows and even do a quick interview:

And the very next day the splendid Joel Meadows and his wandering camera are the subject of a new photographic exhibition at Gosh! with the Tripwire exhibition, which includes some cracking portraits of comics and science fiction creators on Saturday 10th March at 7pm (the exhibition runs until the 29th):

And another must-attend for your diary if you’re in London – Simone Lia (creator of the fab Fluffy) launches Please, God, Find Me a Husband on Tuesday 10th of April from 6.30pm at Gosh!:

“Lock up your wallets and purses, cut up your credit cards and dump the love of your life – shopping. Saturday November 26th is Buy Nothing Day (UK). It’s a day where you challenge yourself, your family and friends to switch off from shopping and tune into life. The rules are simple, for 24 hours you will detox from shopping and anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending!”

Direct You Tube link.

(art by and (c) Simone Lia, borrowed shamelessly from the Guardian)

“There’s also the news that she’s busy working on a new graphic novel, no title or schdule yet, but given Simone’s track record, I’m looking forward to whatever she comes out with. The art below seems to hint that it’s some kind of eco-Christian music odyssey or perhaps a very strange drug trip? Or perhaps we shouldn’t try to work out an entire story from one panel?”

Well, now she has a little more news and a pic of God doing a wheelie:

“So, I’ve been a bit quiet on the blog for a few months, the reason being is that I’ve had my head down making a graphic novel and it’s been a total emotional roller coaster this one. Bar a few bits of design I’ve actually finished it, phew and hurrah! The project started way back in 2007 when I had a moment with God in Leicester Square, I silently cried out to him and heard him respond, rather unconventionally, through the lyrics of an INXS song. I was inspired to seek an adventure with Him and in that moment I also imagined in my hands the finished book. I was truly excited about the possibilities and challenges of drawing my relationship with God. It’s been a bit of a journey as they say and my confidence has wavered greatly whilst doing this project – I’ve started over from scratch a couple of times.”

Interested? I know I am. But then again, Lia’s Sausage & Carrots in the old DFC was great and I adored (and still do) her tale of Fluffy, a baby rabbit being looked after by a single dad. It was one of my books of 2007, and always makes me smile wistfully. So frankly, if Lia wants to tell me a tale of an adventure with God, I’ll be reading.

But the bad news…. Autumn 2012 is when it’s due.

Before then though we have Lia’s strip for the potentially great Nelson from Blank Slate. 50 artists working on a collaborative graphic novel masterminded by Woodrow Phoenix and Rob Davis. Lia gets to tell Nel’s story in 1984:

Simone Lia tells a short tale of oil nightmares in “A Well Oiled Mind” over on the Guardian Online as part of their Oil Stories series of short fiction.

Best bit of the interview? The news that she’s hard at work on her next graphic novel:

“The graphic novel that I’m working on hasn’t got a name as of yet, this time it’s got me in it and it’s about my relationship with God. I was passing through Leicester Square almost three years ago and the bubbling inspiration came to me and I had a fuzzy vision of the completed story whilst standing near a red telephone box.  I was so excited and happy to be suddenly inspired again, I had a sense the book would be about an adventure with God.”

And even better, some of her Tate Britain work as well….

There’s also the news that she’s busy working on a new graphic novel, no title or schdule yet, but given Simone’s track record, I’m looking forward to whatever she comes out with. The art below seems to hint that it’s some kind of eco-Christian music odyssey or perhaps a very strange drug trip? Or perhaps we shouldn’t try to work out an entire story from one panel?

And whilst on the subject of Simone Lia, can we all start getting in touch with the DFC library people and ask them when her Sausage & Carrots strip is going to be published? Obviously it’s not the right size for the album format DFC library books they’ve announced so far, but what about a lovely landscape A5 hardback? That really would be lovely.

(a frame from last year’s Observer winner, Sand Dunes and Sonic Booms by and (c) Julian Hanshaw)