Playwright and set designer join forces to create pandemic comic
This story is translated from Radio-Canada's French-language coverage of selected works from the Canada Council for the Arts Digital Originals grant. À lire en français sur le site de Radio-Canada.
"I am not considered a funny person, in life. I am always surrounded by actors who play the clown. But Francis thinks I'm funny," said Julie Vallée-Léger.
Francis Monty and Julie Vallée-Léger have worked together for years. He is a playwright. She is a set designer; their dialogue has conjured into existence 15 plays, created as a team at Théâtre de la Pire Espèce. With the closure of venues, their creative work has found a new outlet: comics.
"We thought about comics for a long time. Every time I made a joke, Francis jotted it down. Out of our discussions and our wild laughing came the Petite Fille à Lunettes, or PFAL," said Vallée-Léger.
Vallée-Léger has always had a passion for design and linocut.
She often gives herself "personal residencies" where she isolates herself in, for example, a cabin for two weeks to learn more about different art forms, at her own expense. With Connexion Création, the element that was usually an embellishment for other projects became the main vehicle for her idea.
At first she'd intended to contact publishers, but being able to quickly publish her comic strips on the web was a revelation. "That really helped me! I rediscovered contact with the audience in a certain way," she said.
Launching her personal stories into the universe intimidated her at first.
Her little bespectacled heroine is a young girl, neurodiverse, smart, lively, a bit of a snob and a bit biting.
The Petite Fille à Lunettes is always racking her brain trying to understand the world she lives in.
"It's about capturing the inconsistencies in what surrounds us with humour, small shifts and a hint of hope. It's also a way of laughing at myself when I find I'm caught up in my deep thoughts," said Vallée-Léger.
From the travelling grandmother to little Miss Couette, the cartoonist still hopes to see her characters in a printed volume. For someone who has already co-written the project Le bestiaire des objets and who loves to bind her own books, nothing beats the feeling of holding a volume in her hands.
This story is part of Digital Originals, an initiative of the Canada Council for the Arts. Artists were offered a $5,000 micro-grant to either adapt their existing work or create new work for the digital world during the COVID-19 pandemic. CBC Arts has partnered with Canada Council to feature a selection of these projects. This story is translated from Radio-Canada's French-language Digital Originals coverage. You can see more of these projects here.
