lucy loves french milk and other stories from paris

in anticipation of our trip to paris, i'm gobbling up travel memoirs (such as adam gopnik's paris to the moon) to reorient myself in the city of lights. as a grad student, i lived in paris for a year and a half (but that was many moons ago) so my french is rusty but memories of parisian living stay close to my heart. (eiffel tower photo by my friend marcos.)

i recently discovered a wonderfully personal and endearing comic journal by lucy knisley about her month long stay in paris with her mom in january 2007. french milk (so named because lucy adores the whole milk she drinks in paris) reveals the struggles and dreams of lucy as she approaches her 22nd birthday while discovering the endless treasures of paris. her journal is a delightful mix of her drawings, stories and photographs of that month and her step into adulthood.

lucy recently took a break from her studies at the center for cartoon studies in vermont to answer her fan mail & share some thoughts with me.

SG: how's life in vermont at the center? what do you miss about home (chicago)?

LK: We've just completed a 100-character design project, for drawing class with Steve Bissette and James Kochalka. We had to make 100 recognizably different characters in a week. It was a great project. Vermont is too crazy of a change from Chicago and New York to really be comfortable yet, but I'm hoping it'll settle after I get used to the skunks and the lack of thai food.

SG: what are your influences, past and present?

LK: I started out reading "Archie" comics and "Calvin and Hobbes" when I was little, so those were probably my most formative influences. When I discovered "Maus," that had a pretty profound impact. Right now, though, I'd say my top gods of inspiration are Hope Larson, Marjane Satrapi, David B., Craig Thompson and Lynda Barry.

SG: how did you get french milk published?

LK: My mother and step-father started a small publishing company a few years ago. So when I came home from Paris with all this material, I originally thought, "I'll take it to Kinkos and make a minicomic from this," but when I counted out the 180 pages, I realized that this wasn't something I could fold and staple. It was surprising, because I'd only taken a month to produce it. So I asked my mom if she thought it was a viable option for self publishing, and she said she was behind it all the way. She even helped me edit it, and laid it all out for me to send to the printer! I sold a good amount of them before I took them to MoCCA (the museum of comic and cartoon art annual festival). I'm lucky enough to be friends with two total comic book rock stars; Hope Larson (a fellow alumni of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago) and Brian Lee O'Malley. They let me take up a little corner of their table to sell a few of my books, and French Milk sold surprisingly well. One of the people who picked up a copy was an editor at Simon and Schuster, who liked it, and showed it to her fellow editors, and then they offered me a deal!

SG: would you go back to paris?

LK: I'd love to go back to Paris, and god knows my mother is dying to completely uproot and move there. She's taking french classes now, and thinking of buying a poodle, to prepare for the move. I'm content with imagining that I'll be able to visit her there. I don't think I'd want to go back to Paris until I had a lover who would come with me. It's so beautiful and wonderful, that it's a little painful to be unable to share it with someone in that way. It was wonderful to share it with my mother, but we were both going through such changes that we were sort of consumed with our own little worlds, and trapped in our heads.

SG: and your next project?

LK: I'm working on a children's book. Very colorful and polished (very different from French Milk). It's about a little girl exploring an attic (which is and was my favorite thing to do). After this finishes up, I'm considering a number of possibilities, but the one that's winning out is a book of recollections from my teen years, when I was switching high schools (four times in three years).

thanks lucy! can't wait for your next book.

check out more of lucy's art, photos & tunes on her website, stop paying attention.