MY BIG LIFE
by Bailey Sharp
Winner of the Bronze Ledger 2019 for excellence in Australian comics.
32 pages, Perfect Bound, 12.5cm x 17cm, 2 colour risograph insides, 2 colour risograph cover.
My Big Life is somebody's memoir. It includes thoughts on time, relationships, stealing, instagram, books, assholes and self-mythologizing.
Bailey Sharp is a cartoonist, animator and educator interested in all forms of visual storytelling. She grew up in Georgia but now lives and works in Australia. She is the art editor at The Lifted Brow along with her partner Ben Juers. You can follow her on instagram @nobailey
http://baileysharp.tumblr.com/
https://www.instagram.com/nobailey
Praise for My Big Life:
"Somehow when you look at Bailey’s characters you can see the way they carry their weight, their heads turn long around corners, there’s lots of bloop movement, even though the drawing is static it’s also animated. Her drawings explore how we all have strange power and consequence even through the goo of our alienation."
- Sam Wallman
'My Big Life' was awarded The Bronze Ledger 2019 for excellence in Australian comics.
Judges Comments:
“Sharp’s My Big Life is called ’somebody’s memoir’ on the blurb and is a breathless, surreal account of a life, beginning with the glorious line ‘I fell out of love before the morning’ and culminating in it’s penultimate four-page sequence, nine panels to a page, listing life events like ‘had sex with my boss’, ‘learned to swim’, ‘married and divorced’, ‘ran for local office’,and ‘bought my own kiln’. As the comic acknowledges, these life events are so quick to log, like bullet points, but ‘i was always aware of the drag of time’, Our Narrator - a soft pencil-headed single-eyed character with ‘lots of bloop movement' according to Sam Wallman - finally finds peace at the end of the comic after realising (or, actually, deciding) what the axle of their life has turned on. After this, their headaches stop, and time (which has dragged so relentlessly for the character) ‘could not pass faster’. The Comic is profound, hilarious, and offers a reflection on the nature of self-narrative - the character is only satisfied and at peace once they can sum up their big life into one ‘big regret’ just like in the stories their asshole bookstore boss forced them to read and then quizzed them on in the opening pages of the book. Sharps art works perfectly for the riso. This book was a 2018 highlight for me."
- Dr. Elizabeth MacFarlane
“This is an artist at the top of her game!"
- Stuart Medley