Interview: Luke Pearson On Hilda

When did you start scribbling?
The same way as most kids: everyone draws to start with and then at some point it's knocked out of them which is sad. Everyone can draw, really. I was just always encouraged to keep doing it for whatever reason and I liked the attention it got me - and I still like the attention it gets me. I always wanted to do something that would involve drawing or making stuff up. Even though I assumed I'd have to give it up at some point, the thought of seriously doing anything else was always sort of unimaginable and terrifying, and still is.

Tell us about the Hilda books…
Hilda herself started out as just this character that I kept drawing in my sketchbooks. I didn't know what she was for or who she was but she kept turning up. At one point I drew her sat in front of this Scandinavian-looking town on the waterfront with mountains in the background and giants and other weird creatures hanging around and that was the real starting point that gave me the idea of fleshing out this world around her. That was all I really had when I pitched it to Nobrow. I knew I wanted to create something non-violent and cosy that was also eerie and strange, that would incorporate the Scandinavian folklore I'd been reading and allow me to indulge in the kind of world-building I've always thought would be fun. I didn't know if it was going to be a series or what, which is why I scaled the world right back in the first comic and started with just a few elements, Hilda and her mum in a house in the wilderness. By book three she's in the town I originally imagined, but it's not really how I originally imagined it because it's grown naturally from that first story.

You've previously mentioned Tove Jansson as an influence, the same mixture of strangeness, delight and curiosity seems to run through the Hilda books. Are the Moomins much in mind when you create the Hilda stories?
Not so much anymore, but they definitely were at the start. I would say they were too much on my mind. I wanted them to have a similar tone and a similar kind of all-ages appeal, but then I also went and basically modelled Hilda on Little My - visually anyway - and pretty much had her living in Moomin Valley in the first story. This is partly why I've shifted the setting to the city now, because I felt a bit uncomfortable about how omnipresent that influence was. There is a lot of crossover with the Moomin's world and the folklore that I have in mind when I'm creating. Tove Jansson was tapping into some of that same stuff, so sometimes the influence seems more exaggerated than it is, maybe. I find as I go on, the less I feel like I have to draw on outside influences and the more things start to suggest themselves as a result of what's come before, which is quite satisfying.

Everything We Miss couldn't be more different from the Hilda books, both in tone and structure. Was that intentional?
I was definitely making a point with it. The thing with Hilda is it's not really the kind of comic I'm into as a reader and up until the point where I actually decided to do it, it wasn't the direction I was planning to go in. I didn't want to build a reputation as a children's author, especially when it became clear that Hilda was going to be a series of some sort. It's likely that no one would actually care at all, but I thought it would be difficult to come out with an adult book after a string of all ages titles. I intended to do a standalone adult comic between each Hilda book but I've failed to find the time for that. I tend to use anthology pieces or contributions to other things as outlets at the moment.

Was the process for creating them very different as well?
The process was more or less the same as far as drawing goes. The writing was a bit different. I tend to write much tighter outlines for the Hilda stories because I want the story to be neat and clear, whereas Everything We Miss was much more loosely planned as it relies less on its narrative arc. I tackled it page by page. I always think that they're not as different as they seem. If you take all the weird goings on in Everything We Miss literally, then it could almost take place in the same world as Hilda's, just seen from a different angle. It's got pine trees and giants and things that you can't see.

What work are you happiest with so far?
Nothing's turned out as I intended and my feeling about all my work immediately after finishing it is embarrassment and shame. I feel way better about it a year down the line when I've forgotten the actual drawing of it. The piece I like best might be this four pager I did for Nobrow 7 called You Mustn't Be Afraid. I feel like that came out close to how I wanted it to. It's more ambiguous in its message than some other things I've done and it makes me cringe the least. No one else likes it the best, I'm sure of that.

You've also done illustrations for papers like the New York Times. Do you see that work as entirely separate from the comics you create, or are they just two aspects of what you do?
Not entirely separate but they are different things. There's a different mindset involved. I think some comic artists view illustration work as what they've got to do to make money, but I genuinely enjoy doing that stuff and take quite a bit of pride in it. Even if I could support myself on comics alone, I think I'd still like to take on illustration projects. Maybe that's because I studied illustration and I was excited about being an illustrator before I stumbled into doing comics. I like the quick turnaround time and getting an article to read and figuring out how to adapt it. It's fun.

You've done a book cover for Kingsley Amis' Lucky Jim. Are there any other novels you'd love to have a crack at doing a cover for?
I'm going to say Watership Down, even though I don't think my style would be suited to it at all. I don't think anyone would ever ask me to do the kind of covers I actually like. I like really simple book covers. I'm fine with bright, gaudy comic book covers, but for novels I want minimal visual information. I hate it when the main character is depicted, unless it's perhaps as a silhouette or something not too literal. That image is going to be in your mind for the duration of the book whether you like it or not. Burn your dust jackets.

Are the Hilda books going to be an annual thing?
For the immediate future, yes. There's definitely going to be another one this year. It could change though. I might take a year off to work on something else, or I might see it through to some kind of end point before I move onto anything else substantial.

What are you drawing right now?
I'm doing some additional material for a new hardback edition of Hildafolk. I'm doing a map and some pages from her book about trolls.

Luke Pearson's website