Fantagraphics To Publish Exciting Debut: Stone Fruit by Lee Lai

“I“ve been influenced by books and artists published by Fantagraphics since I was a teen, so it“s pretty unreal and amazing to be releasing this debut work with them,”“ explains Lee Lai. “There“s a handful of Australian cartoonists now who are part of the Fantagraphics family”” some of us have been close since we were baby artists in Melbourne”” and it“s been so cool watching their work grow with support from Fantagraphics. Working on this book has been such an exciting learning curve. I’m stoked to finally be putting it out into the world, and specifically with Fantagraphics.”

At turns joyful, tender, and heartbreaking, Lee Lai“s water colored graphic novel debut reveals how painful it can be to be vulnerable with your loved ones””and yet how fulfilling it is to be finally understood for who you are. “I was immediately impressed not only by what a penetrating, deeply felt, and intimate story Lee told, but by how stylistically sophisticated the drawing and the storytelling is,”“ says Fantagraphics Publisher, Gary Groth. “Lee“s story could only be told through comics, and the way she depicts these characters“ lives, in all their complexity, is a beautiful use of the medium. That“s one reason I admire her work as much as I do.”“

Lee Lai was born in 1993 in Naarm (Melbourne), Australia. Currently, Lai makes comics and illustrations in Tio“tia:ke (Montreal, Quebec) where she lives with her roommates and two sweet cats. Her short story comics have been featured in The New Yorker, The Lifted Brow, Room Magazine, and Everyday Feminism. Stone Fruit is her graphic novel debut and has been sold in auction to 5 publishing houses in 4 different languages worldwide by agent Alessandra Sternfeld at AM-Book.