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As Fluffy storms America we take the chance to have another look at Simone Lia's charming tale - of an everyday bloke with his everyday problems and his talking bunny rabbit who believes he?s a real boy...

Fluffy by Simone Lia.

Simone Lia?s volume Fluffy ? a striking graphic novel collecting her self-published small press issues of the comic of the same name - is about a small speaking bunny rabbit (the eponymous hero of the piece) and the lonely single man who he believes is his father.

A child-like simple, innocent creature who sleeps in a box, Fluffy goes to nursery school and does all the things a normal kid would do. He lives in a house (sleeping in what appears to be a hay filled box), likes defacing library books and has an obsession with farmers and - especially - their tractors.

Fluffy has now been collected and bound as a hardback by Jonathan Cape the book has been described by creator Simone Lia - a British born Maltese who also has a body of other work behind her, including the children's books Little Giant and Monkey & Spoon - as: ?...a story of unanswerable questions, love, despair, adventure and happiness.?

"I'm so excited to bring this story to the states" says Simone Lia. "This will truly be a new adventure!"

This is a graphic novel to treasure ? it looks and reads like a children?s book while definitely featuring an adult storyline. Simone Lia follows the adventures and misadventure of love, family life and loneliness all shot through with Fluffy?s own wonderful childish responses to everyday events by turns funny, frightening and familiar - getting lost on a train, obsessing over a library book, taking a dislike to France at the idea of the French eating frogs legs, asking inappropriate questions at the worst possible times etc...

Self-Deprecationg

This great book should appeal not just to fans of small-press comics but also the casual reader. Guaranteed to have you laughing out loud one minute and pondering the meaning of life the next the author has achieved an unusual mix of the child-like and the very sophisticated. She uses wordy cross-sections of the main character?s brain to illustrate his jumbled thought processes one moment and a clever montage of snapshots of Fluffy himself getting up to mischief (with no dialogue at all) the next.

This is a book that should chime true with anyone who?s ever had ? or ever thought about having - the responsibilities of raising a child. Gentle and touching at times (witness Fluffy delighting his human 'grandparents' at the seaside, bringing them both out of the house and out of their shells), affecting at others (see Fluffy filled with terror having overheard gory details of what may - or may not - have become of his missing 'uncle') this is a recommended purchase. So, why not treat yourself or someone else to a little effortlessly charming Fluffy bunny for a rare treat?

For more information on the author/illustrator behind Fluffy visit Simone Lia's website at: www.simonelia.com - where you'll find prints for sale (including a couple of characters from Fluffy).

Here's what the critics have made of the book:

"...Fluffy is the kind of book you could maybe give to a girl who didn't 'get' graphic novels by way of introduction. It's the kind of book (like Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, though for different reasons) that could turn someone on to the whole graphic novels thing." - Peter Wild (Bookmunch). Click here to read the whole Bookmunch review.

"(Simone Lia is) a self-deprecationg and disarmingly original raconteur, weaving together real-life, realistically drawn emotional situations with fanciful cartooonish playfulness." - Paul Gravett (Comics Journal).

Fluffy is in the shops now as a hardback (it?s the bright baby-blue square one, you can?t miss it) priced ?12.99, from Jonathan Cape, publishers of such dynamite comics collections as Daniel Clowes' 20th Century Eightball, Ice Haven and Ghost World.

The book is now also officially available in the US, from the publishers of Hellboy - Dark Horse comics. Now the third-largest comic-book publisher in the U.S Dark Horse Comics has proven - since 1986 - to be a solid example of how integrity and innovation can help broaden a unique storytelling medium and establish a small, homegrown company as an industry giant.

In addition to publishing comics from top talent like Frank Miller (The Dark Knight Returns / The Dark Knight Strikes Back, Elektra Assassin, Sin City, 300, mid-80s Daredevil) Mike Mignola (Hellboy), Neil Gaiman (Neverwhere, Sandman), comics legend Will Eisner (The Spirit) as well as from lesser-known talent (Fluffy) Dark Horse is widely recognised as the world's leading publisher of licensed comics? material. Their highly successful line-up of comics and products based on popular genre properties include: Star Wars, Aliens, Conan The Barbarian, Predator, The Thing, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Emily the Strange, Tim Burton, Trigun and The Incredibles.

For more information visit the Dark Horse Comics website at: www.darkhorse.com and see free online comics at: www.myspace.com/darkhorsepresents

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