“Without
Fungirl,
I would probably be serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison,”
assures Elizabeth Pich, for whom this irreverent comic serves as an outlet.
Published in November 2021 and quickly sold out, the book has been available again since May 13 from Les Requins hammers.
The opportunity to get to know his heroine, who is distinguished by a total lack of restraint.
Result: she makes crazy her roommate, her roommate's boyfriend and her boss, owner of a funeral home.
To our delight.
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It takes a while to calibrate her mind to the same frequency as Fungirl, whose spontaneity can be unsettling at first.
This is, for example, the kind of person who tries to extort a donut from the merchant with blows of:
“I want it!
In my mouth!
I am a poor little rascal!”
(spoiler: it works).
His excuse for not working?
“I'm writing a play about a crab who dreams of becoming a world champion in poker.
But because of his claws, he tears the cards, so he always gets knocked out.
It is an absolute tragedy.”
And during a day intended to present her job to children, she brings the corpse of “Roger the rodent” which she offers to dress and make up.
Yum.
"I can't answer that question.
Elizabeth Pich / Hammerhead Sharks
“Fungirl is a bit like me, but also the exact opposite. I don't know what it's made of,
admits Elizabeth Pich.
It was already so vivid when it entered my mind that I still can't understand all the layers of it."
Let's just say that this character represents a form of extreme authenticity, of total self-acceptance despite the norms imposed by society.
“Fungirl is my personal saviour.
She fails so beautifully and sins so innocently,
praise her progenitor.
And she survives and resurrects every time.
She is a source of comfort for me and I hope she is also for others.
Will “girl boss” culture kill the planet with takeout lattes?
Will Peter's lack of cunnilingus skills disqualify him for future matriarchy?
Will Fungirl bring us world peace with her licentious charm?
Elizabeth Pich
If it is obviously the star of the book, Fungirl is often accompanied by Becky and Peter, whose relationship questions mischievously – and with relevance – the balance of the couple.
“They face the difficulties of postfeminism and intersectionality, while Fungirl seems to float above everything like a feather in the wind, which, of course, has the gift of exasperating Peter to the maximum,
analyzes the author.
Peter advocates altruistic self-surrender.
Becky is more pragmatic, she wants to blossom.
And Fungirl just wants a donut.”
And to add:
“My goal is not to answer all the great sociological questions, but more to illustrate the absurdity of this new order.
Is the
“girl boss” culture
going to kill the planet with takeout lattes?
Will Peter's lack of cunnilingus skills disqualify him for the upcoming matriarchy?
Will Fungirl bring us world peace with her licentious charm?”
Peter saved by Fungirl, who has just defeated her opponents using a menstrual cup.
Elizabeth Pich / Hammerhead Sharks
Before
Fungirl,
Elizabeth Pich made a good reputation with the strip
War and Peas
,
produced since 2011 with her sidekick Jonathan Kunz and populated by a comical gallery of characters including Slutty Witch (“Sorcière Dévergondée”), Grim Reaper (“ Grim Reaper”) and Officer McSexy.
Exclusively for
Le Figaro,
the American-German artist reveals the origin of her inspiration:
"I can't reveal our secret sauce but I can tell you this: some time ago, we started programming a very powerhouse that has been perfectly honed to deliver humorous four-panel comics.”
An artificial intelligence author of comics?
Quite believable when you consider that Elizabeth Pich studied computer science at university, which gave her "
a much-needed sense of order in a chaotic world."
Born in 1989, the designer grew up in the United States, notably in California, before moving to Germany at the age of 14.
Here's what she remembers from her experience across the Atlantic:
"Slurpees at 7-Eleven* before school, birthdays at McDonald's and driving go-karts through the dust of Death Valley."
A nod to
Bill Watterson's formidable
Calvin and Hobbes .
Elizabeth Pich / Hammerhead Sharks
To find out about her childhood favorites, just leaf
through Fungirl
which, right from the cover, gives a nod to
Peanuts (Snoopy)
.
Throughout the comic, the author diverts favorite works as transitions between chapters:
Calvin & Hobbes,
The Simpsons, Wayne's World,
but also paintings by Dali, Botticelli and Arcimboldo.
She also raves about Amy Poehler, Liv Strömquist and Alison Bechdel (
“I hid her book in my book as a tribute; whoever finds it will win a bottle of homemade bootleg liquor”
).
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To be patient while waiting for Elizabeth Pich's next book, don't hesitate to follow her adventures on the internet, which are not about to end.
“I will die with my sketchbook in my hand.
And after that my digital consciousness will continue to publish from the cloud until the end of eternity.
A promise or a threat?
* Kinds of slushies to drink with a straw sold in a chain of convenience stores.
The comic box
A Fungirl Adventure
Go to slideshow (4)
This short story in four plates illustrates quite well the madness of Fungirl, while remaining publishable in
Le Figaro
(which is perhaps not the case for some).
The heroine, who seems pregnant, takes the bus and arouses a surge of sympathy and solidarity... before the tragedy occurs.
“It came to me like the periodic table of the elements came to Mendeleïev: in a feverish and moist dream,”
says Elizabeth Pich.
“The most rewarding scenes are the ones where you can combine visual comedy with dialogue humor. I think it works well here,
says the artist
I appreciate the creeping sense of unease and unrest among the passengers.
At first they're thrilled, and then they get more and more uncomfortable as Fungirl continues to talk.
At the same time, you have this sacred archetype: the mother, the pregnant woman, she is sacred, she needs protection.
No one can imagine a pregnant woman being an amateur serial killer.”
If someone had explained pregnancy to me when I was a child, I would have thought it was a horror story.
What a strange joke of nature
Elizabeth Pich
The slide into horror is not completely gratuitous:
“If someone had explained pregnancy to me when I was a child, I would have believed in a horror story.
What a strange joke of nature”,
notes the designer, whose taste for
“the friction of opposites”,
here comedy and horror, is beyond doubt.
“This story gives me hope,
concludes Elizabeth Pich
.
It shows a world I'd like to live in: the boy who gives way to a pregnant woman, the man using a reusable coffee cup for his morning cappuccino, the bus driver who braked for the cat to jump out of across the street."
It's a nice way to look at things.
Fungirl,
by Elizabeth Pich, translated by Stéphane Corcoral, Les Requins hammers, 260 pages, 30 euros.
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