Miranda Richardson recently worked with a team of 12 artists on a comic called Hail, about a woman who crumbles into shattered glass when she experiences anxiety. The superheroine Lena gradually learns to manage her mental illness while struggling to find good work-life balance and also fighting crime. The comic has seen three successful Kickstarters, three Supanovas, and was Shortlisted in the 2017 Ledger Awards.

A background in film, 2D animation and prose inevitably drew Miranda to sequential art. With a focus on illness narrative and subjective modes of expression, she has enjoyed writing Hail as an inclusive comic with a more realistic, intimate approach to heroism and chronic mental illness. In contrast to the realistic detail and rich colours in Hail led by artist Rosanna Lam, Miranda currently works in a clean, graceful art style in digital pencil and watercolour.

She is currently creating a series of short comics that re-examine the complicated love in old stories and fairytales, having just completed a new interpretation of the Celtic song Scarborough Fair. A beautiful witch steals princes out of their fairytales, and makes them help her with the spells to capture true love. It has romance and a sinister sweet twistiness, framed in parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.

The next comic on the horizon for Miranda is about the story of Samson, in which the long-haired warrior’s lover betrays him and cuts off his hair and source of power. In an adapted story about two female lovers, this comic will be a confession of adoration and the true reason for Delilah’s betrayal: to know her lover’s heart more intimately through the vulnerability of powerlessness. Miranda looks forward to developing her work further as one of the recipients of the 2018 Banksia Project mentorship.