Tunis to Sydney is the latest graphic novel creation from Meriam and Christian Carnouche who previously worked together on the short comic House of Cracks, with illustrations by Sam Rapley. Published by FairSquare Graphics, Tunis to Sydney tells the story of married couple Lilia and Bill who live in Sydney. Life is good and the two are happy, but Lilia’s world crashes down around her when she receives the news that her parents died in a car accident–ten thousand miles away. Lilia and Bill travel back home to Tunisia and there, Lilia’s mind is consumed with a question that she has no answer for: Did she fail her parents by not being there for them throughout the years?
Tunis to Sydney was Meriam’s idea, including the protagonist Lilia, the death of her parents, the olive tree, and Meriam’s real-life experience of attempting to smuggle something in the airport. Christian did the heavy lifting in terms of working out the initial draft.
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The two creators said they hadn’t planned on Tunis to Sydney to delve too deeply into themes of trauma and therapy but it ended up going that way when they tapped into a personal fear.
“We became more and more drawn to the fear that we both have of losing our parents, particularly because we have both been based overseas for a long time, now in NYC, and our parents are far away in Tunisia, France, and Australia,” the two said. “How are we going to deal with that, and more importantly, how much guilt would we feel if we miss out on their last moments?”
It was through writing the story that they began to find some answers to their “own deep fears about the fragility of life and the bond between parents and their children.”
While art therapy for trauma often includes drawing a family tree for greater expression, the two creators opted not to go down that route and instead went for a more personal discussion, such as asking themselves how they’d feel if they lost their parents or any other close family members while living overseas.
“This is an issue that we also both spoke about at length a few years ago when Christian was writing his first comic book series, The Resurrected, which advanced the idea that how you deal with death defines the person you will become,” the two noted.
This isn’t the first time Christian and Meriam have worked together as the two collaborated on House of Cracks and Meriam has been working behind the scenes as the editor for Christian’s stories. The creators admitted the biggest obstacle to their collaboration this time around was just finding the time to sit down together and talk. And while there were times the two butted heads on things like dialogue and scene structure, they “think we did a pretty good job and now we have this wonderful book that we are supremely proud of.”
Grief and loss are things that people will inevitably experience at some point in their lives, and Meriam and Christian offered some advice for those who may be going through a similar experience, citing the power of art in helping people confront the anxieties and fears of losing people they love.
“We genuinely feel that the writing process has helped us process these anxieties and we would recommend other creators to take similar journeys and engage in artistic endeavors in dealing with trauma, or any anxiety really,” the two said.
“We hope too that our story can show readers that they are not alone in their grief and that it is something that will affect each and every single one of us. There is not one correct way to deal with grief, and you have to be gentle and forgiving on yourselves, and on others, just as our protagonist learns by the end of the book, after beating herself up and falling into a deep depression after the death of her parents,” they said. “One of our friends, and previous comic book collaborators, J Schiek, posted recently that one of his old friends had passed at the same time he was reading Tunis to Sydney, and that Lilia’s journey had helped him understand that dealing with grief is about learning that letting go of regrets can open a door for profound growth, absolution, and peace. We really hope other readers dealing with similar issues can find even just a tiny bit of solace from our story.”
Released on July 30, Tunis to Sydney is available in stores now.
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