Space Mama Piggy: “An Imperfect Individual In An Imperfect World”

Sólveig Eva Magnúsdóttir is an Icelandic storyteller living in New York and Reykjavik. Sólveig writes, paints, acts, directs, illustrates, and animates. She is a multi-talented individual who explores any medium necessary in order to convey her message, and now, she has released her first graphic novel.

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Her favourite medium at the moment, is graphic novels, and she wants to share her appreciation of it and its community, populated by many impressive artists and activists “making difficult conversations approachable” for people of all ages and reading abilities.

She believes that it is “a powerful and accessible medium for social change and spread of information”.

Sólveig’s illustrated novel challenges the distortion of female characters in comic books, which tend to be hyper-sexualised, and stereotyped. The protagonist she created, Space Mama Piggy, is in her own words “a comforting swine with empty ear-nests, taking centre stage as an imperfect individual in an imperfect world” – “ vulnerable, broken, honest”.

Space Mama Piggy is suffering from separation anxiety after whisking her numerous babies off into space in a desperate act for survival.

Her children are ready to go off on their own, yet “she is riddled with guilt and shame for not having been a more ideal mother”.

Self-loathing mama journeys through outer space in search of her children, love, forgiveness and belonging.

On the way, she is confronted by the contrasting confidence of the other characters she meets along the way, who seem to have “it all figured out”.

Sólveig hopes that despite her unfamiliar appearance, Space Mama Piggy will resonate with other “imperfect souls”, and provide them with “comic relief and company” while they are “navigating change and lacking self compassion.”

A painfully relatable story which deals with common, yet stigmatised struggles many mothers face. Space Mama Piggy is “a personification of difficult emotions such as shame, rumination, anxiety and self acceptance”.

This is Sólveig’s first ever graphic novel, made up of three acts. Created during the 2020 lockdown, the first act was sold out after receiving distribution at Desert Island Comics, Rhinebeck Comics and Escape Pod Comics in New York.

Sólveig has received two grants to complete the 200 page version of the project, and is hosting exhibitions throughout it, to share the progress through sketches, posters and workshops for a transparent insight into the creative process.

Space Mama Piggy will be exhibited at Design March, launching at the Library in Hafnarfjörður on the 5th of May from 16:00 to 18:00.