Lee Lai: a note on Cannon
Acclaimed Australian cartoonist Lee Lai reflects on Cannon (1 September 2025), the highly anticipated follow-up to her Stella-shortlisted graphic novel Stone Fruit. You can follow her on Instagram @_leelai.
I set out to write Cannon as an exploration of anger. In Stone Fruit, I was so preoccupied with examining the melancholic process of letting go: of a romantic relationship, of one’s ideas of what could and should be, versus what is. For this sophomore project, I was excited to write a character driven to inflammation and confrontation. Ironically, I realised some way into the process that I was writing another version of letting go. Like Cannon, I’ve been very reluctant to accept anger as a useful emotion – it carries such baggage for so many of us. But the deeper I understand my own relationships with loved ones, and the deeper I grow my political awareness, the greater my appreciation becomes for acts of necessary confrontation and the flames of defiance that fuel them. As Soraya Chemaly states so beautifully in Rage Becomes Her, ‘anger is an assertion of rights and worth. It is communication, equality, and knowledge. It is intimacy, acceptance, fearlessness, embodiment, revolt, and reconciliation.’
Cannon’s shedding of her stoicism is witnessed, encouraged and suffered through most intimately by her best friend, Trish. As I enter my 30s, surrounded by friends also growing into their 30s or 40s, I’m witnessing the beautiful, confronting, and sometimes very painful transitions our relationships are undergoing. Existing in a subculture built specifically around identity has meant that shared markers (e.g. being queer, trans, racialised) have been the basis for many friendships, but as life crowds in and those explorations of identity take somewhat of a backseat, we’re left grappling with our sense of belonging and relevancy to one another.
I wanted with Cannon to explore a second coming-of-age: where needs and priorities have shifted into something more urgent and practical, but those shared identities still loom present, with all the precious and complicated intimacy that accompanies them.
On a completely different but potentially connected note, I feel compelled to mention that this book was also born out of a desire for something silly! I started this project determined to indulge in some soap and camp. Even during the greatest moments of heartache and bitterness served in my own life, I have revelled in gossip and snacks and hilarity with the people that I love. I wanted very much for that to be present for Cannon and Trish.
I wanted with Cannon to explore a second coming-of-age.
