by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

While the names Woelv, Pauline Sniff-sniff, Pirate Morceau or Pipi Migou might not register, if you follow quality comics from Montreal, you'll know Geneviève Castrée, previously Fidèle Castrée - pseudonyms that 23-year-old Geneviève Gosselin has attached to her comics for years now. A prodigy, she creates meticulously illustrated, emotionally charged flights of dark fancy that have seen print here and in Europe, and earned her the occasional "next Julie Doucet" remark.

Those other nicknames are Gosselin's musical monikers. Having planted her flag on the West Coast, she's recently taken up the guitar to create fragile, mainly francophone acoustica with a very personal angle - it's Cat Power, not a comic artist, that gets invoked here.

"I don't think of myself as being very musical," says Gosselin. "I don't know what I am doing at all. Playing guitar, I tend to put my fingers where it looks nice. Drawing, making up stories, making books is still what I feel most comfortable with. They're very time-consuming, though, and I've been getting much too stressed out in the past. Having this, music, is very good for me - a little break from focusing so hard on a piece of paper."

Her latest effort marries the two. Pamplemoussi is a big damn book at a foot square, which freed her up graphically, and it comes with a related record of her music. "The songs and the stories complete each other. You get a part of what is happening in both. You can also listen to the record and look at the book separately. I really would love it if people actually sat down and went through the book and the record at the same time, at least once."

So what's Pamplemoussi about? "It's about a girl, mostly, when she is little and then older. Her fears, her nightmares, terrible memories that she is having a hard time dealing with. It's all very abstract, in a way, although it was very clear in my head. Still is. There is also a girl giant who is very similar to her. The book is about girls in general. It is my first real ‘C'mon girls! Stand up and do something!' book, I think."

Book launch with guests the Microphones at la Sala Rossa tonight, Thursday, June 10, 9pm, $8

>> Music Listings