Nine years ago Mel Tregonning started working on a comic strip about a little boy overwhelmed by his worry monsters. But before she could finish it, she took her own life.
It wasn't until after Mel's death, in 2014, that her family discovered the story reflected her own personal struggle with anxiety and depression.
Today, they can finally hold Mel's work in their hands.
Mel's passion for cartoons and drawing began at a desk in the bedroom she shared with her sister, Violet.
"Me and Mel shared a room my whole childhood and we only parted when she was 17. And that whole time, she had a desk set up in our room and she would just cartoon and draw," Violet told Hack.
"She was a big fan of Garfield and Footrot Flats and Calvin and Hobbes and she had her own little comic strip that she drew called Licorice the Cat which was featured in a magazine from the age of 16, so she was already well ahead of everyone from a young age."
At age 16 Mel began a comic strip called 'Night' that featured in a national magazine, and she kept building on her work until she got a big break in 2007 — a publishing deal for a graphic novel based on the same comic.
"She could see the impact these images were having on people," Violet said.
"In 'Night', it was actually a little girl with these monsters in her shadows and people just really related to that feeling of the darkness and the hopelessness they felt and so that's what grew into Small Things."
The black and white illustrations tell the story of a little boy who struggles with feelings of isolation, anxiety and depression.
They take she shape of strange monsters that follow him around all day and haunt his dreams all night.
"I don't think any of us in the family ever made the connection of it being about what Mel was feeling," Violet said.
"Whenever she talked to us about it, it was always just a lot of excitement and passion and she thought that she was really onto something that would connect with people and those feelings of the loneliness and hopelessness that everyone can feel.
"So she always talked about it quite removed, not about herself.
I guess as a family … you just don't really think about it being them, especially when you haven't seen any of the signs."
Mel died before she could finish the book. So her family turned to illustrator Shaun Tan to draw the last three pages in order to complete the book.
"Mel had already contacted Shaun Tan when she first got the publishing contract — he was the one who actually put her in touch with the publishers and said 'there's this great artist, you should see her work'," Violet said.
"So he already had that connection to Mel and from that point of view he already had that kind of emotional connection so he wanted to be a part of the book and complete it."
While publishing Mel's book has been an important part of the grieving process for the Tregonning family, Violet says the real purpose is to spread awareness about mental illness.
"My favourite page is one of the last images where the boy is sleeping in bed and the monsters are just kind of on the outskirts," Violet said.
I just feel like that image is so powerful because if you're looking at it from a mental illness perspective, a lot of people can recover from a mental illness but it'll always be there, you're not cured from mental illness but you can learn to cope with it.
"And I think that image really shows that — learning how to live and cope every day.
Two years on from her sister's death, Violet says the finished book is something Mel would be proud of.
"Mel was an extraordinary person, she was different to anyone else I've ever met. She taught me my values and ethics from a young age and taught me right and wrong," Violet said.
"Having the book is the greatest thing that we can have, it makes me emotional just even talking about it.
"Because she left us so suddenly, it's such an honour to know that we are able to publish this book and it's actually a complete book.
"From the moment that she passed I knew that I would want to have this exhibition and book launch and have this celebration of everything she's achieved and I’m just so happy that we're finally there, really."
So would Mel be happy with the finished product?
"I think she would be very happy — she was such a perfectionist so there'd probably be something where she'd nitpick," Violet said.
"Everyone's completely moved by and blown away by the quality of the artwork. The artwork itself is so detailed and anyone who has that sort of a background in art can just see how time-consuming it is to draw like that.
"We used a few of her draft images because obviously she passed halfway through and she hadn't completed all the final work.
"A lot of people wouldn't actually tell the difference but I can tell because I've seen them all and I know that she would look at a few of them and go 'oh I can't believe that one's there – I can see the scratchy lines from the pencil' or something.
"But other than that I think she'd be so happy and she'd be blown away to have Shaun's work in there."