From Harvey and Eisner-nominated cartoonist and editor Glenn Head comes Chicago (from Fantagraphics Books), the hilarious and harrowing tale of a nineteen-year-old virgin who drops out of everything and into the unknown. Abandoning suburbia for art school and then the gritty streets of Chicago, young Glenn finds himself fending off street predators and fighting depression. Like Scorsese circa Mean Streets crossed with revealing autobiography like Jim Carroll’s The Basketball Diaries, Chicago is an unforgettable tale of losing one’s mind, finding one’s identity, and discovering love where it’s least expected.
“In Chicago, Head’s graphic memoir, he nakedly airs out his struggles as a teen living on the street, his insecurities, and his transition into adulthood. It’s a blunt take on growing up and finding one’s identity.” (Andrea Towers – Entertainment Weekly)
Glenn Head is a cartoonist living in Brooklyn, New York. He edited and contributed to the comix anthology Hotwire from 2006-2009. He will be at Quimby’s to read selections from his graphic memoir, and to speak about his creative experiences. A signing of the book will follow.
For more info:
For Excerpts from the book and more: fantagraphics.com/chicago
email pederson(at)fantagraphics(dot)com
Facebook event invite: https://www.facebook.com/events/403384009856931/
Saturday, October 10th, 7pm – Free Event
Press:
“Unflinching” (John Porcellino (King-Cat, The Hospital Suite))
“Chicago by Glenn Head is a true rarity: a modern graphic novel that could hold its own with many titles from the heyday of the Underground. With unsparing honesty and sometimes disturbing imagery, Head charts a trajectory spanning three decades. The work is cut from whole cloth, in that his intense visual style owes zilch to the abundant style books and polemics that inform much contemporary work. His writing is obviously informed by authentic experience, so it has a consistent verve. That live current throbs through the whole panorama: it’s a coming of age story; a dangerous psychic battle; a love story; a scary urban survival saga; a career overview and a reflection on fatherhood. At least, I know it’s about those things. The elusive author/artist voice outside of all this varied experience is the true subject. It’s well worth hearing!” (Justin Green (Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary))
“Glenn has at last found his voice, found the way to tell his own truth, and has produced a very fine graphic novel, strange, unique, deeply personal, a very rewarding comic book reading experience.” (R. Crumb)
“Mr. Head’s work as an editor and creator has earned him well-deserved Harvey and Eisner-award nominations and it’s easy to see why. His time contributing to Weirdo magazine and Bad News was at times funny, entertaining, and enlightening?but always worked to make the reader experience something.” (Jed W. Harris-Keith – FreakSugar)
“…Glenn Head [uses] a flowing, sometimes loopy style to accent works grounded in austere reality. … [Chicago] provides an entertaining autobiographical ride…” (Hillary Brown – Paste)
“Glenn Head is one of the strongest artists I relate to later-period underground comix… He has style to burn, and his comics are always a highlight wherever they appear. In Chicago, …the art is a joy and the voice appealing, but Head gets at some ideas and states of mind that aren’t the common fodder of issue- or event-oriented memoir writing. I was most impressed with how he wrote about the growing realization you have as a young man that life is mostly arbitrary and the result of an accumulation of decisions from those you can’t remember to the most recent.” (Tom Spurgeon – The Comics Reporter)
“Glenn Head’s work is cut from the fabric of his being with a rusty straight razor, he knows that you can’t be open and exposed without a little blood. His honesty is nearly unappreciated in a culture built on lies and social Darwinism, but is as vital and necessary to remind us of the freedoms we lost in the past two decades as anything penned by Orwell. His work is a wail of freedom; not the bumper sticker shrink wrapped kind that always falls out of the mouth of millionaire politicians, but the freedom that comes only when you have sacrificed everything.” (Johnny ‘Thief’ Di Donna (Seppuku Tattoo))
“Glenn’s story is crazy and delightful and his work masterfully done. His combination of old school comics and adult retrospective is a rare and impressive thing, and makes for an incredibly satisfying read.” (Julia Wertz (Drinking at the Movies))
“Head’s comics style ties right into the Underground setting of the late 1970’s that he’s exploring, and with innovative stylistic choices, Head manages to take us inside the psychological perceptions and reactions of the youthful protagonist to create an emotional and unfailingly truthful narrative.” (Hannah Means Shannon – Bleeding Cool)
