Named "Best Autobiography/Biography of 2012" by Paul Gravett
In one of the most eagerly-anticipated graphic novels of 2012, Soldier’s
Heart concludes the story of Carol Tyler and her delving into her father’s
war experiences in a way that is both surprising and devastating — and
rather than trying to summarize this episode and thus possibly spoil it for readers, we prefer to simply offer a selection of
comments on the first two installments of this autobiographical masterpiece.
Publishers Weekly: “(Starred Review) In the first volume of Tyler’s planned trilogy of graphic memoirs, she dug into the
eruptive, violent memories of her father’s WWII experiences while simultaneously dealing with a husband who decided
to go find himself and leave her with a daughter to raise. [Book Two] is no less rich and overwhelming. Tyler gets back
to the business of detailing her father’s war stories — difficult given that he is ‘one of those guys who closed it off and
never talked about it’ — as well as coming to terms with her already touchy parents’ increasingly ornery attitudes. Closing the circle somewhat is Tyler’s concern over her daughter’s troubled nature, which seems to mirror her own wild past.
While the language of Chicago-raised and Cincinnati-based Tyler has a winningly self-deprecating Midwestern spareness
to it, her art is a lavishly prepared kaleidoscope of watercolors and finely etched drawings, all composed to look like the
greatest family photo album of all time. The story’s honest self-revelations and humane evocations of family dramas are
tremendously moving. Tyler’s book could well leave readers simultaneously eager to see the third volume, but also nervous about the traumas, home front and war front, that it might contain.”
Booklist: “Tyler’s fluid, expressive linework, complemented by subtly overlaid watercolors, gives ideal visual expression
to a narrative that’s at once sensitive and hard-nosed... Decades of drawing mostly autobiographical stories have honed
her skills, enabling her to produce a work that ranks in quality with the graphic memoirs of Alison Bechdel (Fun Home)
and Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis).”
"Despite widening the focus to encompass the hardships of other family members — particularly
her mother, who suffered a trauma that rivals any battlefield experience — Tyler skillfully ties the various
events that occurred over a span of five decades into a cohesive, affecting narrative. Her visual
approach — supple ink drawings augmented by muted watercolor overlays — ideally conveys the jumble of
harsh travails, loving moments, and resilient humor that characterizes not just Tyler’s life but universal
experience. Tyler’s work represents autobiographical comics at their most personal, perceptive, and
powerful."
– Gordon Flagg, Booklist
2010 Eisner Award Nominee: Best Writer/Artist — Non-Fiction (C. Tyler); Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (C. Tyler)
2009 Ignatz Award Nominee: Outstanding Artist, Outstanding Graphic Novel
Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2009 — Comics
Selected one of the 5 Best Comics of 2009 by Ellen Abramowitz, President of the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA)
#11, Best Comics (First Run or Definitively Collected) of 2009, The Comics Reporter
"Remarkable." – Paul Buhle (Senior Lecturer, Brown University), The Daily Cross Hatch, "The Best Damned Comics of 2009 Chosen by the Artists"
Top 5 comics of the year – Julia Wertz, The Daily Cross Hatch, "The Best Damned Comics of 2009 Chosen by the Artists"
"“It’s impossible not to compare You’ll Never Know
with Art Spiegelman’s Maus, the first great graphic
novel about what happened to a cartoonist’s father
during World War II… Tyler’s book is a vivid,
affecting, eccentrically stylish frame built around a
terrible silence."
– New York Times Book Review
"Alt-comics veteran Tyler fully demonstrates her artistry in a book about her father’s WWII experiences, her childhood and present struggles raising her daughter, and her growing realization of war’s long-term effects on soldiers and their families." – BooklistTop 10 Graphic Novels
""C. Tyler's You'll Never Know, Book One: A Good and Decent Man... is also an impressive and beautiful history of the era; Tyler creates a panorama of images that sweep across the page as she documents her father's childhood, her parent's engagement, and her own young life. Her pen, ink, and color transform her creative panels (at times evoking a scrapbook) into vibrant memories intertwined by her restless imagination." – Adam Waterreus, Politics and Prose, "Favorite Graphic Literature of the Year"
"Tyler is a cartoonist who was trained as a painter first, and her memoir of learning about the World War II experiences that permanently changed her father leads with its indelible, majestically composed images. Compassionate but unsparing, this first of a projected three-book series tells one soldier's story in the context of his generation's silence." – Douglas Wolk, The Best Graphic Novels of 2009, The Barnes & Noble Review
“If you want to find out what happened to Willie and Joe after they got home from World War II, You’ll Never Know is the perfect place to start. C. Tyler’s graphic novel, passionately conceived and brilliantly drawn, extends the range of Bill Mauldin to cover the aftershock of the Last Good War on the warriors who fought it and the collateral damage to their families. Not since Catch-22 has anyone probed the secret heart of the Greatest Generation with this kind of raw, icon busting courage.” – Tom Mathews (Our Fathers’ War: Growing Up in the Shadow of the Greatest Generation)
“Her work has the extremely rare quality of genuine, authentic heart.” – R. Crumb
“She understands people with an acuity that is tender, wise and devastating.” – Jim Woodring
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