On sale date: August 3, 2014
The first collection of literary short comics stories by an award-winning cartoonist.
2015 Ignatz Award WINNER Outstanding Anthology or Collection
Named one of The Washington Post's, NPR's and Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2014
Shortlist, Slate's 2014 Cartoonist Studio Prize for Best Print Comic of the Year
Eleanor Davis is one of the finest cartoonists of her generation and has been producing comics since the mid-2000s. How to Be Happy represents the best stories she's drawn for comics anthologies as well as her own self-publishing and web efforts. Davis achieves a rare, subtle poignancy in her narratives that are at once compelling and elusive, pregnant with mystery and a deeply satisfying emotional resonance. This collection shows the full range of Davis's graphic skills — sketchy drawing, polished pen and ink line work, and meticulously designed full color painted panels— which are always in the service of a narrative that builds to a quietly devastating climax.
Praise
"Davis is rightfully a rising talent, and one of her greatest gifts is her ability to build narrative momentum. She creates suspense, mystery and come-hither curiosity by never overtipping her artful hand." — The Washington Post
"Impressively varied and emotionally resonant. With images ranging from scratchy black-and-white line drawings to robust images saturated with color, Davis is comfortable in a variety of styles, carefully choosing each one to best fit her tone and mood. ... A powerful collection that resonates with all the ills, real and imagined, of our modern life." — Publishers Weekly Starred Review
"Though Davis' tales can be wildly different in look and narrative, they are united by themes of yearning, of characters searching for the thing that will make their lives better. ...Remarkable ... exquisite ... How to Be Happy left me wanting more." — Los Angeles Times
" …[Davis's] stories often feature tremendous longing and sadness, but they also lushly suggest what a blessing it is to be alive and in the world. She presents, in short, a more realistic picture of what it means to be a human, with our ever-present mind/body tug-of-war, than almost anyone else out there making art. And what art it is: there may be nothing Davis can't beautifully illustrate. …How to Be Happy is fearless and fantastic, unafraid to break rules or to make new ones. " — Paste
"Eleanor Davis' breakthrough short story collection How to Be Happy… is a gorgeous book filled with exquisite cartooning. Davis switches between styles and subject matter with each story, flitting between melancholy, heartbreak, and nostalgia with a casual virtuosity." — The A.V. Club
Specs
- Pages
- 152
- Format
- Hardback
- Color
- Full color with 48 black and white pages.
- Dimensions
- 7.8" × 10.2"
- ISBN-13
- 9781606997406
