Past Book Club Books!
In March 2013, we read Marbles by Ellen Forney:
Shortly before her thirtieth birthday, cartoonist Ellen Forney was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Flagrantly manic and terrified that medications would cause her to lose creativity and her livelihood, she began a years-long struggle to find mental stability while retaining her passion and creativity.
Searching to make sense of the popular concept of the crazy artist, she finds inspiration from the lives and work of other artists and writers who suffered from mood disorders, including Vincent van Gogh, Georgia O’Keeffe, William Styron, and Sylvia Plath. She analyzes the clinical aspects of bipolar disorder as she struggles with the strengths and limitations of a parade of medications and treatments.
Darkly funny, intensely personal, and visually dynamic, Forney’s graphic memoir provides a visceral glimpse into the effects of a mood disorder on the artist’s work. Her story seeks the answer to this question: if there’s a correlation between creativity and mood disorders, is an artist’s bipolar disorder a curse, or a gift? [Link to description.]
In February 2013, we read George Herriman’s Krazy Kat & Ignatz in Tiger Tea:
Krazy Kat’s most surreal adventures were the famed “Tiger Tea” sequence where Krazy Kat imbibed of the psychedelia-inducing substance. This is George Herriman at his best in the only full-length Krazy Kat adventure story of his career presented in the same era as Terry and the Pirates and Captain Easy. Krazy & Ignatz: Tiger Tea is printed on hemp paper and showcases a rare photo of Herriman sporting a Mexican sombrero and smoking a funny-looking cigarette. A special bookmark in the shape of a tea label and string will make the readers high with happiness. As with the entire line of Yoe Books, the reproduction techniques employed strive to preserve the look and feel of expensive vintage comics. Painstakingly remastered, enjoy the closest possible recreation of reading these comics when first released. -The Library of American Comics is the world’s #1 publisher of classic newspaper comic strips, with 14 Eisner Award nominations and three wins for best book. [Link to description.]
In January 2013, we read Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples:
From New York Times 
bestselling writer BRIAN K.VAUGHAN (Y: THE LAST MAN, EX MACHINA) and critically acclaimed artist FIONA STAPLES (MYSTERY SOCIETY, NORTH 40), SAGA is the sweeping tale of one young family fighting to find their place in the worlds. When two soldiers from opposite sides of a never-ending galactic war fall in love, they risk everything to bring a fragile new life into a dangerous old universe. Fantasy and science fiction are wed like never before in a sexy, subversive drama for adults. This specially priced volume collects the first arc of the smash hit series The Onion A.V. Club calls “the emotional epic Hollywood wishes it could make.” [Link to description.]
In December 2012 in Northampton and January 2013 in Mamaroneck, we read Kate Beaton’s Hark! A Vagrant:
HARK! A VAGRANT takes readers on a romp through history and literature — with dignity for few and cookies for all — with comic strips about famous authors, their characters, and political and historical figures, all drawn in Beaton’s pared-down, excitable style. This collection features favourite stories as well as new, previously unpublished content. Whether she’s writing about Nikola Tesla, Napoleon, or Nancy Drew, Beaton brings a refined sense of the absurd to every situation.
In just four years, Kate Beaton has taken the comics world by storm with her non sequiturs, cheeky comebacks and irreverent punch lines. With 1.2 million monthly hits on her site – 500,000 of them unique– and comics appearing in Harpers Magazine, the National Post and The New Yorker, her caricatures of historical and fictional figures filtered through a contemporary lens display a sharp, quick wit that knows no bounds. [Link to description.]
Past books we’ve read include:
