AS A CARTOONIST (Noah Van Sciver) HC

Description

A series of comic strips joined together by the theme of the
author’s chosen profession – cartooning – reveals a funny
and often poignant reflection on the human condition and
the lives we choose to live.
Acclaimed cartoonist Noah Van Sciver puts to use all the creative arrows
in his quiver in this captivating collection of fiction, biography, memoir,
and more. Van Sciver juxtaposes fictional stories about what life as a “19th
Century Cartoonist” might have looked like with a series of autobiographical
strips about life as a contemporary cartoonist, along with pieces about
his father and childhood that inform the path in life he has chosen. The
resultant effect is a routinely funny (Van Sciver never takes himself too
seriously unless it is intended for comedic effect) but also deeply relatable
book that touches on some of life’s big questions, whether about the ways
we measure happiness or success, the ways we often define ourselves by
our careers, or the ways we can sometimes lose sight of the most important
things. Van Sciver displays a love of the history and form of cartooning
that recalls Art Spiegelman, a Lynda Barryesque thirst to unpack ideas
of what creativity really means, and a Harvey Pekar-like way of just trying to stay
alive in the face of despair.