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A Graphic Memoir
by Harry Bliss
A poignant and witty graphic memoir from New Yorker cover artist, internationally syndicated cartoonist, and New York Times bestselling author Harry Bliss capturing his reflections on life and his relationship with Penny, his beloved dog.
New Yorker cartoonist Harry Bliss loved his sweet dog Penny, a joyful part of his life for seventeen years. Every day that he cared for his beloved pet, Harry joked with her, talked to her, and drew the adorable creature―Penny's presence is unmistakably, hilariously incorporated into Harry's iconic cartoons. In one, he gazes up at the night sky, remarking on the vastness of outer space, while she digs into the ground, unbothered, fuzzy tail wagging in the air.
Harry grew up in a family of artists, a rowdy and turbulent bunch, and attended art school in Philadelphia. A therapist once suggested that perhaps when he looked at Penny, he saw himself as an innocent child. As Harry grieves Penny's loss, he reflects on his parents in their later years, his love for his wife and home, and the colorful artists, friends, and mentors who have shaped him.
With humor and gut-wrenching honesty, You Can Never Die is an intimate portrayal of a man making sense of the beautiful and painful world around him. This singular memoir integrates sharply crafted, witty stories with hundreds of gorgeous cartoons and never-seen-before sketches from Bliss's career.
"[A] poignant, generously illustrated graphic memoir, which combines prose and comics in mordantly funny and moving vignettes." ―Publishers Weekly
"A moving, heartbreaking look at a 17-year relationship between a man and his dog. This New Yorker cartoonist breathes new life into the dog love story canon." ―Julie Klam, author of You Had Me at Woof
"A deeply moving memoir by a person who is not only a gifted artist, but an engaging and insightful writer. It's one thing to write a memoir when you're thirty. It's another thing to write a memoir when you're writing from a time in your life when you've actually been through things: experienced serious loss, achieved at least some of your dreams, and when the end of life becomes less of an abstraction. I especially loved reading about his process and feelings about drawing and art. A terrific book." ―Roz Chast
This information about You Can Never Die was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Harry Bliss is the creator of the internationally syndicated comic strip Bliss and a cartoonist and cover artist for The New Yorker magazine. He is the co-author of two New York Times bestselling books with Steve Martin and has written and illustrated more than twenty-five children's books. He is also the founder of the Cornish CCS Fellowship for Graphic Novelists.
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