Permanent Press

by Luke Healy

Overview

Luke is depressed, afflicted by a severe case of metaphoritis and deadlines that don't really exist.

Afraid of being forgotten by the comics community and unable to find motivation in anything besides jealousy, he sets out to create an award-winning comic that will remedy all of his problems.

Exploring themes of art and existence through worlds of theater, youtube videos, relationships between family and neighbors, and numbers both real and imagined, Luke Healy's new graphic novel tells a story of creative perseverance and exhaustion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781910395332
Publisher:	Avery Hill Publishing
Publication date:	07/15/2018
Pages:	136
Product dimensions:	6.60(w) x 8.03(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Luke Healy is graduate of Dublin City University, where he studied journalism, and The Center for Cartoon Studies where he earned an MFA in Cartooning.

Editorial Reviews

04/09/2018
This graphic novel proves a pleasant surprise, as the well-worn narrative of the self-referential comic artist riddled with professional anxiety gets an entertainingly knotty and acidly funny working over by the creator of How to Survive in the North. Inside the framing device of depicting himself as a woeful young artist who volleys from catatonic depression to pretentious rambling, Healy slots in stories-within-stories that he has created to stave off his terminal boredom and anxiety—and to win another award. “I’m washed up, I’ve become irrelevant,” declares the artist at age 26, and hearkens back to a moment of glory when his work was recognized. The comedic first piece follows a once-feted film director given a remarkable comeback opportunity, only to be saddled with adapting an impenetrably obscure novel that by coincidence her daughter is currently reading and hating in high school. In other stories, the artist is literally stalked by his own shadow and interrupted as he tries to create a comic featuring an artist and musician, which quickly spirals into a pit of self-doubt (“Is it about proving your dad wrong?”). Healy’s tight panels are frequently broken up by larger and more simplistic spreads that still retain a certain claustrophobia. While there’s not much plot momentum, the tongue-in-cheek humor accumulates into a clever and curiously haunting book. (July)

Publishers Weekly

Intricate, nuanced and beautiful examinations of relationships, the urge to create and the barriers we set up for ourselves. This is the rare meta work of art that finds a way out of its own maze and encourages the reader to do so as well.” - The Comics Journal

“This graphic novel proves a pleasant surprise, as the well-worn narrative of the self-referential comic artist riddled with professional anxiety gets an entertainingly knotty and acidly funny working over. A clever and curiously haunting book.” - Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher