When I'm Old And Other Stories

by Gabrielle Bell

New York based cartoonist Gabrielle Bell brings together for the first time thirty-five stories from the popular "Book of" series, plus several extra short comics, displaying the broad range of Bell's storytelling and cartooning talent. Her fiction includes Book of Black, a story of Kate, a pretty young rhinopasty assistant who encounters happy-go-lucky street people, a lascivious landlord, vapid co-workers and Trent Reznor on her descent into madness. "Amy was a Babysitter" takes a sweeter tone in which the wanderlusting heroine spins captivating tales about a world she imagines to be outside the small town she wishes to leave. "The Fairy Tale About the Wicker Chair," is an adaptation of a Herman Hesse story about a self-styled young artist whose furniture will not sit still long enough for him to sketch it. "Anatomy of the Heart" attempts to discover the source of and the cure for broken hearts. Bell's autobiographical tales feature the author as an eccentric old lady, a five hundred foot tall woman, in England, in Mexico with a baby, and being charmed and hypnotized by colorful San Francisco characters.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Comix, Short Stories, 21st Century, The United States Of America

128 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 2003

About the author

Gabrielle Bell was born in England and raised in California. In 1998, she began to collect her “Book of” miniseries (Book of Sleep, Book of Insomnia, Book of Black, etc), which resulted in When I’m Old and Other Stories, published by Alternative Comics. In 2001 she moved to New York and released her autobiographical series Lucky, published by Drawn and Quarterly. Her work has been selected for the 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011 Best American Comics and the Yale Anthology of Graphic Fiction, and she has contributed to McSweeneys, Bookforum, The Believer, and Vice Magazine. The title story of Bell’s book, “Cecil and Jordan in New York” has been adapted for the film anthology Tokyo! by Michel Gondry. Her latest book, The Voyeurs, is available from Uncivilized Books. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
(source: http://gabriellebell.com/contact/)

Reviews

[Agathafrye · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so bizarre and creative. The most disturbing story was about a girl who found herself with a baby she didn't want. She contemplated various ways to deal with the baby, including giving it to her grandma to raise, killing him, resigning herself to raising a baby she didn't love, etc. Somewhere in this thought process, she realizes that she's dreaming and doesn't actually have a baby. I was really relieved at the story's outcome. There are lots of great waitress and service industry stories in this volume, as well, including a waitress who turns into a giant and then back to a normal sized waitress again. There's also a really great story that references The Yellow Wallpaper. I would have given this book five stars for sheer imagination, but there were too many spelling and grammatical errors for me to go all the way. Regardless, I'm a fan.

[jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved this Gabrielle Bell book, so much more than I appreciated Lucky. As you may guess from the title, the book is a series of short illustrated stories (comics), several of which reference other works by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Hermann Hesse, D. H. Lawrence, etc. Most of the stories are pretty surreal and fantastic. I really liked the "anatomy of a heart" near the end, but I am a sucker for overwrought, tender emotions. The story about the lady who didn't want her baby created suitable anxiety in the reader (me) and I was actually relieved when it turned out the baby wasn't real. What really makes the book special is the cast of characters - they all seem to start out so normal, and take such a turn for the weird. I liked all the waitresses, and I really liked the hypnotist guy.

[Raina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to keep reminding myself that these were originally published as minicomix. I found the collection extremely uneven. Some stories were awesome. Some were bizarre. Some covered already well-trod ground. I felt like her illustration style varied similarly. When she's good, she's very very good. But when she's bad...

Favorite stories:
Amy was a Babysitter
When I'm Old
Just One Reason
On the Sea-Shore

Not so much:
Graveyard Shift
I Ate Shit and Pretended to Like It
The Fairy Tale About the Wicker Chair
Anatomy of the Heart

[Vicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

surreal, fluid stories, loosely autobiographical, and gabrielle bell includes her e-mail address at the back of the book: love it

[Karah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book can be read in one sitting. The standout pieces included " Arm Trophy", "Amy Was the Best Babysitter", and the title piece, " When I'm Old". This collection seems a touch morbid compared to her other works. Black and white compositions entirely. If an artist has fallen into an abyss, it's difficult to ascend. I observed the previous statement overwhelmingly in this work.

Melancholy all over this one.

[Ian Coutts · Rating 4 out of 5]

A versatile artist who can works in different visual styles and has a range of subject matter -- everything from getting really drunk to imagining herself as a (really weird) old woman to a neat little adaptation of D.H.Lawrence's The Virgin and the Gypsy. Just a delight.

[Liza · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 for my enjoyment only. I had purchased this in a recommendation from someone not knowing anything about it. I suspect I would have enjoyed it/appreciated it more if I had know of Gabrielle’s work prior to picking this up. I love the art work. The stories were up and down for me.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shows her ability in creating cartoons of different styles and stories. However, not my type of book. Did not finish after the first few and skimmed through. Too much dark humor and uncomfortable topics for me.

[Brianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Bell's perspective and take on the world. This one was more surreal than straight autobiographical which I thought was fun.

[Hysope · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think i like it but i'm not sure

[Alia Makki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's an invitation and a consolation to be weird and (feeling) old in a world that barely gives a lemon.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not nearly as good as her later book, Lucky. The stories are not as well developed and as a reader you feel less attached to what happens. I really identified with the story and characters in Lucky, but that was not the case with this book. In Lucky you get the sense that Bell is telling a very personal story, but this Bell novel lacks that personal touch. You can tell it was one of her earlier novels because of the distance she puts between herself and the characters she is writing about.

[Derek Royal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of some of Gabrielle Bell's earliest comics. What's interesting about rereading Bell is seeing how her work has developed over the years. The art (line work, detail, etc), the tone, and the themes are quite different from what we see in her most recent collection, The Voyeurs, and even strikingly different from her Lucky stories. Most of these strips bear more in common with fiction than they do (semi-)autobiography or memoir.

[Matt Buchholz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of autobio, hipster magical realism, and literary adaptations by a stylistically reserved, but clearly talented cartoonist. Not nearly as accomplished as her more recent work (Lucky), and with a lot less to say, but there's still a lot to enjoy in watching Ms. Bell figure out exactly what she wants to do with comics.

[Todd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I was a little disappointed with this book. The art is simple and emotional. The main problem is that many of the stories are too text heavy. The narration is clumsy at times. It's like reading a short story that happens to have pictures.

There were a few stories that I really enjoyed, so I might look into reading some of her other stuff.

[Masha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bell's trying to hard in this one, but it is interesting to get a glimpse of that process. The narratives peter out and have a kind of forced whimsy/darkness much of the time. Love the story of getting too drunk in a neighborhood SF bar, though.

[Lorra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I pretty much love everything by Gabrielle Bell, including this - the stories are clever and odd, even if they are reflecting real life.
I must say I loved the two stories about Kate the crazy girl, I wish there was more. -1 star for spelling mistakes, but +1 back for a Trent Reznor cameo. :D

[Jane]

I'll try it, Professor Chee.

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gabrielle Bell's comic is sublime!
The drawings are great, but mostly I love her excellent storytelling.

[Esther · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extra enjoyment points for those who want to revisit some SF watering holes (i.e. Kilowatt) via Bell's work...

[Nikki Amaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

good drawn version of "repulsion" in here

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite what I expected after reading her last book, but I enjoyed it none the less!

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

So disturbing and awesome. Feels unpolished, sometimes to its detriment, but mostly to its favor.

[Shoshanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last time I read Gabrielle Bell's stories I wasn't as into them, but rereading them now (and reading this oldest collection for the first time) I really love her storytelling style and themes!

[Ica Mendoza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully strange and intimate.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smart and funny, accurate depictions of depression and the arrangement of stories made it feel cohesive.

[Steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Incredibly bizarre and sometimes disturbing, although not totally without its charms.

[Josephus FromPlacitas]

I'm having trouble engaging this -- the stories aren't grabbing me and the art isn't inviting to my eye. Some of the one-page, more over-the-top punchy strips work for me pretty well, but the short stories aren't hitting me on my wavelength. I may try reading a little more, but I think I may just give it back to the library.