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Mijn brein hangt op z'n kop. Grafische memoires.
Product Description
One of the most promising young talents in cartooning makes his debut with a dazzling collection–part freakish dreamlife, part quirk-o-rama autobiography, all genius.
Long a fixture in comics anthologies, David Heatley's deceptively crude, wickedly observant drawings have begun showing up on the New York Times op-ed pages and the cover of the New Yorker, introducing him to a vast new audience, Now, in My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (title courtesy of the Ramones song), we are treated to the full range of Heatley's remarkable, wildly unique voice and vision.
My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down is Heatley's life story told in six different but connected narrative threads. "Sex History" describes every sexual encounter dating back to kindergarten, with details that would make a therapist blush. "Black History" is an unflinchingly honest meditation on his own racism. "Portrait of My Mom" and "Portrait of My Dad" are beautifully paced vignettes, skewering and celebrating his lovably dysfunctional parents. "Family History" tells the story of his family from his great-great-grandparents' lives and closes with the birth of his own children. Woven in and around the larger pieces are "dream comics" that expand on the same themes with a baffling unconscious logic. Every inch of My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down is filled with visceral art and emotionally resonant storytelling at once stunning, truthful, and uncomfortably hilarious.
Amazon Exclusive: David Heatley's My Upside Down BrainDavid Heatley's book is on Amazon...but what does David Heatley think about that? See Heatley at ages 8, 15, and 33 in this comic, My Upside Down Brain, drawn exclusively for Amazon.
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Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews
December 15, 2019
Heatley is in a group of folks like Jeffrey Brown and others who went to art school and deliberately draw against what the art school traditionally represents; in other words, anti-high art, simple, almost childish representations visually, and in story, too. These are typically tiny drawings, 100 to a page, excruciatingly difficult to see, and they are divided into autobiographical sections, like sexual history, racial history, mom, dad, and so on and Heatley tells you EVERYTHING about his encounters with these people, no matter how embarrassing and graphic, except he spares his wife and their sexual history because she probably insisted on it or she would divorce him. As with a memoir by Marinaomi (but less humorously and charmingly) he details every sex act that he has every engaged in, possibly to his wife's affirmation, I have no idea. But some of the sexual fantasies and acts as he struggles with whether he is bi-sexual or not that he "shares" in graphic details, those I will never unsee, unfortunately, when I hear his name.
Okay, if that sounds a little un-generous to his artistic attempts to add to memoir/dairy comix genre: The art style I like, kind of alt comix style. Some of his observations about his family are sometimes funny, often deliberately honest to the point of disturbing, that Crumb (My Trouble With Women) territory of taking the gloves completely off and not caring how offensive he might be, that's theoretically interesting. But make sure you have not eaten recently if you begin reading those sections.
Okay, if that sounds a little un-generous to his artistic attempts to add to memoir/dairy comix genre: The art style I like, kind of alt comix style. Some of his observations about his family are sometimes funny, often deliberately honest to the point of disturbing, that Crumb (My Trouble With Women) territory of taking the gloves completely off and not caring how offensive he might be, that's theoretically interesting. But make sure you have not eaten recently if you begin reading those sections.
June 24, 2015
Heatley's decision to write and draw stories from his life without the veil of privacy is a fairly daring one. The subject of Heatley's comics are what other writers and artists might shy away from or skirt around through their whole careers. Pretty much anyone who experienced insecurity and anger in their late teens and twenties will recognize themselves in these works.
His most famous (and best) work "Sex History" is a chronicle of every sexual experience, though the version of that work that appears here is self-censored and includes a one-page addendum (to let us know that he is in fact not bisexual and that he has thrown out his dildo) that lessens the impact of the original.
A less successful comic depicts his lifelong experiences with Black people is stupidly titled "Black History". (His own Black history... get it?) The choice to write about this as he does and the execution are odd to say the least. Other works involve his parents and his dreams all of which paint a portrait of a very fearful, anxious, "judgmental asshole" (his words) who is dealing with it on a daily basis.
His most famous (and best) work "Sex History" is a chronicle of every sexual experience, though the version of that work that appears here is self-censored and includes a one-page addendum (to let us know that he is in fact not bisexual and that he has thrown out his dildo) that lessens the impact of the original.
A less successful comic depicts his lifelong experiences with Black people is stupidly titled "Black History". (His own Black history... get it?) The choice to write about this as he does and the execution are odd to say the least. Other works involve his parents and his dreams all of which paint a portrait of a very fearful, anxious, "judgmental asshole" (his words) who is dealing with it on a daily basis.
March 25, 2018
I read in an interview the racial content was the hardest for Heatley to write, because of all the sorrow, sadness, regret and guilt he felt about it. That being said, is making a “catalog” of black people you’ve befriended (objectifying people who already struggle with being objectified by society on a daily basis) really the best way to confront that guilt and regret? Also, a lot of the racist thoughts he has aren’t reflected on, just presented as-is — to the wrong reader, this could be construed as normalizing them rather than presenting them for the audience’s horror.
I understand that “cataloging” is sort of Heatley’s style (which, whether or not I’m simpatico with that as a memoir style is another conversation), but with his sex life and his family life, that content feels more “his own” to talk about vs. the race stuff. The whole section made me uncomfortable, which I guess Heatley, as someone who went to art school, could argue is the point of art, but with the racial history, it feels like this discomfort comes at the expense of other people’s narratives instead of just his narrative.
I understand that “cataloging” is sort of Heatley’s style (which, whether or not I’m simpatico with that as a memoir style is another conversation), but with his sex life and his family life, that content feels more “his own” to talk about vs. the race stuff. The whole section made me uncomfortable, which I guess Heatley, as someone who went to art school, could argue is the point of art, but with the racial history, it feels like this discomfort comes at the expense of other people’s narratives instead of just his narrative.
October 19, 2014
A pretty enjoyable book. I first saw David's work in an anthology collection, and was immediately attracted to his style. I enjoyed his subject matter of telling stories about his father, and including some of his dreams. I thought that was an interesting thing to do. I must have been lucky because just a week later I actually saw a copy of his self-published Deadpan #2 at a comic store. I took it home and read it and have been a fan of his ever since. I original purchased this book when it first came out, but I sat down and reread it a few days ago. It still holds up really well. It's also a super DENSE read. The panel layouts are insane, with many of the pages having 48 panels!
I would say this book is for people looking for a very honest and open memoir.
I would say this book is for people looking for a very honest and open memoir.
September 28, 2008
Do you like comic-book memoirs? The sweetly conflicted adolescent remembrances of Craig Thompson and Chester Brown? The insistence on exposing ones least attractive habits and behaviors that drives the work of Joe Matt? The gawky innocence and heartbreak conveyed by the out-of-control doodles populating the world of Lynda Barry? The absurdist suburban nightmares of Daniel Clowes and Charles Burns? The dense pages and bright melancholy of Chris Ware? The brilliant hindsight of Alison Bechdel? The fragile scratches and intimate approach of Jeffrey Brown? Wouldn't you like to have all of those things in one cartoonist?
Meet David Heatley. Please, meet him. Bring him into your home and life. Give him some money, that he might make more books.
Naked in every sense of the term, "Brain" is oversized, awkwardly shaped, and packed with one painful frame after another, with a familiar and very specific discomfort that could only come from a true past. Diving right in, Heatley proceeds to document, in unflinching detail, every sexual encounter in his entire life up to his marriage, starting in kindergarten. If he left anything out due to embarrassment, the mind reels at what it possibly could have been, considering the vulnerability of the events laid out for us here. Next he tackles race, going back through his life and introducing us to all of the black people he's ever known or had a memorable encounter with. Just as Heatley fearlessly displays his kinks in the first segment, he isn't shy at all about revealing an occasionally racist attitude, in spite of having been around black people for his entire life and counting many of them among his closest friends. Rounding out the book are equally touching and not necessarily complimentary vignettes that bring the author's parents to vivid life, several illustrated dreams, and a family tree capper that drags a bit in comparison to all that's come before it but effectively draws the book to a hopeful close.
An amazing work and no doubt the best thing I'll read this year, this ranks right up there among my most successful impulse purchases (I'm pretty sure my local Border's broke street date on it!), and has put an end to a reading dry spell for me. I'm gonna go read it again.
Meet David Heatley. Please, meet him. Bring him into your home and life. Give him some money, that he might make more books.
Naked in every sense of the term, "Brain" is oversized, awkwardly shaped, and packed with one painful frame after another, with a familiar and very specific discomfort that could only come from a true past. Diving right in, Heatley proceeds to document, in unflinching detail, every sexual encounter in his entire life up to his marriage, starting in kindergarten. If he left anything out due to embarrassment, the mind reels at what it possibly could have been, considering the vulnerability of the events laid out for us here. Next he tackles race, going back through his life and introducing us to all of the black people he's ever known or had a memorable encounter with. Just as Heatley fearlessly displays his kinks in the first segment, he isn't shy at all about revealing an occasionally racist attitude, in spite of having been around black people for his entire life and counting many of them among his closest friends. Rounding out the book are equally touching and not necessarily complimentary vignettes that bring the author's parents to vivid life, several illustrated dreams, and a family tree capper that drags a bit in comparison to all that's come before it but effectively draws the book to a hopeful close.
An amazing work and no doubt the best thing I'll read this year, this ranks right up there among my most successful impulse purchases (I'm pretty sure my local Border's broke street date on it!), and has put an end to a reading dry spell for me. I'm gonna go read it again.
January 6, 2009
Look, just because something happened to you doesn't mean you should tell me about it. Just because you had a dream about black girls being mean to you doesn't mean you should tell me about it. Nothing wrong with personal life. That's O.K. But if you pissed on the campers while they were sleeping in their bunks, you might decide to write about it. But have it go somewhere. Don't tell me about it for the sake of being honest, and especially don't try to make me think that I need to be shocked out of my complacency. I've had that in my ear since G.G. Allin. Your drawings are ugly and you have not even an attempt at narrative. And I like Crumb, Brown, Matt, and all those other brats. Maybe it's because I've read your interviews. You are a nightmare. The title and the cover are awesome, though.
November 18, 2008
Holy schmigarolly! My Brain is "hanging upside down" after reading this too, as are my heart and just about every other major organ.
It's pretty amazing how detailed and seemingly honest Heatley is in depicting his life.
As I said in a comment before, this book was hard to read and hard to stop reading.
I realize I can be a little too glib at times about difficulties but I find it strange that people can face their childhoods without providing them/us with any comic relief.
I can't even say whether I "liked" it or not. The stars here represent more of a "felt compelled to keep going" than a "liked it" kind of feeling.
*the sweetest thing in the book was when he choose to NOT reveal the details of his sex life with his wife. Thank god! at least SOMETHING is sacred.
It's pretty amazing how detailed and seemingly honest Heatley is in depicting his life.
As I said in a comment before, this book was hard to read and hard to stop reading.
I realize I can be a little too glib at times about difficulties but I find it strange that people can face their childhoods without providing them/us with any comic relief.
I can't even say whether I "liked" it or not. The stars here represent more of a "felt compelled to keep going" than a "liked it" kind of feeling.
*the sweetest thing in the book was when he choose to NOT reveal the details of his sex life with his wife. Thank god! at least SOMETHING is sacred.
February 18, 2012
The author blurb tells me this is David's first book so I'll be easy on him as it requests. The cover calls it a graphic memoir and that is one way to describe it. There is some illustrated nudity with small pink sticky note pieces obscuring the important bits. I found the panels to be very crowded and the writing very small and hard to read. The first chapter about his confusing yet active sex life bored me to sleep. It was a long journey. There are dream/nightmare like short stories that really make no sense and lost me with their empty message. If you're looking to be shocked, go elsewhere. Although this left me cold, I would read his next attempt.
December 7, 2008
Confessional autobiography divided up into six sections: Sex, Race, Mother, Father, Family History, ... and I forget one other. Tiny square panels. Reminds me of Joe Matt, occassionally gets into the self-reflexiveness of him writing comics about himself, and what if it's too personal, what if his kid reads it, etc. He artfully skips over any graphic details about him and his wife in the Sex section, but chronicles every other sexual experience he's ever had.
November 28, 2008
I have a serious problem with anyone who uses the the same expression to describe both orgasms and childbirth.
Heatley's attitudes about sex, race, and his family, which he draws and describes ad nauseam under the guise of honesty and artistic license, should be called out for what they really are: narcissistic, exploitative, and disrespectful.
Heatley's attitudes about sex, race, and his family, which he draws and describes ad nauseam under the guise of honesty and artistic license, should be called out for what they really are: narcissistic, exploitative, and disrespectful.
December 4, 2008
It was interesting as a confessional/documentation of controveral issues as manifested in daily life/self-exploration exercise, but after a section and a half I decided my valuable ys reading time was better spent in the ys section...
February 13, 2014
So dense and revealing, this book took me for a ride. I loved it.
March 28, 2018
Healtey's been a regular in various anthologies in recent years, but this is apparently his first full-length book. It's autobiographical, and it's not really a book, per se, but a collection of short strips, each grouped around five themes: his sex life, history with black people, his mother, his father, and his family history.
The first two sections dominate the page count. Each page in the sex and black history sections is set up as a 6x8 grid, so it's packed with information. Most of the strips don't have any particular insight, but taken together, they add up to a very interesting and complex understanding of Heatley and his growth as a human being. It's very good stuff ... until you realize that you still have thirty pages to read in each section and Heatley's already spelled out most of his growth. Essentially, it could've been a lot tighter, and somebody should've suggested that he trim 50% of each section rather than covering every single encounter he can recall.
The family sections are less rambling, and thus, much easier to read. He's going for the warts-and-all style of autobiography, and it's an engaging study of his life. It's not something I'm inclined to re-visit again, and I can't say Heatley's doing anything radical, but if it's your cuppa, you're likely to enjoy it -- for about twenty pages.
The first two sections dominate the page count. Each page in the sex and black history sections is set up as a 6x8 grid, so it's packed with information. Most of the strips don't have any particular insight, but taken together, they add up to a very interesting and complex understanding of Heatley and his growth as a human being. It's very good stuff ... until you realize that you still have thirty pages to read in each section and Heatley's already spelled out most of his growth. Essentially, it could've been a lot tighter, and somebody should've suggested that he trim 50% of each section rather than covering every single encounter he can recall.
The family sections are less rambling, and thus, much easier to read. He's going for the warts-and-all style of autobiography, and it's an engaging study of his life. It's not something I'm inclined to re-visit again, and I can't say Heatley's doing anything radical, but if it's your cuppa, you're likely to enjoy it -- for about twenty pages.
August 31, 2018
I’m torn on this autobiography. The raw honesty of this book was gripping at first and really worked well with the child-like drawings, but as I continued to read not even the brutality of some scenes could keep me interested. Many scenes, especially in the section on race, seem to blend into each other in an unfavorable way. Again, I respect the honesty, but having an analysis of the same idea multiple times throughout the story with no new thoughts on the subject became boring rather quickly.
March 23, 2025
I didn’t even get halfway through this book because it felt like mental torture and I couldn’t do it anymore. If my partner/sibling/child/friend wrote about me in a book like this I would seriously consider never talking to them ever again. I felt gross reading this - especially the first chapter. It was like watching a fucked up movie and needing to look at cute kittens afterwards.
I just don’t understand how anyone could enjoy this book let alone finish it. Oh hot Damn this is Not my Jam
I just don’t understand how anyone could enjoy this book let alone finish it. Oh hot Damn this is Not my Jam
December 8, 2021
The trouble with being this candid, is you risk coming off as an absolute arsehole.
Very little narrative connecting all these little autobiographical stories - but I do really like the concept - the comprehensiveness of a person's life. It felt extremely personal and it was a really interesting read from that perspective.
Very little narrative connecting all these little autobiographical stories - but I do really like the concept - the comprehensiveness of a person's life. It felt extremely personal and it was a really interesting read from that perspective.
June 26, 2019
2.5/5. The first two sections were too long and repetitive for me :/
July 10, 2019
Powerful and uncomfortable, some genuine emotion was stirred up by some of this work. Some of the work was a little tedious and hard to read.
September 16, 2019
It has some funny moments, although the gear change from the lengthy Black History section compared to the quiet speedy succeeding sections is quiet distracting.
February 24, 2011
http://bentspine.blogspot.com/2011/02...
The first of David Heatley’s stories I read was part of an anthology published about four or five years ago. I can’t remember if it was one of those Best American Comics books or the hardbound issue of McSweeney’s filled with indie comics. One thing I do remember is what the story was about. In a few sloppy panels, Heatley told about living with his father after college, sitting on the toilet and wondering what it looks like when he wipes his ass after pooping. Not all of us wonder what this looks like, but I’m sure more of us wonder than would admit it, and Heatley’s honesty immediately struck me as both hilarious and heartbreaking.
In his 2008 full-length graphic memoir My Brain is Hanging Upside Down, Heatley brings this intimate and odd tone to broader subjects. Whether he’s showing us a record of every woman and man he’s had even the most fleeting of sexual encounters with, or if he’s reviewing every one of his favorite hip-hop records, Heatley’s innocence and appreciation for life is always evident. He is our generation’s Harvey Pekar, somewhat more socially well-adjusted, but a singularity just the same. His stories are all realistic and never flinch from sharing the emotional content of everyday life, with all its painfully happy and awkward moments.
Portrait of My Dad
My Brain is Hanging Upside Down is divided into five sections, each very focused on its topic, and all with some overlapping threads of family, sex and music. The first section, Sex History, depicts all of Heatley’s sexual experiences with blinding honesty. His simple, almost childish art makes the graphic sexuality innocent and endearing. Heatley’s panels are like manic sketches of the most intense moments of his life.
Each of the five sections begins with a number of dream stories relating to each topic. The second and fifth sections, Black History and Family History respectively, stick to the format of Sex History, with literal laundry lists of experiences and personalities. Only in sections three and four, Portrait of My Mom and Portrait of My Dad does Heatley allow himself to become expansive and relate separate stories to one another in a less linear manner.
In most of the other sections, Heatley comes off like a typical 80s kid. He’s enamored of hip-hop culture, yet never fully comfortable with it. His sexual freedoms and experimentation seem quaint and almost old-fashioned. Was he ever worried about getting AIDs when he was screwing all these girls and guys at college? He doesn’t tell us. But in the two Portraits we see Heatley’s strange and contradictory parents in a way that helps us understand his paranoia and obsessions in a whole new way. His mother is the reformed hippie who doesn’t know when to stop trying to relate to her kids on their level and just try to be their mother. His father is a bitter hermit who builds train sets in his basement and smiles bitterly at a world that left him behind.
Heatley's New Yorker Cover
So, I’m a fan of all types of comics. I dig Alan Moore and Frank Miller as much as Harvey Pekar and R. Crumb. However, if indie comics aren’t your thing, Heatley is going to seem juvenile and artless. His drawings are all flat, with very little detail. They look like they were scrawled off on notebook paper by a stoned high school kid during study hall. If you’re not into Chris Ware or Kim Deitch, if you prefer Will Eisner’s superhero stuff to his brilliant The Contract with God trilogy, you’re probably not going to be into Heatley. He’s not interested in the fantasy and exploitation of most mainstream comics and though his memoir is certainly for Adults Only, it will not satisfy your little boy prurient interests. Still, it’s fun and funny enough in its weird, jaded way.
The other half of The Bent Spine, Mark Rooster, has been writing surreal autobiographical comics as long as I can remember. His style and sense of humor reminds me of Heatley. If you like My Brain is Hanging Upside Down, be sure to check out Mark’s site, www.markrooster.com.
The first of David Heatley’s stories I read was part of an anthology published about four or five years ago. I can’t remember if it was one of those Best American Comics books or the hardbound issue of McSweeney’s filled with indie comics. One thing I do remember is what the story was about. In a few sloppy panels, Heatley told about living with his father after college, sitting on the toilet and wondering what it looks like when he wipes his ass after pooping. Not all of us wonder what this looks like, but I’m sure more of us wonder than would admit it, and Heatley’s honesty immediately struck me as both hilarious and heartbreaking.
In his 2008 full-length graphic memoir My Brain is Hanging Upside Down, Heatley brings this intimate and odd tone to broader subjects. Whether he’s showing us a record of every woman and man he’s had even the most fleeting of sexual encounters with, or if he’s reviewing every one of his favorite hip-hop records, Heatley’s innocence and appreciation for life is always evident. He is our generation’s Harvey Pekar, somewhat more socially well-adjusted, but a singularity just the same. His stories are all realistic and never flinch from sharing the emotional content of everyday life, with all its painfully happy and awkward moments.
Portrait of My Dad
My Brain is Hanging Upside Down is divided into five sections, each very focused on its topic, and all with some overlapping threads of family, sex and music. The first section, Sex History, depicts all of Heatley’s sexual experiences with blinding honesty. His simple, almost childish art makes the graphic sexuality innocent and endearing. Heatley’s panels are like manic sketches of the most intense moments of his life.
Each of the five sections begins with a number of dream stories relating to each topic. The second and fifth sections, Black History and Family History respectively, stick to the format of Sex History, with literal laundry lists of experiences and personalities. Only in sections three and four, Portrait of My Mom and Portrait of My Dad does Heatley allow himself to become expansive and relate separate stories to one another in a less linear manner.
In most of the other sections, Heatley comes off like a typical 80s kid. He’s enamored of hip-hop culture, yet never fully comfortable with it. His sexual freedoms and experimentation seem quaint and almost old-fashioned. Was he ever worried about getting AIDs when he was screwing all these girls and guys at college? He doesn’t tell us. But in the two Portraits we see Heatley’s strange and contradictory parents in a way that helps us understand his paranoia and obsessions in a whole new way. His mother is the reformed hippie who doesn’t know when to stop trying to relate to her kids on their level and just try to be their mother. His father is a bitter hermit who builds train sets in his basement and smiles bitterly at a world that left him behind.
Heatley's New Yorker Cover
So, I’m a fan of all types of comics. I dig Alan Moore and Frank Miller as much as Harvey Pekar and R. Crumb. However, if indie comics aren’t your thing, Heatley is going to seem juvenile and artless. His drawings are all flat, with very little detail. They look like they were scrawled off on notebook paper by a stoned high school kid during study hall. If you’re not into Chris Ware or Kim Deitch, if you prefer Will Eisner’s superhero stuff to his brilliant The Contract with God trilogy, you’re probably not going to be into Heatley. He’s not interested in the fantasy and exploitation of most mainstream comics and though his memoir is certainly for Adults Only, it will not satisfy your little boy prurient interests. Still, it’s fun and funny enough in its weird, jaded way.
The other half of The Bent Spine, Mark Rooster, has been writing surreal autobiographical comics as long as I can remember. His style and sense of humor reminds me of Heatley. If you like My Brain is Hanging Upside Down, be sure to check out Mark’s site, www.markrooster.com.
February 21, 2017
Pleasantly comprehensive
January 7, 2014
This tell-all comic is absolutely shameless. Right from the get-go we see the author have his very first homosexual experience, and things just get better and better from there. David Heatley clearly isn't embarassed whatsoever, and probably has taken a page from Joe Matt or Chester Brown in delving so intimately into his sex life, literally detailing and recording every single encounter, pretty much to the point where it becomes redundant and often meaningless. Although fascinating to see someone actually record all of these instances, the novelty wears off about 3/4 of the way through his "Black History" chapter. I also get this idea from reading this that black people treated white people pretty damn bad throughout the course of his interactions with them. I don't remember a single real black friend that Heatley kept after interacting with dozens of them. Another idea I get from reading this is the fact that the author is somewhat of a wimp and a crybaby. Often times the artistic direction as well as the speech bubbles don't give any dramatic effect to the scene, and presents a scene filled with emotion rather badly. For example, in some panels Heatley is crying his heart out, but he just looks like Charlie Brown on a typical day. And other times when he's feeling happy just come off as rather corny due to the big cartoon smile on his face. If you are absolutely interested in finding out in perfectly squared comic book detail the description of one's sex life as well as their historical interaction with black people, then this is definitely the book for you.
January 17, 2009
This graphic memoir is filled to the brim with a ton of tiny crude strips chronicaling the cartoonist's life from birth 'til now. The first section was my favorite - "Sex History". He's vulnerable, exploitative, and extremely frank as he goes over every minute detail of every sexual experience he has ever been a part of. It's really interesting to actually see comics of kids fumbling around figuring out the birds and the bees. The scenes are pretty explicit, but really engaging in that they are honest depictions of actual events of kids being sexual with each other. But don't worry, it's not pervy. Everything is done with a light and funny approach. At the end, however, the adult version of the author gets really hung-up on the "evils" of masturbation, which is stupid. It seems uncharacteristic, too because the guy comes off as pretty smart. This book will probably be known for the second section - "Black History" where he draws and writes about his personal experiences with African-American person and/or race-related issues. He's brutally honest with his own fears and quick and some times unfair judgements. There are also pages of dreams he's had relating to the different sections of the book. Overall, a fun and interesting read. Also, the authoer has some over-produced and lenghty pop tunes that are available for listen on Myspace.
December 1, 2008
Heatley's "graphic memoir" is broken up into five sections, most of which begin with short, surrealistic dreams that lead into intense narratives recounting his sexual history, his encounters with black people, his relationships with his mother and father, and his family tree. These sections are broken down into 6x8 grids which, even in the book's oversize format, can be hard to read for long stretches... and that's even before getting into the actual details of those stories. (When Heatley says he's going to recount his entire sexual history, he means it, starting in preschool and revisiting every unsatisfying moment since then until his marriage.)
Heatley is effective at accumulating detail after detail to produce a mosaic emotional effect; this is actually most strongly felt in the sections on his mother and father, where he breaks out of the grid somewhat and tells his anecdotes in discrete blocks, allowing them to "hang" separately and hover in the reader's mind, unlike the relentless fixed lines of the sex and race chapters. The family history is also told in a tight grid, but the multi-generational nature of the story makes it feel somewhat looser.
Heatley is effective at accumulating detail after detail to produce a mosaic emotional effect; this is actually most strongly felt in the sections on his mother and father, where he breaks out of the grid somewhat and tells his anecdotes in discrete blocks, allowing them to "hang" separately and hover in the reader's mind, unlike the relentless fixed lines of the sex and race chapters. The family history is also told in a tight grid, but the multi-generational nature of the story makes it feel somewhat looser.
December 4, 2008
There are reasons not to like this memoirish collection of comic-strip vignettes commemorating events and dreams from Heatley's life. The drawings look simplistic and crude. Its frankly dead-pan confessional tone is disarming and even initially off-putting. It turns out that the illustrative rawness is a perfect match to the realness of the content, and Heatley's fearless examination of his own neuroses, prejudices and failings are liberating and empathetic. He divides this examination thematically, exploring at his own painful sexual history, his own painful racial history, and his own painful family history. His encounters in each of these areas are oddly bizarre and commonplace at the same time. I found balance to this sometimes brutal self-exposure in Heatley's superb representations of dream life and his informative end expert digressions into the history of hip-hop. Any nerdy white guy who recognizes there's more to American music than the stuff played by other nerdy guys is OK by me. There's also redemption; Heatley claims he is now happily married and a happy father.
February 24, 2016
my sexual history was a very funny comic the first time I read it. here it's reprinted for the billionth time and he's decided to censor it and add a new ending that changes the tone and to me ruins the comic. his black history comic, an attempt to document every black person he's ever met, is printed for the first time here. it seems to be trying to recreate that kind of insane self exposure of "my sexual hstory". but it just comes off as very presumptuous. drawing himself as a ewwtsy cutesy little child with a big head in a documentation of his various misdeeds and mistakes feels like he's making it look like these things were the unavoidable misbehavior of a child. the society he lives in made him do it.
he's handing it over to the reader as the adult whose suppose to take the responsibility.
it kind of makes him the anti Robert Crumb. he seems to be doing something similar that's honest, revealing and unrepressed, but it's actually the exact opposite.
he's handing it over to the reader as the adult whose suppose to take the responsibility.
it kind of makes him the anti Robert Crumb. he seems to be doing something similar that's honest, revealing and unrepressed, but it's actually the exact opposite.
November 27, 2021
This book took a very long time for me to read but, I would say, not in a pleasurable way. I admire the complete honesty of and thoroughness of Heatley’s narrative and enjoy his drawings, even at their smalls scale but, after a time in the middle of the longest story in this book “Black History” it felt like a never ending, very similar slog through story after story about people I don’t know and will never hear about again. The story does have a few anchors, friends or relationships who come back or pop back up, but overall it was hard to read through. At least the love and sex history was concise, in color (and easier to distinguish characters and settings) and had the common thread of....well, love and sex. I love David heatley’s ideas and the fact that his autobio comics embody all that is amazing and terrible about his relationship with any given subject.
March 7, 2013
Heatly does away with privacy and gives the reader his life, fully exposed and broken into sections including Sex, Race, and Family.
The Sex section chronicles every sexual experience he's ever had (and there are many). The panels are simultaneously censored and graphic showing every detail, but blocking out the 'bits and pieces' with little pink bars.
The Race section reviews every interaction he's had with black people.
The family section covers his mother, father, and a bit of genealogical history.
Each section is also accompanied by dream journal comics that fall into the category.
This was one of those 'hard to read/can't stop reading books' But in the end I enjoyed it quite a bit.
The Sex section chronicles every sexual experience he's ever had (and there are many). The panels are simultaneously censored and graphic showing every detail, but blocking out the 'bits and pieces' with little pink bars.
The Race section reviews every interaction he's had with black people.
The family section covers his mother, father, and a bit of genealogical history.
Each section is also accompanied by dream journal comics that fall into the category.
This was one of those 'hard to read/can't stop reading books' But in the end I enjoyed it quite a bit.
January 28, 2014
It took me way too long to read this, but it is not the book's fault. Fans of Chris Ware and Lynda Barry should definitely read this. I don't know of any comic artist so raw and honest about the most intimate details of his life. Heatley frankly addresses his sexual experiences with both women and men. Also, the Black History section is probably the most honest (and detailed) account of a white guy wrestling with his desire to not be racist, and yet painfully aware of how hard it is for him. It's the kind of self-reflection that a lot of white people really should be doing, but prefer to live in denial instead. This is definitely art that afflicts the comfortable and comforts the afflicted.
May 30, 2013
I got this for 4 pounds at a book sale and it was money well spent, Heatley's memoir/comic is hilarious, cringeworthy and everything you would expect from someone detailing their life, sexual experiences and prepubescent self. People often go on about this or that comic being the 'War and Peace' of comic books(please Watchmen get over yourself). While this does as noted get a bit repetitive in parts it is the only comic book as such that I can relate back to as a work a novel(though hold my hand up I am not an afficianado). In a kind of Adrian Mole confessional way it works because it highlights the ugly bits of life and in this way it is a remarkable achievement in its form.
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