As the subtitle promises, working through the book will help you tell your story and through the experience you can change your life.įair-warning: this book does not teach you how to draw. Using his experience in creating Rosalie Lightning and the work of other renowned comics artists like Art Spiegelman, Alison Bechdel and Lynda Barry, Hart guides you through the making of a graphic memoir from start to finish. It’s the only instructional book I’ve ever read that moved me to tears. For those of you who, like me, can’t move to Gainesville, there are online and low residency alternatives to the year-long program.īut for starters, I recommend you get your hands on a copy of The Art of the Graphic Memoir.

I soon learned that Tom Hart taught comics art in Florida, and contemplated ways to take time away from life to enroll at the Sequential Artists Workshop (SAW), a comics school he started in 2011. I was stunned by the hugeness of his heart to share such loving memories of Rosalie.

I could imagine the sorrow he must have endured in creating Rosalie Lightning so soon after his daughter’s death. My manuscript and drawings for By the Forces of Gravity, a cartoon/free verse memoir, was under review at the time, so I had just spent several years writing/drawing a story that had broken my heart. When I read Rosalie Lightning, I was astounded by Hart’s generosity in sharing this story with strangers, and by the raw honesty and emotion conveyed in his words and images. I intended to read the whole book through before writing this post, but I’m too excited about sharing it with you! Once I finish this, which includes a brief interview with Tom Hart, I’ll get back to devouring his excellent new book.

Yesterday, Hart’s new book, The Art of the Graphic Memoir: Tell Your Story, Change Your Life, arrived at my doorstep. I know the precise day I read the book, January 24, 2016, because I instantly tweeted a picture of the cover and this flash review- “One of the most beautiful and soul-touching books.” Despite being a social media newbie, I wanted everyone to read Rosalie Lightning. I first met Tom Hart on the pages of Rosalie Lightning, the graphic memoir he created after the death of his daughter who was not yet two years old.

Rosalie lightning by tom hart