John Porcellino reads from Map of My Heart

Oct ’09
16
7:00 pm

Map of My Heart celebrates the twentieth anniversary of ’s seminal and influential comics zine, King-Cat Comics, which he began self-publishing in 1989, and which has been his predominant means of expression ever since. In this collection, Porcellino, while living in isolation and experiencing the pain of divorce, crafts a melancholic, tender graphic-ballad of heartbreak and reflection. Known for his sad, quiet honesty, rendered in his signature deceptively minimalist style, Porcellino has a command of graphic storytelling as sophisticated as the medium’s more visually intricate masters. Few other artists are able to so expertly contemplate the sadness, beauty, and wonder of life in so few lines.

John Porcellino was born in Chicago in 1968, and began drawing and writing at an early age, compiling his work into little hand-made booklets. His acclaimed self-published zine, King-Cat Comics and Stories, begun in 1989, has found a devoted worldwide audience, and is one of the most influential comics series of the past twenty years.

For more information please visit www.king-cat.net or www.drawnandquarterly.com.

Also on the bill is musician and poet PATRICK PORTER who will read from his work and perform an acoustic set.

“Beneath the crude linework and dream-journalism, Porcellino has crafted an affecting scrapbook of a part–time artist’s life. The decade-plus remove from these comics’ initial publication only adds another layer of poignancy, since so many of its concerns are those of a young man, unaccountably adrift in a decade geared towards his generation… A–”
—THE ONION AV CLUB

“Porcellino is a master at miniature poignance.” –ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY