'Ollmann’s funny, faux-meta memoir… is a complex look at an artist’s evolving relationship to the past.'- Publishers Weekly, Starred Review 'Don't worry, my father is not really like this.' -Sam Ollmann-Chan 'Joe Ollmann is a master at blending comedy and empathy in stories about mid-life ennui.'

He’s the last of the great funny/sad underground cartoonists. His stories are page-turners, gut busters and tear jerkers. Hartley Lin, cartoonist of Young Frances and Pope Hats Fictional Father does not miss a single wrinkle.' They are resentful, petulant, ashamed, earnest, contradictory-eternally their own worst enemies. 'There is such a pleasurable discomfort in reading Joe Ollmann's blundering-heart characters. 'Though no one does galumphing human failure better than Ollmann, thankfully his tongue is also ever in his cheek.'-Rachel Cooke, The Guardian Best Graphic Novels of 2021 'Portraying the aimless, alcoholic son of an aloof, philandering cartoonist, Ollmann blends jovial grotesquerie with a surprising generosity of spirit.'- The Globe and Mail, Best Books of 2021 In addition to being a devastating portrait of the Wyatt family, Fictional Father is a hilariously sardonic interrogation of art-making and cartooning in particular. Caleb storms around and slumps in equal measure as he tries to figure out who he is beyond the neglected son of a famous man.

His furrow-browed and deeply-lined cartooning has never been more expressive than in Fictional Father. His characters vacillate and sob and rage. Joe Ollmann is a master at portraying inner torment. Is it too late to repair the harm? Are we forever doomed to make the same mistakes our parents did? When Caleb gets the chance to step out from his father’s shadow and shape the most public aspect of the family business, he makes every bad decision and watches his life fall apart. His always patient boyfriend, James, is reaching the end of his rope. Now sober, Caleb is haunted by his wasted past and struggling to take responsibility for his present before it’s too late. Known for the internationally beloved father and son comic Sonny Side Up, Jimmi made millions drawing saccharine family stories while neglecting his own son. He also happens to be the only child of one of the world’s most famous cartoonists, Jimmi Wyatt. A dysfunctional family lives in the shadow of a world famous comic strip and its tyrannical creatorĬaleb is a middle-aged painter with a non-starter career.

Fictional Father by Joe Ollmann