Announcing: Evening with David Heatley

Meltdown Comics and Pantheon present:
An evening with David Heatley 
An evening of music, q&a’s, video presentation, and book signing
Meltdown Sunset Blvd. Location
October 23rd, 6:30pm

My Brain is Hanging Upside Down
By David Heatley

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 page and the cover of The New Yorker, introducing him to a vast new audience. Now, in MY BRAIN IS HANGING UPSIDE DOWN (Pantheon Books/September 30, 2008/$24.95) we are treated to the full range of Heatley’s remarkable, wildly unique voice and vision. 

With a title courtesy of the Ramones, MY BRAIN IS HANGING UPSIDE DOWN is an indexical memoir of the most dizzying and exhilarating kind. The book tells Heatley’s life story in six different but connected narrative threads. “Sex History” describes every sexual encounter the author has had dating back to kindergarten, with enough detail to make a therapist blush. “Black History” is an unflinchingly honest meditation on his own prejudices. “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 both sides of his family from his great-great-grandparents to his own birth, closing with the birth of Heatley’s children. Woven in and around these 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.
About the Author:

David Heatley’s work has appeared in McSweeney’s and in the 2006 and 2007 editions of The Best American Comics. In addition to cartooning and illustration, he also is and singer and songwriter. An EP of songs related to MY BRAIN IS HANGING UPSIDE DOWN will be released by Peter Wade Music this October. He lives with his wife and two children in Queens, New York.