Fictional Father

by Joe Ollmann

Overview

A dysfunctional family lives in the shadow of a world famous comic strip and its tyrannical creator

Caleb is a middle-aged painter with a non-starter career. He also happens to be the only child of one of the world’s most famous cartoonists, Jimmi Wyatt. Known for the internationally beloved father and son comic Sonny Side Up, Jimmi made millions drawing saccharine family stories while neglecting his own son.

Now sober, Caleb is haunted by his wasted past and struggling to take responsibility for his present before it’s too late. His always patient boyfriend, James, is reaching the end of his rope. 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. Is it too late to repair the harm? Are we forever doomed to make the same mistakes our parents did?

Joe Ollmann is a master at portraying inner torment. His characters vacillate and sob and rage. His furrow-browed and deeply-lined cartooning has never been more expressive than in Fictional Father. 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. 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770464636
Publisher:	Drawn & Quarterly
Publication date:	05/18/2021
Pages:	212
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	16 Years

About the Author

Joe Ollmann lives in Hamilton, the Riviera of Southern Ontario. He has published two books with Drawn & Quarterly, 2011’s Mid-Life and 2017’s The Abominable Mr. Seabrook. He is the winner of the Doug Wright Award for Best Book in 2007 and loser of the same award another time.

Editorial Reviews

★ 04/12/2021

Ollmann’s funny, faux-meta memoir follows Caleb Wyatt, the angst-ridden son of Jimmi Wyatt, a cartoonist whose treacly daily strip, Sonny Side Up, earned him the nickname “Everybody’s Dad.” But Jimmi’s actually an egomaniac with little time for his wife and son. By middle age, Cal is a recovering alcoholic struggling to launch his own art career. When Jimmi dies and bequeaths his strip to his son, Cal considers the proposition, to the surprise of his father’s staff—who reveal that assistants have drawn it for years—and Cal’s boyfriend, James, a Black flight attendant who’s had it with Cal’s spoiled-rich-kid ways. Cal hires a salty, sober editor-for-hire, whom he meets at a 12-step program, and she offers, “Do you think—in the present climate—that anyone wants to listen to a rich, old white man complaining about an older, richer white man?... Of course they do!” Cal takes this tough-love kick in the pants and “finds his voice.” Ollmann’s illustrations are ugly-charming, wrinkled and shadowed, but tinted in bright colors (with yellowed “vintage” cartoons a particular visual joy). The framing device, in which Ollmann wrestles with a story that has been told before—Cal’s life is reminiscent of the real Dennis the Menace—requires acrobatic parsing. The reward is a complex look at an artist’s evolving relationship to the past. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"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

"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

"There is such a pleasurable discomfort in reading Joe Ollmann's blundering-heart characters. They are resentful, petulant, ashamed, earnest, contradictory—eternally their own worst enemies. In other words, they are us. Fictional Father does not miss a single wrinkle."

—Hartley Lin, cartoonist of Young Frances and Pope Hats

"I love Joe Ollmann. His stories are page-turners, gut busters and tear jerkers. He’s the last of the great funny/sad underground cartoonists. A National Treasure."

—Seth, Clyde Fans

"Joe Ollmann is a master at blending comedy and empathy in stories about mid-life ennui."

—Quill & Quire, 2021 Spring Preview

"Don't worry, my father is not really like this." —Sam Ollmann-Chan

"Ollmann’s funny, faux-meta memoir… is a complex look at an artist’s evolving relationship to the past."— Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"Ollmann explores dysfunctional family dynamics and the sometimes complex motivations behind artistic expression with incredible empathy. An absorbing, enthralling work."

—Library Journal, Starred Review

"Ollmann... has been a well-kept secret of comics for too long. Hopefully, this will blow his cover."

—Booklist, Starred Review

"Readers—especially those with a keen interest in the history and mechanics of comics—will appreciate Ollmann's formal playfulness and emotional honesty." —Shelf Awareness

"Intergenerational angst and imposter syndrome feature in this tragicomic “memoir” by Caleb, a middle-aged recovering alcoholic and painter who inherits his late cartoonist father’s syrupy but hugely popular newspaper strip based on a father-son relationship nothing like their own. Features cameos by Canadian comic luminaries Seth and Chester Brown." —The Globe and Mail

"Fictional Father explores family, regret and what it means to make art." —CBC Books

"Are we destined to turn into our parents?... This is the central theme of Ollmann’s book and one our hero must wrestle with until the ultimately life-affirming final pages. Before he arrives at his destination though Cal must run a gauntlet of indignities, humiliations, heartbreaks, and poor decisions (many of his own making), but thanks to Ollmann’s confident, assured storytelling it’s a journey well-worth taking." —The Comics Journal

"Joe Ollmann is the cartoonist’s cartoonist." —The Toronto Star

"Ollmann’s true talent is drawing and painting faces that demand attention."—Literary Review of Canada

"Ollmann is a master craftsman who has given us a mid-pandemic treat in Fictional Father. He is an artist at the height of his powers..."—London Free Press

"[Joe Ollmann is] Canada’s master of humorous discomfort."—Toronto Life

"Are we destined to turn into our parents?... This is the central theme of Ollmann’s book and one our hero must wrestle with until the ultimately life-affirming final pages. Before he arrives at his destination though Cal must run a gauntlet of indignities, humiliations, heartbreaks, and poor decisions (many of his own making), but thanks to Ollmann’s confident, assured storytelling it’s a journey well-worth taking."—The Comics Journal

From the Publisher

★ 05/07/2021

"Do we always become the thing we hate most," Caleb Wyatt wonders, "or do we preemptively hate that trait because we sense it in ourselves?" He's thinking about his father, Jimmi, the famous creator of a syndicated comic strip beloved for its tender depiction of paternal love. Despite his worldwide reputation as "Everybody's dad," Jimmi is actually a cold, casually cruel, self-absorbed, alcohol-addicted father. After spending his youth rebelling, middle age finds Caleb a struggling artist who's recovering from addiction and still dependent upon his father's vast fortune for survival. When a disastrous gallery showing of Caleb's latest abstract paintings emphasizes how totally his life has been lived under Jimmi's shadow, Caleb boils over with rage and resentment that threatens his sobriety and alienates his boyfriend. Then Jimmi dies unexpectedly, leaving behind a will which stipulates that Caleb assume authorship of his comic strip. Caleb's shock soon turns to curiosity and leads him to explore his father's work and legacy, as well as the roots of his own desire to be an artist. VERDICT Ollmann (The Abominable Mr. Seabrook) explores dysfunctional family dynamics and the sometimes complex motivations behind artistic expression with incredible empathy. An absorbing, enthralling work.—Tom Batten, Grafton, VA

Library Journal