Joe Ollmann – författare

In the early twentieth century, travel writing represented the desire for the expanding bourgeoisie to experience the exotic cultures of the world past their immediate surroundings. Journalist William Buehler Seabrook was emblematic of this trend participating in voodoo ceremonies, riding camels cross the Sahara desert, communing with cannibals and most notably, popularizing the term zombie in the West. A string of his bestselling books show an engaged, sympathetic gentleman hoping to share these strange, hidden delights with the rest of the world. He was willing to go deeper than any outsider had before. But, of course, there was a dark side. Seabrook was a barely functioning alcoholic who was deeply obsessed with bondage and the so-called mystical properties of pain and degradation. His life was a series of traveling highs and drunken lows; climbing on and falling off the wagon again and again. What led the popular and vivid writer to such a sad state?Cartoonist Joe Ollmann spent seven years researching Seabrook s life and accessing long neglected archives in order to piece together the peripatetic life of a for- gotten American writer. Often weaving in Seabrook s own words and those of his biographers, Ollmann posits Seabrook the believer versus Seabrook the exploiter, and leaves the reader to consider where one ends and the other begins.

The daring and destructive life of the man who popularized the word "e;zombie"e;In the early twentieth century, travel writing represented the desire for the expanding bourgeoisie to experience the exotic cultures of the world past their immediate surroundings. Journalist William Buehler Seabrook was emblematic of this trend participating in voodoo ceremonies, riding camels cross the Sahara desert, communing with cannibals and most notably, popularizing the term zombie in the West. A string of his bestselling books show an engaged, sympathetic gentleman hoping to share these strange, hidden delights with the rest of the world. He was willing to go deeper than any outsider had before. But, of course, there was a dark side. Seabrook was a barely functioning alcoholic who was deeply obsessed with bondage and the so-called mystical properties of pain and degradation. His life was a series of traveling highs and drunken lows; climbing on and falling off the wagon again and again. What led the popular and vivid writer to such a sad state? Cartoonist Joe Ollmann spent seven years researching Seabrook s life, accessing long neglected archives in order to piece together the peripatetic life of a forgotten American writer. Often weaving in Seabrook s own words and those of his biographers, Ollmann posits Seabrook the believer versus Seabrook the exploiter, and leaves the reader to consider where one ends and the other begins.

A recovering alcoholic lives in the shadow of a world famous comic strip and its tyrannical creatorCaleb is a middle-aged painter with a non-starter career and a checkered past. 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?

When the body sags and the honesty lagsMid-Life is the story of a forty-year-old man, John, who becomes a father again with his much-younger second wife which results in a slow, painful attack by flowered baby bags and front facing baby carriers on his former virility and self identity. John always believed that age is a state of mind, however, his adult daughters, baby son, energetic wife, stressful job, house full of cats, and flabby body complete with bloated stomach and sagging bosom all lead John reluctantly to admit that he is having a midlife crisis. The crisis drives John to yell at his wife, pick fights with his daughters and miss deadlines at work that put his job on the line. John takes solace from the stress of everyday life with a seemingly harmless infatuation with the pretty children's performer Sherry Smalls who sings adoringly to him directly from his son's DVD. Sherry, meanwhile, is equally desperate to find a distraction in life. Her path to rock stardom has been rudely overtaken by a semi-successful but completely loathsome gig as a children s performer. It pays the bills, and a Saturday-morning television show is on the horizon that is, if she is able to fire her alcoholic on-again, off-again boyfriend/bandmate. As their lives snowball, John s infatuation turns into obsession and a haphazard, fateful e-mail leads to a necessary reality check that neither John nor Sherry may have wanted, but that both will surprisingly welcome.

An award-winning cartoonist confronts anxiety and regret. A long-time city maintenance worker keeps pulling an accident prone newbie s fat out of the fire or maybe in this case, an arm and another arm and a leg out of the woodchipper. What happens when NOTHING HAPPENS? Can a disaster averted still be a disaster? In 'Nestled All Snug,' frazzled bookstore clerk Sasha prepares to close the store and head home to watch Hallmark Christmas specials after a fight with her boyfriend means she s home alone for the holidays. Hmm, that stack of boxes outside the bathroom seems a little precarious. Maybe Sasha will do returns when she gets back to work post-holidays. FWUMP FWUMP FWUMP. Guess someone is going to regret leaving their phone by the register before going to the bathroom. In The Woodchipper, Joe Ollmann, cartoonist of the groundbreaking Governor General Award finalist Fictional Father, returns with a suite of comic short stories focused on his trademark nervous wreck characters caught in a series of escalating personal disasters. Everybody s doing their best. Everybody s just trying to get through the day.