NOT FUNNY HA-HA, Fantagraphics Books
ABOUT THE BOOK
Not Funny Ha-Ha is a bold, slightly wry graphic novel from Leah Hayes, illustrating the lives of two young women from different cultural, family, and financial backgrounds who go through two different abortions (medical and surgical). It does not address the events leading up to the pregnancy, or even the decision-making before choosing abortion as an option. It simply shows what happens when a woman goes through it, no questions asked. It follows them through the process of choosing a clinic, reaching out to friends, partners, and/or family…and eventually the procedure(s) itself.
Despite the fact that so many women and girls have abortions every day, in every city, all around us…t can be a lonely experience. Not Funny Ha-Ha is a little bit technical, a little bit moving, and often funny, in a format uniquely suited to communicate. The book is meant to be a non-judgmental, comforting, even humorous look at what a woman can go through during an abortion. Although the subject matter is heavy, the illustrations are light. The author takes a step back from putting forth any personal opinion whatsoever, simply laying out the events and possible emotional repercussions that could, and often do, occur.
Please visit Fantagraphics.com for more information about Hayes's newest releases.
PRESS FOR NOT-FUNNY HA-HA
LA Times
NPR
Cosmopolitan
PEN America
Publishers Weekly
Paste Magazine
Bustle Magazine
FUNERAL OF THE HEART, Fantagraphics Books
ABOUT THE BOOK
Funeral of the Heart is Leah Hayes' stylistic graphic novel tour-de-force debut, featuring a series of short stories by Hayes and illustrated entirely using the otherworldly medium of scratchboard. Hayes creates a world of unease and ambiguity populated by obsessive characters, forlorn animals, and mysterious, inanimate objects. Odd occurrences, unnerving deaths and unconventional but genuine love bind these characters and their stories together. Stories with titles like "The Bathroom," "The Needle," and "The Hair" sound innocuous, but they aren't fables that should be read to one's children - unless your children enjoy being made uneasy by beautiful things.
I TOUCHED THE SUN,
Enchanted Lion Books
ABOUT THE BOOK
In Hayes’s debut picture book, a boy wants to fly to the sun. But his mother says it's too far away. His dad says it's too hot. And his brother says he has more important things to do. But none of this discourages a young boy from pursuing his plan: to fly up into the sky to touch the Sun, whose light always feels so nice on his skin. And so, off he goes, all by himself.
Warm and kindly, the Sun shows the boy the world from her perspective: her friends the clouds, the beaches upon which she shines down, the trees she's grown, the rainbows she creates. In return, the boy shares with her some of his dreams, fears, hopes, and uncertainties—complexities of the human condition that the Sun, as a cosmic force of constant light, has never experienced. In this way, the boy begins to understand something about the pattern of light and shadow that makes up every human life.
And when it's time to part ways, the boy returns home to his family changed, with an inner light that reminds him that the cosmic force of the sun is in him, too, always, though darkness falls, though he sleeps and dreams, though doubts and fears and gloominess come, too.