Daylight Savings is upon us this weekend, which means those of us in the Northwest can look forward to darker evenings and some good ol’ Seasonal Affective Disorder.
What better time to burrow under the blankies with The Hypo: The Melancholic Young Lincoln, a documentation of Abraham Lincoln’s crushing cloud of depression by Noah Van Sciver! Reading Noah’s sensitive look at Lincoln’s irrepressible ambition despite his troubled times is even better than one of those sun lamps. After all, Lincoln made it through the darkness, and so will you…
LISTING INFORMATION:
WHO: Noah Van Sciver
WHAT: The Hypo: The Melancholic Young Lincoln book release party
WHEN: Tuesday, November 6, 6-8pm
WHERE: Floating World Comics, 400 NW Couch St.
Bio information:
The debut graphic novel from Noah Van Sciver follows the twentysomething Abraham Lincoln as he loses everything, long before becoming our most beloved president. Lincoln is a rising Whig in the state’s legislature as he arrives in Springfield, IL to practice law. With all of his possessions under his arms in two saddlebags, he is quickly given a place to stay by a womanizing young bachelor who becomes his friend and close confidant. Lincoln builds a life and begins friendships with the town’s top lawyers and politicians. He attends elegant dances and meets an independent-minded young woman from a high-society Kentucky family, and after a brisk courtship, becomes engaged. But, as time passes and uncertainty creeps in, young Lincoln is forced to battle a dark cloud of depression brought on by a chain of defeats and failures culminating into a nervous breakdown that threatens his life and sanity. This cloud of dark depression Lincoln calls “The Hypo.”
Dense crosshatching and an attention to detail help bring together this completely original telling of a man driven by an irrepressible desire to pull himself up by his bootstraps, overcome all obstacles, and become the person he strives to be. All the while unknowingly laying the foundation of character he would use as one of America’s greatest presidents.
Noah Van Sciver was born in 1984 and raised in a large Mormon family in New Jersey. He first came to comic readers’ attention with his comic book series Blammo, which earned him an Ignatz nomination in 2010. He currently lives in Denver, CO with his cat Getrude among stacks of books.
Advance praise:
“Noah Van Sciver has brought new soul to this hard, weird time in Lincoln’s life. The Hypo is a story of suffering & yearning, artfully told.” — Joshua Wolf Shenk, author of Lincoln’s Melancholy
“Noah Van Sciver has developed a storytelling style that I find enormously appealing. In this book he’s used that style to create a vivid and engaging portrait.” — Chester Brown, author of Louis Riel