I Never Promised You A Rose Garden by Mannie Murphy ’08 is on the New York Times list of Best Graphic Novels of 2021. The story starts with the life and death of River Pheonix before tackling the history of white supremacy in Portland, Oregon. To see the zines making up the original publication before Fantagraphics collected it, check out this CCS Instagram post. The storytelling technique itself is a fascinating study. Before the book was released, Mannie gave an interview with Angela Boyle ’16 about their process in making this story.
Also on the list is Vermont Cartoonist Laureate Alison Bechdel’s The Secret to Superhuman Strength, which delves into Bechdel’s fascination—obsession even—with exercise.
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden has been receiving high praise:
- “The art is unnervingly intimate if not always technical masterpieces, and its often uncanny quality is appropriately unsettling.” —Publisher’s Weekly
- “…an unrelenting litany of such horrors…” —Brian Hieggelke, New City Lit
- “Murphy details the dangers of groupthink and the necessity of challenging authority to create a healthier society, moving through the sadness to start looking at solutions.” —Oliver Sava, AV Club
Tags: Best Graphic Novel, Best Graphic Novel 2021, best of list, Fantagraphics, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, Mannie Murphy, New York Times
