How to Be Happy

Eleanor Davis's How to Be Happy is the artist's first collection of graphic/literary short stories, and it's about time. Davis is one of the finest cartoonists of her generation, and has been producing comics since the mid-2000s. Happy represents the best stories she's drawn for such connoisseurial venues as Mome, Nobrow, and Lucky Peach, as well as her own self-publishing and web efforts. Davis achieves a rare, subtle poignancy in her narratives that are at once compelling and elusive, pregnant with mystery and a deeply satisfying emotional resonance. Happy shows the full range of Davis's graphic skills - sketchy drawing, polished pen-and-in k line work, and meticulously designed full-color painted panels - which are always in the service of a narrative that builds to a quietly devastating climax. more