Synopses & Reviews
One man's heartfelt and irreverent record of his time on this rock, Zak Sally's unflinchingly veracious book,
Like a Dog, is both direct and oblique, which we find rather miraculous considering the messy and murky waters of human experience it manages to navigate.
Like a Dog is among the few comic book testimonials burdened by the yen to understand and articulate the mundane and the magnificent. Don't be surprised if you find yourself laughing and crying as you claw your way through each hard fought page!
Of all of Sally's creative pursuits (including a career in music spanning 15+ years), Like a Dog is the one he's been working a lifetime toward. This hardcover book collects the best of his acclaimed short stories from the past 15 years, created in between band tours and recording sessions, published in his Eisner-nominated self-published series Recidivist (the first 2 issues of which are reprinted here in their entirety) and in publications like Mome, The Drama, Your Flesh, Dirty Stories, and more.
Like a Dog spotlights Sally's uncanny ability to create emotional havoc out of claustrophobic images, situations and dialogue. Stories like "Don't Move," "The War Back Home," and "Two Idiot Brothers" share little in common on the surface but are united by Sally's forbidding style, creating a sense of dread that permeates almost every page.
Sally also turns his eye towards nonfiction in Like a Dog, including "At the Scaffold," the story of the imprisonment and trial of Fyodor Dostoyevsky for allegedly subversive behavior, and "The Man Who Killed Wally Wood," a story about Sally's brush with a former publisher of the legendary comic artist (who, contrary to the title of this strip, took his own life after a long battle with alcoholism). It also includes two collaborations: "Dread," written by NEA Fellowship recipient, Edgar Award finalist, and O. Henry Award winning author Brian Evenson (Altmann's Tongue); and "River Deep, Mountain High," co-created with fellow cartoonist Chris Cilla.
Like a Dog also includes extensive "liner notes" by the artist, previously unpublished material, an introduction by John Porcellino (King Cat), and other surprises.
Review
"[] makes for a compelling scrapbook collection -- and a beautifully-bound one at that. ... There's an inspiring breadth of themes and styles on display here, although ultimately they all point to an artist in the depths of an existential crisis." The Onion A.V. Club
Review
"Sally's one of those artists who can convey a sense of dread or horror out of seeming thin air, and he's really been on the periphery for far too long now. Hopefully this book will thrust him into the limelight." Chris Mautner
Review
"Zak Sally's collection of his Recidivist material and other works was positively pugilistic in nature. Of course, the battle Sally was fighting was with himself and his place in the world... It's a statement of purpose not just as an artist, but as a human being." Robot 6
Review
"Like a Dog compiles several of [Zak Sally's] stories from the last 15 years in one sweet, annotated hardcover. ... Sally is an intensely personal writer, and I appreciate how much he reveals about himself within these pages. His work can get a little messy sometimes, but I say that's just another reason to like it." Will Fitzpatrick Bookmunch
Review
"Zak Sally hasn't published much in the way of indie comix, but what he has published has been collected into a career retrospective by Fantagraphics that manages to capture the angst and anomie of a then-confused twenty-something who also just happens to be a semi-famous musician." Rob Clough The Comics Journal - "Top 50 Comics of 2009"
Review
"This is a gloriously rough-hewn and hands-on collection from a compulsive cartoonist and storyteller packaged with... flair and imagination ...Sally's dedication to innovation, exploration and imagination will astound and entrance anyone who knows capital A Art when they see it." Win Wiacek
Review
"It's impossible for me to be objective about this book, as Zak is one of my closest friends, but this is a really powerful, fascinating collection of comics. Very dark, and even brutal sometimes, but bracing, and highly original." Win Wiacek Now Read This!
Review
"Sally is incredibly inventive; these cartoons differ in theme greatly, but all come together through his dark, foreboding illustrations. This volume is worthwhile alone for the two editions of Sally's Eisner Award nominated comic, The Recidivist, but the additional works offer a glimpse into this talented artist's evolution (as do the copious notes included in the collection)." John Porcellino
Review
"[T]his shaggy-haired collection... reads at times like a history of psychological warfare. Sally... tends toward richly dark, semiautobiographical, and tightly etched tales of tension and self-recrimination. ... The art is equally claustrophobic when not downright disturbing. Revealing and witty, even when mired in darkness." Publishers Weekly
Review
"This was a stunningly honest account and collection of early work by one of the most underrated cartoonists working today. While the collected early issues of Recidivist ranged from interesting to astounding, it was Sally's frank and emotional essay following the collection that really struck me as a statement of purpose -- not just as an artist, but as a person." Will Fitzpatrick Bookmunch
Review
" is a compelling slab of graphic narrative. As a warts-and-then-some chronicle of one man's navigation through the world of underground comics (not to mention his own self-sabotaging psyche), it's downright mesmerizing. [Grade] A-." Now Read This!
Review
"Much of [Sally's] work is a collection of personal demons--his insecurities, self-doubt, anger, pain, sadness and darkness--that are exposed in obvious and subtle ways. ... The grit of this collection lies in the sense that one has had a sideline view of an intensely cathartic therapy session." The Onion A.V. Club
Synopsis
Like a Dogcollects the very best of Sally"s acclaimed short comics from the past 15 years for publications like Mome, Dirty Stories, The Recidivistand more.
Stories like 'Don"t Move,' 'The War Back Home,' 'Two Idiot Brothers,' and 'Killing Screws' share little in common on the surface but are united by Sally"s forbidding style. Nonfiction comics include 'At the Scaffold,' about the trial of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and 'The Man Who Killed Wally Wood,' a story about Sally"s brush with a former publisher of the legendary comic artist (who, contrary to the title of this strip, took his own life).
Synopsis
Zak Sally is best known for his career as a musician in the band Low. He also is an acclaimed cartoonist. Like a Dog collects the very best of Sally's acclaimed short comics from the past 15 years for publications like Mome, Dirty Stories, The Recidivist and more. Stories like Don't Move, The War Back Home, Two Idiot Brothers, and Killing Screws share little in common on the surface but are united by Sally's forbidding style. Nonfiction comics include At the Scaffold, about the trial of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and The Man Who Killed Wally Wood, a story about Sally's brush with a former publisher of the legendary comic artist (who, contrary to the title of this strip, took his own life). Like a Dog will also include extensive liner notes by the artist, previously unpublished material, and other surprises.
Synopsis
The best of Sally's acclaimed short stories from the past 15 years, including the complete first two issues of , navigating the messy and murky waters of human experience with unflinching veracity.
About the Author
Zak Sally is the renaissance man best known for his 15-year career as a musician, having anchored the Duluth, Minnesota band Low for over a decade in addition to moonlighting with the Dirty Three, Enemymine, Hot Tears, and Kid Dakota, and making cameos in movies like Shopgirl. He is the publisher of La Mano, the Minneapolis-based small press behind his Eisner-nominated series Recidivist and other critically-acclaimed books.John Porcellino was born in Chicago, in 1968, and has been writing, drawing, and publishing minicomics, comics, and graphic novels for over twenty-five years. His celebrated self-published series King-Cat Comics, begun in 1989, has inspired a generation of cartoonists. Diary of a Mosquito Abatement Man, a collection of King-Cat stories about Porcellino's experiences as a pest control worker, won an Ignatz Award in 2005, and Perfect Example, first published in 2000, chronicles his struggles with depression as a teenager. King-Cat Classix, published in 2007, is a comprehensive overview of the zine's first fifty issues, and his most recent book, Thoreau at Walden, is a poetic expression of the great philosopher's experience and ideals. According to cartoonist Chris Ware, "John Porcellino's comics distill, in just a few lines and words, the feeling of simply being alive." Porcellino's work has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Swedish, Italian, and Korean. He currently lives in Denver with his wife Misun, and two Skweezil-Cats named Liz and Charlie.