The Stats
📖 BOOK REVIEW⠀📚
BOOK: Happiness Will Follow
AUTHOR: Mike Hawthorne
@mikehawthorneart
Publisher: Boom! Studios @boom_Studios
Stars: ⭐⭐⭐
Published: July 21st 2020
The Review
So, for those of you who love comics: how many of you loved the Superior Spiderman? Great. Well, one of the artists who worked on that has a story to tell you, so sit back and grab yourself a drink. Happiness Will Follow is Mike’s story, growing up with a single mother, a Puerto Rican in New York. His mother has… issues. On a first read through, it feels like she’s a horrible person. She abuses him, deals drugs, lies about everything. Under the surface, though, there is more to the story.
The art is fantastic. Hawthorne has an expressive style that draws out desperation and rage in equal measure. The lines of his characters are crisp, and they feel so full of character that when we see those people in photos, you can imagine the whole thing in reality. Honestly, I wish I had longer with this book just to study his lineart.
The plot, however, is a bit different. Do not expect a typical arc. This is a true story, but it is also the man coming to grips with his mother’s nature, the damage she did to him, and his own place in the world as a result. Because of that, the story is more of a meandering road, taking us where his mind leads instead of on a structured path. It’s more like a pianist plinking keys all over the keyboard, rather than a real melody. In a way, that may be representative of how he feels. It isn’t exactly to my taste, but it may be to other people.
You can see more in my video review:
The Summary
Eisner Award-nominated artist Mike Hawthorne presents a true and tragic graphic novel memoir about family, abuse, survival and what it means to be Puerto Rican in America.
Mike Hawthorne’s mother is left alone to raise her son in New York City, a city that torments them both with its unforgiving nature. But when Mike falls victim to an old world Santeria death curse, a haunting sign from the old country of something his mother could never truly escape —she begins a series of events that drive him away both physically and emotionally.
For the first time ever, Eisner Award-nominated artist Mike Hawthorne (Superior Spider-Man) tells the true and tragic story of enduring abuse, discovering a love of art, and a passion that helped him to build the home he never had in this graphic novel memoir about family, survival, and what it means to be Puerto Rican in America.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.