Blood of the Virgin

“At its heart, Blood of the Virgin is a story about storytelling—the stories people tell themselves and others. This graphic novel convincingly conjures up the grindhouse movie-making scene in 1970s Los Angeles and tracks an ambitious young man’s flailing attempts to build a family and a career as a film arteest in that debased world. Sammy Harkham devoted fourteen years to making this book; we see him develop into a master comics artist, and he shows himself to be an astonishingly complex and subtle storyteller. Blood of the Virgin rewards reading slowly and re-reading—it’s a book with a lot of heart.”
—Art Spiegelman, bestselling author of MAUS

“Blood of the Virgin encompasses many locations, decades, experiences, and points of view, but always maintains its fundamentally relevant and modest human size. The story never goes where you expect it to, but there’s never a sense of error; and after the story is told you see that there’s not been a single misstep, and all is as it should be. Where did this book come from? It’s a complex and thorough portrait of a world I didn’t even know I was curious about, saturated with charm and rendered with the sure hand of an artist working at the height of his powers.”
—Patrick deWitt, bestselling author of The Sisters Brothers

“The only intersection of Sephardic outsiderism and the personal artistic struggle in termite art. I understand L.A. now.”
—Josh Safdie, award‑winning co‑director of Uncut Gems

“One thing that’s great about this book is that Harkham is thorough. He doesn’t leave anything out. Especially when it comes to the unattainable.”
—Jaime Hernandez, member, Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame, and co‑creator of Love and Rockets

“A stunningly ambitious, emotionally complex work from an artist with a distinct perspective on the pursuit of artisitic fulfillment.”
—Library Journal, starred review

“Harkham’s accomplished cartooning, nuanced characters, and sharp period detail keept his sprawling tale thrumming with energy and painful insights.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

SAMMY HARKHAM is an award-winning cartoonist and editor, born and raised in Los Angeles. He studied at the California Institute of the Arts and the Mayanot Institute in Jerusalem, where he created the ongoing comics anthology Kramers Ergot, considered to be one of the most influential publications of its kind. His first collection of short comics stories, Everything Together, won the 2012 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Best Graphic Novel. Harkham’s work has been published in The Best American Comics, The New York Times, Vice, and McSweeney’s, among many other publications. He divides his time between Los Angeles and Sydney.

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