Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero - by Michael Deforge (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Sticks Angelica is, in her own words, "49 years old. Former: Olympian, poet, scholar, sculptor, minister, activist, Governor General, entrepreneur, line cook, headmistress, Mountie, columnist, libertarian, cellist." After a high-profile family scandal, Sticks escapes to the woods to live in what would be relative isolation were it not for the many animals that surround and inevitably annoy her. Sticks is an arrogant self-obsessed force who wills herself on the flora and fauna. There is a rabbit named Oatmeal who harbors an unrequited love for her, a pair of kissing geese, a cross-dressing moose absurdly named Lisa Hanawalt. When a reporter named, ahem, Michael DeForge shows up to interview Sticks for his biography on her, she quickly slugs him and buries him up to his neck, immobilizing him. Instead, Sticks narrates her way through the forest, recalling formative incidents from her storied past in what becomes a strange sort of autobiography. Deforge's witty dialogue and deadpan narration create a bizarre yet eerily familiar world"--

Book Synopsis

A Johnson has his Boswell and every Sticks Angelica has her Michael DeForge

Sticks Angelica is, in her own words, "49 years old. Former: Olympian, poet, scholar, sculptor, minister, activist, Governor General, entrepreneur, line cook, headmistress, Mountie, columnist, libertarian, cellist." After a high-profile family scandal, Sticks escapes to the woods to live in what would be relative isolation were it not for the many animals that surround and inevitably annoy her. Sticks is an arrogant self-obsessed force who wills herself on the flora and fauna. There is a rabbit named Oatmeal who harbors an unrequited love for her, a pair of kissing geese, a cross-dressing moose absurdly named Lisa Hanawalt. When a reporter named, ahem, Michael DeForge shows up to interview Sticks for his biography on her, she quickly slugs him and buries him up to his neck, immobilizing him. Instead, Sticks narrates her way through the forest, recalling formative incidents from her storied past in what becomes a strange sort of autobiography.

DeForge's witty dialogue and deadpan narration create a bizarre, yet eerily familiar world. Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero plays with autobiography, biography, and hagiography to look at how we build our own sense of self and how others carry on the roles we create for them in our own personal dramas.

Review Quotes

..". absurdist slices of life to tales of uncanny transcendence ... [Sticks Angelica] eschews human society for a surreal life in the forest; strange hijinks do, in fact, ensue."--Vol 1 Brooklyn

"A surreal trip into the Canadian wilderness."--Vice

"One of DeForge's talents is to create an off-kilter world that differs from ours in various strange ways, yet to do so convincingly, and in a way that sheds light on aspects of our own ... Sticks Angelica is an absolute pleasure."--The Quietus

"Toying with autobiography, biography, and hagiography, DeForge examines both how we build our own sense of self and how others take on the roles we create for them."--The Guardian

"Michael DeForge improvises his own brand of classic comic strip, as though we were reading a mutant Mark Trail ... a self-conscious lark on the Canadian theme of survival."--The Globe and Mail

"[Sticks Angelica is] a meditation on fame... a beautiful, disturbing daydream in pink-and-black ink."--Publishers Weekly Starred Review

"Is there meaning in the world? In the wilderness? In the universe? Who knows. But there is art, and Michael DeForge is making it."--Paste

"Michael DeForge... has become one of the comic-book industry's most exciting, unpredictable talents because of this eagerness to push himself outside of his comfort zone."--NPR

"Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero is weird, hilarious and affecting."--CBC

About the Author

Michael DeForge draws comics and posters in Toronto.