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Fantagraphics Books

How To Be Happy

  • Based on 111 reviews
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Description

Eleanor Davis’s How to be Happy is the artist’s first collection of graphic/literary short stories. 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 curatorial venues as Mome and No-Brow, 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 ink 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. Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Fantagraphics Books; Illustrated edition (August 28, 2014)


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 144 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 6


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 06


Reading age ‏ : ‎ 16 years and up


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.4 pounds


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.8 x 0.8 x 10.2 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #1,114,725 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #472 in Fantagraphics Comics & Graphic Novels #1,527 in Literary Graphic Novels (Books)


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • Beautiful, haunting, heartfelt, and worth every penny.
Eleanor Davis is such an amazing storyteller. I first learned of her work at the Illustration Conference in 2016, where she spoke (taking us through one of her comics, panel-by-panel), which left the crowd in tears, giving her a standing ovation. Her ability to touch on existential truths and struggle in such a poignant way is bar none. I can't wait to see what she does next. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2018 by Ashley P.
    • A treat
Obviously not really a manual on how to be happy. Excellent graphics, Matisse like, and moves the story without excess verbiage. The stories are interesting and sometimes touching. There is not too much complex plotting, which is shouldn't be the point of a graphic novel or story anyway. Some readers still don't get that a graphic stories are not substitutes for, or a novel by another means. They are an entity of themselves, and offer great visual pleasure. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2015 by TV Eye
    • Great graphic book, misleading title
How to be Happy sounds like the title of a motivational or self-help book but, as the author herself reveals in the foreword, this book is not a book on how to be happy. After reading the book, and despite the stories being quite different in style, tone and story, I think the book has a main theme. Most of the stories are very introspective, people looking inside to get their suppressed emotions out, people struggling to feel, numbed people, depressed people. One of the stories in the book provides us with what I think would have been a great title for the book: "No tears, no sorry. No sorry no joy". That is way closer to what the the anthology is about. I think giving the book a title closer to what the vignettes are about would be more honest, even if less marketable. Davis is an amazing versatile visual artist. The collection of strips in the book showcases her talent. Her images go from the very simple linear and sketchy images, to the very painterly and detailed drawings, from the classic naturalistic drawings to the vectorial compositions, from the ezine-like comic strips to the surreal, from the slice of life to science fiction. She is good with black and white, and even better when she uses colours or sepias. Her colours are glorious. From a narrative point of view, Davis is able to create stories that focus on the inner world of her characters: their feelings, emotions and thoughts, their approach to life, the way they 'see' the world. Her narrative is concise, precise and poignant, introspective, but also expressive and full of humour. Some of her worlds transport us to Sendak-ish magic worlds that one would like to explore in long books. Some of the texts in the book are brilliant despite their brevity. I especially like the "Darling, I've realised I don't love you", "I used to be so unhappy" and the statue of the best self, but there are a few brilliant mini-texts in this book. I hated the story of the skinning of a fox, revolting to me, and the comic strip of the trip from Georgia to Los Angeles was OK. This book was included in several lists of best graphic books of the 2015 I came across. I think the inclusion is well deserved as this book showcases Davis' talent perfectly. I found the price for the Kindle edition a bit high, because this digital edition does not require of the use of paper, ink or manufacture. Besides, these stories were published previously not new for the book. Finally, I pay for the downloading of the bulky file myself to my Internet provider. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2016 by M. T. Crenshaw
    • Really liked it!
Very intriguing.
Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2019 by Amazon Customer
    • Unique
Eleanor Davis is gifted. Colorful and lush
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2018 by Elizabeth Kerns
    • Great Comic!
An amazing comic! It is sensitive, humorous, perceptive and beautiful. Please read, it won't disappoint.
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2015 by Noelle
    • Gift book
Gift for my daughter - she loves it.
Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2017 by Carole Kay
    • Meditations on the Pursuit
The stories in this collection will haunt you days after you've read them. They're like tiny vignettes of life that are thrown into the kaleidoscope mind of Eleanor Davis. To be sure, I wasn't quite sure what I was expecting before I ordered it. I had learned about the book via NPR so I went in based on this recommendation. The title might be a bit misleading, it's something the creator acknowledges at the beginning of the book. Most of the stories in this collection are only a couple pages, with some longer pieces throughout. Despite the short length of the stories, they truly have a visual and stylistic impact. The writing and illustrations intertwine in such a natural way that it feels like the entire book is occupied within the same world or landscape. Some stories read like journal entries straight from the authors life, others are somewhat science fiction in nature. My favorite part is kind of just staring at the images themselves and letting myself get lost in the details or absorbed in the voice she achieves. These stories are like meditations on the seeking of happiness rather than a "How-to". ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2015 by Fabrice Lubin

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