John Porcellino Libri

A view of America - as seen in small towns, rural roads, and its overlooked in-between places

"I am convinced, both by faith and experience, that to maintain one's self on this earth is not a hardship, but a pastime, if we will live simply and wisely." So said Henry David Thoreau in 1845 when he began his famous experiment of living by Walden Pond. In this graphic masterpiece, John Porcellino uses only the words of Thoreau himself to tell the story of those two years off the beaten track. The pared-down text focuses on Thoreau's most profound ideas, and Porcellino's fresh, simple pictures bring the philosopher's sojourn at Walden to cinematic life. For readers who know Walden intimately, this graphic treatment will provide a vivid new interpretation of Thoreau's story. For those who have never read (or never completed!) the original, it presents a contemporary look at a few brave words to live by.

Celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the King-Cat zine

“Unvarnished. Punk.”–The New York Times King-Cat Classix collects material from the first fifty issues of John Porcellino’s King-Cat Comics as they appeared in self-published, handmade zines throughout the 1990s. These strips span Porcellino’s dynamic evolution from saturated, punk drawings to his characteristic refined minimalism, revealing his work as nothing short of a catalyst that has inspired artists like Chris Ware in the emerging literary comics scene. In the inky drawings featuring beloved pets, awkward teenage one-night-stands, and everyday blunders, we see a nascent style steeped in truth and transparency—one that continues to ring true today. Porcellino’s mind is spread out on the page, with an uninhibited id running wildly about dreams and sexual fantasies, not unlike the gritty, stabbing pen strokes of Julie Doucet. He sketches fragmented moments and glimpses of interaction that seem to reflect the very manner in which we process memory: we are made up of a stream of consciousness, captured in fleeting mental images, and Porcellino externalizes that messy internal reality. Follow along the path of Porcellino’s dynamic evolution and relish in the inspirational power of this groundbreaking collection.

This graphic novel, narrated in Thoreau's own words, weaves together elements from "Walden", "Civil disobedience", "Walking", and Thoreau's journals to tell the story of his two years in the woods and of the night he spent in jail for refusing to pay a poll tax. In this graphic masterpiece, John Porcellino uses only the words of Henry David Thoreau to tell the story of the two years he spent on Walden Pond. The pared-down text focuses on Thoreau's most profound ideas, and Porcellino's fresh, simple pictures capture the essence of the philosopher's writings. For readears who know *Walden* intimately, this graphic treatment will provide a new interpretation of Thoreau's story. For those who have never read the original, *Thoreau at Walden* presents a contemporary look at his call to slow down in a ever-accelerating world.

Poetic musings on illness and the art of getting by from a mini-comics master.

A melancholic memoir of saying goodbye to the familiar. Brimming with empathy and a charming, self-aware wit, Perfect Example is King-Cat zinester John Porcellino s coming-of-age memoir about the momentous and eternal year between the end of high school and the start of college.