Fictional Father

Starred review from April 12, 2021
Ollmann’s funny, faux-meta memoir follows Caleb Wyatt, the angst-ridden son of Jimmi Wyatt, a cartoonist whose treacly daily strip, Sonny Side Up, earned him the nickname “Everybody’s Dad.” But Jimmi’s actually an egomaniac with little time for his wife and son. By middle age, Cal is a recovering alcoholic struggling to launch his own art career. When Jimmi dies and bequeaths his strip to his son, Cal considers the proposition, to the surprise of his father’s staff—who reveal that assistants have drawn it for years—and Cal’s boyfriend, James, a Black flight attendant who’s had it with Cal’s spoiled-rich-kid ways. Cal hires a salty, sober editor-for-hire, whom he meets at a 12-step program, and she offers, “Do you think—in the present climate—that anyone wants to listen to a rich, old white man complaining about an older, richer white man?... Of course they do!” Cal takes this tough-love kick in the pants and “finds his voice.” Ollmann’s illustrations are ugly-charming, wrinkled and shadowed, but tinted in bright colors (with yellowed “vintage” cartoons a particular visual joy). The framing device, in which Ollmann wrestles with a story that has been told before—Cal’s life is reminiscent of the real Dennis the Menace—requires acrobatic parsing. The reward is a complex look at an artist’s evolving relationship to the past.

Starred review from May 7, 2021

"Do we always become the thing we hate most," Caleb Wyatt wonders, "or do we preemptively hate that trait because we sense it in ourselves?" He's thinking about his father, Jimmi, the famous creator of a syndicated comic strip beloved for its tender depiction of paternal love. Despite his worldwide reputation as "Everybody's dad," Jimmi is actually a cold, casually cruel, self-absorbed, alcohol-addicted father. After spending his youth rebelling, middle age finds Caleb a struggling artist who's recovering from addiction and still dependent upon his father's vast fortune for survival. When a disastrous gallery showing of Caleb's latest abstract paintings emphasizes how totally his life has been lived under Jimmi's shadow, Caleb boils over with rage and resentment that threatens his sobriety and alienates his boyfriend. Then Jimmi dies unexpectedly, leaving behind a will which stipulates that Caleb assume authorship of his comic strip. Caleb's shock soon turns to curiosity and leads him to explore his father's work and legacy, as well as the roots of his own desire to be an artist. VERDICT Ollmann (The Abominable Mr. Seabrook) explores dysfunctional family dynamics and the sometimes complex motivations behind artistic expression with incredible empathy. An absorbing, enthralling work.--Tom Batten, Grafton, VA

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 15, 2021
Jimmi Wyatt is the cartoonist behind the world-famous Sonny Side Up, a comic strip so beloved, he's known as "everyone's dad." But Caleb, the son whose dad he actually is, knows differently. Caleb's grinding resentment has made him "emotionally distant, selfish, spoiled and mean," as his long-suffering partner, James, puts it. Such a person can be difficult to spend a long time with, even (or especially) in fictional form. But Cal isn't just those things; he's also self-searching, analytical, and smart, and Ollmann makes his story a riveting one by making Caleb, the other characters, their relationships, and the world they inhabit feel genuine and immediate. This extends to the fictional comic strip at the heart of the story and the way the world coheres around it. It also lives in the creased and withered faces and slumping, defeated body types and postures of Ollmann's artwork, a stylized cartooning that nevertheless conveys painfully authentic sights and emotions. Caleb's tale is told in two hundred pages of nine-panel grids, a structure that parallels the monotonous struggle a life like Cal's can sometimes be, but these pages are kept animated and seething with several surprising plot turns and an undeniable emotional realism. Ollmann (The Abominable Mr. Seabrook, 2017) has been a well-kept secret of comics for too long. Hopefully, this will blow his cover.

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