Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery Presents “Misery Loves Comedy: New Works by Ivan Brunetti”
May 19 through June 20, 2007, with Artist Reception June 8

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is pleased to debut the lively exhibition, “Misery Loves Comedy,” featuring new and recent work by Chicago-based artist Ivan Brunetti. The show opens on Saturday, May 19 and continues through June 20, 2007 at 1201 S. Vale St. in Seattle’s creative Georgetown arts community. The gallery hosts a festive reception for the artist on Friday, June 8 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM.

This exhibition commemorates the publication of Misery Loves Comedy by Fantagraphics Books, an anthology of the first three issues of
Brunetti’s “Schizo” comic book and other works. Brunetti’s self-deprecating comic stories portray his emotional battles with depression, divorce and high anxiety, employing compelling dark humor and visual acuity. His therapist actually provides the book’s introduction. “I’m not going to explain things to readers,” Brunetti comments in a recent edition of Publishers Weekly. “I don’t know if I can explain them to myself.”

In addition to Brunetti’s new collection, Seattle-based Fantagraphics Books has published four issues of “Schizo” and two volumes of his gag cartoons, “Hee!” and “Haw!” Brunetti recently organized “The Cartoonist’s Eye” exhibit at the A+D Gallery of Columbia College Chicago and edited the companion bestseller “An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons and True Stories,” published by Yale University Press. He has drawn comics and illustrations for The New Yorker, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, and Spin, among many others.

“I enjoy watching Brunetti suffer.” —ART SPIEGELMAN