Sounds of Your Name [Paperback]

Nate Powell (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 10, 2007

Sounds of Your Name collects Nate Powell's zines and comics, including his first two books, Tiny Giants and It Disappears (published by Soft Skull). His intricate, sometimes chaotic drawings examine the complications that come with passing from childhood into adulthood. Renderings of friends and family scattered across the country paint tender, sweaty, and memory-soaked portraits of small town life and beyond. Nate addresses the uneasy existential inquiries that bloom in youth and invokes all the elements of great coming of age novels with only a few dozen words.

He captures that most elusive thing that disappears with age: wonder. If most people spend their entire lives longing for past episodes from their youth, then Nate addresses that longing, covering his pages with lost wonder, and offering it, wholeheartedly, back to us. His work offers the hope we might never grow old, and that even if we do, our dreams are always within reach. The power of his work is a reminder of the persistance of joy.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This Nate Powell wittily, even surgically, cuts to the bone. Observant, intimate cartooning, anchored with a nice, punchy use of black. Good comics." -Frank Miller, creator of Sin City

"Powell's extraordinary artwork makes one feel, rather than read, what the book is about." - Booklist

"If you're trying to get someone new into graphic novels this book may be just the thing you need. Someone who reads McSweeney's or subscribes to Harper's but has no graphic literature in their life will be bowled over by the beauty and grace of Powell's style. There are simply too few superlatives for this book." -Bookslut

About the Author

Nate Powell is the author of Tiny Giants, It Disappears, and several dozen zines and self-published comics. He plays in the punk band Soophie Nun Squad.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Microcosm Publishing (February 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0977055795
• ISBN-13: 978-0977055791
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,684,995 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nate Powell was born in 1978 in Little Rock, Arkansas, and began self-publishing comics in 1992 at age 14. He graduated from School of Visual Arts in 2000.

Powell's work includes "Year Of The Beasts" (written by Cecil Castellucci, Roaring Brook Press, 2012), "The Silence Of Our Friends"(written by Mark Long and Jim Demonakos, First Second, 2012), "Any Empire" (Top Shelf Productions, 2011), "Swallow Me Whole" (2009 Eisner Award winner for Best Graphic Novel, 2008 Ignatz Award winner for Outstanding Debut, and LA Times Book Prize nominee; Top Shelf, 2008), "Sounds Of Your Name" (Microcosm Publishing, 2006), "Please Release" (Top Shelf, 2006), "It Disappears" (Soft Skull Press, 2004), "Tiny Giants" (Soft Skull, 2003), and the self-published "Walkie Talkie" series.

He is also a fill-in writer/artist for the Vertigo Comics series "Sweet Tooth" (by Jeff Lemire) and a contributor to the acclaimed fundraising anthology "What You Wish For: A Book for Darfur" (Bookwish/Putnam, 2011).

From 1999 to 2009 Powell worked full-time providing support for adults with developmental disabilities alongside his cartooning efforts. He managed DIY punk record label Harlan Records for 16 years, and performed in the bands Universe, Soophie Nun Squad, Wait, Boomfancy, Gioteens, and Divorce Chord. He currently lives in Bloomington, Indiana with his wife Rachel Bormann.

Powell is currently working on three new graphic novel projects to be disclosed at the end of 2011.

www.seemybrotherdance.org

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lyrical and enigmatic, June 2, 2008

By 

wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Sounds of Your Name (Paperback)

Nate Powell creates some of the most incredible comics I've ever encountered. The visual style shifts almost as quickly as the teenaged characters' moods, but never becomes random or incoherent. Some lines flow like Jules Feiffer's scrawl, others jolt down the page in angular tracks that remind me of Sam Keith. Some pages feel light and breezy; other times, broad, dense blacks make even night air feel as dense as a tombstone.

A comic really stands on its writing, though, no matter how good the art is. Powell presents some of the finest comic writing around. The scripts bring to life the trials and occasional small triumphs of life as a teen or an adult just starting out. That time of life often rides on emotion rather than reason. He renders that whirl and confusion accurately, something that linear plotting and familiar visual angles just can't do. If graphic novels correspond to literary prose, then Powell's work comes closer to poetry in many ways.

Written reviews have no way to capture the look of this book, and its feel simlpy has to be experienced first-hand. Powell became one of my favorite comic artists the moment I first saw his work. This volume cements his reputation as one of the finest creators working today.

-- wiredweird

PS: This volume includes "It Disappears," which has been published as separately.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An avant-garde collection especially recommended for anyone interested in taking the pulse of the underground comix scene., June 9, 2007

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sounds of Your Name (Paperback)

Sounds of your Name is a graphic novel anthology of black-and-white zine and comic stories by punk band player Nate Powell. Featuring dark, gritty artwork, dialogue that turns on a dime from casual to deadly serious, and sequences that are likewise drift from day-in-the-life to tense to shockingly explosive, the stories in Sounds of Your Name captivate with underground fervor. From the hard life of an alley cat who longs for the comforts of domesticity, to the simultaneously grim and spiritual insights of a war veteran, to the rites of passage from childhood to adulthood, Sounds of Your Name is undeniably a "thinking man's comic" from cover to cover. An avant-garde collection especially recommended for anyone interested in taking the pulse of the underground comix scene.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An illustrator before a writer, February 20, 2010

By 

A. Flores - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Sounds of Your Name (Paperback)

I don't know how or if Nate Powell matures as a writer in his later work, because I have only read this collection, which contains his early stuff. I loved the black and white art and think he's a very talented illustrator; I thought the writing was mediocre. Here's a sample:

The rays' eyes were just like the fishers'--all sunken in and sad, like slippery little basset hounds panicking in the August sun. They soon died and simply enough, I watched their little skins bake and harden. The men need those fish for nothing more than rent and a little food. More spokes in the wheel.

The best pieces are the shorter, enigmatic ones that contain very little writing.