Zig-Zagging: Loving Madly, Losing Badly... How Ziggy Saved My Life [Hardcover]

Tom Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 2009

Our lives aren't composed like a headstone with a straight line that marks the date of the first breath we take to the last; the journey we're on is really a zigzagging series of unexpected detours. Every detour is a destination unto itself, and regardless of our plans, it's what we don't see coming that often affects us most…

Ziggy cartoonist Tom Wilson didn't see it coming: after losing his beloved young wife to breast cancer, it's up to him to raise two children alone and keep the laughs coming in his cartoons worldwide—even as his own personal orbit is falling apart. In this mesmerizing and nostalgic account of a beloved artist's life, Tom Wilson details his compelling journey from growing up in the shadow of his father's genius to inheriting an iconic cartoon when his father falls ill, all while struggling to overcome a crippling depression.

With his trademark humor and self-effacing wisdom, Tom invites you into his intimate life as he searches for hope and strength to overcome his own life detours. In an ironic twist of art imitating life, Tom reveals how Ziggy's own weekly syndicated quest for answers was the unforeseen catalyst that enabled him to say yes to life again and face his greatest challenges. In Zig-zagging, Tom and Ziggy explore the consequences of the upward, downward, inward, wayward, and sometimes backward roads of our zigzagging lives—and discover that while there is no road map for living, with a little character, you don't have to be lost along the way.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this inspirational memoir, Wilson, author of the cartoon strip Ziggy (a job he inherited from his father), relates a life filled with wondrous memories and profound struggles. While growing up, Ziggy served as a means for father and son to draw out our thoughts and feelings about each other. But years later, Wilson's leg was crushed in a car accident, his wife died at age 44 of breast cancer, leaving Wilson with their two sons, and his father—both mentor and hero to Wilson—also had a serious illness. Immobilized by depression, Wilson's faith failed him, and he concluded that the mercy of God [was] an apparent fiction. Wilson struggled for peace and truth with Ziggy by his side. His ultimate rescuer was the gift of a journal in which he recorded his feelings and thoughts. With ideas like imagining Moses as the first Superman, Wilson delights with fresh, well-considered insights, while the Ziggy cartoons reproduced here put both the character and his creator in a moving light. (Mar.)
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Review

'I often say cancer touches everyone, but knowing that even Ziggy is a foot soldier in this fight really puts it in perspective.  I highly recommend Zig-Zagging for anyone dealing with the devastating loss of a loved one or in need of inspiration from an unlikely source.'

–Doug Ulman, LIVESTRONG President & CEO

(Doug Ulman )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 212 pages
• Publisher: HCI; 1 edition (February 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0757307930
• ISBN-13: 978-0757307935
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #706,628 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tom Wilson began drawing Ziggy in 1987. The cartoonist's lifestyle came very naturally to Tom, whose father created the cartoon and whose family includes many artists. Tom studied graphic design at Miami University and fine art and illustration at Boston University. Although he is no longer involved in the day-to-day drawing of Ziggy, he continues to have an ongoing passion for creative development as president of Ziggy and Friends, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For anyone who has suffered a loss, March 10, 2009

By 

barbidoll31 "barbidoll31" (Orlando, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zig-Zagging: Loving Madly, Losing Badly... How Ziggy Saved My Life (Hardcover)

Anyone who has suffered a loss, and has felt lost because of it will find comfort and hope in this book. Tom is so generous sharing the raw truth about loss and grieving in this book! He holds nothing back, and in that complete giving, he lets you know that you are not crazy and you are not alone.

This book really surprised me! Who knew that a male could be so thoughtful, insightful, and emotionally aware? I gave one copy to my brother and one copy to my brother-in-law, who both lost their wives in the past year. They are both reading it now and I expect that it will help them in many ways especially because it is written from a man's point of view.

It was also wonderful to learn so many intimate details about the human behind the well-known cartoon character. I've loved Ziggy since I was a teenager and he has given me many smiles throughout the years.

This is a wonderful book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An honest story of raw emotion, June 15, 2009

By 

N. B. Kennedy (Hopewell, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Zig-Zagging: Loving Madly, Losing Badly... How Ziggy Saved My Life (Hardcover)

I read Michael Lewis's Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood in the same weekend as Zig-Zagging. I don't think there could be takes on family life more completely at opposite ends of the spectrum than these two books.

If you are a fan of HCI's Chicken Soup for the Soul series, which is this book's publisher, you will like Mr. Wilson's book. He is fully expressive about his emotions and feelings. He comes across as an honest and observant man who is grateful for the people in his life, especially his father and his wife, whose death he recounts in this book. He is immensely likeable as a man whose personal crises have granted him a hard-won spiritual outlook on life.

I felt about this book, however, the way I felt about Deanna Favre's Don't Bet against Me!: Beating the Odds Against Breast Cancer and in Life. The events around which Mr. Wilson's book (and Ms. Favre's) revolve go by in a flash; within pages, he gets married, has been married for 20-odd years, his wife is diagnosed and she dies. I felt I knew nothing about his wife, except how much he loved her. We learn more about the woman he dated after her death than we do about her.

Mr. Wilson's father and his wife both come across as saintly but not specific human beings. It's this sketchiness that kept me from sympathizing as fully as I would have liked with this man whose cartoon drawings have amused us for so many years. Still, this is a touching book that would be a comforting read for anyone who has lost a loved one and grappled with overwhelming grief. Calvin Trillin's About Alice is another moving tribute to a beloved spouse.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tom Grows Up!, April 1, 2009

By 

Dr. Ric Morgan (Gatlinburg, Tennessee USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Zig-Zagging: Loving Madly, Losing Badly... How Ziggy Saved My Life (Hardcover)

Be prepared...in this book, you are going to meet an incredible man...a man who has lived the highest highs and climbed back up from the very deepest abyss. If you are expecting a book of Ziggy cartoons, you're going to be disappointed. Oh, there are some sprinkled throughout the book, but only to illustrate a point. I refuse to be a spoiler, and tell you all the details, because I want you to buy the book and discover it for yourself.

Tom Wilson is a man who gets it. You learn that he is a man with a great capacity for love. He is one of the lucky few who has so many people in his life that he not only loves, but that there is a wide-range of people who love him as well. But there is a difference here: Tom IS love. That fact didn't come easily for him, and if anything he fought and resisted in even though he was a part of him the whole time and literally staring him in the face. But he had to go through this amazing journey to learn that. But in the end the result is a ménage a trois between Tom, Ziggy and God; an interesting relationship to say the least.

It's interesting how at the beginning of each chapter Tom takes us on his life's journey represented through a drive along I-71 from Cleveland to Cincinnati. This illustration of how the journey is frequently more important than the destination is a key to what the reader discovers from beginning to end.

There is ample reason to buy this book, and if you want to be truly inspired and moved, here is the story that will do just that.

Ric Morgan is the author of a power-packed, life-changing little book called The Keys: The Textbook to a Successful Life, nominated for a 2009 Pulitzer Prize and two Nautilus Book Awards...http://www.amazon.com/Keys-Textbook-Successful-Life/dp/1438202636/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207241325&sr=8-1