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Colleen Doran
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Gone to Amerikay Hardcover – April 3, 2012

by Roderick Mccullough (Author), Colleen Doran (Illustrator)
4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars 16 ratings
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Ciara O'Dwyer is a young woman raising a daughter alone in the Five Points slums of 1870; Johnny McCormack is a struggling actor drawn to the nascent folk music movement in Greenwich Village 1960; and Lewis Healy is a successful Irishman who's come to present-day Manhattan on his wife's anniversary-present promise to reveal the connection between him and them. The mystery originates with Ciara's runaway husband, who disappeared after promising to join her in America, and carries into midcentury when Johnny, devastated by an unexpected romance and a lost shot at musical fame, gets a supernatural visitor
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  1. Part of Series
    Gone to Amerikay
  2. Print length
    144 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Vertigo
  5. Publication date
    April 3, 2012
  6. Dimensions
    7.01 x 0.47 x 9.21 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    1401223516
  8. ISBN-13
    978-1401223519
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Ghost story or detective fiction? History or mythology? Drawing on the freewheeling spirit of Irish and Irish-American popular culture, GONE TO AMERIKAY is all of these. A tale that takes place simultaneously in 1870, 1960 and 2010, it recognizes that though enormous changes have taken place over time in the relationship between the New World and the Old Country, some things, like love, justice and respect, are timeless and imperative. With thrilling illustrations, rich with the color and mood of these passions, you will find yourself unable to avoid lingering at length on them before picking up the story again."—Philip Chevron, The Pogues

"GONE TO AMERIKAY s a wonderful story, lushly illustrated, full of music and passion, twists and turns, beautifully evoking the Irish immigrant experience in three different times and sewing them all together brilliantly at the end. A real treat, for those who love New York history, or just a great story."—Kevin Baker, author of PARADISE ALLEY, DREAMLAND, LUNA PARK

"GONE TO AMERIKAY is not just a great book, it's an important book. In a marketplace where every season brings another supposed Big Event, this is the real deal. It uses the immigrant experience to talk about us, who we are, how and why we came here, with some echoes of where we might be going. The art is superb, containing some of the best and most evocative images of the period you're ever going to see, and the story is wide in scope but intimate in its details as it flashes forward and backward in time. Forget the hype, this is going to be THE book of 2012."—J. Michael Straczynski (SUPERMAN:YEAR ONE, BABYLON FIVE, CHANGELING)

About the Author

Derek McCulloch, neither Irish nor American, nonetheless grew up listening to Irish music and reading comic books about New York City, little dreaming these unrelated interests would one day form the basis for a book. His first graphic novel, Stagger Lee, was published to some acclaim in 2006 and was nominated for an Eisner Award. His second graphic novel, Pug, was published in 2010. He is currently adapting the works of Damon Runyon for both comics and stage.

Colleen Doran's Irish antecedents named her Colleen, the Irish word for "girl," so there would be no confusion. Colleen Doran is American, therefore her ancestors are from many places. Colleen has written and/or drawn lots of comics and graphic novels like Mangaman, Sandman, A Distant Soil, Wonder Woman and Captain America. She has won a lot of nice prizes, and lectured in a lot of nice places. She also speaks as a creator rights advocate.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vertigo; No Additional Printings Listed edition (April 3, 2012)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 144 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1401223516
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1401223519
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.01 x 0.47 x 9.21 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars 16 ratings

About the authors

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  1. Colleen Doran

    Colleen Doran

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    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Colleen Doran is a New York Times bestselling cartoonist whose professional career began when she was a young teen. She illustrated work for the Eisner Award winning The Sandman by Neil Gaiman, as well as their graphic novel adaptations of his novels and short stories American Gods, Troll Bridge, and Norse Mythology. She also illustrated Stan Lee's New York Times bestselling autobiography Amazing, Fantastic, Incredible Stan Lee.

    For Neil Gaiman’s Snow Glass Apples, which she adapted and illustrated, she won the Eisner Award for Best Adaptation, the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel from the Horror Writers Association, and the Ringo Award for Best Graphic Novel. Snow, Glass, Apples was also nominated for the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award for Best Graphic Novel, The Tripwire Award, and received an Honorable Mention at the Rondo Hattan Classic Horror Awards for Best Graphic Novel, as well as Eisner and Ringo Award nominations for Best Penciler/Inker and Best Artist.

    She was inducted into the Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame in 2007, and the Wizard World Hall of Legends in 2017.

    Other books she has illustrated have won Eisner and Harvey Awards, and the International Horror Guild Award. Her essays appeared in the Hugo nominated Chicks Dig Comics. Art from the Troll Bridge graphic novel was selected for the Spectrum annual collection featuring the best science fiction and fantasy art of the year. She was Artist in Residence at the Smithsonian Institute and has lectured at the Maryland Institute College of Art and Design and the Australian Writers Association. Her work has been featured in numerous galleries and museum exhibits worldwide, including a solo exhibit this year at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco featuring the original art from Neil Gaiman's Chivalry.

    Doran’s A Distant Soil, which she created and published as a teenager, is now published by Image Comic’s Shadowline imprint. Vector: The Journal of the British Science Fiction Association declared it “groundbreaking science fiction comics…ahead of its time.”

    She worked with Alan Moore on an experimental animated webcomic Big Nemo based on the classic Winsor McCay comic strip. On The Vampire Diaries she contributed as writer and artist for the comic based on the hit television show. She wrote and/or drew stories for various Wonder Woman titles from DC Comics. She’s also illustrated the works of Margaret Atwood, Anne Rice, J Michael Straczynski, Clive Barker, and official graphic novel works for legendary rock band The Doors, as well as Blondie, Melissa Etheridge, and Tori Amos.

    Other credits include Amazing Spider-Man, The Teen Titans, Captain America, Guardians of the Galaxy, Jessica Jones for Netflix, Marvel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, and various Star Wars and Lord of the Rings projects.

    See more on the author's page
  2. Derek McCulloch

    Derek McCulloch

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    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Derek McCulloch is an author of graphic novels and books for children. His critically acclaimed first graphic novel, Stagger Lee, illustrated by Shepherd Hendrix, was nominated for the Eisner and Eagle awards and won four Glyph Comics Awards, including Best Writer and Story of the Year. His second graphic novel, Pug, with Greg Espinoza, was nominated for Best Crime Comic/Graphic Novel in the 2011 Spinetingler Awards. He has contributed numerous short pieces to comics anthologies and wrote a book for children, T. Runt!, illustrated by Jimmie Robinson. His original graphic novel, Gone to Amerikay, illustrated by Colleen Doran released by Vertigo in 2012, was selected for inclusion in The Best American Comics 2013.

    See more on the author's page
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Customer reviews

4.9 out of 5 stars
16 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the art quality excellent, and the color work great. They also say the story is passable.

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Art qualityStory quality
3 customers mention "Art quality"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the art quality excellent. They also appreciate the great color work by Jose Villarrubia.

"...and a half stars for the story but with my bias for the outstanding artistic production I have given the book five stars." Read more

"...Doran's art, saturated in period detail and Jose Villarrubia's great color work, has never looked better. Recommended." Read more

"Beautiful book..." Read more

3 customers mention "Story quality"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the story quality of the book excellent.

"...Doran's art has never been better. Each page is a mini-masterpiece of story-telling brilliance, and the eye-popping detail brings each period to..." Read more

"I already love the illustrator, and the story was very interesting & a unique view of the immigrant experience." Read more

"Exquisite art and a passable story..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

Allan Harvey
5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece
Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2012
Verified Purchase
Lovingly crafted by writer Derek McCulloch and artist Colleen Doran, Gone to Amerikay details the experience of the Irish immigrant to America across three time periods. From the struggles and shattered dreams of 1870, the prejudice and exploitation of 1960, to the bright horizons of 2010, a tale is woven, part history, part mystery with just a hint of the supernatural. And, be sure, the Irish love of song is not forgotten: music almost becomes a character in its own right. This is a book that deserves a soundtrack.

McCulloch writes with a deftness of touch that staggers, providing each character with a distinctive voice and strong motivation. These characters get under your skin, their quiet strength in the face of adversity stays with you long after you've put the book down. And, although the stories in the three periods seem separate at first, the author neatly ties everything together at the end.

Doran's art has never been better. Each page is a mini-masterpiece of story-telling brilliance, and the eye-popping detail brings each period to life in a way that's never confusing for the reader. It's often the small incidents she shows in the background that impress most, especially the antics of the children. Doran has always had great felicity in her depiction of the young, and the relationship between Ciara and Maire O'Dwyer, as shown in the pitch perfect body language, will tear your heart out. A word of praise too must go to José Villarrubia, whose subtle colors -- he uses a different palette for each time period -- add immeasurably to the art's overall success.

A simply beautiful book.
5 people found this helpful
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A. Harris
5.0 out of 5 stars sui generis
Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2012
Verified Purchase
This is one of those books where after you read it you sit back and think about it, and try to put it all together. It doesn't go away after you close the back cover. You pick it up again a little later and reread it, and the little things you missed the first time you catch on the second, and so on. This is a two dimensional world built so three dimensionally that you fall into it in the beginning and don't fall back out till the end, despite the seemingly haphazard, nonlinear story progression. There's three narratives woven back and forth across three lives and three centuries, bound together by the music of a people and a shared dream of a better life. There's a method to the madness.

I compared it to Watchmen to a friend, who said "but there's no superheroes in it." No, there aren't. That's not what I meant. I meant that I can still to this day reread Watchmen and find something I missed the previous 37 times I read it. And like that book, "Gone To Amerikay" has so many layers so skillfully interconnected I can't even begin to parse them all.

I think this book will be recognized as one of those benchmark books, a standard for others to aspire to, where the story and the art not only compliment each other, each individually displays the creator (Derek McCulloch, Colleen Doran) at peak performance; neither overshadows the other. It's a perfect fit.

I think I'm going to go read it again.
6 people found this helpful
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Sverre Svendsen
5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite art and a passable story
Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2014
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This is a graphic novel about Irish immigrants to America told in three parallel time-streams 1870, 1960 and 2010. Gone to Amerikay is a wonderful book to look through. The art by Colleen Doran (creator of the extensive fantasy series A Distant Soil) is exquisite—there is simply no other word for it. The colours added by José Villarrubia couldn’t be improved on. So, for lovers of graphic arts, this book is worth having for that reason alone. Five stars for that.

The author is Derek McCulloch who has not compromised on content to appeal to young readers. This is adult fare in language and content but not overly crude or gruesome. Homosexuality, murder and criminality—including the involvement of a wealthy Jewess—are important story elements. But there is a lot of sensitivity and sentimentality. Lots of song lyrics, some might say too many but the theme of the book revolves around singing, and one song in particular. McCulloch ties the three time-streams together with a ghostly supernatural interlude which I felt ambivalent about. Up to that point I admired the realism the author was portraying and that this was compromised by the incursion of the supernatural. Personally I wish he had found a different way to conclude the book. I would give three and a half stars for the story but with my bias for the outstanding artistic production I have given the book five stars.
3 people found this helpful
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F. Orion Pozo
4.0 out of 5 stars richly rewarding portrait of the immigrant experience
Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2016
This is a beautifully drawn graphic novel that recounts the tale of an Irish mother and her young daughter who leave for New York in 1870 to stay with an cousin while waiting for her husband to follow. However the book also tells the story of a young man from Ireland who sails for New York in 1960 and becomes involved in the Greenwich Village arts scene of off-Broadway plays, coffee houses, and folk music. And, yes, there is a third story of a wealthy Irishman whose wife, as a present her husband, tracks down a mystery involving the 1870's mother and the 1960's lad.

Disconcertingly at first, the novel as it progresses switches between these three stories about Irish people in New York. You the reader can see them eventually merging, but it left me a bit confused at first. The stories are richly rewarding and worth any trouble the sudden changes in settings may cause.

The artist excels at portraits of his characters both visually and in character development. I fell in love with the good heroes and even the villains of this richly rewarding portrait of the immigrant experience.
3 people found this helpful
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Robert Dahlen
5.0 out of 5 stars The Irish immigrant experience, with beautiful art
Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2012
Verified Purchase
In 1870, 1960 and 2010, three different people come to America for three different reasons, but their stories are destined to intertwine in this excellent graphic novel. Derek McCulloch, who's already shown his ability to intertwine storylines to good effect in his award-winning Stagger Lee, tops himself in this look at the Irish in America through many different eyes; he captures what it's like to be an outsider in an unwelcome land. And Colleen Doran's art, saturated in period detail and Jose Villarrubia's great color work, has never looked better. Recommended.
2 people found this helpful
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