PRESS RELEASE
This May, Fantagraphics will publish CHARTWELL MANOR, cartoonist Glenn Head’s harrowing graphic memoir that details his two years at the now-defunct Mendham, NJ, boarding school run by a serial sexual and physical abuser of young boys.
“As a young child very little of the world made sense to me,” said Head. “Finding myself in Chartwell in the early ‘70s was like entering a real-world horror comic—depraved, criminal, and corrupting to so many who attended it. No one walked away unsullied.”
Telling his story with a raw honesty unparalleled in autobiographical comics today, Head never asks the reader to like him as he stares down the demons—substance abuse, sex addiction—born of his boarding school days. Struggling to make sense of his experience, he discovers in art the power to reshape the past, finding, finally, a ray of hope and perhaps even a sliver of forgiveness.
Advance Praise for CHARTWELL MANOR:
“This is a great graphic novel. I couldn’t put it down… Starkly honest, a powerful story…the level of merciless self examination…I was deeply impressed. Head has traveled a long way to get to this point. This is… well, okay, I’ll say it… A Masterpiece! Truly. Very few writers or artists ever reach this level of self-revealing truth. It’s good for the world…” —Robert Crumb
“Chartwell Manor is a painful, riveting and brutally honest memoir ― possibly the most honest one I’ve ever read. I loved it! This clearly took a lot of guts to produce, as well as a lifetime to process!” —Peter Bagge
“A troubling but important piece of graphic work. If you’re new to Glenn Head’s comics then this book is a perfect place to start, and if you’ve been a reader of his for a long time then Chartwell Manor will give you a fuller understanding and insight into Head’s long career and comics output.” —Noah Van Sciver
Fantagraphics will publish CHARTWELL MANOR on May 25, 2021.
