You'll Never Know Book Three Hardcover by C. Tyler

Product Details

• Publisher: Fantagraphics (2012-10-24)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 128 pages
• ISBN-13: 9781606995488
• Item Weight: 567.0 grams
• Dimensions: 0.0 x 0.0 x 0.0 cm

The final volume of the acclaimed, multigenerational graphic memoir.

In one of the most eagerly-anticipated graphic novels of 2012, Soldier’s Heart concludes the story of Carol Tyler and her delving into her father’s war experiences in a way that is both surprising and devastating — and rather than trying to summarize this episode and thus possibly spoil it for readers, we prefer to simply offer a selection of comments on the first two installments of this autobiographical masterpiece.

Publishers Weekly: “(Starred Review) In the first volume of Tyler’s planned trilogy of graphic memoirs, she dug into the eruptive, violent memories of her father’s WWII experiences while simultaneously dealing with a husband who decided to go find himself and leave her with a daughter to raise. [Book Two] is no less rich and overwhelming. Tyler gets back to the business of detailing her father’s war stories — difficult given that he is ‘one of those guys who closed it off and never talked about it’ — as well as coming to terms with her already touchy parents’ increasingly ornery attitudes. Closing the circle somewhat is Tyler’s concern over her daughter’s troubled nature, which seems to mirror her own wild past. While the language of Chicago-raised and Cincinnati-based Tyler has a winningly self-deprecating Midwestern spareness to it, her art is a lavishly prepared kaleidoscope of watercolors and finely etched drawings, all composed to look like the greatest family photo album of all time. The story’s honest self-revelations and humane evocations of family dramas are tremendously moving. Tyler’s book could well leave readers simultaneously eager to see the third volume, but also nervous about the traumas, home front and war front, that it might contain.”

Booklist: “Tyler’s fluid, expressive linework, complemented by subtly overlaid watercolors, gives ideal visual expression to a narrative that’s at once sensitive and hard-nosed... Decades of drawing mostly autobiographical stories have honed her skills, enabling her to produce a work that ranks in quality with the graphic memoirs of Alison Bechdel (Fun Home)and Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis).”

About the Author

Carol Tyler is one of the most enduring cartoonists of her generation. Debuting with the short story "Un-Covered Property" in Weirdo in 1987, she went on to contribute to other anthologies of the era like Street Music, Twisted Sisters, Wimmens Comix, Drawn & Quarterly, and Zero Zero. Her debut book, The Job Thing (Fantagraphics, 1993), collected stories that examined the intersections between working-class labor, artistic expression, and misogyny. Her second collection, Late Bloomer (Fantagraphics, 2005), spanned her career to date, and showcased her facility with vibrant color alongside her expressive pen-and-ink brushwork.

In 2009, her three-volume series You'll Never Know serialised a biography of her father, tracing his return from WWII and the way the trauma of war and expectations of masculinity, affect soldiers' families and reverberate through generations. The first volume won Tyler nominations for the Eisner Awards for both Best Writer/Artist and Best Painter/Multimedia Artist. The series was expanded and compiled as Soldier's Heart (Fantagraphics, 2015).

Tyler delved further into her own history for the 2018 Fab 4 Mania, referencing her own 1965 diary for a memoir of a 13-year-old girl's life as focussed through obsession with the Beatles, culminating in attending their final Chicago concert. In recent years she taught in Sequential Art at the University of Cincinnati's College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning between 2006 and 2019, and moved to integrate the teaching, creative, practical, and caregiving aspects of her life via the Ink Farm, a Kentucky retreat for cartoonists to work. In 2023, Married To Comics, a documentary about Tyler's life with husband and fellow cartoonist Justin Green (1945-2022), premiered at the American Film Institute's Silver Theatre. She is completing her next memoir/graphic novel, The Ephemerata: Shaping the Exquisite Nature of my Grief, to be published in 2025 by Fantagraphics.