Katie Fricas launches "Checked Out," in conversation with Bishakh Som

Author Katie Fricas will be joined by visual artist and writer Bishakh Som for a reading, conversation, signing, and reception.

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An aspiring cartoonist and book lovin’ lesbian, Louise works a dead-end day job at a shoe store, where she spends most of her time brooding over a coworker who will never quite love her back. By night, she works diligently and obsessively on her graphic novel—the true story of a carrier pigeon who rescued a battalion of soldiers in WWI.

When Louise unexpectedly lands a new job at a private library on the Upper East Side, she feels like her graphic novel will finally take off—surely the oldest library in New York has excellent holdings on pigeons and WWI. But what she finds in the stacks might be less revelatory than her discoveries between the sheets and buried in her own family history.

A graphic novel set against a perfectly cartoony NYC backdrop—complete with landmark haunts, street fashion, and quintessential characters of the city—Checked Out is at once a valentine to libraries and New York, and the story of an artist working to make her dreams come true. Drawn in a delightfully vivacious style, Checked Out buzzes with Katie Fricas’s vibrant energy, quick wit, and storytelling aplomb.

Advance Praise for Checked Out

“This book checked all my boxes: Comics―CHECK! History―CHECK! Library-lover―CHECK! Obsessively talk about favorite topics―CHECK! Katie Fricas's disarming and charming style will pull you in and not let you go.” ―Mimi Pond

“Checked Out was so fun to read, it barely felt like reading at all―my eyes just kind of glided through the story. It reminded me about how joyful comics are to make!” ―Tara Booth

“Katie Fricas captures the romantic, vertiginous feeling of being young and searching in New York, and the joyful juggle of an artist's brain―keeping the past, the present, and the what-could-be all in play.” ―Vanessa Davis

“With an exuberant, expressive, and colorful style, Fricas breaks all the rules in the most thoughtful ways. Take your time and pause for all the funny little nuggets in every panel. May we all take flight and find our way home―whatever that means to us―like Louise does in Checked Out.” ―November Garcia

“A dryly funny and touching reflection on ambition, relationships, and the freedom of letting go of unmet expectations.” ―Sophie Yanow

“Katie Fricas's eye doesn't miss a thing―the daily absurdity and poignancy of regular life rendered with big, fast color and so much pizzazz. I'm crazy about this book.” ―Michelle Tea

“An immersion into the twists and turns of the creative process, a questing exploration into how we grow the roots of a story, well-told.” ―Bishakh Som

Katie Fricas is a cartoonist and editor in New York City. Her comics have been in the New York Times Book Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Guardian, and The New Yorker, as well as various anthologies. Checked Out is her first book.

Bishakh Som is an Indian-American trans femme visual artist and author. Her work has appeared in many publications including The New Yorker, MoMA.org, Autostraddle, The Strumpet, The Boston Review and The Georgia Review. Her graphic novel Apsara Engine (The Feminist Press) is the winner of a 2020 L.A. Times Book Prize for Best Graphic Novel and a 2021 Lambda Literary Award winner for Best LGBTQ Comics. Her graphic memoir Spellbound (Street Noise Books) was also a 2021 Lambda Literary Award finalist. Her latest graphic novel, Amavaria, is due to be published by Abrams Comicarts in 2028.

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