Whenever you're in Dominion on Milverton Street, you will stumble across an arresting array of handsome old buildings. The one with the pink stone facade with the familiar Canadian cartoon characters over the doorway is the Dominion branch of the Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists, erected in 1935 and the last standing building of the once prestigious members-only organization. For years, this building, filled with art deco lamps, simple handcrafted wooden furniture, and halls and halls of black-and-white portraits of Canada's best cartoonists where the professionals of the Great White North's active comics community met — so active that there were outposts in Montreal and Winnipeg, with headquarters in Toronto. Everyone from all branches of the industry—newspaper strips, gag cartoons, nickel-backs, comic books, political art, accordion books, graphic novels—gathered in their dark green blazers to drink cocktails, eat, dance, and discuss all things cartooning...

In his first graphic novel, It's a Good Life, if You Don't Weaken, Seth pays homage to the wit and sophistication of the old-fashioned magazine cartoon. While trying to understand his dissatisfaction with the present, Seth discovers the life and work of Kalo, a forgotten New Yorker cartoonist from the 1940s. But his obsession blinds him to the needs of his lover and the quiet desperation of his family. Wry self-reflection and moody colours characterize Seth's style in this tale about learning lessons from nostalgia. His playful and sophisticated experiment with memoir provoked a furious debate among cartoon historians and archivists about the existence of Kalo, and prompted a Details feature about Seth's "hoax".

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