For Immediate Release
“But for today anyhow, I was in love.” Atangan, the Gay Dating Experience, and LA Life
Love, as the romantics aspire to, can be a fleeting moment. For a gay minority man, it can seem almost impossible. Among the false starts, missed connections, and bad prom dates, there is an opportunity for understanding and growth. Recently, there has been a trend in popular culture to profile the everyday lives of homosexuals in their pursuit of happiness and love. From popular shows featuring gay characters and storylines like Orange is the New Black, Looking, Glee, and Days of Our Lives, media headlines, and topical graphic novels like Fun Home and Lumberjanes—more diverse gay voices are being heard. Cartoonist Patrick Atangan is one of those voices.
In FIRES ABOVE HYPERION, Atangan’s fifth graphic novel for NBM Publishing, he shares his most personal story yet. Part Sex in the City, part Charlie Brown, Atangan explores his dating history with brutal honesty and deadpan delivery. The dull pain of a crush on the unattainable, the confusing act of staying friends with exes, and the formidable task of living a life outside of the closet are all featured chapters of Atangan’s life —and this graphic novel. Atangan also quips about being a gay minority man, Filipino but not quite Asian enough or Latino enough for some in the gay world; difficult to define in a label obsessed society. He admits “my entire dating life has been a bit backwards.”
FIRES ABOVE HYPERION is not just about dating, it’s about aging in the youth focused culture, staying marketable as a creator of graphic novels, Los Angeles life, weddings, parties, old friends, and holding your liquor. While dating is the protagonist’s main concern, he must also deal with the mundane, like balancing time, rental car maintenance, and how to avoid social disaster at parties. Sometimes epic journeys of self-discovery start with waking up in the morning.
Patrick Atangan has a long history with NBM Publishing; his inaugural publication was 2003’s THE YELLOW JAR— the first in the Eisner Nominated “Songs from our Ancestors” series adapting traditional Asian tales. Last year’s INVINCIBLE DAYS—bittersweet tales of childhood— was featured on the Publishers Weekly Critics’ Best of 2014 poll.
6 x 9, 96pp. full color paperback, $14.99, ISBN: 9781561639861 Publication: October 2015. Also available wherever ebooks are sold.
Atangan is available for interviews. For this and more information, contact our publicist Stefan Blitz ([email protected]). Reviewers, please mention our website. Websites, please send us a link to your review. You can find more information and download art and cover on our website nbmpub.com at the ‘For Press’ page.
NBM 160 Broadway, Ste. 700 East Wing New York, NY 10038 (646) 559 4681 Fax: (212) 643 1545 www.nbmpub.com [email protected] Distributed by IPG