Mid-Life is the story of a 40-year-old man, John, who becomes a father again with his much-younger second wife, which results in a slow, painful attack by flowered baby bags and front facing baby carriers on his virility and self-identity. John always believed that age is a state of mind. His adult daughters, baby son, energetic wife, stressful job, house full of cats, and flabby body complete with bloated stomach and sagging bosom, however, all lead John reluctantly to admit that he is having a midlife crisis. The crisis drives John to yell at his wife, pick fights with his daughters and miss deadlines at work that put his job on the line. John takes solace from the stress of everyday life with a seemingly harmless infatuation with the pretty children's performer Sherry Smalls who sings adoringly to him directly from his son's DVD. Sherry Smalls, meanwhile, is equally desperate to find a distraction in life. Her path to rock stardom has been rudely overtaken by a semi-successful but completely loathsome gig as a children's performer. It pays the bills and a Saturday morning television show is on the horizon. That is, if she is able to fire her alcoholic on-again, off again boyfriend/bandmate. As their lives snowball, John's infatuation turns into obsession and a haphazard, fateful email leads to a necessary reality check that neither may have wanted, but both will surprisingly welcome.
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“Writer, artist, and panel grid addict Joe Ollmann serves up 170 pages’ worth of hilarity, pain, and embarrassment that anyone who’s experienced (or is experiencing, God help them) the awkwardness and panic that comes with turning forty will relate to well. Funny drawings, too!” —PETER BAGGE, cartoonist of Hate
About the Author
Joe Ollman lives in Montreal with his wife and children. He is the winner of the Doug Wright Award for best cartooning.
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
By Mark Young
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
Great feeling of verisimilitude to this quasi-autobiographical work of fiction. It's the story of a 40-year old remarried father of 3 who has a new baby son with his second (younger) wife and a full-blown crisis on the way. Also in crisis is children's entertainer Sherri Smalls, with whom the main character becomes smitten. Not enough going on in his life, I guess. There was genuine humour in his self-loathing, crusty persona and the cataloguing of his many faults. Good characters and a good story overall.
Where I did have a few quibbles with this work was in the graphic side of this graphic novel. The art itself is fine. Some funny expressions and gestures were well-captured. But the heavy inks were just overpowering. And the lettering was just terrible, often intelligible only thanks to context. He uses a mixture of upper and lower case letters throughout like he's a beatnik poet and actually underlines words for emphasis like he's signing someone's high school yearbook. No! Wrong! Bad cartoonist!
Ollman's storytelling skills are all there and I like his drawing style, but he is taking on too many of the art chores here and the work suffers because of it. He needs an inker and a letterer to let his characters breathe.
Where I did have a few quibbles with this work was in the graphic side of this graphic novel. The art itself is fine. Some funny expressions and gestures were well-captured. But the heavy inks were just overpowering. And the lettering was just terrible, often intelligible only thanks to context. He uses a mixture of upper and lower case letters throughout like he's a beatnik poet and actually underlines words for emphasis like he's signing someone's high school yearbook. No! Wrong! Bad cartoonist!
Ollman's storytelling skills are all there and I like his drawing style, but he is taking on too many of the art chores here and the work suffers because of it. He needs an inker and a letterer to let his characters breathe.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars
3 reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
laughing at sad things
Dec 4 2011
By Fred Zappa
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
The setup here sounds all too familiar--harried husband and serial dad longs for something more, and appears to find it in much younger women. But Ollmann takes things in delightfully unexpected directions. And yes, the adjective "hilarious" does fit very well; I laughed many times, not only at the sad but completely human characters, but also at the ways Ollmann draws them. He's unflinching in his depictions of the aesthetic ravages of age, and of stressed-out fatigue. Common male tendencies really get their comeuppance here, but again, not in the ways you're expecting as you read along.
Ollmann has a sharp, wise, and penetrating eye. He sheds thought-provoking light on other aspects of life too, especially for those readers who wonder what happened to their younger, prettier, and much cooler selves, now that time and mundane reality have intruded. These intrusions include multiple marriages and parenthood, the betrayals of our own aging bodies, and the compromises we end up making in the work we do, which we've fallen into calling our "professional lives." I suppose none of that sounds especially funny, but if any of it rings true for you, I'd be surprised if this novel doesn't make you laugh out loud, about things that sometimes make you cry.
Ollmann has a sharp, wise, and penetrating eye. He sheds thought-provoking light on other aspects of life too, especially for those readers who wonder what happened to their younger, prettier, and much cooler selves, now that time and mundane reality have intruded. These intrusions include multiple marriages and parenthood, the betrayals of our own aging bodies, and the compromises we end up making in the work we do, which we've fallen into calling our "professional lives." I suppose none of that sounds especially funny, but if any of it rings true for you, I'd be surprised if this novel doesn't make you laugh out loud, about things that sometimes make you cry.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Adventures of a Cerebral Self-Loather
May 10 2011
By Genghis John
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Canadian artist Joe Ollmann has previously plied his talent to newspaper comics and Graphic Classics titles on O. Henry, Edgar Allen Poe, and Bram Stoker. In Mid-Life, he unspools a semi-autobiography about 40-year-old John, a man whose family responsibilities and professional pressures prompt bouts of edginess, self-loathing, and an identity crisis. Divorced and remarried, he bears a guilty allegiance to his two adult daughters; struggles with an infant son's diaper duties; curses the family's duplicitous cats; and gripes needlessly at his patient wife. When the domestic grind is not giving him fits, workplace relationships and workaday routines further wear on him. Enter Sherri Smalls, an alluring children's entertainer John happens to watch one night on DVD. Primed for just such a preoccupation, he pursues an opportunity to meet Sherri, who is likewise grappling with uncertainty about her career and commitments to others. Excruciating and real, their mutual longing and misplaced attraction serve as a springboard to sweet, existential relief. Every nine-panel page delivers laughs, particularly John's cerebral self-sabotage and the rendering of his "endearing foibles." This is a perfect blend of Peter Bagge and Joe Chiappetta (Silly Daddy) for everyone who has crossed the threshold of 30. Highly recommended!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Characters So Real And Honest They Could Only Come Alive in A Graphic Novel
May 10 2011
By D. Scott
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
I am a big fan of autobiographical graphic novels. Author Joe Ollmann states that "This is largely a work of fiction. Except where it isn't." Mid-Life rings absolutely true, which is one mark of truly good fiction writing.
John is in his early 40's, has two grown daughters, an ex-wife, and a baby son by a much younger second wife. His abs have disappeared, he is slipping at his magazine job, and he gripes about the cat litter, constant diaper changes, and lack of sleep due to the baby. His second wife, Chan, tolerates his "curmudgeonly misanthropy, borderline alcoholism, alternating self-loathing and self-aggrandizing," and even loves him in spite of all this. John takes solace from his daily drudgery in watching videos with his son Sam and in daydreaming about one of Sam's favorite performers, singer Sherri Smalls.
Meanwhile, Sherri is at a crossroads. She is conflicted about abandoning her "serious" music career for children's entertainment, and is about to be picked up for a national network kid's show singing songs like "Your Elephant Is Asleep On My Foot." Ric is Sherri's on-again off-again boyfriend and sidekick in the act, who dresses in a 45 pound gorilla suit on stage yet seethes with the rage of a juvenile bad boy. Ric's actions eventually give the network executives second thoughts about picking up Sherri's show, and send Sherri looking for "Mr. Right" elsewhere.
On a trip to New York for a magazine photo shoot, John follows his obsession and arranges to meet Sherri to discuss a possible article about her, and maybe more. The reader feels John's anxious anticipation and nervous guilt build to the breaking point as things go perhaps a bit too closely to John's plan.
Joe Ollmann's drawings perfectly convey the frustrations, anxiety, embarrassment, soul-searching, and grumpy humor of those facing mid-life crises and difficult decisions when life turns out a bit differently than expected. Mid-Life is a thoroughly enjoyable read with excellent characters so real and honest that they could only come alive in the pages of graphic fiction. Except where it isn't.
Recommended reading.
John is in his early 40's, has two grown daughters, an ex-wife, and a baby son by a much younger second wife. His abs have disappeared, he is slipping at his magazine job, and he gripes about the cat litter, constant diaper changes, and lack of sleep due to the baby. His second wife, Chan, tolerates his "curmudgeonly misanthropy, borderline alcoholism, alternating self-loathing and self-aggrandizing," and even loves him in spite of all this. John takes solace from his daily drudgery in watching videos with his son Sam and in daydreaming about one of Sam's favorite performers, singer Sherri Smalls.
Meanwhile, Sherri is at a crossroads. She is conflicted about abandoning her "serious" music career for children's entertainment, and is about to be picked up for a national network kid's show singing songs like "Your Elephant Is Asleep On My Foot." Ric is Sherri's on-again off-again boyfriend and sidekick in the act, who dresses in a 45 pound gorilla suit on stage yet seethes with the rage of a juvenile bad boy. Ric's actions eventually give the network executives second thoughts about picking up Sherri's show, and send Sherri looking for "Mr. Right" elsewhere.
On a trip to New York for a magazine photo shoot, John follows his obsession and arranges to meet Sherri to discuss a possible article about her, and maybe more. The reader feels John's anxious anticipation and nervous guilt build to the breaking point as things go perhaps a bit too closely to John's plan.
Joe Ollmann's drawings perfectly convey the frustrations, anxiety, embarrassment, soul-searching, and grumpy humor of those facing mid-life crises and difficult decisions when life turns out a bit differently than expected. Mid-Life is a thoroughly enjoyable read with excellent characters so real and honest that they could only come alive in the pages of graphic fiction. Except where it isn't.
Recommended reading.
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